Sharon’s Wolves(28)
She stayed close to his side. Her intuition would probably get her out of the forest if she got lost, but the last thing she wanted to do in the middle of the night was separate from Cooper.
In any case, he didn’t seem inclined to let her get more than a few feet away.
She loved his protective side. In the future it might grow to annoy her, the way he constantly checked to make sure she was still in a room or that she didn’t need anything to drink or eat, but for now it was endearing.
“There.” He stopped abruptly.
She followed his gaze and sucked in a breath. “What is that?”
“Fracking equipment.”
“Seriously? Out here in the middle of nowhere?”
“Yep. And I’ll bet anything they’re disturbing the land.”
She wouldn’t take that bet. They were always disturbing the land.
“They have too many drilling rigs going. And they’re so close together.” Cooper inched closer. The machines were running, and a few men were standing around one of the drills.
“Jesus, do they never sleep?” she asked.
“Nope. And when they’re done drilling, the compressor station remains to pull the natural gas out of the ground for years. They’re loud.”
“This can’t be safe.” She lowered her body to avoid being seen. Even as a wolf she preferred not to be noticed. Some people wouldn’t hesitate to shoot a wolf purely for sport or because they were scared.
“Not this time. This company is causing tremendous ground disturbance.”
“Can you stop them?”
He laughed into her head. “Hardly. It’s not easy. All I can do is try to get an injunction by proving how many earthquakes are shaking the surrounding area.” Cooper turned around. “Let’s get back.”
“That’s it? That’s all you came here for?”
“Yep. I knew what I would find even before we arrived. Just wanted to see it for myself.”
They turned around, but neither of them moved.
Hovering behind them while they’d spied on the fracking station was a cloudy black spirit.
Sharon sucked in a breath as the aura floated closer and shimmered in front of her. “I don’t think the spirits are fond of fracking, either.”
“I’m sure they’re not. The land is in a state of unrest. Agitated. I suspect we’re going to find these apparitions all over the place for a while.”
“It’s certainly not difficult to know what this one wants.”
“Yeah.” Cooper didn’t sound convinced, even in her head. “I wouldn’t bet on that.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s never this simple.”
“Maybe this time…” Sharon watched as the spirit circled around them and then poofed out of sight. “It seems so obvious. The Native American spirits are looking out for the land. I’m sure they want us to get rid of these frackers and anyone else abusing the land.”
“Like the loggers Sawyer dealt with last year,” Cooper added.
“Exactly. And until we fix this, the earth will continue to rumble beneath our feet.”
Cooper glanced at her. “Let’s go. There’s nothing else we can do from here for now.”
He spoke the words, but he made no move to head down the mountain.
“What’s the matter?” She twisted her head to follow his line of sight, and her breath caught in her throat.
Two men stood just inside the tree line about a hundred yards away from Sharon and Cooper. They were incredibly tall. And large. She would guess over six feet. Their attention was riveted to the fracking site, same as Sharon’s and Cooper’s had been moments ago. A deep inhale, even from that distance, told Sharon they were not wolf shifters.
“What the hell are they doing out here in the middle of the night?” she asked rhetorically. Their presence was odd. First because they were clearly hiding and second because it was still dark out. Why would humans be spying on the frackers in the cold dead of night? And how had they gotten to their location?
She inched closer to Cooper. “Coop?”
He shook his head. “No idea. Maybe they have the same goal as us.”
“I guess. At least we know we aren’t the only ones paying attention.”
Cooper didn’t comment. He turned around and started down the side of the mountain.
She followed him back to the car at a jog. They dressed separately on either side of the car and climbed in before freezing their asses off. It was still early spring. The temperature hovered in the upper thirties at this hour of the morning.
“Now what?” she asked as they took off.
“Now we go back, and I get back to work.”