by Bianca James
“Are you doing what I think you’re doing?” Jarrad said with as much disbelief as admiration in his voice.
“Yee-Haa!” laughed Spider over the cacophony of the thrashing blades and whining engines. “Ready to turn this baby into a giant buzz saw?”
Clutching his harness, Jarrad’s eyes widened with a mixture of exhilaration and sheer terror as Spider dropped a little closer to the trees and pushed forward on the cyclic stick to tilt the struggling chopper into a nose down attitude. Within seconds the tips of the spinning rotors were gnawing at the treetops as the chopper spun on its axis, creating a large makeshift helipad on the side of the mountain.
“They didn’t teach you that in the Navy, I’m guessing?” Jarrad quizzed, undoing his harness as the helicopter settled its skids on the uneven ground.
“My Granddad flew Huey’s in Vietnam during the seventies. He told me a few tall tales, including how they used to do that. Guess it was one of the true stories, then.” He winked at Jarrad.
“You mean you didn’t know if that was going to work?” Jarrad’s jaw dropped.
“But it did, though, didn’t it.”
As far as Spider was concerned, that’s all that mattered. He was all about the mission.
“Now, I’ve done my amazing pilot stuff, you go do your High Mountain Rescue thing and bring us back another successful ‘save’.”
With that, Jarrad nodded firmly, grabbed his pack and tumbled out of the chopper’s cargo door. Jarrad was one big unit. Even next to the imposing bulk of the Sikorsky, his size was still impressive and one of the main factors that caused the aircraft to struggle to maintain altitude. But Spider didn’t want Jarrad to know that. It wasn’t his fault he was built like a Russian tank.
Stooping as low as he could to avoid the still rotating blades, Spider kept the engine idling ready for a fast take off, Jarrad threw his pack and climbing gear over his shoulder and made his way to the nearby cliff face. Until now, he’d been nothing more than a passenger. Excess baggage, as he saw it. Now, it was time to go to work.
It was times like these that Jarrad wished he could just shift into his bear form and jump out of the chopper midflight and land where he was needed. His body could handle it and even if he got hurt, his miraculous shifter healing abilities would have him repaired and ready for action in minutes. But that wasn’t how it was done. Too much risk of people finding out about his bear and if that happened, the other shifters would be at risk, too. Big Bear Mountain was a safe sanctuary for his kind and they had a pact to keep it that way, too.
Besides, Elle had cubs on the way, so now he had a family to think about. A family. Just that thought alone would have weighed heavily on him six months ago. Now, it warmed his heart, uplifted him and gave him joy and a sense of purpose that had been sorely missing from his life. For the first time, he had responsibilities and someone other than himself to think about, worry about and share his life with. Both his own life and that of his bear. Elle accepted and loved them both. Jarrad was her lover and friend and father-to-be of the cubs and his bear was her fierce protector. The bear would never let anything happen to his fated, lifelong mate.
But now was not the time to allow such musings to become a life threatening distraction. He had a job to do and a mission to complete. A life was at stake, as there nearly always was when you were a High Mountain Rescue Ranger. It was more than just a job. For Jarrad and Spider, it was a calling and they took their duty seriously. Protecting others was in their DNA. That’s how both men found their way into the military, using their specific talents and skill sets to protect others.
No time to be dwelling on the past. Focus!
Jarrad raised his head toward the sky and sniffed at the air. His bear recognized the scent ozone. Bad weather wasn’t too far away and closing in on them. The weather and time were conspiring against them. He began to climb the face of the cliff at a pace he hoped would have him lowering the injured climber down for Spider to pick them up before the storm front hit.
Distant lightning cracked like a whip and lit the sky with jagged fingers. Thunder rolled along the valley toward the mountain, issuing a dire warning.
