27. Shay

TWENTY-SEVEN

Shay

T he trip back to Pack Blackwater grounds was uneventful, and I let out a sigh of relief when my feet touched familiar territory once more. But we weren't even to the UTVs we'd left parked beside the hanger when a runner burst out of the woods.

I tensed as he approached, only relaxing when I realized it was Julius, the top enforcer. After Gael? I thought that was right. A lot had happened in the past month, but in-depth conversations about Pack Blackwater's structure weren't on the list, and we'd only been briefly introduced.

Dirge tensed at my side, then took a tentative step forward.

Did he know Julius? I watched Dirge closely, but Julius had eyes only for Kane.

"High Alpha, an urgent missive came in less than ten minutes ago. A…" He checked the paper in his hands, "Jada, reported to be a Kodiak bear shifter, if you can believe that, is requesting an immediate audience."

Kane lifted one eyebrow in surprise as he held his hand out for the letter. Julius passed it to him before finally surveying the rest of our group .

"You lot look like you just came from a fucking funeral. Haven't we had enough of that?" He shook his head, eyes finally landing on Dirge. "Holy shit. That you, man? You back?" Julius dropped to his haunches, getting on eye level with Dirge. "Red's all gone, at least." He reached up slowly and then rubbed Dirge behind the ears.

"He can understand you," I said, cursing the waver in my voice, how weak I sounded. Would I ever get used to speaking up around men? If Dirge couldn't speak for himself, I would have no choice.

"Yeah, excellent. If you shift back, we could use another good enforcer. Technically, all the spots are full, but with all this shit going on, we could use another trustworthy man."

Dirge snorted, but didn't answer otherwise.

"Julius," Kane said, and Julius stood, leaving Dirge at my side.

"Yes, Alpha?"

"Who delivered this? We were expecting a significant wait, given how reclusive the Kodiaks are."

Julius shrugged. "Nobody saw, Alpha. One of the patrol shift found it stuck to your office door between one round and the next. He brought it to me, and I opened it, given the strangeness of the situation and your absence."

"I'm glad you did. This says they want us to come as soon as we can, as early as today. I don't know how Inuksuk contacted them, but apparently, he conveyed the urgency of the situation." He swept us all with his gaze, settling on Bri. "What do you think, my love? Do you need a few days, or?—"

"Hell no. Let's go find out what they know. We're already packed, right?" She smiled, but it was forced, not reaching her eyes.

"We are. We'll need to top up on fuel, but we could be flying again in half an hour. "

Leigh stifled a groan as Gael jogged over to the pilot, letting him know of the change of plans. "So much for space."

I looked down at Dirge. "You better go hunt before we leave. Stay close?" I asked, and he nodded, darting off into the woods.

"Alpha, we've got an issue."

Never reassuring when the pilot says that. I reached down and tightened my seat belt, nerves ratcheting up ten degrees. I spared a glance at Leigh, her face pressed against the small window. She was queasy and pale, but so far had managed not to puke.

Kane removed his seat belt, then made his way carefully up the small aisle to where the pilot sat. "What is it?"

"The weather is rapidly deteriorating. I can request permission to set us down at the nearest airstrip, and we can wait for it to blow over. Or we can fly through it. We're going to fly slower, though, and burn through more fuel than I'd like."

"How much more?" Kane asked.

"We'll be below ten percent reserve. Closer to five."

Kane grimaced, looking back at all of us. "Whose territory are we over if we set down? I'll need to contact their alpha and let them know why we're in the area, which I'd rather not do."

The copilot answered. "We're over Lake Clark National Park. The current Alpha is Caesar, of Pack Effelin."

"Pack Effelin? What's their affiliation?" Kane asked Gael.

Gael thought for a moment, and the plane began to shudder as raindrops splattered against the windshield. I was stiff as a board in my seat, back pressed into the soft leather like that would be enough to cushion a fall from this height. "Neutral, as far as we know. They shouldn't mind a visit, given the circumstances. They're mostly fishermen by trade and stay out of most interpack drama. "

Kane nodded. "Take us in if the air traffic controller allows. We'll phone the Alpha as soon as we're wheels down and ask for shelter and pay for a fresh tank of fuel."

