Shifters' Storm by Vonna Harper Read Free Book Online

Forestville’s lone county deputy tried to discourage her from joining those who’d been looking for Jacki for two days before she arrived. Gannon, who’d worked with her mother for years, had eventually agreed, but she hadn’t been with those who found her mother’s body east of the remote Forest Service cabin known as Wolverine.
    By then, rut had claimed Songan.
    “Look.” Shaken by the wash of memories, Rane tried to push her loose hair behind her ears. “The investigation—they’ve been all over the Wolverine area, but not even the tracking dog found a clue about who shot Mom.”
    “It’s been raining.”
    “I know. The storm started before they found her. It’s a wonder—”
    “A wonder they found her. She wasn’t that close to the cabin.”
    “You know that?”
    “I came back once.” He frowned. “I can’t remember when—a few days ago. It didn’t last long, just long enough for me to talk to the deputy.”
    “He didn’t tell me that.”
    “I asked him not to.”
    “Why?”
    “Because I couldn’t be there for you. I hated—damn it, this is so powerful.” He fingered his cock.
    “Resisting rut is hard today, isn’t it?”
    He nodded. “I’m fighting, but between you and that”—he indicated the mutilated elk carcass—“it happened.”
    She hadn’t intended for things to get complicated so soon after letting him into her body. Damn it, his gift was still leaking from her and staining her panties. “I’m glad you were able to resist nature.”
    “I should have tried harder to break free.”
    Even though it had been long-distance, he’d helped her hold it together the nightmare day she’d learned that her mother, a Forest Service ranger assigned to the Chinook Mountains, was missing. Songan had helped her make the decision to drive instead of fly so she could bring many of her belongings with her. By the time she’d gotten in touch with Gannon, Songan had stopped answering his cell phone. She’d known what had happened to him, where he’d gone.
    “She’d been shot.” The words tore at Rane’s throat. “That’s what destroys me. I know it wasn’t an accident. Someone deliberately—”
    Before she could finish, Songan grabbed her and pulled her into him. “Don’t,” he insisted. “Thinking like that will only make you sick.”
    “I’m already sick.” With her face against his chest, her voice sounded muffled. She wouldn’t cry! The endless hours of fear and tears were behind her. It was time for action. Maybe redemption for her.
    After filling her lungs with Songan’s scent, she pushed back, but only a little because she wasn’t yet strong enough to ask him to release her. “There are signs she was dragged,” she managed. “That means she was killed somewhere else. If I knew where it happened, maybe I could figure out why.”
    “Let law enforcement do their job.”
    “The bullets went through her. They didn’t find any shells.” Exhaustion clawed at her. “All that rain… If Gannon knows something, he isn’t telling me. I can’t just sit in her house, blaming myself, feeling worthless.”
    “Blaming yourself?”
    Yes. “I don’t know what I’m thinking.” Not trusting herself to say what she most needed to, she ran her knuckles over Songan’s breastbone. His skin was sticky from fucking her and cool from the worsening weather.
    “Maybe it was hunters. She was in the wrong place at the wrong time, an accident, not murder.”
    “If that’s it, they were poaching. Just like what happened today with the young elk. Songan, what if she came across something they didn’t want her to see? She was killed to silence her.” She shuddered.
    “Don’t go there. That’s for law enforcement to determine.”
    “This isn’t a city,” she snapped. “There’s no CSI here, just one deputy. And a whole damn forest to search for—for something.” Right after climaxing, she’d told herself to look to see if the bear was still there, but things had