Red Moon Rising

5. solstice

Chapter Song: Shame on the Moon - Bob Seger

XX

There are too many feet on the forest floor, and any moment I expect to hear the snap of metal followed by a pained wail. But as I requested everyone is wearing steel-toed boots, and Cam managed to find a pair for Tom that were only slightly too big.

"So you say you didn't, ah, scent anything?" I decide to give credit to Tom for trying to be polite. He doesn't want to treat us like animals—not like certain officers in this county might—but we're clearly not just people to him either. He doesn't know what language to use and I can't fault him for that. He's here with the rest of us, scraping through pine needles with a long branch in search of more traps, and that's more than any other uniform has ever done for us.

"Nothing," I sigh. "Anyone else?" More shrugging and shaking of heads. My dad and Tasha are standing next to Tom, arms crossed like mirror images of each other, and Pauline and Patrick are disappearing into the trees in search of other traps. "I don't get it. Why scatter the traps instead of keeping them close? He'd have a better chance of hitting something."

"Maybe he didn't have enough," says Cam.

Tom shakes his head and doesn't quite meet my eye when he looks at me. "Maybe he's a novice." There's something horribly chilling about the idea of some young blood looking to catch his first wolf. "I'll get the serial numbers, maybe they paid with a card."

"What about prints?" I try, but Tom shrugs.

"You know how it is, Layla. If there's anything we can pick up off of them it's not likely to match anything in the system."

"It's worth a try though, right?"

"Of course it is. I just don't want to over-promise anything."

I feel the familiar swell of tired anger and take a breath. "You have two kids, right? If you found one of these in your backyard I think you would keep searching until you found whoever put it there."

I feel my dad's warning gaze burning into me and I intentionally avoid it. No one here can say that I'm wrong. Tom doesn't see this as attempted murder; he doesn't grasp the full scope of what's at stake.

"I'm going to do everything I can."

"And what's that going to be?" Tom spreads his hands and finally looks at me, and I sigh. "Sorry, Tom, it's been a long night. And we need to figure out a solution here; we can't just lock our kids up every full moon."

"I brought five trail cams that you can use on the perimeter, but if you're able to get a few more that would be good. I spoke to Jim Jacobs on my way here but he swears no one has been through his property."

"Well, he's lying." Jacobs is loud and proud about how much money he gives to the NHA. He's got a sign in his front yard that reads 'We don't call animal control.' And finally, he just had two poachers driving through his land today.

"I don't doubt you're right. But I don't have any proof of it."

"What if we set up our own traps? What are the legal implications if a trespasser gets his foot snapped in one of our traps?"

"Layla," Cam says in a low voice.

"No, I'm not just going to let them overrun us here."

"I wouldn't try that," Tom says weakly.

"Castle doctrine, right? In Minnesota I'm allowed to use deadly force to protect my property."

Tom sighs and scratches the back of his head before glancing quickly at Cam. "Layla, you know as well as I do that wouldn't hold up in court. This territory is seen as a jurisdiction...if you killed someone protecting it it could be the foot in the door the NHA is looking for to have the jurisdiction dismantled entirely."

"Then what the fuck are we supposed to do?" The silence that follows my biting tone is chilling, and I don't get a response. I turn away before Cam can grab my arm and stalk carefully along the border, away from where I can hear Tasha gently trying to smooth things over with Tom. I don't understand how his lack of balls doesn't bother her like it does me. In fact, it infuriates me that she can have a calm conversation with him now, while all I want to do is shake him by the collar until he figures this shit out. But she's always been the levelheaded one, even though she's six years younger. I'm willing to feel whatever anger she refuses to.

XX

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I've been working on this story for NaNoWriMo which is why my other stories have been on pause lately...I'm excited to get back into regular posting again!!

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