The plane took another terrifying dip before the pilot got it back under control.

"Yes, Alpha," the pilot said in a strained tone, then raised his voice so we could all hear. "Please fasten your seat belts, if you haven't already. It's going to be rocky for a bit."

Kane took his seat once more as the shuddering intensified. I drummed on the armrest of my seat, nervous energy making me want to shift, even though Dirge was already taking up two rows' worth of the aisle. He whined low in his throat, then licked my fingers. He didn't like it when I got anxious, could probably smell it on me.

"I'm fine," I whispered. A second glance at Leigh, though, showed that she wasn't. She sat with her hand over her mouth, looking horribly nauseated. I passed her an extra sick bag.

"I'm so sorry," she said quickly before gagging, the airsickness finally getting to her. She retched off and on through the storm until the pilot finally took us back down, all of us bumping and jolting hard in our seat belts when the wheels finally touched. As soon as we landed, I jumped up and guided her out of the seat.

"Come on, you'll feel better once we're on the ground with some fresh air." I wrapped my arm around her shoulders, turning sideways so she could lean on me as we walked down the aisle. Dirge dogged our steps, nose bumping occasionally against the back of my leg.

"Thanks, Shay, you're a lifesaver," she murmured, voice rough from the strain. She was clammy under my fingertips by the time we made it down the stairs. The rain pounded down now, soaking us to the skin as soon as we were on the ground, but Leigh didn't care. She turned her face up to it, letting it wash away the ick. The smell of wet earth was soothing and the grassy ground beneath my feet comforting to my wolf.

Dirge braved the rain right along with us, pressed against the front of our legs in a protective stance. I noticed that he seemed to have adopted Leigh too, and it just made me love him all the more for caring about my bestie.

"Come on, there's a shelter right over there," Brielle shouted over the rain, pointing as she joined us. There was no fancy hangar at this airstrip, but what amounted to a little bus-stop shelter. It was better than nothing, though, and we half jogged through the grass to get under it.

"This sucks. Can I just say that this really sucks?" Leigh sounded exhausted as she let herself drop to the bench, leaning against my side for support.

"You can, and I'm so sorry. It wouldn't be so bad if we could take the pack's bigger jet, but on these little planes, you feel every bump." Brielle was all mother hen, feeling her forehead and then taking Leigh's pulse at her wrist. "Hmm, your heart rate is a bit elevated. We need to get some fluids in you, and let me have those, there's a trash can." She fished the sick bags out of Leigh's sweaty grip and disposed of them without even a nose wrinkle.

Doctors. Nothing fazed them.

Before we could go hunting for drinks, though, the men appeared. To my surprise, Gael was at the front of the line. He stepped toward Leigh, but Dirge put himself between them, growling low in his throat.

"Easy. I've just got a soda for her." Gael held up the green can. "Ice-cold ginger ale. I grabbed a few from the hangar fridge before we left."

"Oh, good idea." Brielle plucked the drink from his fingers and popped the tab before passing it to Leigh. Drink up, and then we'll chase it with some water when you're less queasy."

Gael nodded as Leigh took a sip, then stepped back out into the rain, leaving the shelter for us. He didn't complain as the rain drenched him, and once again, I wondered what was going on between the two of them. But I didn't have long to think about it because Kane walked up, phone pressed to his ear.

"Yes, myself plus my delegation of six pack members, and two air personnel. Nine total. Thank you. We're waiting at the airstrip." He hung up, finally looking at the paltry shelter. "They have a driver on the way to retrieve us and take us to pack lodging. The Alpha wants to speak with me, but they have enough beds for the night, and hot showers."

"Thank you, Kane." Brielle stood and pressed a kiss to his lips, hands going around his neck as he pulled her closer. I looked away, giving them a moment of privacy even as the sight of what I couldn't have made my chest ache.

"I hear a vehicle." Gael's tone was sharp, alert—and everyone tensed as a small passenger van bump-bumped out of the forest, headlights blurred by the downpour.

