Joey was now driving to the rendezvous point, which was Mac’s office at the sawmill. Mac had managed to juggle the jobs around so that most of the men who worked there could help in the search. Including Kelos.
At least if they have gotten themselves into trouble and we need a rescue by air, the dragon shifter can help us, his bear said.
Indeed, he can. Joey’s brain raced off, filling his head with images of Tristan’s broken body lying halfway down a rock face.
Thinking like that doesn’t help anyone, his bear told him.
I don’t think I’ve ever been so worried about someone, Joey told his bear. He’s so young to be lost in the mountains.
He’s with his father, his bear reminded him.
That’s what worries me. Joey didn’t have much respect for a father who would leave his son while he went off to do his own thing. A father’s place was by his child’s side.
Which is exactly where Uri is, his bear said quietly.
“Hey, Joey. There you are.” Hex raised his hand as Joey parked his truck.
“I got the shirt.” Joey grabbed the shirt off the passenger seat and held it crumpled up in his hand as he got out of the truck.
“Okay, we’re ready to go. Is it okay if I tear the shirt up and each group takes a piece?” Hex asked, his hand going to Joey’s shoulder. “We will find them.”
“Sure, do what you want with it.” Joey looked as another truck headed toward them. “Shawn.”
Shawn parked his truck and got out. “I figured you might need a doctor. I switched shifts so I could come up here and help.”
“Thanks,” Joey said sincerely. A lump formed in his throat and he had to look away as tears pricked his eyes. He hadn’t expected so many people to drop everything to help find Tristan and Uri.
“The least I can do. How are Breeze and her sister holding up?” Shawn asked as they were split into groups.
“They’re okay for now. But I just want to bring Tristan and Uri home. I want Breeze to be happy and it kills me that I can’t accomplish that right now.” Joey looked up as Mac came toward him.
“Grab what you need from your truck. I’ll drive since you don’t look in any fit shape.” Mac slipped his arm around Joey’s shoulders. “You’ll feel better once we are on the mountain and doing something. The waiting around is always the worst.”
“Thanks.” Joey strode around to the back of the truck and grabbed the backpack he always kept stowed there in case of emergencies. It contained emergency rations, a water bottle, and climbing gear along with a first aid kit.
The mountains were both beautiful and treacherous. With the weather switching from sunny to foggy, warm to cold, in a heartbeat, people often got stranded on the higher slopes and even shifters could get themselves into trouble. It paid to be prepared. Not just for himself but for others who didn’t always have mountain sense.
“Are you sure you wouldn’t prefer to stay with Breeze?” Mac asked kindly as Joey joined the others by Mac’s truck. “She must be worried.”
“She’s waiting with her sister. She’s strong and I think she would prefer it if I was on the mountain so that when we find Tristan, he sees a familiar face.” Joey glanced nervously at the others. “We will find him.”
“Not if we stand here jabbering,” Beck said and guided Joey to the passenger side of the truck.
As they got inside, Joey realized the reason Mac had decided to drive. His cab was huge with seats in the back, meaning this entire third of the rescue team could travel together. Joey squeezed into the front with Shawn, while Hex and Beck were in the back.
“We have to pick Kelos up on the way,” Mac explained.
“It’s good of you all to come,” Joey said. “That sounds stupid. Of course, you’d all help.”
“What are friends for?” Beck placed his hand on Joey’s shoulder and Mac started the engine and drove away from the sawmill. The other two teams were leaving, too, about to head off to their designated trails.
The five men sat in silence as the truck took them along the back roads and then onto the lower slopes. Mac took the turn to Kelos’s cabin where the dragon shifter met them out front.
“Snug.” Kelos climbed in back with Hex and Beck. “Where are Tristan and his dad going to sit when we find them and bring them home?”
“We have a satellite phone.” Shawn held it up and waggled it like it was a prize. “Whoever finds him calls the other teams and we figure that out.”
“It depends on if they are injured.” Joey glanced sideways at Shawn. “I am aware of what we might find, and I know this might turn into a full-on rescue with the helicopter if they are injured.”
“I thought that was why you brought me along,” Kelos remarked.
“We brought you along because you have the strongest senses out of all of us due to your age,” Beck told his friend.
“Is that a dig at my age?” Kelos asked.
“You are pretty darn old,” Hex joined in.
“I am. I’m also the strongest out of all of us. And I do have the keenest senses.” He nodded and turned to look out of the window. “And I’m the wisest.”
“So that rules out any ageist jokes then,” Hex said with a sigh. “Pity, I had a few good ones I’ve been storing up.”
The others talked around Joey. Sometimes funny, sometimes serious as Mac drove them to their destination. As the words rolled around him, he realized this was usually his job. He was the one who would try to keep everyone’s spirits up, who would inject positivity into the conversation to raise morale. But today, his friends were playing their part, his friends were buoying him up and keeping him from slipping into a dark place.
“Okay, we’re five minutes out.” Mac’s voice pulled him back to the present. “As soon as we are parked, we grab our stuff and hit the trail. Hex and Beck are going to shift first and see if they can track the scent from the shirt. The rest of us are going to climb the trail, looking for any signs they might have come this way and also call out for Tristan.
