Breaking Free: A Colorado High Country Crossover Novel, Pamela Clare [i can read book club .TXT] 📗

they waited for the Team to arrive, Jason led Jack over to the smokehouse and opened the door. “He’s been smoking your beef and feeding it to his animals.”

Jack glanced inside. “That son of a bitch.”

By the time Team members began to trickle into the camp, Winona was ready. She explained to Jason what the Team members were doing.

“Jesse Moretti is setting up the anchor. That’s usually Chaska’s job.”

“The anchor?”

“They can’t wheel the gurney on this steep, uneven ground, so they have to carry it. We don’t want Team members tripping or falling and dropping the gurney, so we set up an anchor by tying the ropes to trees. It has to support the weight of the rescuers, as well as the gear, the gurney, and the person—or animal—on the gurney.”

“That makes sense.” Jason found it fascinating—the speed with which they worked, the way everyone seemed to know his or her job, their camaraderie.

“Anchor ready,” Moretti called out.

Winona knelt next to the kennel again, the wolfdog baring her teeth, growling. “I’m sorry, sweet girl, but I need to stick you.”

Winona fired two darts, one after the other, hitting the animal in its hindquarters. The wolfdog yelped—and slowly sank to the snow, darts in its hip. After a moment, she lay on her side and began to twitch.

“Is she okay?” Sasha asked.

“That’s completely normal.” Win motioned to the padlock on the kennel. “Can someone please grab my bolt cutters and cut that lock?”

She hadn’t wanted it cut before the wolf was sedated just in case the door accidentally came open.

“On it.” Ahearn walked over to the kennel, bolt cutters in hand. “Done.”

Winona didn’t open the door immediately. She spoke to the pups in Lakota, held gloved fingers through the holes in the fence, testing their response. They whined, wagged their tails, licked her gloved fingers, putting a smile on her face. “I think we’re good. They’ve got collars, so he must have tried to socialize them. Let’s use leashes.”

One at a time, she leashed the pups, handing them off to Team members. “We’ve got three males and one female.”

“These are big puppies.” Taylor scratched his pup behind the ears. “Our adult black lab isn’t much bigger than this.”

Winona leashed the last pup and led it out of the kennel. It hopped up on her, yipped. She patted its head. “You think they’re big? Wait till you see their daddy.”

Jason glanced around, still keeping an eye out for trouble. They needed to catch this Graham bastard. But what would they do about the wolf when they found him?

With the pups out of the kennel, Winona worked quickly, buckling the mother wolfdog’s front paws and then its rear paws together. With that done, she slipped a mask over its eyes and then checked its pulse.

“Okay, let’s get her onto the gurney. Watch where you step.”

With five animals in a small space, piles of poop were everywhere.

Jesse and Creed maneuvered their way inside, Winona supporting the wolfdog’s head as they lifted her onto the gurney. Then she took one of the handles, Jason, Sasha, and Megs taking the other three to lift the gurney and carry it out of the kennel.

Megs took charge from there, sorting out who would be on belay, who would carry the gurney, and who would wrangle puppies. In just a few minutes, the belay crew was ready, the gurney crew was in harnesses and roped in, and the puppy wranglers, as Megs called them, were set.

Winona took Austin’s pup so he could help carry the gurney. “The pups will probably want to stay close to their mama. This experience is new to them.”

Down the hill they went, the crew with the gurney moving slowly over steep, slippery ground made more treacherous because the snow hid the trunks of fallen trees and rocks. When they reached the creek, they removed the ropes and carried the gurney out to the road, where Austin crawled beneath it and clipped on the large ATV tire that enabled them to roll the gurney the rest of the way.

“That’s clever.” Jason bent down, gave his pup’s ears a scratch.

“That’s Chaska’s invention.”

The pups trotted along behind the gurney, occasionally whimpering for their mother, their ears straight up and forward, tails wagging.

Sasha was clearly having a great time. “They’re so cute!”

“This is why I love the Team—no two days are alike,” Jesse said. “One day, it’s a drunk kid in a Batman suit stuck on a crag, and the next, it’s a wolfdog and puppies.”

After that, the conversation drifted to the upcoming ski season and off-width climbing gear—mega-cams, tube chocks, gloves.

Jason leaned closer, spoke for Winona’s ears alone. “Can we still be friends if I say I have no clue what they’re talking about?”

Winona laughed. “Sure. Thanks, by the way. You helped find these poor creatures. Now we can put them in a good home where they can run free.”

“Just doing my part.” His lips curved in a smile that stole Winona’s breath.

They reached the parking lot, where Jack and Nate were loading the UTV into their trailer. Under Winona’s direction, Team members lifted the wolfdog, settled her inside Shota’s old crate, and placed the pups beside her.

“Thanks for your help, everyone.” Winona locked the crate, eager to get the mother back to the clinic as soon as possible so she wouldn’t have to sedate her again. She handed her radio to Megs. “Everyone did a great job.”

“You’re the wolf whisperer. We just do what we’re told.” Megs and the others began packing away their gear. “We’ll do a quick debriefing at The Cave in an hour and then hit the pub.”

“I’m heading back to the ranch.” Nate shook Jason’s hand and hugged Winona. “I hope to see both of you at the Cimarron again soon. My old man and I couldn’t have done this without you.”

“I’m obliged to both of you.” Jack closed the tailgate, checked it, ensuring that the crate and its precious cargo was safe. “Let’s hit the road.”

Winona was just climbing