Chapter 4: The Mystery of Winter Wolves Sanctuary
Autumn closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. “You’ve got this. It was just a wolf, you work with wolves all the time,” she reassures herself. Sure, none of those wolves had been on the loose, wandering around a house she was going to be living in, but that’s just a bump in the road.
Autumn brings herself back down from the scare and looks in the direction she saw the wolf disappear into the woods. She considers driving up to Blake’s house and letting him know what she saw, but without proof she feels like the owner of the sanctuary will probably ignore her.
She grabs her bags out of the back seat and hurries toward the house. Once through the door, she slams it shut behind her. There are three locks and she makes an appoint of utilizing all of them.
Autumn leans against the door and takes a few deep breaths. That had to have been the largest Gray Wolf she has ever seen. When she finally feels her heart slowing down a bit, Autumn decides it’s time to go through Connie’s notes on the sanctuary and its wolves.
She picks up her bags and goes searching for the bedroom. Unpacking is a bluff, she will probably live out of her suitcase until she dirties everything. It will only get put away after she has to wash it.
Connie’s trailer is comfortable. It’s clean and nicely decorated with pictures. From the front door, she can survey the living room, open kitchen, and dining room. There is a hallway off the kitchen dining room area that must lead down to the bathroom, bedroom, and maybe even onsite laundry.
She heads down the hallway and passes a half bath, a closet for odds and ends, and an office. At the end of the corridor, she finds the bedroom. Autumn opens the door and gasps. The room is huge. She really hadn’t expected such a nice bedroom. It’s fully furnished with a king-sized bed, vanity, and dresser. There’s even a flat screen television mounted on the wall across from the bed.
Connie really likes her candles, evident by how many Autumn noticed in the living room and now the bedroom. Autumn drops her bags in the corner by a bench seat. There are two other doors in the room.
She opens one to find a walk-in closet. Connie has some clothing hanging inside and a few different pairs of shoes, but other than that it’s empty. The sliding barn door leads to an oversized master bathroom. Autumn smiles as she takes in a garden tub, huge walk-in shower, toilet, sink and vanity. There’s a nook when you first walk in that holds a washer and dryer.
“I can’t believe they have such nice accommodations for someone who only comes out once a year to assess the sanctuary. Granted, she can spend months here depending on the status of the pack, but really?” Autumn mumbles while leaving the bedroom.
She checks the fridge before going into the living room to look over some notes. There are a few bottles of water in the refrigerator but nothing else.
Autumn huffs and checks the freezer. Empty. “Guess I’m going to town for some food after I talk with Blake.”
She takes a bottle and heads for a couch on the other side of the room. Autumn’s relieved to find a fireplace in the living room. It’s clearly electric, so she can enjoy a fire without having to endure the heat. This will be her reading spot after a long day of working in the sanctuary.
Autumn opens the file on Winter Wolves Sanctuary and flips ahead to Connie’s personal notes.
CONNIE’S NOTES
“Sanctuary is home to 14 wolves led by an Alpha male. No Alpha female in the pack. One Beta female…”
Odd, Autumn thinks. Usually, a pack is made up of an Alpha male and female.
“Wolves do not behave like other packs. The Alpha male doesn’t control everything the pack does…Larger than average Gray Wolves.”
Autumn flips ahead in the notes. She will read what Connie wrote about the individual wolves in the pack later. Her main goal right now is to learn more about the sanctuary itself. She hits a dead end while flipping through the pages. The information just stops. Autumn backtracks to the last note that appears to be from five years ago.
“Called out for an emergency. Alpha male became ill and passed away. Death was found to be from natural causes. A strange observation, for sure, is that the pack appears to be responding to Blake Winter (the owner) as the new Alpha.”
“What?” Autumn mumbles while searching for any more notes. “Why wouldn’t there be anything in here after that? Connie would have been out here every year and made new notes.”
She decides to call her boss later and see if he missed a second file or something. The one he gave her was on the thick side, so Connie may have decided to start a second one.
The clock on the wall reads five thirty and Autumn decides to head over to Blake’s a little early. She wants to get this over with so she can go food shopping and come back to the trailer for a long hot shower.
Autumn thinks about all the strange things she’s already encountered at the sanctuary while driving down the dirt road to Blake’s.
First, there was Blake’s insistence that Connie is the only one allowed to assess his pack. Then, the larger-than-life Gray Wolf she saw behind the trailer. Finally, there are Connie’s odd notes. It sounds like there are some weird things going on that should have been noted.
She feels like she’s in a mystery novel. Female Private Investigator takes on the mystery of the Winter Wolves Sanctuary. “I’m gonna crack the case!” she shouts in her car, causing a serious case of giggles on her part.
Autumn pulls alongside another car that’s parked outside of Blake’s house. She looks up and admires the build of his home. He went with a two-story log cabin, ideal for the wilderness setting. There’s a beautiful wrap-around porch located on the front of the building that is adorned with rocking chairs, a bench that wraps around, a hanging chair swing, and lots of potted flowers.
The setting looks like something you would find on the cover of a magazine. Autumn really appreciates how well-kept the property appears. She climbs out of her car and quietly closes her driver’s side door. She can hear voices drifting down from one of the open windows in the front of the home.
“I can not, no, will not allow this,” a woman says from somewhere in the house.
Autumn slowly walks up to the edge of the porch so she can hear a little better. The woman sounds older and really upset about something.
Blake’s voice reaches Autumn next. “We don’t have a choice, Mother. I was told that the pack, and the sanctuary, need to be checked out. It needs to be signed off on by a professional that our physicality is safe.”
The woman gets louder. “Then they can send Connie!” she shouts. “You know our pack doesn’t trust new humans. If your Father was here, this wouldn’t even be a conversation right now. He would have sent her off back to where she came from.”
Autumn finds herself getting angry. She doesn’t understand what’s so special about Connie and what’s so wrong with her doing the assessment. The woman’s next comment causes Autumn to tilt her head in confusion.
The woman drops her voice down to almost a whisper. “Stop treating the pack like they’re normal wolves. Shifters don’t like humans. You need to stop humoring this girl and get Connie back, now!”