by RJ Blain
With my pride stinging, I waited for him to open the cab before forcing myself into a pained lope and leaping into the truck, where I crammed under the dashboard on the passenger side and promised death to anyone who tried to dislodge me from my chosen spot.
Elliot said nothing, starting the engine and cranking the heat before he helped the five Fenerec load the snowmobiles. I huffed my satisfaction when he made them all ride in the back, even Deidre.
Chapter Twelve
Elliot drove his truck to the nearest airport, pulled into the employee parking lot, and waited. In the three hours it took to reach the place, I’d thawed and the heaters had warmed my fur. I’d dozed for most of the trip, waking whenever someone called Elliot only to drift back to sleep.
I yawned, wormed my way out from beneath the dashboard, and lifted my head to stare out the window. The airport was dark except for a single runway.
It didn’t take long for someone to come and give Elliot directions.
Instead of waiting in line or dealing with security or customs, he took the truck directly onto the tarmac, parking beside a plane in the process of being deiced and prepared for takeoff.
“Let’s find out where Richard’ll be flying us this lovely stormy evening, shall we?”
I groaned and crawled onto the seat. The leather tempted me; I wanted to curl up and go to sleep, but Elliot reached over and dug his fingers into my fur, giving a tug.
“You can’t go back to sleep. Wait until we board the plane. I’d rather not find out if I can carry you, and I don’t think Richard would appreciate it if I distracted him from his pre-flight work.”
Showing my teeth and glaring didn’t seem to frighten him in the slightest.
“Your puppies have already boarded and are waiting for you.”
I plowed past Elliot and leaped into the snow. The ice hidden beneath the snow hampered my landing, and I rolled head over tail before coming to a halt in a snowbank.
“You’re something else.” Elliot turned to the men and woman piling out of the back of his truck. “Keys are in the ignition. Pass word to the cleanup team they’re welcome to use the truck if they want, just make sure it gets back to Atlanta when they’re done with it.”
“Need help with your bitch, sir?” one of the males asked.
“Go home and get some sleep. If I can’t get her boarded, I’ll have Richard come get her. Last thing I need is him smelling you on her when he’s riled up from worrying about the puppies.”
I staggered upright, shook my head, and wobbled towards the boarding ramp, eyeing the stairs leading to the plane’s cabin.
Richard, wearing a dress shirt with half the buttons undone and a pair of jeans, stuck his head out of the doorway. “You’re walking like you’re drunk.” Shaking his head, he emerged from the plane barefooted, trotted down the stairs, and hauled me over his shoulder.
It was too much work to fight him, and I sighed at the indignation of being carried.
“Come on, Elliot. Time’s wasting, and if I make those fire witches keep clearing the strip for much longer, they’re going to skin me. We’re ready to fly as soon as you’re buckled in.”
“How are the puppies?”
Richard hauled me up the steps, and Elliot followed at his heels. “Drugged and stable. I’ve got a pair of witches with them. Vicky’s their blood type, so we’re set if they need to do a transfusion on route. I’ve already made arrangements for transfusions when we land. I picked those witches because they’re field surgeons, so the puppies couldn’t be in better hands. The docs don’t think they’ll have to start transfusions in the air, but I’d rather not waste time.”
Relief washed over me, so intense I went limp.
Richard set me on one of the seats closest to the cockpit, leaned over, and rested his forehead against mine. “I need you to sit up here with Elliot and let the doctors do their job. I’m flying without a co-pilot, and I can’t use autopilot in this weather.”
“She’s still drugged with wolfsbane.”
“Any idea on dosage?”
“Tests aren’t back from the ampules they found on the man she killed. No identification on him yet, either. She was out for almost the entire drive here, though.”
“Aggression?”
“Minimal. I think she wanted to rip my head off for a while there, but I was testing the wolfsbane and she really did not like it.”
“Hopefully she’s not like me,” Richard grumbled.