"We trust these people, right?" I asked, the chill and nerves both combining to raise gooseflesh along my arms. The previous high alpha had been assassinated mere weeks ago, and now Kane was the new one, standing six feet from me. If someone came after him next, we were all in danger.

"We have no reason not to, but stay alert. We take no risks and we stay together." Kane's tone was calm but hard, brooking no arguments.

The van pulled right in front of the little shelter, a harried-looking middle-aged man with a receding hairline cranking down the window a few inches. "Heya, folks. Climb on in and we'll get you dry as quick as we can." He plastered on a smile to match his too-chipper tone, but ducked back from the window as rain splattered up.

We all piled in, the pilot and copilot last after securing the plane right on the airstrip. The ride was bumpy and dark, and Leigh was groaning quietly from her position on Brielle's shoulder between sips of ginger ale.

Dirge and I took up an entire row of seats ourselves because the side aisle of the van wasn't large enough to hold him.

"Nothing like the smell of wet fur, eh?" The driver chuckled, looking at us in the rearview mirror far longer than was comfortable. "Your man there doesn't shift, even with a frog strangler like this?"

I shook my head, uncomfortable and unwilling to try to explain to this complete stranger our complex situation. Though… I'd have to get used to it. A nonshifting mate wasn't a complication that was going away any time soon.

I bit my bottom lip and dropped my gaze, hoping he'd likewise drop the issue.

"Well then, my name's Mick, and I'm one of Pack Effelin's support staff. I understand you're expected by Caesar, Alpha?"

" High Alpha Kane will be making brief introductions with Alpha Caesar," Reed corrected, an unusual imperiousness lacing his tone as he addressed the male. "But we have been through quite a lot this evening, and we appreciate your pack's understanding in granting us some privacy and rest."

"Okie dokie, understood." Mick's smile turned forced, but he lapsed into blessed silence for the rest of the ride.

We pulled up in front of a small but well-maintained log cabin, a light on in the front window, with a woman visible running around frantically inside.

"Uh…" Leigh lifted her head, squinting.

"Oh, don't worry. That's just Marge. She's another of our support staff, and she's getting things prepared for you. Head on in, she won't bite." Mick began to whistle as we climbed out of the passenger van.

"So…" I looked anxiously from the van to the house, the stranger inside still darting back and forth.

Gael stepped forward, brushing past us and tromping up the front steps. He rapped once on the door, hard, and then pushed it open. The woman inside let out a loud yelp, and then a quieter exchange took place just out of earshot.

"Gael will clear the cabin, and then the rest of you will wait here while Kane and I go speak with Alpha Caesar," Reed said.

Brielle spoke up, a worried edge to her tone. "Shouldn't Gael go with you too? We've never met this Alpha before, and we don't know how safe it is. The two of you are strong, but three would be stronger."

Reed smiled gently. "Kane will be fine, I promise. The most common method of taking out a powerful alpha is by using his mate. You are what needs protecting." Reed graciously extended his gaze to all us females as he said that.

"I'm a strong fighter, Reed. And we have Dirge. If you need Gael, nobody will get past us," I argued.

Reed just shook his head. "High Alpha's orders, I'm afraid. But don't worry. I don't sense anyone with a tenth of Kane's power anywhere within a half mile. He could probably flatten every alpha in this pack with his pinky finger." He shot me a wink as Gael walked back to our group.

"It's clear. Everyone inside."

Brielle shared a quick goodbye kiss with Kane, and then the van pulled away.

"This is a beautiful cabin. Thank you so much for your help, Marge." Brielle played diplomat while I hauled Leigh to the kitchen, and poured her a glass of water. She was still green around the gills, but she'd kept the entire can of soda down so far.

Baby steps.

"You don't have to coddle me, Shay, I'm fine." Leigh took the water with a sullen expression, but drank it down greedily nonetheless.

"I don't have to, but if I don't, who will you let do it? Certainly not the brooding alpha-hole who just walked off." I leveled a try me look at her, but she ignored it.

Leigh was top-level delusional when it suited her.

