Chapter 6: The Northern Approach

Morning came grey and cool. Lily made coffee and let it sit while she planned her day. The northern route to the eastern ridge would take about an hour of hiking, but she could place two cameras by noon and be back before dark. The man wasn't going to know she'd gone back. She wouldn't be directly challenging his authority; she'd just be doing her work on land she had a permit to work on.

It was a good rationalization, and she clung to it while she loaded the truck.

By nine AM, she was at the northern access point, heading into the forest with fresh camera traps and more determination than was probably wise. The hike was longer than she'd anticipated, and the terrain was rougher, but she made steady progress. The forest was different on this side of the valley, more exposed, with smaller trees and more meadow. Good wolf country.

She was so focused on the terrain and her GPS coordinates that she almost walked directly into the man standing in the middle of the trail.

He was in human form again, wearing the same clothes as the day before or possibly different versions of them. This time he had a rope in one hand, like he'd been doing something with livestock or equipment. He didn't look surprised to see her.

"I said the eastern ridge," he said quietly.

"You said the eastern ridge via the southern trail. This is the northern approach. Technically, you didn't forbid it."

His expression went still. "You're a lawyer?"

"No, I'm a biologist. But I'm also someone who takes her work seriously, and this is part of my research territory."

He wound the rope around his hand, methodically, like it was giving him something to do while he decided how angry to be. "You're trespassing on private land."

"Your land?"

"My pack's land."

Lily blinked. "Your pack?"

"Forget I said that. Just go back where you came from, Lily."

He knew her name. She was certain she'd never told him her name.

"How do you know my name?"

"Small town. People talk. You asked questions at the rental office about the valley. You made an impression." He tied off the rope and slung it over his shoulder. "I'm Ryder. And I'm asking you, professional to professional, to leave this part of the valley alone."

"Why?"

"Because."

"That's not a reason. That's just avoidance." She took a step closer, and his body went completely still. "What are you protecting out here? If you want me to respect your wishes, I need to understand why."

Ryder's amber eyes held hers, and for a moment she thought she was going to get an actual answer. His mouth opened, and she could see him deciding what to say, weighing consequences and revelations. Then he closed it again.

"Go home, Lily," he said. "This is not a place for you."

He walked around her without waiting for a response, moving down the trail with that same efficient grace, leaving her standing alone on the ridge.

But he'd called her Lily. He'd used her first name like it meant something, like they'd already established a relationship that warranted that familiarity.

She stood there long enough to watch him disappear into the forest. Then she pulled out her camera trap and continued up the trail like she'd never been interrupted.

She was not going to be told where she could and couldn't work. She was not going to let a man with amber eyes and secrets tell her how to do her job.

She was absolutely going to place these cameras on the eastern ridge, and she was going to come back tomorrow to check the footage.

She'd just made the second most important decision of her life without knowing it. The first had been coming to Montana. The third would come from a question he hadn't asked yet but was about to spend the next week trying to.

The storm came in faster than the weather forecast had predicted, dark clouds rolling over the ridge like someone had spilled ink across the sky. Lily had successfully placed three cameras on the eastern ridge despite Ryder's objections, and she'd been heading back to the truck when the light changed from afternoon grey to something that looked like early dusk.

She made it to the access road just as the first heavy drops started falling. Within two minutes, it had become a deluge, the kind of rain that came down in sheets and made the world narrow to visibility of maybe twenty meters. Lily turned on the truck's headlights and started driving carefully down the access road toward the main valley road.

The road was paved, mostly, but the drainage systems in the area apparently weren't equipped for the amount of water that suddenly started flowing downslope. By the time Lily made it to the lower section near the valley floor, the road had become a stream. The truck handled it fine, though she crept along, watching the water level.

It was when she crested the small rise before the bridge that she saw the problem.

The creek that normally flowed quietly under the bridge had become a raging brown torrent. The water level was already up to the bridge railings, and it was rising as she watched, debris floating in the current: branches, soil, pieces of vegetation. Flash flood.

Lily stopped the truck thirty meters before the bridge, assessing. She was in a good position on high ground. The water level wasn't quite to road level yet, but it was clearly climbing. If she went back the way she came, she'd have to navigate that stream road again, and with the volume of water coming down from the ridge, it might get impassable.

She turned around anyway, heading back upslope, looking for higher ground or an alternate route.