“I’m not sure. We’ll get to that later. Right now we need to focus on taking care of the guy. He looks really sick, and it looks awfully similar to me to the virus that killed off the pandas in the Great Epidemic.”
Rhythm swung her head around in surprise at Brett’s words. This guy knew about bear shifters, and about the pandas being wiped out by a virus? She opened her mouth to say something, but closed it again promptly. She wasn’t even quite sure what she wanted to ask at the moment. Her head was swimming in confusion.
“Shit,” came the pilot’s voice again. “If it is a virus like that, this guy’s not gonna make it.”
“Shit is right,” Lance said, as he finished taking off Evan’s survival suit. “Guys, we have a problem. We can’t take this guy back to the air base.”
Brett’s eyes widened as Lance held up the giant grizzly paws that made up Evan’s feet. Then Brett turned to look at Rhythm, who merely shrugged. What else was she supposed to do? She had warned them he was different.
Lance rubbed his forehead, and then looked over at Brett and Rhythm. “What do you know about this guy?” Lance asked, directing the question at Rhythm. “We’ve got to find a way to get him home to his clan. If we take him back to the air base, we’re all in trouble.”
Rhythm paused and looked around. She wasn’t sure how much she should trust these guys, but she wasn’t sure how much of a choice she really had anymore. They seemed to somehow be aware of bear shifters. After all, they hadn’t reacted in total shock to the sight of Evan’s grizzly paw feet.
Brett grabbed her shoulder and gave her a gentle shake. “Come on, sweetheart. We don’t have a lot of time. Start talking.”
Rhythm took a deep breath, and then launched into her story.
Chapter Four
Ben glanced over at Ace, his eyes wide. Brett had just finished relaying to them Rhythm’s story, and the entire rescue crew was floored.
“We can’t take him back to the air station,” Ben said into his headset, watching Ace’s reaction carefully. “This whole situation is way too messy. And the guy wants to die in peace. If we show up with a human man whose feet are stuck as bear paws, he’s definitely not going to be able to die in peace. He’s going to die in the middle of a huge, fucking uproar. And after he’s had to deal with the scientists, he deserves to at least go out in the comfort of his own home.”
“Well, what the hell are we supposed to do?” Ace asked. “We can’t deviate too far from our flight path, or the Coast Guard is going to throw a fit. Besides, even if we wanted to deviate, we don’t have a lot of fuel. We can’t take any huge joyrides on the side.”
Ben sighed. “Brett?” he asked into his headset. “Does Rhythm have any idea where Evan’s clan lives? Or can Evan talk enough to tell you?”
“Hang on,” Brett’s voice chirped back. “I’ll ask him.
A long pause followed, and Ben eyed the helicopter’s instruments warily. Ace was right. They didn’t have enough fuel for very much of a detour. And, even if they did detour, they’d have to come up with a good excuse for it. They were a veteran rescue crew, and the guys back at the air station would probably give them some leniency if they said they needed to land for an emergency of some sort. But it would have to be a short stop, and it couldn’t be a great distance out of their way.
“Guys?” Brett’s voice came back on the headset, snapping Ben back to attention. “I think we might have a solution. Some of the grizzlies in Evan’s clan run tourist air tours out of Frost Peak. It’s a city not outrageously far from here. Evan thinks if we can get in contact with his clan, that they’ll send one of their pilots to pick him up. We can land at one of the many tiny airstrips outside of Kodiak, hand him off, and then be on our way. We’ll just tell the air station we had to land for some sort of minor maintenance issue. They won’t question us.”
“Okay,” Ace said. “Sounds like it’ll work. “But how do we get in contact with them?”
“Try to call Frost Peak Tours. It’s the name of their tour company.”
Ace looked over at Ben. “Can you try that? Is there signal out here?”
Ben leaned down to pull his mobile phone out of his gear bag, and then nodded. Normally using personal mobile phones on the rescue helicopter was strictly prohibited. But this was an emergency situation. Evan needed their help. Brett looked up the number for the tour company and called it. After the second ring, a deep, gruff voice answered the line.
“Frost Peak Tours, this is Sawyer.”