“I’ve never met another Fenerec as susceptible to wolfsbane as you. She’s under orders to only obey me, so there shouldn’t be a problem with anyone manipulating her until it wears off.”
Richard sighed, nodded, and headed for the cockpit. “Keep an eye on her. If she starts giving you any problems, let the docs know. They’re fully equipped back there. If you can, see if you can force her to shift, but don’t hold your breath. If she’s human, it’d be a lot safer to let her in the back to see her puppies.”
“All right.”
“Wait until I’ve reached elevation, then give it a shot. There are clothes that should fit her on the seat behind you. If anything goes wrong with her shift, the docs can help. Otherwise, keep her seated with you. If it makes her happy, let her on your lap for all I care, just keep her away from the doctors until she’s capable of talking to you in English—in complete sentences consisting of more than two or three words.”
“Where are we headed?” Elliot sat beside me and shoved the armrest up and out of the way so he could wrap his arm around my neck.
“Yellowknife. I’ve got everything we need at the house to care for them, and there’s no way I’m trusting anyone else with them. My brother’s getting the house ready. Amber’s going to meet us at the airport. I took the liberty of arranging prescriptions for Vicky’s allergies, too.”
Elliot nodded. “Good. I’ll take care of Vicky. You get us to Yellowknife in one piece.”
I flattened my ears, stretched out across Elliot’s lap, and settled in to wait with a sigh.
I’d been dosed with enough wolfsbane I couldn’t shift, not that I had much control over my transformations to begin with. The scent of silver-tainted blood agitated long, low growls out of me. Elliot stroked my fur and restrained me in the front of the cabin, reinforcing his commands each time I lifted my head in hope of seeing my puppies.
“I thought driving the Beast with a cranky bitch next to me was risky, but this is taking it to a whole new level. At least in the Beast, I’d probably survive an accident.” Elliot leaned towards the window and glanced down. “If the crash doesn’t kill us, the weather will. I’m amazed Richard found a place to refuel that isn’t being hammered by blizzards. The entire east coast is paralyzed. Actually, I’m impressed Richard got the bird off the ground. Maybe I should force him to do a psych evaluation. He really might be crazy to even consider flying in this mess.”
The intercom clicked. “You realize the door to the cockpit is open and I can hear you, right? Relax, Anderson. We’re refueling in Nebraska, and the weather’s clear there—abnormally so for this time of year. We’ll be touching down within the next thirty minutes. You’ll have about an hour on the ground. The puppies need to be woken and fed. While we’re refueling, I’ll try to get Vicky shifted back to human. If not, I’ll supervise her with the puppies for a few minutes so she’s not quite as restless during the second leg.”
“If you think a few minutes is going to satisfy her, Richard, you really are insane.”
“You’re such a sweet talker. Your bitch is going to get jealous if you keep flirting with me.”
Elliot groaned. “Don’t start, Richard. Just land the damned plane without crashing it.”
“Have a little faith, eh? I told you once, I’m telling you again—I land my planes exactly where I mean to land them.”
Muttering curses, Elliot shifted in his seat. Apprehension soured his scent, and I stretched out to bump his hand with my nose. While many of my memories were fragmented, I remembered a
plane crash. Richard had been flying when the engines had cut out.
I, along with Dante’s mate and Richard, had thought Dante would die. To force Evelyn away from the crash site, Richard had brought us both into his pack. The events after were lost in a frustrating, confusing blur.
Maybe I wasn’t sure if I wanted Elliot in my life, but I didn’t want to lose him. If what we feared was true—if Marcus had been behind the slaughter of the North Fork pack—he wouldn’t be satisfied with trying to murder my puppies.
He’d try to take Elliot away from me, too.
Fear surged through me, but on its heels, a different emotion brewed, and it burned within my blood. I was tired of being afraid.
I was tired of feeling helpless.
I was tired of waiting and wondering what would happen to those I cared about. Time would remain cruel, and the passage of years would steal from me as they always did. I couldn’t change that.
