Retribution (Moonstruck Genesis #4)

Prologue

OKLAHOMA, LATE FALL

AMY ROUSE Harjo stood on the front porch of her best friend’s house and stared out across now-empty pastures. The mobile homes she’d once requisitioned were gone. Luckily, she’d wheeled and dealed and ended up with some rather nice RVs for use by her friends. The barn only housed animals now. Once upon a time, Jacey Randolph had run a wildlife refuge here on her family’s ranch. Then Jacey had rescued a wolf. A very special wolf, as it turned out. From that point on, life was never the same.

Her husband, who everyone called Harjo, stepped out, leaving the door open. “Atosi and George are almost here.”

She nodded, nostalgia rushing over her. “I’ll miss this place. I’m glad, though, that Jacey’s animals were rehabbed and set free.” She indicated the small herd of longhorn cattle and buffaloes contentedly munching grass in the one undisturbed field. The bears and the mountain lion were gone, as were the llamas and exotic birds. “I’m glad the tribe agreed to take over Jacey’s ranch.”

“They are happy to have the land. Atosi is sad, though, because the bears are gone. George has agreed to take him out to the woods to visit them.”

That made her laugh. George Goforth, Harjo’s cousin, was chief of the Chickasaw Lighthorse, the tribal police force. The ranch was technically on Indian land, which was one reason the tribe and Jayce had come to an agreement.

“Good to hear you laugh, enchil. It has been a while.”

She leaned against him, loving that his pet name for her was the Chickasaw word for angel . “Too many changes. Too much…” She trailed off, rubbing her cheek against his chest. “Stuff.”

“I know, enchil. ”

And he did. Stuff didn’t even come close to covering everything that had happened. After the Pentagon mothballed the 69th, the team went their separate ways only to be recommissioned after the discovery of the secret lab at Area 51. That’s when Jacey and Amy had been drawn into his world. The arrival of Nate Connor, the Marine Corps captain trapped in wolf form was the catalyst. Most of the team had returned to duty: Ian “Mac” McIntire, given a promotion to Command Sergeant Major while working for the Defense Security Service along with his wife, the former Major Hannah Jackson; Michael Lightfoot, former sniper and his wife, wildlife biologist Liz Graham; Sean Donaldson, EOD specialist and combat medic also arrived to help with the men who’d been liberated from those hellish experiments. Sean had gone to east Texas to rescue another original member of the team, Danny Keegan and his pregnant wife, Sally. He’d came back with three things—a mate, an adopted son, and the nickname of Boomer.

Jacey’s ranch had been turned into a semi-official government installation but they’d had a spy in their midst. Black Root, the shadowy corporation behind the labs, raised its ugly head the night of his and Amy’s wedding. Their operatives kidnapped Liam McIntire, and that was the final straw.

The Wolves had gone to Louisiana and discovered another traitor—who wasn’t one after all. Rudek Tornjak, with the help of a sweet Cajun girl named Isabelle Fontaine, had rescued Liam. The team took out that clandestine lab just like they’d destroyed the one in Nevada. But that act put bounties on their heads and now they were off grid once more.

So here he stood, with the love of his life, waiting to turn the keys to the ranch over to the tribe. The Wolves were currently down in the Louisiana bayous hiding out. No one looking for them would expect them to be so close to the scene of their crimes. Also, they had an entire Cajun clan as allies. Part of him wished he and Amy could join them but they were headed to Washington. No longer a colonel on active duty, he still had contacts. One way or another, the Wolves and their families would be safe.