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“To impede fertility,” Jade said softly. “He’s sabotaging my herd.”
“Miss Jade is correct,” Nanee-12 said. “Introducing Estradiol to the water will impede the animals’ fertility for some time.”
“How did you know that?” Rafe asked Jade, impressed.
“I just do,” she said quickly, buttoning her lips.
“What else is he not telling us?” Rafe asked.
“Your suspect said he was at the airfield to pick up a T-38 diffuser,” Nanee-12 said. “But I checked, and the diffuser in his barn is only a T-35.”
“It’s got to be him,” Tally said, whipping his poor excuse for a sword from the scabbard on his waist. “Let’s bring him in.”
“Innocent until proven guilty, Tally,” Jade said gently, placing a hand on his forearm. “We need real evidence of an actual crime before we can take any definitive action.”
Tally sighed and replaced his blade.
Jade caught Rafe’s eye and gave him a secret smile, as if it was up to the two of them to keep the boy out of trouble.
And in spite of the fury and frustration of the day, Rafe found himself smiling back at her, warmth spreading in his chest.
Find the killer, boy, the dragon growled. Find him, and then claim her.
19
RAFE
The day was beginning to break into evening when Rafe noticed Jade sniffing the whelp.
“Does Gus need a change?” he asked her.
“I think so,” she told him.
He pulled up the sleigh and set a stake in the ground to secure the deer.
By the time he was finished, Jade was pulling Gus’s clothing back on while she spoke softly to him with a big smile. The boy was smiling back at her, kicking out his little legs.
He couldn’t quite make out what she was saying. For just a moment, he allowed the dragon to accentuate his hearing. But Jade’s loving chatter to Gus wasn’t all that he heard. The low rumble he picked up in the background kicked his soldier’s instincts into overdrive.
They needed to move. Now.
“Finish dressing him,” he called to Jade.
Tally was out of the sleigh, too. He had clearly gone as far from it as he dared to relieve himself.
“Get back in here,” Rafe yelled to the boy.
The source of the sound was heading their way from just over a low hill. Jade looked up, and Rafe saw the exact instant when she realized something big was coming right for them.
“Wh-what is that?” she breathed, frozen.
“It’s a mammoth,” he told her. “A bull. And it’s charging. We need to get out of here. The deer can’t outrun it for long, we need a head start and a good angle, so we can run it long enough that it gets tired and loses interest.”
It was odd behavior for a mammoth, but there was no time to analyze it now.
She nodded and swiftly finished securing Gus’s clothing before jumping into the sleigh.
But Tally was still far out on the tundra, he clearly hadn’t understood what Rafe was saying.
