Page 23 of Alpha Rising (Secrets of the Northland Shifters)

I glanced around the table, making eye contact with each of them. “In an area where any of you shift?”

“No," Sam said. "Too far out. On the edge of the property.”

“Where exactly?” I asked.

“Along the county road," Angel said. "About six miles south of where Sarah got the flat.”

“How about running?" I asked. "Do any of your cats everrunin that area?”

“Not since last summer,” Sam said, and the others shook their heads, indicating they hadn’t been in that area either.

I wondered how long the cameras had been there. There probably wasn’t any good way to tell.

“We’ve been thinking it through,” Sam said. “If one of us had been picked up on camera last summer, there would’ve been talk in town by now. There have only been a few warning posters and none of them have ever mentioned a mountain lion of unusual size.”

My thoughts went to Dad, but the county road was nowhere near where he’d been shot.

I picked up one of the other broken camera parts and spotted an area with some file marks. “They removed the serial numbers?”

Sam’s mouth got tight.

I tossed the broken part back into the box. “Have you reported it to the police?”

Sam exchanged a look with the others. “We thought we better wait for you to get back to see what you wanted to do.”

“I won’t stand for trespassers. Certainly not fuckingsurveyors. Someone is acting as if our leaving is inevitable, as if this land is already theirs.”

I felt Sarah approaching from behind me, and the lion went on full alert.

“That real estate developer?” Angel asked.

When Sarah reached my side, I put my arm around her shoulders and answered Angel. “Maybe, but they seemed legit. Not the type of business that would get ahead of themselves, thinking we wouldn’t notice.”

“Shady shit like this...maybe it has to do with whoever damaged the ropes course,” Sam said.

I wished I could accuse him of being paranoid, but my own thoughts had gone there as well.

“What’s happening?” Sarah asked.

I tightened my arm around her shoulders. “Trespassers.” Then I responded to my siblings. “I’ll call the local police. We’ll get an officer up here, and Toby, you can show them the spot. We should also set up our own surveillance in town for people who don’t look like tourists, starting tonight. We can—”

“Um...tonight?” Melanie asked.

“Something wrong with tonight?” I asked.

“Well...it’s the staff appreciation party,” she said.

“Oh my god,” Sarah whispered, her expression going wild with panic. “I completely lost track of the days.”

“Relax,” I told her in my most calming voice.

“We can’t cancel the party,” Angel said. “It would alarm the staff. They’re still not over the possibility of being laid off before the end of the summer season.”

“I haven’t done the final confirmation with the liquor store,” Sarah said, “or with the cake lady!”

“Sarah,” I said, still trying to calm her down. “It’s okay.”

She started to pull away, and though her expression had turned resolved, the air was still spiked with her adrenaline.

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