Animal Instincts

A Total-E-Bound Publication

www.total-e-bound.com

Animal Instinct

ISBN #978-0-85715-143-8

©Copyright Desiree Holt 2010

Cover Art by Natalie Winters ©Copyright May 2010

Edited by Christine Riley

Total-E-Bound Publishing

This is a work of fiction. All characters, places and events are from the author’s imagination and should not be confused with fact. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, events or places is purely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form, whether by printing, photocopying, scanning or otherwise without the written permission of the publisher, Total-E-Bound Publishing.

Applications should be addressed in the first instance, in writing, to Total-E-Bound Publishing. Unauthorised or restricted acts in relation to this publication may result in civil proceedings and/or criminal prosecution.

The author and illustrator have asserted their respective rights under the Copyright Designs and Patents Acts 1988 (as amended) to be identified as the author of this book and illustrator of the artwork.

Published in 2010 by Total-E-Bound Publishing, Think Tank, Ruston Way, Lincoln, LN6 7FL, United Kingdom.

Warning:
This book contains sexually explicit content which is only suitable for mature readers. This story has been rated
Total-e-burning.

The Sentinels

ANIMAL INSTINCT

Desiree Holt

As always, to my beloved David, my late great hero,

who taught me the meaning of animal instinct.

Trademarks Acknowledgement

The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction:

Google Earth:

Google Inc.

Houston Stock Show:

Houston Stock Show and Rodeo Inc.

Texas Game and Wildlife: Texas Game and Wildlife, State of Texas ANIMAL INSTINCTS

Desiree Holt

5

The white wolf ran as fast as she could, lungs burning with the effort, legs stretching out as far as they could. Thank god she was in wolf form, not human, but that brought other problems. She thought she’d scoped out the new territory thoroughly enough, but then she’d run into some other creatures when she was in wolf form who told her a horror story that made her blood freeze.

Trapped and captured, they told her. Their friends disappearing. Rumours of a big preserve on a ranch, land big enough to hide it all. Where the trapped animals were hunted and killed. Sometimes maimed first, then released to be hunted again.

Stay away, they’d told her.

Her brother, John, as usual, had been too curious. Now he’d been gone for two days, and she feared the absolute worst. She needed help, but where was she going to get it? She’d been so sure she’d find the peace she longed for in Texas. And she’d heard about a group of shifters trying to reform a pack. Now she needed to connect with them more than ever.

But her first priority was staying alive.

She heard the voices coming close punctuated by drunken laughter, and the increased thunder of hoof beats as she finally reached the huge oak tree where she’d left her clothes.

Praying she had enough time, she paused, forced herself to shift, and scrambled up into the tree. She clung to the thick branch, naked and shivering, while the men passed beneath her.

When she was sure it was safe, and movement couldn’t be detected, she pulled her clothes back on. But it was nearly dawn before she had the courage to climb down from the tree and stealthily make her way back to her campsite.

Drew Noland sat on his back porch cradling a cold beer in his hands, watching the first edge of night creep over the Texas Hill Country. He loved this area of South Central Texas, the mixture of rolling pasture land with tree-dotted hills, copses of trees here and there in the vast areas of emptiness where civilisation had only bumped the edges. Ranch country. Cattle, ANIMAL INSTINCTS

Desiree Holt

6

goats, sheep, all being raised in what Drew considered the closest thing to heaven on earth.

He drew in a deep breath, inhaling the mingled scents of nature that never failed to stir his senses.

He’d bought his small ranch ten years ago when he landed in the Hill Country and decided it was a safe place to stay. Running about a thousand head of cattle, he made enough to keep the ranch in the black, needing only a minimum of hands to help and still have time for his work with The Sentinels.

Now he was doing one of his favourite things—watching night lower its blanket over the countryside and the first appearance of the stars in the velvet sky. It gave him a feeling of peace he hadn’t known until he came here, peace that had been stolen from him, just like it had from his partners. A sliver of moon drifted into the sky. He heard the soft whinnying of horses in the barn, broken now and then by the distant wail of a coyote.

He’d heard other ranchers discussing the increasing presence of the predator, said there’d never been this many coyotes here before. But what bothered Drew was the talk in the feed store and the diner of the chance spying of other animals not indigenous to the area.

Someone even mentioned wolves, which made Drew’s guts tie up in a knot. He knew there were no wolves around here except for himself, when he wasn’t in human form.

