Read Online My Estranged Lover (Middlemarch Shifters Book 5) by Shelley Munro - Free Book Online

repeated, and he pulled her against his chest, wrapping his arms around her. “Maybe tomorrow you could ditch the pajamas. I’ll take on the responsibility of keeping you warm.”
    The phone dragged Marsh from a deep sleep—the best rest he’d had for weeks.
    “What is it?” a sleepy voice asked.
    “Phone. It’s early. Just gone six. Stay in bed.” Marsh slid from the warmth and tucked the covers around Caroline. Her eyelids fluttered, and her breathing deepened.
    The phone continued to ring, and Marsh dug in his jeans pocket. He glanced at the screen and muttered a low curse. Ignore. After placing his phone on vibrate, he set it aside. He’d dress first and grab a coffee, if they had any instant left in the cupboard, before he faced his father.
    By the time he’d donned a worn T-shirt, a flannel shirt and a pair of faded jeans, his phone danced across the dresser. He scooped it up and strode toward the kitchen. “What do you want, Dad?”
    “The cattle are gone.”
    “Which cattle?” Marsh pulled on a pair of socks and scoured the cupboard for a jar of coffee.
    “The ones you shifted to the farm paddock yesterday. Didn’t you shut the gate? At least half of them are gone.”
    “I shut the gate,” Marsh said in a flat voice. “I’ll check the fence and see if I can find them.” He ended the call with a feline snarl. No coffee this morning. He’d make do with a glass of water.
    When he arrived at the gate, he found it shut. The hoofprints at the gateway told Marsh the cattle had come out the gate, but someone had closed it again. He’d driven the cattle through the far gate on the other side of the paddock, so there shouldn’t be prints in this gateway. Footprints covered the ground outside the gate, the wavy patterns not a match to his boots. He dragged in a lungful of air and caught an out-of-place scent. A stranger. He followed the tracks and the scent and came to tracks made by a vehicle. Someone had loaded stock onto a truck. Holes in the gravel road told him what happened.
    Thieves had driven the cattle from the paddock, herded them into mobile yards and trucked them away.
    Crap. Just what he needed today.
    He pulled out his phone and rang his father.
    “Well?”
    “Someone loaded them on a truck.”
    “Someone stole them?”
    “That’s what it looks like.”
    “Fuck,” his father growled.
    “I’ll ring the cops,” Marsh said. “I’ll wait for them to see the scene.”
    “Fat lot of use that will do. Hannah should’ve retired years ago.”
    “We need to go through the process,” Marsh said, straining for patience. “At least that way we should be able to claim insurance.”
    “I didn’t renew the policy.”
    “Why—never mind. I’ll talk to you later.” He disconnected and made his call to the police.
    Hannah arrived ten minutes later and took down the details as Marsh showed him everything he’d noticed.
    “I’ll talk to the neighbors. Ask if they saw anything strange last night.”
    “Haven’t other farmers reported missing stock?” Marsh asked.
    “A small herd went missing two days ago, on the other side of Middlemarch. The same setup.”
    “Our cattle all wore our electronic ear tags. They won’t be able to sell them, not through legitimate channels.”
    “I have the word out with the stock agents and the auctions. The police at Cromwell are receiving reports of missing stock too.”
    Marsh nodded. “I’d heard that other areas farther south had problems.”
    Jason Hannah rubbed his belly then adjusted his trousers, hauling them higher on his hips. “’Tis an epidemic.”
    “You’ll ring me if you learn anything?”
    The cop nodded and plodded back to his vehicle.
    Marsh scowled after him, not holding much hope. Hannah and the other cop at Middlemarch were a joke, going through the motions and hanging on until they reached retirement age. Locals were still discussing the two mystery bodies that turned up in the area. One body disappeared while en route to