The Emir's Falcon

“She was raised to be free not some rich man’s pet . . . It’s just not right!”Bernie Cholach’s dad wants him to take over the family’s rural Alberta feedlot but Bernie has other ideas: he wants to be a biologist an interest sparked by his experiences as a volunteer bird handler at a Canadian Wildlife Service facility that breeds and rears peregrine falcons for release into the wild.Sheik Nasur bin Mukhta son of a Persian Gulf emir studying petroleum engineering at the University of Alberta dutifully accepts his life’s course laid out for him by his traditionalist culture.Rosie Leboucan daughter of a Métis trapper running her injured dad’s trap line in the Swan Hills is focused on keeping a roof over their heads and food on the table.Then the Government of Canada decides to give the emir one of the peregrines as a diplomatic gift. It’s more than Bernie can stand. Impulsively he takes the bird he has been tending—he’s named it Skyrider—and flees to a remote cabin in the Swan Hills wilderness.The RCMP mount a search. Nasur sent by his father to collect the bird insists on being on the scene—which turns out to be both Rosie’s trapping territory and the territory of a hungry and dangerous mama grizzly bear with cubs.The paths of the young people and the bear converge—and their coming together will send each in a new direction.