BrightBlueMoon by Ranae Rose Read Free Book Online Page A

crossed his arms. “So it’s real then – really on TV?”
    Kimberly shrugged. “I think so, but you’d better not take my word for it. I’d try to look it up on my phone, but the 3G coverage here is terrible.”
    “I’ll look online.” Mandy strode across the room to where a computer was ensconced by a hutch in one corner.
    “Here it is,” she said a minute later. “Monsters 24/7. It’s a TV show that comes on Thursday nights, just after Ghost Hunting Grannies. The site says they’re a specialist team dedicated to exposing what goes bump in the night. Looks kind of like one of those ghost hunting shows, only they search for monsters, and there’s a twist…”
    She scrolled a little further. “Apparently they take tips on unusual happenings and rush to the scenes to perform 24 hour investigations. They try to figure out what happened and prove that a paranormal or cryptozoological creature was behind it within the span of a day.”
    “Good lord.” Daniel shook his head. “What a load of—”
    “Twenty-four hours, you said?” Jack interrupted.
    “Yeah.” Mandy nodded.
    “So all we gotta do is tail these idiots for one day and make sure they don’t stir up too much trouble.”  
    “They seem stupid enough to cause plenty of trouble in one day, if you ask me,” Daniel said, glowering.
    “We’ll see.” Jack started for the door, gesturing toward Daniel, Noah and Michael. “You three come with me – I wanna see what they get up to at that campground, and find out where they’re heading after that.”
     
    * * * * *
     
    Normally, Michael wouldn’t have minded all the sneaking around. After decades of hunting prey far more dangerous than the clumsy Monsters 24/7 crew, he was used to it. Laying low in the woods that surrounded a basic campground with tent lots spread among the trees was easy, and he didn’t feel particularly threatened now that they knew what Gus and his companions were all about. All he really wanted to do was get back to Kimberly, but…
    Jack had asked him to come along, to accompany him, Daniel and Noah on the surveillance mission. And that mattered, because Jack was his daughter’s mate, the alpha of their pack. God knew that after the past twenty-nine years, he wanted to do whatever he could to get along with the family he’d had to abandon. So he listened, ears trained forward, picking up Gus Oliver’s every word.
    “Dog has a chunk taken out of its ear,” Gus said, leaning against the SUV as the four others lingered nearby, a captive audience. “This is a goldmine. I called in a vet, and we’ll get a quick quote from her, then finish the interview segment. She should be here in twenty minutes.”
    “Did the campers even see anything?” Alex asked, glancing over his shoulder toward the nearest campsite, his expression doubtful.
    A family of four was gathered by a tent, and a mutt of indeterminate heritage lay on a dog bed by its entrance, gnawing on a rawhide bone. From the wolves’ hiding place behind a screen of pines, Michael could just make out a notch in the creature’s left ear.
    “They damn well better have seen something ,” Gus said. “They were right there in the tent with the dog staked outside, and spilling their guts is the least they can do in exchange for a free vet visit.” Gus shook his head at Alex. “Seriously, you’ve been a part of this crew for a year and have filmed dozens of hicks like these blabbing in front of the camera. People are always itching for their fifteen minutes of fame. This—” Gus clapped his hands together, then rubbed them vigorously “—will be a piece of cake. Just point and shoot, Alex – point and shoot.”
    Alex shot Gus a glance that would’ve been fatal, if looks could kill.
    Gus was oblivious, already barking instructions at Serena. Alex wandered off to mess with a camera, and Gus spent the next twenty minutes generally micromanaging the rest of the crew, until the vet arrived.
    Her examination of the