Chapter 2
Spider took the Sikorsky as low as he dared. Too low and he’d lose valuable time climbing back up to reach Jarrad and the injured climber. If he stayed too close to the evac point, he’d burn too much fuel trying to maintain position in the rarified air and he was of no use to anyone if he ran out of gas. There was nowhere to set her down, so he maintained position and hoped that Jarrad would give him the call before his fuel situation became critical.
If he were flying strictly by the rule book, he’d have been forced to turn back by now to refuel. But up in the high mountain ranges, making the ‘save’ was more important than following a bunch of rules put together by desk bound pilots or the ‘chair force’ as Spider called them. They couldn’t make the ‘saves’ he made if their lives depended on it.
Suddenly, Spider caught a glimpse of something from his peripheral vision as he jostled the control stick and tweaked the collective to keep the chopper in position as a sudden updraft swept up the mountainside from the valley below.
Muscle memory and years of flying in some of the most hazardous warzones on the planet kicked in and before he had even processed what the contrail speeding toward him meant, he was altering his altitude and flying toward the lethal, heat seeking Ataka missile at full throttle. This was no time to be conserving fuel. He needed to close the gap between himself and the aptly named Russian missile. Who said the Russians didn’t have a sense of humor. Naming one of their fastest and most deadly heat seeking missiles attack made up in giggle factor what it lacked in originality. Spider only hoped he got the last laugh by living long enough to jam one of these things up the ass of the guy who fired one at him.
Not a man to swallow coincidences easily, Spider quickly joined the dots. They were back. For months Spider, Jarrad and Elle had been trying to convince themselves that the cabal of East European criminals had got the message to leave Big Bear Mountain well alone. They really had convinced themselves that their message had been received loud and clear. This is our mountain . . . don’t come back.
Apparently not and the hurtling missile with the wispy contrail seemed to punctuate that point quite strongly.
Full throttle and nose down the unarmed rescue helicopter flew headlong toward the missile. His only hope of beating the thing was to close the gap and come within range before it armed and locked onto his heat signature. It’s one weakness was a safety feature to prevent friendly fire incidents in which the missile might accidently lock onto a nearby friendly aircraft before it reached the designated enemy target.
If Spider could close the gap, the missile should bypass him as a ‘friendly’ and explode harmlessly on the mountainside. Then two thoughts stuck him simultaneously. The mountainside. Jarrad.
“Oh, shit!” But even as the words left his lips, the sleek Russian made missile streaked past him as if oblivious to his presence and continued on toward the mountain. Toward Jarrad.
Chapter 3
“Preacher we got trouble.” Jarrad’s radio squawked. Would he ever stop cringing when they used his old army call sign? It had been a long time since he’d had an enemy target in his cross hairs ready to help him meet his maker.
Jarrad keyed his mike, the tension in Spider’s voice evident, even over the crackle of the radio handset. “What kind of trouble?” he asked.
“The kind that fires a Russian made air-to-air missile at an unarmed rescue helicopter,” Spider acknowledged. “Evasive maneuver successful, thanks for asking, but the damn thing is now en route to you.”
Swallowing hard, Jarrad weighed up his options. “What about the climber?” he spoke hurriedly into his mike.
“Wake up and smell the coffee, you big dumb bear. We’ve been set up,” Spider snapped back.
Shit!
Not wasting a second more, Jarrad shifted into his bear. The
strong, robust and extremely well-built former Army Ranger morphed into a gigantic Kodiak bear, right on the side of the mountain. The bear groaned but clung to the ice and rock with its long sharp claws as if its life depended it. Because it did.
Bears and high altitude aren’t a natural combination, at least not outside of the shifter world. Quite simply, bears don’t like heights, even if their shifter human was an experienced high altitude climber and rescue ranger. There are few things less natural than a colossal bear clinging like grim death to a rocky cliff face.
The high pitched whine of the solid fuel rocket engine gave little warning of the impending explosion. By the time the sound reached the ears of Jarrad’s bear, the laser proximity fuse in the supersonic missiles warhead detonated before impact with the mountain, maximizing the shockwave and spread of shrapnel. The weapon was designed to bring down the largest and fastest aircraft with devastating efficiency.