"I don't know who you're talking about, but Gael certainly wants nothing else to do with me."

"Right, right. So we're going full ignorance campaign? Got it. I'll tell Bri."

Leigh snorted, hiding her grin behind the rim of the water glass and taking another sip.

"There's nothing ignorant about acknowledging a one-night stand for what it was."

"So, the ginger ale? That was nothing?" I leaned back against the counter, crossing my arms over my chest.

"A concerned pack mate. He probably was worried I'd vomit on him at the rate I was going."

"Right. I don't have the most sexual experience of the three of us, as you well know—" Dirge growled at my side, but I nudged him with my knee to get him to shut up. "But even I know that one-night stands don't bring you things when you're sick, hover, and worry about your safety."

"Okay, now you're going full ignorance. The man despises me! Okay? Des-pi-ses. We shared a hot night between the sheets, and then the next morning, I—" She stopped midstream and slammed the water glass down so hard on the counter, I worried it would crack. "One can of soda doesn't equal caring. Just… never mind. I need a shower and a bed. Stat."

I watched in shock as Leigh stormed out of the kitchen, just as Brielle was coming in.

"Umm, everything okay in here?" Brielle asked, concern tilting her eyebrows down, making the little frown line appear between them.

"I have no idea. She's really sensitive about the Gael topic."

Bri popped her hip out and leaned against the island, mirroring my pose. "He's standing guard on the porch. You never did fill me in on the details, but should we follow her first?"

I sighed and mindlessly tangled my fingertips in Dirge's fur. He'd become my touchstone so quickly, it was scary.

But also right.

"I don't really know the details. They spent the night together after your bonding ceremony. She was dancing with another pack mate, he got jealous, a fight turned into making out, and then they left. I woke up with her at my bedside after the whole…" I waved at my side, where the bullet wound had been. "She won't talk about it, claims it was a one-time thing, and that he was good. That's all she was willing to say. But I get the feeling something happened, good or bad, between them. I just can't put my finger on it."

I worried my bottom lip between my teeth, debating whether or not to take this moment alone to tell her the rest of my suspicions.

Brielle crossed her arms over her chest. "Out with it, Shay." She used her best doctor voice on me, and then, more softly, "This might be our only chance to talk for a while."

I blew out a hesitant breath.

"She can't be pregnant, right? From a fling with someone who's not her mate?"

Brielle's eyebrows nearly flew off her face, they jumped up so quickly.

"I'm sorry, why would we think that, exactly?"

I shrugged, already regretting mentioning it. "I don't know, just little things. She had a fever the night of your bonding ceremony. By the time I came to, she seemed perfectly fine. But if you'd seen her on that dance floor… she wasn't herself. And then she went off and had a one-night stand with Gael, who she usually can't stand. Not like her at all. She's a serial monogamist, and you know as well as I do that even briefly messing with two guys on the dance floor is weird for her."

Brielle sighed and rubbed her forehead a few times before shrugging.

"I mean, anything is possible . But based on my studies, it's far more likely that she went through a false heat. You can think of it almost like a practice heat. All the emotional"—she used her hands to make a roller-coaster motion—"with none of the results. True heats don't start until you're closer to a hundred, a hundred fifty if you haven't found your fated mate. We're a long-lived species, and while we reach maturity relatively quickly like humans, we lack the rush to procreate before our fertility dries up."

Relief washed over me. "Okay, that makes a lot of sense. I won't bring it up to her again, since it's upsetting. And, honestly, for the best. Whatever is between them, if she doesn't want it to continue, I don't want it for her."

Brielle smiled at that, then cast a worried glance over my shoulder toward the front door. "How long do we say it takes for him to appease Alpha Caesar's feelings before I worry they've been kidnapped or drugged?"

I chuckled, then crossed the space between us to give her a quick hug. "Longer than the fifteen minutes it's been. Kane's a big deal now, so he's going to have to have long, boring political conversations. Kiss babies, shake hands. That sort of thing."

She laughed, some of the tension leaving her. "That's true, very true." But she stared down at her shoes, not looking back at me.