“Sawyer, listen. I’m Ben Harrington, and I’ve got a friend of yours on board a helicopter right now. His name’s Evan, and he’s pretty sick. He said if I called you up that one of your clan members might be able to come pick him up from an airstrip near Kodiak.” Ben paused to give Sawyer time to respond. Ben had purposely kept the details of the situation vague. If Ben had reached the right number, and Sawyer was a bear shifter, then what Ben had said would make sense to him. If Sawyer wasn’t a bear shifter, though, Ben hadn’t given anything away. Sawyer would probably just think Ben had the wrong number and was a little bit on the eccentric side. That was nothing unusual around these parts. After several beats, Sawyer finally responded.
“Holy shit. You guys found Evan? We thought he was dead for sure.”
“Well, to be brutally honest with you, he’s almost dead. But he wants to go home and be with his family. We’re on a Coast Guard helicopter and can’t divert too far without having to answer too many questions, so we were hoping someone might be able to come pick him up.”
“Yes, absolutely!” Sawyer said, his voice filling with emotion. “I’ll come get our boy myself. You just tell me where to meet you, and I’ll be there.”
Ben looked over at Ace and nodded in confirmation. Ace smiled.
“Tell him the Stone Valley airstrip,” Ace said. “It’s remote enough that no one else should be around to gawk at us, but close by enough that it’s barely even a deviation from our flight path.”
“Got it,” Ben said, and then turned his attention back to the call to give Sawyer the details. Sawyer said he would be there around the same time as the rescue crew, and Ben gave Ace a thumbs up. Ace got on the radio to the air station to let them know the crew would be taking a slight detour to deal with a maintenance issue. Ben breathed a sad sigh of relief. He wished that Evan’s story was going to have a happier ending, but at least the grizzly would have the chance to see his clan one more time.
“Lance, tell Evan to hang on a little longer,” Ben said into his headset. “He’s going home.”
Less than an hour later, Ace brought the helicopter to a smooth landing at the nearly deserted Stone Valley airstrip. The place was busier in the summertime, when the tourists were out in full force and wanted to take air tours to see the Alaskan wilderness. Today, the only other aircraft here was a Twin Otter, already parked in front of the empty hangar.
Ben jumped out of the helicopter as Ace killed the engine, then he rushed back to see if Lance and Brett needed help getting Evan out of the chopper. They were handling Evan just fine, though, so Ben turned to offer his hand to the woman who had been rescued along with Evan.
When he saw her, he froze in place. Despite the fact that her skin was pale and her hair a mess from her harrowing ordeal, she was, without a doubt, the most beautiful woman that Ben had ever seen. Her jet black hair was thick and shiny, and her eyes were the deepest shade of blue he had ever seen. Her eyelashes were thick, and even though she didn’t have any makeup on her face, her complexion was flawless. She looked down at him with a sort of shell-shocked expression, as though she were still trying to figure out what exactly was happening here. Ben felt his bear’s protective alpha instincts kicking in, and he wanted nothing more in that moment than to calm her down and reassure her that everything was going to be okay. He snapped out of his momentary daze, and took her hand as she jumped from the helicopter’s exit door to the hard concrete below. Her skin against his sent jolts of electricity shooting up and dow
n his arm, and he struggled to maintain his composure. He had never been the type to believe in love at first sight, but this woman was doing a damn good job of making him question that stance.
“I’m Ben,” he said, keeping his voice as even as possible. “The copilot.”
“I’m Rhythm,” she replied. Her eyes looked tired but alert as she took in the scenery around them. “Wow, this airstrip is in the middle of nowhere.”
Ben nodded. “Yeah, it’s better that way. People don’t always take kindly to bear shifters, as I’m sure you’ve realized by now.”
Rhythm’s eyes darkened. “Unfortunately, the last twenty-four hours have been quite enlightening. Yesterday at this time I didn’t even know shifters existed. Now, I’m caught up in the middle of trying to send a dying shifter home.”
Ben reached over and squeezed her shoulder, which sent a fresh wave of electricity through his body. “You did a really brave thing,” Ben said. “Not a lot of people would have risked their lives for Evan like you did. People, at best, tend to tolerate shifters. It’s rare to find the kind of person who would put herself in danger to save one.
