The crunch of basalt gravel beneath the tires of my truck used to be the symphony of sanctuary. It was the sound that told me the rugged, unforgiving wilderness of Northern Idaho was behind me and that my home—a modest cedar-sided refuge tucked against the treeline—was finally within reach. But as I pulled into the driveway that evening, the air felt thin, stripped of its usual mountain sweetness.
I had been a ghost for fourteen months. As a Ranger for the Conservation Task Force, I’d lived out of a rucksack, infiltrating a clandestine poaching syndicate that bled the timberlands of its wildlife and moved illicit firearms through the jagged veins of the backcountry. My return was unannounced, a secret I’d guarded even from my own thoughts, fueled by a singular, burning vision: the moment I would finally wrap my arms around my five-year-old daughter, Sophie.
Beside me, Koda, my German Shepherd and partner in every sense of the word, shifted in the passenger seat. His ears, usually alert and dancing to the rhythms of the forest, were pinned flat against his skull. When I cut the engine, the silence that followed wasn’t peaceful. It was heavy, like the breathless moments before a summer storm breaks.
“Home, boy,” I whispered, though my voice felt like it belonged to someone else.