“When we’re sure they are not in the immediate vicinity, we can all shift.” He glanced over his shoulder. “Except for Kelos.”
Kelos ducked his head and looked out of the window. “It’s too light for me to fly. Unless you really need me to.”
“No, as long as you can keep pace with us.” Mac was not implying Kelos was slow, but rather the bears and cougars in the truck could move fast.
“I can keep up,” Kelos replied. “But if I drop behind, just keep going, I’ll catch up and as soon as it’s dark enough, or we are in a deserted valley, I can shift and fly.”
“We have a plan,” Mac said. “We all know what to do. We have all been here before. This rescue is no different. We must be thorough, but we also have to be careful. No risk-taking.”
“Agreed.” Shawn shot a sidelong glance at Joey.
Joey turned away from the window and nodded at Shawn. “I understand. If one of us becomes a casualty, it means the rescue will be delayed. That is something I do not want on me.”
Mac drove along the dirt track that began where the road ended. He expertly navigated a couple of sharp turns and nursed the truck over a slab of rock before he was finally beaten by a deep groove in the track where heavy rain had washed out the dirt last winter.
“I guess we’re on foot then.” Mac opened the truck door and got out, the rest of the team followed.
Joey let his senses roam as he waited for the others to get their packs out the back of the truck. He couldn’t sense Tristan and Uri. The only other people he could sense was one of the other rescue teams who were on the other side of a high ridge. They were still traveling up the road and if he listened really carefully, he could hear the whine of the engine as it climbed the steep road. Then the engine cut out.
“Kelos. Anything?” Shawn asked as he handed Joey his pack.
Kelos shook his head. “Nothing.”
“Okay, Beck and I are going to go sniffer dog mode.” Hex handed Joey the pi
ece of torn-off shirt that held Tristan’s scent.
Joey nodded and waited for the two men to shift before holding the shirt out to the two huge bears that materialized in the place the two brothers had stood only moments before.
The bears huffed at the shirt, inhaling deeply as they prepared to track Tristan. After a long couple of minutes, the bears swung around and headed up the trail. Joey watched them go before he tied the remnant of the shirt to the outside of his backpack. Heaving it onto his shoulders, he prepared to move out with the others.
“We didn’t see Uri’s car,” he said to Mac as they struck out up the trail.
“No, we didn’t,” Mac agreed. “Maybe one of the other teams did.”
“Wouldn’t they have let us know over the satellite phone?” Joey asked.
“Probably.” Mac glanced sideways at Joey. “If we don’t find them here, we move on.”
“You’re worried they might have taken another route and are not heading for Snow Cap Peak?” Kelos asked.
“Yeah,” Joey murmured in agreement.
“If they have, once it’s nightfall we can split the mountains into grids and I can search each grid until we find them,” Kelos told him.
“He wouldn’t have just left, would he?” Shawn asked.
Joey stopped walking and turned to face his friend. “What do you mean?”
“Uri didn’t take Tristan and run off with him?” Shawn’s question was an unwelcome one. But that didn’t mean it could be discarded without thought.
“I don’t think so. Uri’s not the fatherly type. I don’t think he’d kidnap his own son…” Joey fell silent, his stomach in knots as a terrible thought occurred to him.
“What?” Shawn searched Joey’s face for an answer.
“What if it’s not an accident that they are lost out here?” Joey hated saying the words, but they just might be true.
“Do you think Uri plans to harm Tristan?” Kelos asked. His question was met with shocked expressions from Shawn and Mac.
“Tristan is his son.” Mac shook his head in disbelief.
“I have lived long enough to see the worst in people,” Kelos said in defense of his suggestion.
“Uri might blame Tristan for the breakdown of his marriage,” Joey agreed.
“And what better way to…” Shawn shook his head. “No. I don’t believe a man would do that.”
“I agree we have to continue as if we are looking for two lost hikers,” Mac said. “But I also don’t think we can rule anything out at this stage.”
As they resumed their search, the satellite phone beeped, and Shawn grabbed it and answered it. “Hello. Yes. Okay. Thanks for the update.”
“They found his car?” Joey asked.
“They did. It’s on the farthest trail. The one that’s washed out.” Shawn pressed his lips together into a thin line as he hooked the phone back on his pack.
“Which means they could be anywhere in the mountains.” Joey adjusted the straps on his pack and strode on up the trail. They really needed some good news.
That good news came in the form of two huge bears bounding back down the trail toward them. They skidded to a stop, sending a shower of small stones and dirt into the air.
“Hey, puppy, have you found something?” Mac asked, stroking Beck’s head as if he were an overgrown puppy dog.
Beck’s bear scowled, took a couple of steps back, and then shifted. “We picked up the scent. It’s a half a mile or so up the trail.”
“Then let’s go.” Mac shifted into his bear while Shawn shifted into his cougar.
Joey hung back for a moment with Kelos. “Are you sure you’re going to be okay on two feet?”
“I’ll try to keep up as best I can. Any chance I get, I will shift into my dragon.” He looked back down the trail. “We’re pretty high up and this late in the afternoon there aren’t so many hikers, especially not on a workday.”