Rhythm shrugged. “You’re helping to save him, too.”
“True,” Ben said. “But I’m a shifter myself, so my interest is a little more vested.”
Rhythm snapped her gaze up to meet Ben’s. “Wait, what? You’re a shifter, too?” she asked. Her eyes darted between Ben and Evan in confusion.
Ben frowned. “Um, yes. I thought Brett and Lance would have explained that to you.”
Rhythm shook her head. “No. They didn’t say anything about it. I was wondering how they knew about shifters. It makes sense now, though. They know you, and you’re a shifter, so they were already aware.”
Ben furrowed his brow. “Rhythm, we’re all bear shifters. The whole crew.”
Rhythm blinked a few times, slowly. “All four of you?” she asked, her voice incredulous.
“Yes, all four of us. I’m sorry. It never occurred to me that Lance and Brett hadn’t told you.”
Rhythm shook her head. “We didn’t talk much, other than my telling them the story of how I met and rescued Evan. They were too busy trying to keep him alive.”
Ben glanced over to where Evan was laid out on the ground, wrapped in blankets. Evan’s face was pale. He looked similar to how the members of Ben’s clan had looked right before they died from the virus the scientists had sent raging through the pandas’ ranks. Ben had to look away as he felt his heart tightening with an old, familiar sadness.
“Are you okay?” Rhythm asked, placing her hand gently on his upper arm. “Don’t worry. I’m not going to tell anyone that you’re all shifters.”
Ben felt a soothing calm flooding his body, starting from the spot where Rhythm’s hand was touching him, and seeping through every last inch of his veins. This woman was having some sort of spiritual effect on him or something. He breathed in and out deeply for a moment, soaking in the peace that her touch was giving him.
“I’m okay,” Ben said. “Just worried about Evan. He looks like he doesn’t have much longer to go.”
Rhythm glanced sadly over at Evan. “Yeah. I know. Although I’ve been thinking the same thing for almost twenty-four hours, and, yet, he’s still here with us somehow. He’s tough.”
“Shifter strength,” Ben murmured with affection. “He’s holding on so he can die with his clan.”
The pair watched as Lance checked on Evan’s blankets, making sure that the weak shifter was as comfortable as possible.
Rhythm cocked her head sideways and looked at Ben. “Wait, so, if you’re a shifter, does that mean that you have a clan?” she asked.
Ben closed his eyes for a moment against the pain that her innocent question sent flooding through his system. “No,” he said. “I don’t. I’ll explain later. Actually, we’ll have a lot to talk about later. But right now we should help hand off Evan. It looks like his clan member, Sawyer, is coming out to meet us.”
Rhythm turned her eyes to follow where Ben’s gaze was directed. A man with dark brown hair and piercing dark brown eyes was approaching the group. Ben whistled as he looked at him. The man was a giant, standing head and shoulders above Ace and Lance—which was saying something, since Ace and Lance were both six and half feet tall themselves.
“Damn,” Ben said. “An Alaskan Grizzly. No wonder they’re considered so legendary.”
“I’m Sawyer,” the man said as he approached the group. He nodded in greeting to each of the crew, and then quickly knelt down next to Evan. Tears filled Sawyer’s eyes as he realized that his friend was already on death’s door. Ben and the others turned away to give the heartbroken grizzly a moment of privacy.
After a few sniffles, though, Sawyer stood to his full height and became all business. “Let’s get him loaded into my Twin Otter,” Sawyer said. “I want to get going as soon as possible, so I have a better chance of getting him home to see his family one last time before he passes away.”
The Coast Guard Crew silently moved to help carry the dying man to the airplane that would shuttle him home. Ben wasn’t needed, since there were already four strong men carrying Evan, but he followed along behind them with Rhythm walking in step next to them. After Evan was loaded into the plane, Sawyer turned briefly to address the crew.
“I can’t thank you enough for doing this for Evan,” he said. “I only wish we had reached him sooner. But at least, thanks to you, he can have an honorable death and burial.”
