Chapter Three
Laurel Rose sat up with a sudden jerk. Damn, she'd fallen asleep. Rubbing her eyes,
she squinted as she stared out into the darkness. The moon was almost full, giving her
some light. Off to the left, a shadow moved.
She was glad that she'd doused her own lights earlier in the evening before she'd
started her vigil. She loved the dark, the peace and calm of the night. But that peace had
been broken.
Easing off the window seat, she laid the quilt aside and made her way silently
toward the kitchen window. There, a little closer to her home now, she could see the
shape getting bigger. Definitely not an animal.
She'd been expecting something like this sooner or later. Wanting to be sure, she
opened her mind and was immediately bombarded with the unease of the animals that
lived in the forest around her. They accepted her as one of them and were warning her
of intruders.
Cautiously, she tried to pick up on the thoughts of the person creeping closer. It
was much harder with humans and she didn't get much. But what she did get had her
reaching for the shotgun that she'd already loaded and placed on the kitchen counter
earlier in the evening. Malice and excitement tinged the air. Whoever was out there was
up to no good.
With her shotgun by her side, Laurel Rose moved silently and swiftly to the other
side of the house. Peering through the small window next to the door, she checked the
immediate area. Satisfied that no one was there, she eased the door open until the crack
was large enough for her to slip through. Carefully closing the door behind her, she slid
through the shadows of the wraparound porch, working her way back toward her
intruder.
Her fingers had tightened on the gun and she forced them to relax. She didn't like
violence, but sometimes there just wasn't any choice. She might not have occasion to
use it very often, but she darn well knew how to fire a shotgun with great accuracy. Her
grandpa had seen to that.
Forcing her hands to stay relaxed, she peeked around the corner of the house,
searching the area where she'd last seen him. She knew it was a man. The shadow had
been too big to be anything else and the emotions she'd picked up had been distinctly
male. She didn't question how she knew that--she just did.
Laurel Rose shifted her weight to her left leg, automatically compensating for the
weakness in her right. It was only at times like this that her slight handicap bothered
her. She could still move quickly, just not quite as fast as she wanted. Instead, she was
forced to be stealthy.
She wondered if this man was the one responsible for the death of her chickens last
week. It certainly hadn't been a fox or some other animal. Animals tended to take their
kill with them, not leave the bloody carcass behind totally intact.
Then there had been the mysterious disappearance of some of her tools from out in
her garden. For the first time in her memory, she'd been forced to start putting
everything in her shed in the evenings and locking the door. Theft had never been a
problem before. And why would it be? She was alone on eighteen hundred acres of
prime hill country.
A shuffling just off to her right startled her. Another shape was skulking alongside
her shed, his feet crunching the dry grass with every step. There were two of them.
Laurel Rose chewed on her lip as she tried to figure out the best way to defend
against two trespassers. One man was bad enough, but two was going to be much
harder to handle. But she didn't have a choice. She had to deal with them.
But then, she hadn't had much choice in her life. The actions of the adults
surrounding her when she was growing up had shaped her life as surely as her special
abilities had. Laurel Rose sucked in a deep breath, tightened her hold on the gun and
did what she'd always done--make the best of things.
Patience was the key to survival. She kept her breathing light and even as she held
herself steady in the dark. Settling against the corner of the house, she waited until the
man near the shed hurried closer to his friend. Taking advantage of the opportunity,
Laurel Rose slipped around the corner and crouched behind an old iron washtub filled
with flowers.
Both men were almost to the front porch. It was now or never. The sound of the
shotgun being cocked echoed across the yard. "Stop right there."
It was almost comical how quickly they stopped. The smaller man yelped and
rammed right into the back of the larger one. When the larger man moved, she caught
the gleam of the rifle in his hands.
Holding her shotgun steady, she kept her aim on the bigger man. "You're
trespassing. What do you want?"
"Now, Laurel Rose, that's no way to greet your neighbors."