However, I could change one thing.
If hiding couldn’t protect those I cherished, I’d stop hiding. I’d show my teeth, seize those who would dare threaten what—who—was mine by the throat, and I’d destroy them.
Hiding my puppies, sheltering them from who and what I was, hadn’t been enough, wasn’t enough, and would never be enough. Silver poisoned them both because I, as always, had retreated at the first sign of trouble. Instead of fighting tooth and claw for them, I’d bowed my head and surrendered to Markus, unwilling to risk the illusion of security surrounding my puppies.
I had almost cost them their lives.
The possibility Markus had been betrayed and followed existed, but I doubted it. The signs he was a Basin operative had been there all along. I lifted my head from Elliot’s lap, pricking my ears forward.
A few details trickled through my shattered memories. Despite the custody battle, despite our disagreements, Markus had trusted me with all of his financials. Could the answers be in his paperwork?
The Inquisition had records of how much Markus had been paid. The Inquisition had access to many black-market bounties through Dante. Dante’s people would know which bounties had been collected and by whom.
If Markus had been working with Basin and the Inquisition at the same time, I had one trail he couldn’t hide, not from me.
I had access to his bank statements, his payment records, and most importantly, the issuers of his payments. I licked my muzzle.
“Vicky?” Elliot tugged at my fur.
Turning to him, I considered his worried expression, the anxiety in his scent, and the tension in his body. While I was far too large to comfortably sit on someone’s lap, I lurched to my paws, standing with my front paws on his leg.
Before he could stop me, I invaded, crawled onto his lap, and draped my front paws over the back of his seat. Elliot grunted and wrapped his arms around me.
A curtain blocked my view and separated me from my puppies. I huffed my annoyance and settled in to wait, resting my head on the back of the seat and staring out the window into the darkness.
Elliot fidgeted so much during the plane’s descent I lifted my head, eyed his throat, and nipped him hard enough he yelped before slumping beneath me. I licked him to soothe my bite and confirm I hadn’t pierced through his thin human skin.
Detecting no evidence of blood, I rubbed my nose against him before returning my attention to the window. True to Richard’s word, the weather was clear and distant lights marked the presence of a nearby city.
The plane bounced once at touchdown and rolled to a gentle halt. Elliot twitched and grumbled a curse, squirming beneath me as the effects of my bite wore off. I gave his throat a few more rubs with my nose before taking hold of his ear in my teeth and giving a gentle tug.
“What did I do?”
I flicked an ear at him, turning my attention back to the airport. Unlike where we’d taken off, the airport was fully functional, and several other planes were taxiing down the tarmac towards the terminal. Within five minutes, we came to a halt. Richard emerged from the cockpit.
“What was that yelping?”
Elliot muttered another curse. “She bit me.”
“You probably deserved it. How long as she been on your lap?”
“She decided to use me as a chair right after we spoke.”
“Think you can walk?”
I bared my fangs at Richard and flattened my ears.
“I’m tingling.”
“You’ll be fine in a few minutes. You all right? I don’t smell any of your blood.”
“No. It just hurt like hell.”
Richard chuckled, ignored my display of aggression, and rubbed me between my ears. “Get used to it. I’ll give you one piece of advice. Learn to bite back. Of course, a mouthful of fur is unpleasant when you aren’t a wolf, but it’s a small price to pay.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
“See that you do. Some of the Inquisitors within the FBI are waiting inside. Go stretch your legs, get your phone calls out of the way, and do whatever it is you have to do. I’ll take care of the wolves.”
“Feed her, see if you can get her shifted, and if not, I’ll take her in to see the puppies on a leash,” Elliot said.
“You’re not going to let her out of your sight, are you?”
“Not a chance in hell, Richard. They drugged her.”
The acrid bite of Elliot’s anger triggered a sneezing fit, and shaking my head, I hopped off his lap and shook myself.
