Chapter Four
The wind whipped violently across the Pacific Ocean, as Ace did his best to hold the helicopter steady. Ben, serving as copilot, glanced tensely over at Ace.
“It’s getting pretty dicey out here,” Ben said into the microphone of his headset.
Ace nodded, but didn’t flinch for a moment. “I know. But there’s still a survivor stranded down there. Brett’s almost got him back to the rescue basket. Just relax. We’ve dealt with winds just as bad as this before. I know we can handle it.”
Ace kept his eyes on the bird’s instruments. He didn’t honestly know whether they could handle the winds. With a storm this violent, he was chancing it. But he knew Brett, and he knew Brett wouldn’t get back in the helicopter while there was still a survivor needing to be rescued. And Ace sure as hell wasn’t leaving without Brett. Even though he and Brett frequently butted heads over things, they were like brothers. Ace would die himself before he left his fellow alpha panda behind.
Ace had become somewhat desensitized to death, anyway. He had seen so much of it already in his lifetime. He had lost his entire clan in the Great Epidemic years before, which had wiped out all but four of the panda shifters. Ace, Ben, Lance, and Brett had managed to survive, since their alpha gene made them exceptionally resilient to disease. But surviving had been something of a consolation prize, leaving them lonely and mourning. Each of them had been the only panda shifter from their clan to make it.
The helicopter lurched sideways, and Ace once again did his best to steady it.
“Lance, how’s Brett looking?” Ace asked into his headset. Lance served as the crew’s flight technician, which made him responsible for lowering Brett in and out of the water, and for assisting with pulling up survivors in the rescue basket.
“He just got the survivor into the basket. Five minutes or less and we’ll be ready to get out of here.”
“Make it three minutes,” Ace replied. “We’re playing Russian roulette with our lives right now by being out here.”
“Roger that,” Lance said.
Ben glanced over at Ace again and rolled his eyes. “You said just two minutes ago that we could handle it.”
Ace laughed, despite the tense situation. “You should know by now that I’m full of shit.”
Ben rolled his eyes again, but couldn’t stop himself from cracking a smile. The helicopter lurched again, and Ace sighed.
“Hurry up, Brett,” Ace whispered under his breath. Then, to his surprise, Jade’s face flashed across his mind. Shit, was he getting sentimental about this girl already? She had refused a date with him, and yet his mind still went straight to her when he found himself in a life or death situation. Ace furrowed his brow. He knew his bear wanted her. But he hadn’t realized until just that moment how strong the desire had become. Was it possible that Jade was his fated lifemate?
The helicopter lurched again, and started to spin. Ace would have to digest these thoughts later. If he didn’t get this bird out of here soon, he and the crew would all be dead, and it would be a moot point who his lifemate was.
“Lance?” Ace asked. “Where’s our boy? We have to get out of here, now.”
“I’m dropping the hoist cable now,” Lance said.
“As soon as he’s clipped in, let me know,” Ace said. “We don’t have the time to wait for him to be pulled up.”
“Really?” Lance asked, sounding taken aback.
“Yes, really! Your three minutes are up. We gotta go.”
“Alright,” Lance said. A few moments later, he spoke again. “He’s clipped. Let’s go!”
Ben shook his head. “Brett’s about to have some fun,” he said.
Ace shrugged. “Better a wild ride home than a dead ride home. Let’s go.”
He turned the helicopter back in the direction of the air station. Below them, Brett swung wildly as the hoist cable that connected him to the aircraft was tossed around by the wind and the motion of the helicopter. Lance was trying to pull him in as they sped away, but the task was unusually difficult given the excessive movement. Ace and Ben concentrated on flying the helicopter while Lance did his best to pull Brett up. After a few tense minutes, Lance’s triumphant voice came through their headsets loud and clear.
“I got him!” he said. “Brett is safely on board.”
“Yes!”Ben shouted, followed quickly by a loud “Damn it!” as the helicopter lurched again.
“Woo!” Ace shouted. “Nothing like a near death experience to make you feel alive.”
