****
Sophia and I sat on the rocks waiting for Knox to arrive in silence while my brain kept working through what could have happened.
Could Harris, Jamie, or Kevin have come back, despite their ban from the park? They already risked exploiting our existence once by trying to attack a reporter—who turned out to be Hannah—a few months ago. I was glad when their Alpha, Shawn, was destroyed by Knox for killing Matilda and Harold, two of the elders from our clan. Shawn’s three cronies had been spared, but Shawn had been given exactly what he deserved.
Could there be a new rogue out there? Could someone from our clan have done this? I shook my head at the last thought. There was no way one of us could have committed such a crime. I grew up with everyone and I couldn’t imagine anyone hurting a harmless person. Besides, no one wanted to feel Knox’s wrath if they were caught even thinking about doing something like that. And I didn’t want to imagine what it would be like to have to lock up one of our own.
Knox stormed out from the trees, marching right towards the beach and interrupted my thoughts. “What the hell?” he muttered as he walked over, kneeled and examined the body. “Well, this is Danielle Peterson, alright.”
I could hear low rumbling coming from Knox’s chest.
“What’s the problem? Shouldn’t I go about the investigation as usual? It could just be one of Shawn’s punks returning for revenge for their Alpha or something.”
“This is out of our hands now…” Knox stood up and looked to the sky, seeming deep in thought.
“What? What do you mean?” Sophia asked. She and I exchanged confused looks once more.
“Danielle Peterson is famous. Famous enough that her death will be noticed by the media. We have to call it in.” Knox took a tired breath.
“Call it in?” I didn’t like where this was going. I’d been the law enforcement ranger of Acadia National Park for two years and I’d never had to call anything in. If anything ever happened in Acadia, I handled it.
“The FBI. We have to get the feds involved.”
“The feds? No way; this is my jurisdiction! I make the arrests. I investigate crimes around here.”
I couldn’t believe my ears. He wanted to get the feds involved? Why? I felt my blood boil at the thought of some stuck-up asshole spouting off about rules and regulations.
“You have to remember, we’re on federal land; this is beyond our jurisdiction,” Knox glared at me, probably sensing my anger, “and you will cooperate with them, understood?”
“But this was clearly a bear shifter attack! No wild bear around these parts would do this. We could be risking exposing our existence publicly over some travel guide?”
Pure-blooded black bears killed less than one person a year and there were at least a million of them in North America—I knew it couldn’t have been one of them. It was a shifter, and Knox was trying to get us all killed over whoever the idiot was.
“I’m calling it in. End of discussion. You both are ordered to not touch the body until they get here to examine it.” Knox commanded, marching back into the woods.
“So, we’re just supposed to sit here and wait while whoever did this could be getting away?” I shouted after him. It was getting more and more difficult to control my anger. I should have been out there looking for the killer.
“You will do as I say!” I felt the overwhelming pressure of the Alpha authority wash over me and I became silent, my body rippling from confined anger.
Knox said nothing else and walked away.
Sophia stepped closer to me. “Hey…I know you don’t want someone coming in and telling you what to do, but it’s the law. And you know it better than any of us. It would have been great if we went along protecting this park ourselves and never had to get the feds involved, but we all knew there was a chance that it could happen one day. I’ll admit, I didn’t think it would happen this soon, especially after that crew of rogue bears caused all that trouble a few months ago, but who knows! Maybe it won’t be so bad?”
Sophia looked at me and shrugged. She wanted me to accept this, but it was just too hard of a pill to swallow.
“It’s going to be a real shit show, I just know it. Some guy with a pole up his ass coming here, acting like he knows this place? It’s just bad news. Not to mention having them sticking their nose in our business? Everyone will have to be on their toes, including the person who did this. And we have no way of controlling that because we have no idea who it is that did this! There is literally no way this can go well.”
“Wow, Trent, so optimistic! No wonder Knox keeps you around!” Sophia said sarcastically. She patted my shoulder and then went to sit on a rock near the body. “Might as well take a seat and get comfortable; we might be here for a while. In fact, we’ll definitely be here for a while.”
She sighed and looked out at the ocean.
“I don’t know who I’d rather deal with, them or you,” I said, shaking my head and sitting on a rock near hers.
She laughed and nudged me playfully. Sophia had always been like a sister to me and was always there to lighten the mood. Even still…
I was not looking forward to this.
Not one bit.