The Hunted Read Free Page A

face, but even so, Jack could see how pale she looked.
    He dropped the fistful of damp skipping stones he’d been holding; they clicked against other rocks on the ground like rain on a tin roof. Walking to where she sat, he said, “What’s going on, Ashley?”
    â€œNobody ever listens to what I think. It’s like I’m too little, or what I say’s not important. Did you know a girl was in her sleeping bag close to Lake McDonald, and this grizzly went right into her camp and dragged her off and ate her? She was only 18 years old. And on the exact same night, a different girl got chewed up in her sleeping bag, except that was up in a place called Granite Park Chalet only ten miles away. She died, too.”
    â€œThat’s sad, but so?”
    â€œSo maybe we should buy bear bells. Maybe Mom should stay out of the woods where the grizzlies are. Dad, too. Maybe it’s too dangerous.”
    â€œMom knows what she’s doing,” Jack countered. “She’s a wildlife veterinarian.”
    â€œPeople all taste the same to a grizzly.”
    Jack wanted to laugh at that, but he pushed down his smile. “Look, this is the first trip we’ve had in a long time without some foster kid tagging along, and I want it to be good. We’re going to camp and fish and hang out with the animals. Can you drop the bear stuff?”
    â€œIt’s not just the bears,” Ashley told him, standing up. “It’s that nobody listens to me.”

CHAPTER THREE
    T he road flowed over the mountains like a silver creek—here dividing homesteads, there cutting through wild pine and underbrush that crowded right to the edge of the asphalt until the road emptied into ranchland again. To Jack, it was strange to see so many private homes and cultivated fields at a national park, but his dad had told him the homesteads had been bought long before Glacier had been created as a park, so the families who were already there got to stay. Jack wished people hadn’t marred the natural beauty, but then again, he’d jump at the chance to live in one of those log cabins that glowed with warm, yellow light in the midst of grassy meadows. He guessed he couldn’t get too mad at the people who wanted to stay put.
    â€œHow much longer?” Ashley groaned.
    Peering at the map, Olivia answered, “It looks like we’re still about 15 miles away, and they told me the final six miles are going to be pretty rough. I wish that Dramamine worked on you better—you’ve always had to be different, haven’t you?”
    â€œRougher than this? Great!” Ashley moaned louder, clutching her stomach.
    Jack knew what his sister meant. With the trailer hitched to their car, it seemed every bump gave them whiplash. Ashley always got queasy from rolling motion.
    If the road ahead was even worse, she was really in for it. He was about to ask his dad if there was another way to the campground when their car slowed at a small ranger station that was not much bigger than a shed. A thin, weathered woman in a ranger hat leaned out of an open window. “May I see your park pass?” she asked.
    â€œThis is Olivia Landon, and I’m her husband, Steven, and that’s Ashley and Jack. We’re here from Jackson Hole, Wyoming—”
    â€œOh, yes, we’ve been expecting Mrs.—I mean Doctor—Landon. Hi, kids, welcome to Glacier.”
    Ashley gave a faint wave as Jack said, “Hi.”
    The ranger’s skin had tanned to a nut brown, which made her gray eyes look extra bright in her square face framed by blunt-cut gray hair. Her hands looked rough but strong, and the muscles of her forearms stood out in thick ropes. According to the tag on her uniform, her name was Jane Beck. “Weird thing about those missing baby grizz,” Jane said, leaning from the booth. “I’ve been watching for them but haven’t seen a single second-summer cub in, oh, I