“Don’t thank us,” Ace said. “Thank Rhythm. She risked her life to get him out of the scientists’ labs.”
Ben’s heart warmed with an unfamiliar emotion as he heard Rhythm being praised. What was wrong with him? He had just met this woman, and under less than ideal circumstances. Why was every look at her, every mention of her name, making his heart beat faster?
Rhythm looked meekly down at the ground, but Sawyer wasn’t having any of that.
“Look at me Rhythm,” Sawyer commanded.
Rhythm did as she was told, although her expression was somewhat reluctant.
“My clan is forever indebted to you for what you’ve done for Evan. If you ever need anything—anything at all—don’t hesitate to call. You did a very honorable thing by rescuing our bear.”
Rhythm nodded solemnly, and Ben couldn’t stop himself from reaching out to squeeze her shoulder. She was acting so humble, but she had truly acted with incredible bravery. Rhythm glanced over at him and gave him a weak smile, sending his heart careening into a series of wild somersaults again. From the corner of his eye, he caught Brett raising an eyebrow at him, but he chose to ignore it. He had to get his own feelings for Rhythm sorted out before he dealt with one of Brett’s nosy inquisitions. Besides, this emotion he was feeling right now was probably just due to the highly charged situation. Once they were back at the air station and everything had calmed down, his heart rate would probably slow back to normal again, too. He had more important things to worry about right now than a woman.
More important things than that beautiful woman? Ben felt his bear asking, challenging him. Ben pushed the thought away. Before he worried about any woman, he needed to help get this scientist problem under control. Evan wasn’t the only one who had suffered such a sad fate at the hands of the scientists. In fact, Evan was one of the luckier ones. At least he was getting the chance to go home.
Sawyer had started speaking again, and Ben forced himself to pay attention.
“I’d like to stay in touch with all of you, if possible. This scourge on our existence has gone on long enough, and these men need to be stopped before more innocent shifters die,” Sawyer said.
Ben nodded. “I couldn’t agree more. We’ve been working on this for quite some time, actually, and we could use all the help we can get. In fact, I’m trying to put together a network of bear shifters right now, so that we have eyes and ears everywhere. And the more men we have ready to fight, the better. I have a feeling these bastards aren’t going
to go quietly.
Sawyer looked around the group with a grave face. “Call me at the air tour office when you get back home,” he said. “It’s the best number to reach me. My clan will be standing by to assist in whatever way we can.”
The panda shifters all nodded, and Sawyer looked wearily toward his plane. “Alright, I’m going to get Evan home. We’ll talk soon.”
“Wait,” Rhythm said. “Let me say goodbye to Evan. I’ll be quick.”
Sawyer nodded. “Of course, young lady. Go ahead.”
Rhythm hopped into the Twin Otter, making her way to say goodbye to her new friend for the last time. Ben watched sorrowfully, thinking of all of the senseless, unnecessary deaths the scientists had caused. A minute later, Rhythm came wordlessly back to stand with the group, her eyes wet with tears. Ben’s heart ached for her, and, suddenly, he didn’t care who saw him or what his fellow crew members thought. He reached over and put his arm around Rhythm’s shoulders, holding her close and offering her comfort the best he could.
Sawyer nodded at the group again, and then turned to climb into his airplane.
“Wait,” Ace called after him suddenly, and Sawyer paused in the doorway to the plane to look back. “I didn’t catch what clan you said you were from?”
“I didn’t,” Sawyer said, and then his voice took on a note of deep pride. “But I serve as alpha of the Frost Peak Grizzlies clan. My bears are all at your service. Just say the word, and we will be there to fight with you.”
With that Sawyer gave the group a small salute, and then shut the plane door. Ben and the others watched him taxi out to the runway and then take off, his engine roaring as the plane accelerated past them. For several minutes they all watched the plane as it grew to be a smaller and smaller speck in the cloudy sky. As they watched, rain started falling again. Another storm was rolling through.
“Come on, guys,” Ace finally said, wiping the rainwater off of his face with his sleeve. “Let’s get going. We have a lot of work to do.”
An Alpha's Tempest (Water Bear Shifters 4) Page 4