Chapter 46

The continuous beep of her phone in the inner breast pocket of her Parka woke her. She couldn't even have a night's rest. She fished it out, the caller ID read, 'Bullshit'



"Hey, still haven't changed me from Bullshit?" He said immediately the call connected.



"I will," she smiled shaking her head at him, of course, he couldn't see.



"I'm about to send the Pilbos after you, it isn't safe for you alone in there. I could feel it."



"Logan!" Her echoes return to her in her travels.



"I promise you, baby, I felt it, you are not as safe as you think there," Logan said

"Don't send the Pilbos, I'm very okay" Ashley retorted.



"I should go, I wouldn't want the Missions to commence the search without me," she could hear the sigh that came from him over the phone. "Please be alright, Mama. I love you" He said.



"I will try, I love you too, Logan."



She kept the phone in her Parka and headed towards the Missions with her headlight.



She was very ready to give up on her search for Captain Meri and the Missions. They definitely were hiding from her, they knew well, or at least Captain Meri was well aware of the slack she'd cause if she was with me. She was going to protect the wolves, she believed they were innocent.

Captain Meri however thought she is being sentimental, he knew she was affiliated with the pack but he didn't know how.



Ashley felt a familiar pang of loss. She hated giving up any of her assignments like she was about to with a shake of her head, she went back to choosing a road. Even the lure of a long, solid block of sleep and the knowledge that she'd probably come up empty-handed on this excursion couldn't mitigate her excitement. She had to be there on the front line. If wolves were currently present in Ebony Canyon, they needed someone to protect them from the trigger-happy officers under Meri's command.



South it was.



She headed back to the Ranger while she'd been woolgathering, the sky had blackened and the wind was now a steady blow, pelting her with frozen snowflakes. It rattled the branches of the bare ash and cypress and sent macabre whistles through the needles of the evergreens. The sound reminded Ashley of the thin scream of -a dying rabbit and sent prickles through her body. Abruptly, she stopped walking. Something was out there, behind the bending pines and whipping branches.



Watching her...



She studied the dense forest, searching for movement. All was still, but she'd learned to respect those sudden prickles of her skin. Once, when she'd felt much this way, she'd turned a corner of a trail to find a bear raging against a swarm of bees. The prickles had saved her life.

She lowered her head against the wind and quickened her pace toward the Ranger. Just as she reached for the door handle, a howl resounded over the highest treetops. Achingly mournful, it carried a message of pain, loss, and death.

Ashley felt the sorrow in her bones. Grotesque images of flying limbs and spurting blood flashed through her mind. Her shivers turned into flesh-racking shudders.



This was what she detested sighting in the wilderness but she had few options; She is a successful renowned journalist -she has to live up to the title.



Her knees buckled. She grabbed for the handle, jumped inside the ranger, and shakily activated the locks.



'Not a wolf, just a coyote,' she told herself as she turned on the engine with trembling fingers, unnerved by her intense reaction. She'd not grown up in some of the country's most rugged areas but she had felt safer backpacking alone through deserted canyons than she did on most city streets.

True, she'd felt fear before, but not limb-numbing terror such as this.



Her hands were still shaking when she engaged the four-wheel drive and jammed the Ranger into gear. The four-by-four creaked and swayed as she entered the road, jarring her in her seat. She clenched her teeth, focused on avoiding the worst ruts, and soon forgot the fearsome howl.



Several bumpy miles later, Ashley rounded a sharp S-turn and pulled to a full stop. The road had already deteriorated into a narrow cow path, and now an enormous wall of snow had swallowed it.



Tapping her fingers against the steering wheel, she sighed loudly, and backed up, hoping for enough room to turn around in. She then angled the Ranger to the right, gingerly rolling back until she felt the tire hit the ridge of a drainage ditch bordering the road.

Next, she pulled forward as far as possible until she reached the opposite side. She repeated the procedure several times, carefully avoiding the boggy ditch, which she knew would suck her four-by-four right in.



With considerable effort, Ashley finally had the Ranger at a suitable angle to the line of the road. From here, she turned the steering wheel as far as it would go, then stomped on the gas, counting on weight and momentum to carry her out. But she'd misjudged the slickness of the road. The tires tried to grab but failed. The vehicle fishtailed and skidded toward the ditch.



Thump Thump thump Whomp!



The right front wheel scaled the edge of the ditch, jolting the Ranger to a stop.

"Dammit!" Ashley pressed her lips together, slammed the gears in reverse, and floorboarded the gas pedal. The wheels spun impotently and she released the gas.



She should have accepted Logan's help.



Throwing open the door, she stomped through the mud, dug out a headlight from the rear, and went to inspect the damage. Her back tires sat on a sheet of ice. The front passenger wheel was mired in the ditch. Cursing herself for having decided she didn't need chains because the western storm season had passed, she swung the headlights around, seeking something to wedge under the stuck wheel. The light fell on a branch, thick with pine needles, several yards inside the forest.



Ashley hopped across the ditch.

The lantern splashed light on the underbrush. Birds flapped their wings and flew from dark shadows.

Various creatures scurried and squeaked on...the ground.

Finding the normality of the sounds reassuring, Dana hurried toward the branch, confident she'd soon be out of her predicament.

A howl shattered her serenity. The night creatures instantly hushed and only an undulating echo broke the silence.



This was it! She could have accepted the Pildos and Logan's assistance!