This does NOT look good…
I was standing over a body. Not just any body either. The body of Danielle Peterson of Danielle’s Destinations, a well watched show on Maine’s Travel Channel.
Only this time, it didn’t look like she would be ‘signing off from this destination.’
I ran my hand through my shortly cropped black hair and reached out to Sophia with my mind, urging her to come quickly. I looked around for any sign that anyone had been present at the scene before my arrival, trying to find any clues that could tell me what had happened.
Danielle’s small, plump body was contorted in ways limbs should never bend. Her chocolate-brown eyes were wide, yet empty and her black curls were matted into a knot with leaves and branches caught in them. She was sprawled out on the ocean shoreline of Acadia’s most well-known beach, Hunters Beach, located in the south-eastern region of the park; it was usually far outside of my normal hiking area, but I had wanted to look at the ocean that day.
And instead, I had found a body.
If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought that maybe she had slipped on one of the rocks, hit her head and was just unconscious. Rocky beaches were always difficult to navigate—and extremely slippery. The rocks were glistening, which told me that the Atlantic had risen enough that day to coat the stones with a beautiful shine that reflected against the sunlight. So, it could have been possible. And I would have thought that were the case, had there not been blood everywhere.
There were lacerations and puncture wounds all over Danielle’s body. She didn’t slip and hit her head: it was an attack, and judging by the damage, my mind went to only one explanation.
“What seems to be the pro—Oh no! I know who that is: it’s Danielle, from Danielle’s Destinations! What the hell happened?” Sophia Ross, our emergency manager, rushed up to the body laying before me, checking for any signs of life. She was carrying a basic medical kit, which definitely would not be enough to aid the fallen celebrity.
“Has she moved at all?” Sophia asked while checking Danielle’s pulse at both her neck and her wrists, her brunette ponytail bobbing as she worked over the body quickly. Her hazel eyes looked up at me waiting for an answer.
“No signs of movement. When I found her, she was just lying there,” I said, snapping out of my daze and crouching down next to her while trying to stay out of her way. She pulled out a stethoscope and listened for a heartbeat.
She didn’t seem to find one.
Sophia started doing chest compressions and breathing into Danielle’s mouth, but quickly jumped back. As her breath had entered Danielle’s lungs, blood splattered out from her wounds.
“These lacerations went deep and punctured her lungs. She’s gone,” she admitted, looking down at the body sadly. She started scanning around just like I did, trying to find the person who could have done this.
“What do you think happened?”
“Well, someone attacked her, obviously. Judging by the contorted limbs, she put up a pretty good fight. These lacerations, though...I would say it was probably—”
“A bear…Right?” I made direct eye contact with her, knowing the answer before she even agreed.
“Yeah. A bear, for sure,” Sophia nodded.
“Dammit!” I stood and threw my fist into the nearest rock, causing it to crumble at my feet. I stared down at the ground, wondering how this could have happened.
“Now you know Cassidy isn’t going to be happy about that.” Sophia shook her head, putting away her stethoscope.
Cassidy was our park planner, and she had each rock meticulously placed on the beach. My gaze rose to Sophia, who was looking down at Danielle. “So, do you think it was one of us?”
Sophia’s eyes met mine and they were filled with worry. I could tell we were sharing the same thoughts.
Could a bear shifter have done this?
Was he or she one of our own?
Why would anyone have done something like this?
Well, it was my job to find out.
“I don’t know. There was no one here when I arrived. If one of us did this to her, I can’t pick up any incriminating scents with all this blood here. We’re going to have to get this cleaned up so I can try to track down whatever it is.”
“You know Knox is going to want to hear about this. Should I tell him?”
“You clean this up; I’ll handle Knox.”
I started walking away toward the woodlands, reaching out to our Alpha, Knox, with my mind.
What?
I could already sense the annoyance in his thoughts.
Sorry to bother you man, we—
I’m trying to enjoy my day off, and you’re cockblocking me.
He was not going to like this.
Sorry, Boss…
Just tell me what it is!
I winced at the urgency that came off as Alpha authority. It was a little hard to discern the emotions, but I decided there was a little of both mixed in there.
We found a body, Knox. Out on Hunters Beach.
A local? Knox’s thoughts were serious now.
Worse. It’s Danielle Peterson. I winced as I delivered the news.
The travel guide? Are you serious? Knox’s thoughts were loud and echoed in my head.
And we think it was a bear…
Don’t move. I’ll be right there.
But Sophia is here cleaning up the b—
DON’T TOUCH THE BODY! I’ll be there in a few minutes.
And with that, the connection was gone. I ran back to Sophia, who was just about to drop the corpse into the water of the Atlantic.
“Whoa! What the hell are you doing?” I closed our distance, my long legs allowing me to cover the ground separating us quickly.
“What do you mean what am I doing? She’s famous! We have to get rid of her!” Sophia sounded a bit panicked, and I could hear her heart hammering away in her chest.
“We can’t just throw her into the ocean and hope she turns up somewhere!” I grabbed the body from her.
“So, what are we supposed to do?” she asked with frantic eyes.
“Knox demanded the corpse no longer be touched until he gets here.”
“Why? What’s going on?” Sophia looked confused, which I supposed was better than panicked. Maybe.
However, I was just as unsure. We didn’t usually get human deaths in Acadia. If someone from our clan died, we buried them and had a ceremony with all members present. We couldn’t just bury Danielle Peterson. She was famous, and people would recognize her disappearance.
“I’ll just put the body back where we found it and we’ll wait for Knox. He was very insistent and not in a good mood.”
“Was he with Hannah?” Sophia teased, her skinny shoulders doing a little shimmy. Her ability to switch from one mood to another had always astounded me.
Hannah had come to the park a couple months ago to write a story on the history of Acadia and our national parks in general. Knox was skeptical of her at first; after all, if the media were to find out that our national parks were established as safe havens for people who could shapeshift into animals, our kind would be in for a one hell of a shitstorm. Luckily, the two of them really hit things off and our secret has been safe.
Since then, it hasn’t been hard to find Knox on his days off—although god help you if you tried to bother him. Almost every time, he’d be in his cabin with Hannah—all day—and you wouldn’t see him again until it was time for his next shift. He’d never really showed much interest in the women around here, so I was glad to finally see him settling down with someone.
“I honestly will never understand how you can joke in times like these, Soph. We’re handling a dead body here and you’re behaving like a high schooler.” I shook my head and placed Danielle back where we found her. I tried to align her body the way I remembered it being, in the same grotesque position that had stopped me cold in the middle of my hike.
Whatever the reason was for Knox wanting to see her and handle this personally, I was going to find out what happened to this woman.
No matter what.