"Is that all that's worrying you? You're not having more symptoms, are you?"

Her head whipped up. "No, no! Please don't worry about that. I've been much better since Kane and I completed our bonding and the, umm, physical relationship also seems to keep the worst of it at bay."

Now it was my turn to be surprised. Mate bonds were a powerful thing—the most powerful thing in the shifter world, really—but his touch curing a witch's curse, even temporarily, was next level. "That's kind of cool. But… if it's not that…?"

She sighed. "I keep racking my brain for why my family would have a witch curse. It would explain why no medical treatments—or the endless tests I've been running for years—ever turned up results. It's just that nobody before my mom ever died young or of a sickness. And thinking back, my parents were so accepting of it all. Now that I feel the terror of it hanging over my own shoulder, knowing if I don't fix it, I will for sure die and take Kane with me… It doesn't make sense. None of it makes sense. And I wish I could go back and shake them, make them try harder to stop it, but they're not here, and, and?—"

"You didn't know then what you know now?" I offered, feeling her frustration.

"Yeah, exactly. It's too little, too late."

"It's not too late for you, though. That's the most important thing. If your parents were resigned, well, that is weird. But it's possible they thought it was truly just a freak illness." I shrugged, unable to think of any other reason they wouldn't have hunted up an answer. "Besides, witches aren't so common that they would have suspected a curse."

Brielle's head snapped up, her eyes widening. "Holy shit."

"What is it?" I stood straighter, my wolf pushing close to the surface at her sudden shift in mood. She considered Bri under our protection and had since the first time she admitted to me that she couldn't hold a shift herself.

"My mom's best friend was a witch. I don't really know what kind or if she was in a coven… Honestly, I hadn't thought of her in forever. Karissma lived far away, but she was shipping my mom potions, trying to prolong her life there at the end."

"You think her friend cursed her?" Horror filled me at the thought.

"No, of course not. Karissma was a real hard-ass, but she loved my mom. Mom used to say she was the closest she had to a sister, and I grew up calling her Aunt Kari. But, if Karissma was treating her, maybe she knew what kind of curse it was, and how it got there."

"That would be huge, Bri. Where does she live?"

"Well, she was always moving, when I was a kid. She'd blow into town a time or two every year, but then she was off again. We lost touch after my parents died. I pushed her away the first time she tried to visit after that."

"Do you still have her number? I know it's been a long time."

"It's been more than nine years," Brielle corrected with a remorseful grimace.

"I don't think it would matter if it were a hundred years. You were grieving, and she was close to your mom. I bet she'd be thrilled to get a call from you. Even if she's not, if she has information…"

"You're right," she said with a tight smile. After a deep breath, she pulled her cell phone from her pocket and flipped through the contacts. "I still have her number, but I've got no service out here. When we get back to the pack grounds, though, I can make the call. I can't imagine reception's any better on the island we're heading to."

"Probably not." I shot her a grin. Even if she was hesitant, I was happy to have any possible lead, no matter how small a chance it might be. It felt like we were making progress. Well, somewhat.

Kane hadn't shared any updates with us about the investigation into his parents' killer, but we'd been a little busy. One look at my friend's exhausted pose and I decided to wait to bring that up until after we met the Kodiak shifters. Progress on her health was enough for one day.

"Come on, you. Let's go find our rooms and check on Leigh. I should probably apologize for bringing up Gael again anyway. Then we can hit the showers."

"Good idea." There was a pause. "But I won't sleep until Kane's back."

"The good news is you don't have to. We'll keep you company."

My sweet, brilliant friend had tears in her eyes when she said, "Thank you, Shay. This is all just so much. I mean, I'm mated, which was the last thing I expected out of this, and my magic is on the fritz, and Kane's parents, and I just… I don't know what I'd do without you and Leigh to keep me steady."

I smiled and wordlessly wrapped an arm around her waist and dragged her toward the stairs. The sooner I got her showered and in pajamas, the better. I had a not-so-sneaking suspicion that she'd be out the moment she crawled under the covers, whether Kane was back or not.