Her fingers flexed around the gun, but her aim remained steady. Now she knew
who her unexpected visitors were. The big, booming voice belonged to Aaron Higgins
so that meant the smaller man had to be Clem Simms. The two men were cousins and
Clem was Aaron's shadow. Had been for as long as she could remember.
"It's a little late for a neighborly call, Aaron. What do you want?" Her right leg was
starting to cramp and she stretched it as best she could, but there was no way she was
moving from out behind the tub. She didn't trust either of them any more than she
would a rabid animal.
"Now, Laurel Rose," he continued in a condescending tone that was beginning to
grate on her nerves. "We heard you had some trouble and came to see if we could help.
A woman all alone up here is vulnerable. Anything could happen."
The threat was loud and clear. "I've had no trouble that I can't handle. I can deal
with any varmints that come my way." There, take that. She could see him stiffen and
knew he hadn't missed her barely veiled insult.
Clem hovered behind his larger cousin, keeping himself out of the direct line of fire.
As always when they were together, Aaron did the talking.
"With a sharp tongue like that, it's no wonder you don't have a man. A man might
have overlooked your lame leg and scarred-up face and married you for the land, at
least, if you were soft-spoken and a bit more womanly."
Pain welled up inside Laurel Rose and she beat it back down. Aaron knew right
where to strike. Like a rattlesnake, he struck suddenly, hitting her where she was most
vulnerable. But there was no way she'd give him the satisfaction of knowing he'd
achieved a direct hit.
"If it only takes a sharp tongue to scare off a man, then he's not much of a man to
begin with."
Aaron swore under his breath and swung his rifle around until it was pointed in
her direction. "All I'm saying is that working the land alone is hard enough for a
woman who's healthy and whole. You might want to consider that you may well be
safer and happier somewhere else." He turned his head and spat on the ground. "Yup,
a woman alone might get injured and might even die before anyone found her."
Laurel Rose's heart was pounding in her chest. Now that was definitely a threat she
couldn't ignore. "You may be right, Aaron. But then again, a body trespassing on
another person's land could find himself shot. Maybe his remains would never be
found."
"You threatening me, bitch?" He took a menacing step toward the porch. Clem
stepped forward with him, his rifle still pointed toward the ground.
"No more than you were threatening me. Just making conversation." The muscles
in her lame leg were starting to knot from being in such an unnatural position for so
long. Pain radiated from calf to thigh and her knee throbbed. She had to move.
Standing slowly, she tried to act nonchalant as she leaned against the side of the
house. In truth, it was the only thing holding her upright, but she knew you never
showed weakness to a predator.
"Me too," he laughed. "Just consider it some neighborly advice."
Laurel Rose snorted. "Thanks, neighbor, but I like it right where I am."
Aaron shrugged. "Your choice. Just something to think about." He took a few steps
toward her, his rifle still held out in front of him.
Sweat rolled down her back, chilling her even though the evening was fairly warm
for October. Both her legs were shaking with the effort to keep her upright, but her
spine was straight and the rifle in her hands still rock-steady. "Stop right there." She
couldn't let him get close enough to see how vulnerable she was.
Aaron laughed as he took another step toward her. It wasn't a pleasant sound. Her
finger caressed the trigger as she aimed at his leg. Her heart was pounding so loud that
she could barely hear anything else above the sound. Clem was trailing behind his
cousin. Both of them were getting closer.
They all froze as a menacing growl vibrated through the air. As silent as a ghost, a
huge silvery-gray wolf emerged from the darkness and into a small circle of moonlight.
The moon illuminated a silver patch on its chest. It was a magnificent animal, strong
and heavily muscled but with a fluid grace that was spellbinding.
Aaron whirled and fired at the animal, the gun bucking in his hands. Clem's shot
was a second behind his cousin's. Laurel Rose stifled a scream, expecting to see the
body of that incredible beast lying in the dirt. But it was gone, disappeared into the
shadows.
"What the hell was that?" Aaron blustered as both men slowly backed away.
"I ain't seen a wolf like that before," Clem whined.
The growling started again. This time it was off to their left, near the edge of the