Breaking Free: A Colorado High Country Crossover Novel by Pamela Clare (well read books .TXT) 📗

sat in Jason’s truck, waiting for the Forest Service Ranger. Twenty minutes. Thirty minutes. Forty-five minutes later, the only people who’d showed up were cross-country skiers and people heading into the mountains with snowshoes.

Winona glanced at Jason’s watch. “We could still be sleeping—or doing something else.”

Jason took her hand. “Or doing something else.”

At last, a Forest Service vehicle pulled into the parking area, and a tall, lanky ranger stepped out. He walked over to them. “Sorry, I’m late. I had a run-in with a couple of wackos on meth in one of our camping areas. I’m Ranger Rob Henriksen.”

Jason held out his hand. “Jason Chiago.”

“Winona Belcourt.”

Henriksen laid out the plan. “We can’t leave the animal out there. It’s habituated to humans, which puts it in danger. It might not even know how to hunt, and we don’t want it to starve. The trouble is finding it. I thought it would make its way back to its owner’s camp, but so far, it hasn’t shown itself.”

Winona nodded. “That’s a good guess. The poor thing is probably scared. Wolves have incredible olfactory senses. He can smell all the people who’ve been there. We might be able to bait and trap him there, but it could take time.”

“What about higher up the mountain, where the four-wheeler flipped?” Jason didn’t know much about wolves, but it didn’t hurt to ask. “That’s the last place the wolf saw its owner.”

“You’re the person who can help us answer that question. If you see fresh sign, we’ll have some idea where to set up traps.”

“Traps?” Winona looked alarmed. “You’re not planning to use leg-hold traps, are you? I was thinking about the big steel cage traps, the kind used to lure problem bears.”

Henriksen shook his head. “The only way to get one of those up there is to chopper it in, and the Forest Service won’t commit to using a helicopter. That rules out aerial darting, too. I already asked. What other choice do we have?”

The answer was obvious to Jason. “We find fresh sign, track it, tranquilize it, and tone out the Team again.”

“I’m not sure about your employer, but the Forest Service isn’t going to want me to be tied up with this for the next month.”

Jason started to say that it wouldn’t take him a month, but Winona spoke first.

“Leg-hold traps can be dangerous. We could injure the animal—or it could injure itself trying to escape. Besides, wolves are notorious for being able to avoid leg-hold traps. You might not capture it.”

“I don’t like this either.” Henriksen shrugged. “It’s a risk we have to take.”

Jason could see that Winona wasn’t happy about it.

Henriksen pulled a tablet out of his pack and pointed to a map on his screen. “Here’s the location of the illegal camp, and here’s where the four-wheeler flipped and the wolf was last sighted. We head up in my truck, hike to both locations, and set out traps with wolf attractant.”

Winona pointed to the screen. “The wolf might go back to the Cimarron. That’s where his food came from, and he knows it. Wolves can go without food for several days, but he will get hungry. You should contact the Wests and put a trap there, too.”

Henriksen nodded. “Good idea. I’ll check the traps every day and call you when we catch it. I don’t want this boy to get hurt, either.”

“I know.” Winona drew a breath, clearly not happy with her options. “Once he’s trapped, I’ll come up with the Team, tranq him, and we’ll carry him out. I’ll care for him at the clinic if he’s injured in the process.”

“It’s not ideal, but it’s better than letting him starve or get shot by an angry rancher.” Henriksen put the tablet back into his pack.

Jason wasn’t a wildlife expert. “Don’t you risk trapping something else?”

Henriksen shook his head. “The wolf attractant takes care of that problem for the most part. Other animals stay away.”

“Even animals that have never smelled a wolf?”

“I guess we’ll find out.”

Winona shouldered her pack. “We should get going.”

“All aboard.” Henriksen gestured toward his vehicle.

Winona held back while Jason moved through the site of the camp, cutting for sign. How he could make sense of it was beyond her. So many people had walked through here, the muddy earth a confusion of boot prints. Though the Forest Service had already removed Thomas Graham’s structures, belongings, and trash, signs of environmental damage were everywhere—the trunks of felled trees, a pit toilet that had held human excrement, a wide area of mud where there should have been grass and duff.

Jason knelt, touched his fingers to the soil. “The wolf has already been here. These tracks are from early this morning. He was walking around the area where the smokehouse used to be.”

Winona glanced at the forest around them, wondering whether the wolf was still nearby. “He’s hungry.”

“I’ll set a trap there.” Ranger Henriksen got to work.

He had his job, but Winona had hers. She wanted to find the wolf before it stepped into a trap.

“He went west from here.” Jason followed the tracks, and Winona followed him.

They hiked up the mountain, snow crunching beneath their boots.

Owoooo!

Winona stopped, listened. She heard the loneliness and fear in that howl, and her heart broke. “He’s searching for his pack. He’s all alone.”

She needed to find him, to reunite him with his mate and pups.

Jason’s gaze was on the snowy ground. “This way.”

They’d gone another ten minutes when Henriksen caught up with them. “Did you hear that howl?”

Winona nodded. “He’s close, and he’s scared.”

“We should head in this direction.” Henriksen pointed to the northwest. “Up there is where the four-wheeler overturned.”

This time, Jason answered him. “That’s not where the wolf went.”

Henriksen stared at them for a moment. Winona didn’t begrudge him. She knew he had a supervisor to please and different priorities.

He relented. “I’m going to call this in and tell them we spotted it. That’s not exactly true, but you’ll back me up.”

“I will.” No problem there.

“It will at least