He knew what madness even the whisper of a wolf could do in a community, and a tiny thread of fear unravelled inside him. A human pack was far more dangerous than any group of animals. It was how his pack had been destroyed. How he, himself, had nearly been killed, hiding in the woods in the northern state where they’d lived, woods that he was so familiar with—shifting to his human shape during the day to avoid detection. Men determined to kill wolves at all costs were like rabid dogs, crazed and maniacal.

Few members of his pack had survived, and they’d scattered for safety. Some hand of fate must have led them all to Texas, where he ran into the Spencer brothers working at the Houston Stock Show. The three of them had managed to find the other five remaining members, all gravitating to a small town outside San Antonio.

So now he was one of a band of eight. The Sentinels. Guardians offering their services to those in need, while pursuing the remnants of other packs in an effort to rebuild a community. Most of the others had chosen homes in the city or in one of the smaller Hill ANIMAL INSTINCTS

Desiree Holt

7

Country towns. But Drew felt trapped when he was surrounded by buildings, so he’d looked around and found this ranch to buy.

Their numbers were increasing. Both of the Spencers had mated with humans, and Kelsey Bryant had stumbled into another shifter, Mack Redfield, while vacationing in Maine.

So now there were two Sentinels offices, one in Texas and one in Maine. And Mack had a few shifters from his own pack who were willing to work with them.

Drew felt safe at the ranch, happy with his solitary existence. His ranch hands knew him as a taciturn loner, and he was happy to leave it that way. He had the freedom to shift at night and run through the trees, returning home before any of the ranch workers arrived.

But now there were rumblings of something as vile as a secret illegal game preserve, where trapped animals were let loose and hunted for big money twelve months of the year.

This was well outside the rules and regulations of Texas Game and Wildlife. He’d even heard whoever was running the preserve scoured neighbouring ranch lands in the hopes of picking up a stray predator to add to the outlaw population. The whispers made Drew very nervous.

Edgy enough that he considered driving into the city to meet with his partners and get their feedback. If he couldn’t shift in freedom on his own land, he was in big trouble.

He finished his beer, rose and stretched. But as he lifted his face to the night air, a very faint scent drifted past his nostrils, and every hair on his body stood up. Something was wrong, something that his wolf self had caught wind of, something that he was afraid was bringing trouble to him.

Definitely tomorrow he’d head into the office. He couldn’t afford to wait and see if trouble came to him.

“What does everyone else say?”

Luke Spencer leant back in his chair, his booted feet resting on his desk, a mug of coffee cradled in one hand, studying his partner.

Drew, too edgy to sit, paced the floor with his own coffee, sipping at it absently.

“So far anyone I’ve casually mentioned it to says it’s just kids telling wild stories. But I have a feeling in my gut about this, Luke. I think there’s something bad going on.”

ANIMAL INSTINCTS

Desiree Holt

8

Luke dropped his feet and leant forward. “Who do you think would be doing this?

Who has a spread big enough to hide something like this?”

Drew shrugged. “Five or six people could easily bury it in their land. There are that many ranchers with more than ten thousand acres to their spreads.”

“Maybe a couple of us should come out and scope the area,” Luke suggested.

“That’s what I was hoping you’d say. There’s a town meeting tonight, and I want to wait and see if anyone brings this up. Why don’t I call you afterwards and give you a report.

Then we can make plans.”

“Good.” Luke pushed himself out of his chair. “Let’s get everyone together while you’re here and run this by them. We can call in a favour if we need to and do some satellite tracking, but meanwhile all the others will be on the alert.”

Drew deliberately sat in the back of the community room at the bank where the meeting was taking place. He wanted to be able to see and hear everyone without being drawn into the discussion. On a raised platform at the front of the room sat Hob Winston, the bank president, Axel Grisham, county commissioner, and the men with the three largest ranches—

Grant Mason, Bo Sheridan and Harley James.

The mighty powers, Drew thought to himself sarcastically.

These men controlled the politics of the county, even spreading into other counties, and nothing happened without their say so. They had always resented the fact that Drew held himself so aloof, which only prompted him to be more reserved than ever.

But just because he wasn’t part of the inner circle didn’t mean he suspected any of these men of what was being whispered about. They were all fourth and fifth generation Texans, wearing their honour like a badge. They’d done a lot of good for the area. He couldn’t see any of them being part of something so heinous as an illegal game preserve and hunt.

“I want these rumours chased down,” Grant Mason thundered, stabbing the air with his forefinger. “Things like this hurt all of us.”

ANIMAL INSTINCTS

Desiree Holt