“You’re crazy,” Brett said through the headset he had just put on.
“Guilty as charged,” Ace said with a grin. “Guilty as charged. Now let’s get this bird home.”
* * *
An hour later, Ace was sitting in the dining area of the air station, wolfing down a plate of food. He’d been so busy that he hadn’t had time to eat all day, and it was nearly eleven p.m. A loud bang on the table drew his attention, and he looked up to see a tray of food that Brett had just slammed down in feigned anger.
“Thanks for almost killing me, jerk,” Brett said. “Although I must say, riding around on a wildly swinging hoist cable beats the heck out of any amusement park ride I’ve ever been on.
Ace grinned. “I think you meant to say ‘thank you so much for saving my life, Ace.’”
Brett chuckled and sat down. “In all seriousness, nice work. That was probably our most intense rescue yet.”
Lance and Ben approached the table, also carrying plates of food, and sat down with the other two.
“Hey now,” Lance said. “Ace may have been the one to make sure the helicopter didn’t crash, but don’t forget about the guy who pulled you back up into a moving helicopter in the middle of the storm.”
“Well, there would have been no helicopter to pull him into if not for my expert flying,” Ace said.
“Sure, it was all you,” Ben said, crossing his arms. “Your copilot was no help at all.”
Brett laughed. “Okay, okay, you guys. Thank you to everyone for saving my ass out there. But don’t forget that I’m the one who has to go into the freezing cold water on our rescue missions while you sit up there in that cushy helicopter.”
“Freezing cold water?” Ace asked, punching Brett in the arm. “Come on, man, this isn’t Alaska. It’s San Diego. Don’t act like you’re going for a swim with the penguins or something.”
The group laughed, but Lance’s face turned serious. “Speaking of Alaska…I have some interesting news. Do you guys remember that black bear shifter I met when I went to Northern California on vacation a few months ago?”
“Ian? The alpha that heads up a clan of smokejumpers?” Ace asked.
“Yeah, Ian. That’s the one. Well, his clan had a polar bear shifter join their clan last year. She’s from Alaska, and she moved away because she got caught on the bad side of some clan wars up there or something. Anyway, she went back to Alaska to visit for a few months, and met up with a friend from her old clan. The friend told her that rumors have been flying in Alaska that there’s a group of scientists up there hiding out and testing out viruses specifically aimed at bear shifters.”
Ace felt his blood go cold. “Do you think it’s the same guys behind the Great Epidemic that killed all the panda shifters?”
Lance shrugged. “No way to know for sure. But Ian said the bear shifters up in Alaska have been trying to track them down and have had a hard time of it. Whoever these scientists are, they’re going to great lengths to protect themselves.”
Ben slammed his fist into the table. “I’ll be damned if I let those bastards get away with murdering more shifters.”
“I agree,” Brett said. “But what can we do to stop them? San Diego is a long ways away from Alaska.”
“I think we need to develop a working relationship with the clan in Alaska that’s been watching the situation. They have boots on the ground up there, so to speak. If we can be in contact with them on a regular basis, they can feed us informati
on on what’s going on,” Lance said.
“That makes sense,” Brett said. “But how are we going to develop a working relationship with them?”
“We should send someone up there to talk to them. I think having one of us go in person shows how serious we are about wanting to keep an eye on things,” Lance said.
“I agree,” Ben said. “Lance, can you get in touch with Ian and see if he can connect you with the clan up there?”
“Sure thing,” Lance said. “I’ll talk to him and get back to you guys as soon as I can.”
Ace had just finished shoveling the last bite of food from his tray into his mouth, when the alarm went off. The crew was being called out on another rescue. Not surprising, since nights plagued by big storms always meant multiple rescue attempts.
“Let’s go boys,” Ace said. “Time for some more fun.”
Ace glanced at the clock on the wall, which read eleven forty-five p.m. One more day of work, and then he had two days off. And he was already making plans for how he would use those days to convince Jade to spend some time with him.