The impact of the shockwave was bone jarring, scorching hot and peppered with metal from the missile and pieces of rock blown away from the cliff face. It was like standing in front of the barrel of an enormous shotgun as it fired. Digging his claws in for dear life and hunching as best he could to take the brunt of the force on its huge rear end, so as to protect his vital organs and head, Jarrad’s bear struggled to maintain his grip against such an overwhelming force.
Then, just as suddenly it was over. He was alive. Still attached to the rock face and no major arteries or organs had been sliced by the white hot shards of metal propelled by the deafening blast.
But that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt like a son-of-a-bitch. Doing his best to maintain his grip on the rock, Jarrad’s bear used the claws of one paw to pluck the smoking debris from his flesh to allow the healing to start. Almost instantly, as each piece of shrapnel was removed, the bleeding stopped and the wound began to heal, leaving only singed fur and the pungent stink of burned flesh as a reminder of how close he’d come to becoming nothing more than a bloody stain on the mountainside.
As he shifted back to his human form to make the descent to the LZ, raw fury raged through him. If they wanted to go to war, he was ready and he knew Spider was, too. Nobody tries to shoot Spider out of the air and lives to tell the tale. They had to keep Elle safe as well and getting these bastards out of their lives once and for all was the surest way of ensuring that.
Someone had better let the new Sheriff . . . Sheriff Jack Raven . . . know that it was on and it wouldn’t be over until it was over. No one messed with his family and that included his shifter family. They were all the family each other had and if you messed with one, you messed with them all.
He needed to get to the LZ for an extraction by Spider so he could get home to Elle and take her somewhere safe.
Oh no! Elle . . .
Chapter 4
“We’re too low on fuel,” Spider enunciated his statement by tapping on the glass covering the fuel gauge. They were running on fumes.
Jarrad’s brow furrowed as if frowning angrily at the gauge might make it change its mind. It didn’t. Refueling then heading to his cabin further down the mountain was their only option. The fact that the Mi-28 helicopter the cartel were using had bugged out didn’t bode well for Elle’s safety. After all, it was Elle who brought the cartel down on them in the first place.
Despite the tension or perhaps because of it, Jarrad struggled to squeeze himself into one of the seats in the rear cabin of the chopper and started thinking about Elle and her voluptuous curves. He still couldn’t look at her without feeling a pounding in his chest and a stirring further down. His bear adored her, too and wanted nothing more than to have cubs with her and protect them all.
He pulled futilely at the harness straps in an effort to buckle himself in. They were designed to fit normal sized people. Jarrad was far from normal. He was a giant and hardly anything, from clothes and shoes to safety equipment, fitted him.
It had been six months since Jarrad had rescued Elle after she came to grief on an icy mountain road while trying to outrun the cartel, carrying a suitcase full of cash and a memory card containing the details of all their bank accounts, routing numbers and passwords. The cartel practically declared war on Big Bear Mountain in an attempt to retrieve the SD card. They didn’t count on ‘Spider’ Webb and Jarrad unleashing hell on them and sending those that survived away with their tails between their legs.
Now they were coming back and it looked like they really meant business this time. Elle had done her smoke and mirrors financial voodoo and siphoned their ill-gotten gains to a number of veteran’s foundations, so he knew it was no longer about the money. Now it was personal and that made them even more dangerous. That thought turned the blood in his veins to ice. As if they weren’t dangerous and vindictive enough before all this.
The rotorwash whipped at the branches of the nearby trees and snapped Jarrad’s uniform against his body as he fought his way through the whirlwind of dirt and leaves to reach his cabin. It was still there. That was something, at least. Last time, they vaporized it with a Hellfire air-to-surface anti-tank missile. With a lot of sweat from himself and Elle plus a generous contribution of elbow grease from the local community, it had taken them less than six months to rebuild it to its former glory.