“Not in late spring,” Joey agreed.
“Spring, a time for new beginnings,” Kelos murmured.
“I’m hoping it is new beginnings and not new endings.” Joey shifted into his bear and ran after the others.
The sound of Kelos’s feet hitting the ground as he ran followed Joey as he loped up the trail until he put too much distance between them. He could still sense his friend. A surge of gratitude swept over him. His friends were always there for him. Always there for each other. No matter what.
Switching his focus away from Kelos, Joey’s bear kept his head down as he sought out the scent trail Beck and Hex had found. There. Unmistakably Tristan, with another male scent mingling with it.
He could sense the other shifters up ahead, maybe a couple of hundred feet away. Pushing himself harder, he ran until his muscles ached and the air burned his lungs. He ran until he saw Mac’s bear’s short stubby legs disappearing around a bend in the trail.
They were slowing. Joey ran on and caught up. The three bears and a cougar were sniffing the ground, working like a pack of hunting dogs as they searched for the scent trail. Joey joined them.
He kept his head down and snuffled around the edge of the trail. The scent seemed to just stop. He turned around and backtracked down the trail, sniffing the undergrowth on either side. He stopped and retraced his steps. Sticking his head in a bush, he forced his way through. Why had they left the trail?
He shifted back to his human form as Kelos finally caught up with them.
“Everything okay?” Kelos asked, surprised to see Joey on two feet.
“The trail stops, but I think they went this way.” He pointed into the undergrowth as the other shifters joined them. “But I don’t know why they would leave the trail.”
“From a few feet back, there’s a good view of the peak,” Kelos told him. He pointed up the trail. “From here it looks as if this trail goes off in a different direction.”
“So they took a shortcut across the mountain when the other trail was blocked and instead of carrying on along this trail, they kept going through the undergrowth.” Joey shook his head. How could anyone be so stupid and put themselves in danger like this?
Kelos turned his head from side to side, his eyes out of focus. “I think…” The others all watched him closely. “I think I can sense something.”
“Tristan or the other team?” Joey asked.
“I don’t think it’s the other team. Their trail leads off in the other direction.” Kelos practically shimmered as he stood in front of Joey, his dragon itching to let loose and fly across the mountainside, seeking out the two lost hikers. “I could be there in five beats of my wings.”
“Is it too risky?” Joey looked up at the sky, the sun was cresting the mountains, but it would be a couple more hours until the sky darkened enough to give the dragon shifter any kind of cover.
“It’s a risk either way,” Kelos told him.
“Let’s go on foot and see what we find. If the terrain gets harder or we need to hurry, then shift.” Joey rested a hand on Kelos’s shoulder. “I want us all to come out of this unscathed.”
“We don’t always get what we want.” Kelos turned to Joey. “Sorry, that was thoughtless of me.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Joey told him. “I know what you mean. I just don’t want to start the relationship with my mate with disaster.”
“Then let’s avert it.” Kelos parted the undergrowth with his hands, ignoring the thorns that snagged at his clothes and pricked his skin. Lifting one foot, he took a long stride forward and before the undergrowth closed around him, Shawn’s cougar followed.
Hex and Mac hesitated for a moment, both bears looking at Joey as if they had something to say but then they turned their massive heads in the direction Kelos and Shawn had gone and pushed their way through the undergrowth.
Let’s not get left behind, his bear said, and Joey let go of his hold on the world and shifted.
He jumped over the undergrowth, landing on large paws before running off after the others.
Kelos
had been overtaken by the others as Joey fast approached him, but the dragon shifter kept running. Joey slowed as he approached but Kelos stepped to one side and let him pass without missing a step. The guy was a beast both in human and dragon form.
I sense them, his bear suddenly said as they crested a small rise and looked down into a steep valley below.
The other shifters were up ahead, pacing up and down as they searched for a way down into the valley. As Joey stared down into the valley, the scent of wood smoke drifted up to meet him.
This was it. At least, there was someone down there, but he was sure it was Uri and Tristan since there was a faint hint of the boy’s scent on branches and bushes.
The area around them was remote, he doubted anyone else would be here lighting a fire.
His bear quivered with excitement, certain that Tristan must have lit the fire. Which meant he was all right.
“Ah, this is a steep valley,” Kelos said, voicing Joey’s thoughts. “What’s the plan?”
One by one the shifters returned to their human forms. Joey spoke first. “We should go down there. Two of us.” He looked around at the others.
“I agree,” Mac said. “The rest of us need to stay up here in case there are problems.”
“The undergrowth is trampled over there.” Hex pointed farther along the ridge. “And there’s a strong scent.”
“And?” Joey asked as Hex didn’t meet his eyes.
“I think someone fell down there rather than walked.” Hex was unhappy at relaying this news, but he wasn’t to blame.
Don’t shoot the messenger, right? his bear asked.
Right, Joey agreed.
He just hoped Breeze felt the same way if he had to break the news to her that Tristan had fallen and hurt himself. Or worse.
Chapter Twenty-Six – Breeze
“They should be here,” Lisa said. “They should be back. If the mountain rescue teams have found them, they should be back.”
Joey: Spring (Shifter Seasons Book 6) Page 19