Chapter Five
Thirty-six hours later, Ace had finished his Coast Guard shift, and managed to sneak in a long stretch of sleep. The shift had been an exhausting one, and Ace had collapsed into bed when he got home. But, after a chance to get some shuteye, and a huge breakfast of bacon and eggs, Ace was feeling rejuvenated. He sat at his kitchen table, sipping on a huge mug of black coffee, and toying with his cell phone.
The number for the rescue center was still listed in his recent outgoing calls. He stared at the digits on the screen for a few long moments, and then hit call.
A woman answered the phone. “San Diego Marine Mammal Rescue Center. This is Mary. How can I help you?”
Ace recognized the voice as belonging to the old lady who worked at the front desk. “Oh, hi there. May I speak to Jade, please?”
There was short pause, and then Mary spoke again. “Give me just a minute and let me check whether she’s here right now. Can I tell her who’s calling?”
Ace grinned to himself. “Sure,” he said. “Tell her it’s Ventura.”
“Uh, okay,” Mary said. “I’ll be right back.”
Ace chuckled as he imagined Mary going up to Jade and telling her some lunatic on the phone was asking for her and saying he had the same name as the whale that had been rescued. About a minute later Jade came on the line.
“Well, hello there, Ventura,” she said with a laugh. “I thought you hated being called that.”
“I do,” Ace said. “But I wanted to get your attention.”
“Well, you have my attention. What’s up?”
“I wanted to know whether you’d wizened up yet and decided to accept my invitation to dinner.”
Jade paused for a moment, and then laughed. “Really, Ace? You think if you just keep asking that I’ll eventually say yes? It doesn’t work that way.”
Ace leaned back in his chair and took a long drag from his coffee mug. “Why not?” he asked. He tried to sound blasé about the situation, but he cared more about the answer than he wanted to admit, even to himself. He wanted to know why, exactly, Jade was refusing to date him. He had never been so quickly brushed off by a woman like this. It irritated him—and it only made him want her more. No one said no to him. He was an alpha, a bear, a legendary panda. She didn’t know what she was refusing.
“You’re just not my type,” Jade’s voice came over the line.
Ace sighed. “That’s not a real answer,” he said.
“Why not?” Jade asked. “It’s the truth.”
“Is it? What is your type, exactly?”
“Not you.”
Ace sighed. “Fine. Can we go to dinner just as friends, then?”
“Nope.”
“Why? Am I not your ‘friend’ type, either?”
Jade laughed. “Come on, Ace. Pretending it’s going to be just hanging out as friends when it’s obvious you want more? That’s the oldest trick in the book.”
“Just tell me why I’m not your type, then. At least let me know why you’re rejecting me so I can work on fixing it.”
“I doubt it’s something you can fix. It was nice talking to you, Ace.”
“Jade, come on—”
The line went dead.
Ace tossed his phone on the table and crossed his arms. What was he supposed to do now? Come up with some romantic gesture to prove that he was worth her time? Ace had never been interested in playing the romance game. He always took good care of a woman he was in a relationship with, but he preferred the direct approach. If he loved a woman, he told her so. If he wanted to date a woman, he told her so. And that life philosophy had worked well for him up to this point. But Jade was going to require some convincing.
If she would just spend a little time with him, damn it, then he felt sure she would come around. But she wouldn’t even agree to go to dinner as friends, so he wasn’t sure how he was going to manage to spend time with her. Ace stared at his coffee mug for a few moments, when, suddenly, it hit him. If he wanted to spend time with Jade, he just needed to go to where she spent the majority of her days.
Ace picked his phone back up and dialed the number for the rescue center again. When Mary answered, Ace made his voice sounds as friendly and upbeat as possible when he spoke.
“Hi, Mary. I was wondering what I would need to do to work as a volunteer at the rescue center.”