But where the hell was Elle? Even if she’d been sleeping, the thunderous cacophony generated by a jet powered helicopter landing in the yard should have awakened her. Something was wrong and a lump of dread too large to swallow formed in Jarrad’s throat. He turned to face Spider who remained in the cockpit, ready for a quick getaway. Despite the roguish chiseled clefts that hinted at his Welsh heritage, concern was plain on his face.
Signaling Jarrad to wait, he worked his way through the power down checklist as fast as he could. There was no way he was letting Jarrad go in there alone. Once everything had been powered down, Spider grabbed a Glock 9mm he kept hidden beneath his seat and unbuckled his harness. The Glock was a peashooter compared to the weapons the cartel brought to the table, but it was all he had. Better than nothing. Then he made a brief radio call before exiting the chopper, gun in hand.
Together, they approached the beautifully crafted cabin with its floor to ceiling windows designed to give them an unimpeded view of the rolling valley below and the pristine forest that bordered their property. Now, they served only to expose them to whoever might be lying in wait for them. Armed and extremely dangerous.
Jarrad raised an eyebrow at Spider when his eyes locked on the Glock he held at his side.
“What?” Spider shrugged nonchalantly.
“That’s all you got? You bring a 9mm to a missile fight?”
“It’s my backup gun. I don’t like to keep anything heavy duty on board. You should know that,” Spider rebuked. “Besides, it’s more than what you’re bringing to the party.” He nodded toward Jarrad’s clearly empty hands.
Jarrad shrugged. This would be the last time he was caught off guard. He needed to remember that it wasn’t just himself he had to look out for any more. He had Elle and a family on the way. It was going to take some getting used to. He swallowed hard when he thought of Elle, glowing and vibrant when she told him she was pregnant. He’d never seen her look more beautiful.
They split up and approached the impressive two story cabin from opposite sides, covering each other as they approached the front door.
It was ajar. They never left the door open. Living on the edge of the forest, there were always curious bears and cougars who would take the opportunity to enter a home with an open door. Something was definitely wrong.
Together they walked up the steps, Jarrad ready to shoulder the door open and sweep one side of the room and Spider on his six, ready to sweep the other. Jarrad help up three fingers, then two, then one . . . they entered the cabin in unison and immediately stopped dead.
Jarrad’s skin turned to ice. And not because of the chill in the mountain air.
The white cowhide rug in the living room was stained with a bloo
dy handprint.
Chapter 5
Jack Raven’s face darkened as the call came over his radio. Memories flooded back, raising a prickle of sweat on the back of his neck and a cold, empty feeling in the pit of his stomach. He thought he’d left all that behind. Missiles and helicopter gunships belonged in his old world. A world of scorching desert sands and radical insurgents. A world where he always had a target on his back. A world he hoped was a long, long way away from Big Bear Mountain, where he’d come to heal and start over. Now it was all coming back.
His hand trembled as he keyed his mike. “Acknowledged.” That was all he could say and even that nearly caught in his throat.
He knew he should warn Cassie, but he didn’t want her to see him like this. Everything had been going so well. They were getting along brilliantly. She had come to terms with him being a bear shifter and he was slowly learning to manage the issues arising from his traumatic brain injury. The IED that earned him a medical discharge would probably haunt him for the rest of his life, but that didn’t mean he had to let the trauma control his life.
But how would Cassie react to seeing him lose control like this. Trembling and bordering on tears. Not tears of fear or sadness, but tears of sheer frustration that he no longer felt like the man he once was. No, he’d say nothing for the moment and hope for it to pass.
Besides, if what Spider had told him was true, and he had no doubt that it was, then there were bigger issues to deal with both as Sheriff of Big Bear Mountain and as part of the bear shifter community that Spider had surreptitiously orchestrated for him to join when he mentioned the job opening all those months ago. Sheriff? He should have known it was a set up. They didn’t need a sheriff here. Not in a community protected by some of the most highly trained ex-military bear shifters in these parts.