“All right. I’ll try to make her shift. If that doesn’t work, you get to help supervise her with the puppies while I feed them.”
“If it does?”
“If she starts to shift, there’s a blanket in the back. Grab it. It’s soft enough it won’t make her too uncomfortable. Even if she can shift, the wolfsbane will make it harder. She’ll be raw, and it’s entirely possible our departure will be delayed while we help her through it.”
“We?”
“Only way you’re going to learn how to help a Fenerec through a shift is to start stretching your witchy legs and dive right in.”
“Why am I suddenly hoping she stays a wolf?”
“Because you’re smart, she’s soft and fluffy for a Fenerec, and she’s willing to cuddle with you right now?”
“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”
“Immensely.” Richard crouched in front of me, took hold of my scruff, and pulled me to him. “All right, Vicky. Let’s see if I can’t get you shifted so you can help take care of your puppies.”
For a long moment, nothing happened, and I worried I wouldn’t be able to transform from wolf to woman. A faint tugging sensation in my head gave me a split-second warning before the pain of shifting slammed into me and robbed me of breath.
Shifting was never pleasant, but decades of experience had numbed me to the inevitability of it. It took time, but after the initial burst of agony, transforming usually settled to something miserable but tolerable.
I’d never hurt so much in my life, not even when Richard had helped me shift from squirrel to woman.
When the pain subsided enough for me to be aware of my surroundings, Elliot was growling at Richard while wrapping me in a blanket.
“I’m okay,” I whispered, and the harshness of my voice betrayed my lie.
“Bullshit.” Elliot inhaled and held his breath long enough I started to worry before he exhaled. “Richard?”
“Vicky, I’m going to take Elliot off the plane for a few minutes. I’ll carry you to the back so you can be with your puppies. When I come back, we’ll get them fed and prepare for takeoff.”
“I can—”
“No, Vicky. I’m sure you’d prefer to walk, but let’s not test our luck.” Richard glared at me until I lowered my gaze. “Elliot needs a breather, and you need time to sit with your puppies. The witches will keep watch while we’re gone. I’ll make sure nothing happens to him. Okay?”
I hated it, my wolf hated it, but the chance to see my puppies ensured my cooperation,
no matter how much I resented Richard for taking Elliot away from me. I nodded, and the motion hurt enough I sucked in a breath.
Growling again, Elliot tightened his hold on me. “Pass.”
“Elliot, she’ll be fine.”
“The last time I let her out of my sight, someone shot her.”
“There are armed guards at the bottom of the ramp. There are two armed and dangerous witches with the puppies. She’ll be safe. You saw exactly what she was willing to do to protect her puppies. I have no sympathy for anyone stupid enough to cross her right now. Within twenty minutes you’ll be back on board.” Richard sighed. “You two are going to drive me frothing mad.”
“Rabid Richard,” I muttered.
Richard glared at me before turning his attention back to Elliot. “Are you going to let me take her?”
While Elliot cursed, he eased his hold on me and allowed Richard to work his arms beneath me and lift me up. I protested being carried in soft mutters, but a growl from my Alpha silenced me.
Some battles weren’t worth fighting, and he was taking me where I wanted to go, even if I would’ve preferred doing so under my own power.
Elliot pushed aside the curtain, and my eyes confirmed what my nose had promised. A nest of blankets and pillows surrounded my puppies and kept them warm. White bandages marked where they’d been shot, and while I could smell the silver tainting their blood, I saw no sign of it anywhere.
They curled together in a tight, fluffy ball.
An eager whine built in my throat, but before I could struggle, Richard knelt and lowered me close enough to my puppies I could feel the heat radiating from them. “Easy, Vicky. Be gentle with them.”
Movement in my peripheral vision turned my whine to a snarl, and I whipped my head around. Two women leaned against metal cabinets, watching me with narrowed eyes.
“Leave the witches alone, Vicky,” Elliot ordered.