* * *
A week later, Jade sat in the charting room at the rescue center. She furrowed her brow as she reviewed records from the rescue center’s current patients, most of which were suffering from malnourishment. The number of seal pups currently in the rescue hospital had become overwhelming. The entire staff was working around the clock to get everything done, but they still needed more help. And rescue requests continued to come in daily for stranded seals. Jade needed more people with vehicles capable of transporting the animals, but none of the staff had trucks. They all drove tiny, eco-friendly cars. Their commitment to the environment was admirable, but it wasn’t doing the stranded seals any favors.
Jade rubbed her forehead as she closed the file of yet another seal pup. Jade had gone before the board of the rescue center last week to beg them for funding for a dedicated rescue vehicle, but the board had refused the request. The large number of seal pups needing to be rescued right now was a fluke occurrence, the board had pointed out. It didn’t make sense to make such a large purchase to deal with a situation that was temporary. Jade had tried to explain that the vehicle would continue to be useful long after the last of this year’s crop of seal pups had been rescued. But the board had remained impassive, telling Jade to get creative.
Jade frowned. Get creative? How? It’s not like she could manufacture a vehicle out of thin air. She had already contacted local animal shelters and law enforcement agencies to ask whether anyone had a vehicle they could borrow. No luck.
A knock on the charting room door startled Jade out of her musings. She sat up in her chair and glanced in the direction of the door. “Come in,” she called out. When the door opened, Mary poked her head into the room. Jade smiled and waved at Mary. The old woman was friendly and warm, and one of the kindest people Jade had ever met.
“Hello, dear. Sorry to bother you, but I have someone here I think you’ll be interested in talking to.”
“Don’t be silly, Mary. You’re never a bother. Who’s the person?”
“A man called last week and asked about volunteering with the rescue center. He attended the volunteer orientation and training last Tuesday night, and I talked to him for a bit during the break. He mentioned that he has a truck, and I know you’d been looking for one to help with the rescues. I asked him to come by today and talk to you or one of the other rescue coordinators.”
Jade perked up. “Mary, that’s awesome. He’s here now?”
Mary nodded. “He’s waiting out in the lobby. Should I tell him you’re coming?”
�
�Yes, please!” Jade said, already gathering up the charts she had been reviewing to return them to the shelf. “I’ll be out in just a minute.”
Mary disappeared, heading back for the front entrance. Jade quickly put away all of the paperwork she had pulled out, and practically ran down the hallway toward the front of the building. If this guy really had a truck they could use, it would take such a huge load off of her mind.
Jade threw open the door that led to the front lobby, then stopped in her tracks when she saw Ace sitting there.
“You?” she asked, crossing her arms and shaking her head in a mixture of embarrassment and amusement. If Ace had a truck that she could use, she was just going to have to get over the uncomfortable fact that she had rejected his requests for a date on more than one occasion. She needed his help.
“Yes, me,” Ace said. “I hear you need a truck for your rescue efforts. I have one, and offered to drive it as a volunteer for the rescue center. Or am I not your “type” of volunteer, either?”
Jade gave Ace a sheepish smile. “I’d say you’re exactly my type, when it comes to volunteers.”
“Good. Glad that’s settled. I generally have one to two days off from the Coast Guard every week. I’d be happy to come up here and help with animal rescues on those days. When do you want me to start?”
Before Jade could answer, the radio clipped to her hip buzzed, and a voice called over it. “Jade? We’ve got another potential stranded seal pup on Torrey Pines State Beach.”
Jade pulled the radio off her hip, then arched an eyebrow in Ace’s direction. “What about starting right now.”
Ace grinned. “I’ll go warm up the truck.”
Ten minutes later, Jade was sitting in the passenger seat next to Ace, explaining to him the procedures for rescuing the seal.
“We always try to return the animal to the ocean right away, if possible,” Jade said. “But if they need medical care, which has been the case with most of the seal pups lately, then we catch them with a net and put them in a plastic kennel for the ride back to the rescue center. They’ll be evaluated by one of the veterinarians there, who will come up with a treatment plan. If all goes well, the animal will recover and be released back into the wild. The babies usually have to stay with us for a significant stretch of time, though. They can’t survive alone in the wild without their mothers.”
An Alpha's Lightning (Water Bear Shifters 2) Page 3