The trees finally gave way to a clearing. In the field beyond them was something that looked like a helicopter, but its take off was silent except for a hum. The nearly invisible blades sliced the air soundlessly as the giant metal machine rose high into the sky with at least twenty men still climbing up metal ladders to get inside it.
No. They couldn’t leave. Where was Katarina?
Stewart burst out of the trees and howled over and over as the craft flew rapidly out of sight. He strained to watch until it disappeared from his vision. The world wavered around him in the sudden absolute quiet left behind. His body shook and wavered too.
He wished Kent and Aggie were there with him. They’d know what to do about the silent helicopter getting away.
He would get his Mom to call them so he could talk to them, but first he needed to rest. He was so tired. And his entire body hurt. The pain was way worse than his legs just growing.
He fell instantly asleep as soon as he hit the ground.
6
Stewart moaned as he felt his body being jostled. Someone was running with him. “We have to follow the helicopter. They took Katarina.”
“We know. We’ve got someone tailing them now. They won’t get far,” the male carrying him said.
Stewart decided the man’s voice seemed familiar, but his hearing was messed up… or something. It relieved him when the man finally stopped moving and laid him down onto some kind of bed. “No more running. I hurt all over.”
The man chuckled a little. “I imagine you do. When you wake up, you can tell us what happened.”
Stewart shook his head. He put a hand to it—then pulled it away. He blinked at his human fingers through the black haze covering his eyes. All desire to shift was gone now. Instead, he was relieved to be his human self again.
He blinked up at the man looming over him. His eyes finally focused. “Dad?”
“Yep. That’s me,” Gareth said.
“Where’s Mom?”
Gareth pulled a seat up next to the cot Jon’s wife had provided. “When your mother saw the dead bodies, she went a little insane. You were mumbling about a silent helicopter when we found you. You even told her which direction it flew off in when it left. She took Reed and Jon with her to chase the bad guys.”
“Good,” Stewart said. He swallowed. “Is Terra okay?”
“The dart that hit her had enough tranquilizer to take out a bear, but thankfully she will live. The bear who brought her to Jon said you rescued her.”
Stewart groaned in pain. It even hurt to talk. “Katarina helped me rescue Terra. Dad… I turned into something, but it wasn’t a wolf like you or Mom.”
Gareth put a hand on his nearly grown son’s head. “Does that bother you?”
Stewart nodded. “Yes. I wanted to be an actual wolf. Not a freak.”
“No one thinks that about your shifted form, especially the bears. If you hadn’t acted quickly and used all you had in you to fight the attackers, they no doubt would have gotten some of Jon’s people before we could have stopped them. The bears were running to the fight, but they said you howled and ran the bad guys off before they got there. You’re their hero, son.”
Stewart shrugged against the bed. Some hero he was. All he wanted to do was cry about not saving Katarina. “I tried to stop them. I saw a bunch of them jump on Katarina’s wolf and hold it down. When they ran away from me, I chased them.”
Gareth ran a soothing hand over his son’s forehead. “Let me tell you something. There’s no shame in caring or being super emotional or feeling anything you’re feeling right now. This was your first shift, and you did damn good. Normally, a pack has to lock up a young wolf like you when it happens. Instead, you controlled your change, charged into a freaking fight, saved a girl, and got us a hostage.”
“Hostage? What hostage?” Stewart blinked away moisture to look at a man he trusted as much as he did Kent.
Gareth lifted a shoulder. “I’m only guessing you were responsible for the one left alive, unless you were the one who ripped those dead guys apart.”
“No, that was Katarina. I—no, too gross for me,” Stewart said.
“But the guy by the tree was yours?” Gareth questioned softly.
Stewart nodded. “Yeah. A bunch of them shot me with tranquilizer darts. I think I lost my temper. I picked that guy up and threw him into the nearest tree. He fell down and didn’t get up. When I howled at the others, they ran away. I should have kept them busy until you got there. I sent the bear to find you and Mom.”
Gareth patted his son’s head and nodded. “The bear did exactly that. He said at first he and his wife were scared of you, but when they saw you running back to fight, they knew you had to be the boy we brought here with us. They said you were brave like your Mom and me.”
Stewart could feel the blackness closing in again. “So I did the right thing?”
Gareth leaned closer. “Yes. You did the absolute right thing and your mother and I couldn’t be more proud of you. You did all you could today, and don’t you worry one bit about Katarina. That she-wolf is a survivor. We’ll find her, Stewart. Knowing that sharp as hell Russian, she’ll leave a dead body trail your mother can follow like breadcrumbs.”
Stewart tried to laugh at his Dad’s gross joke, but it was simply too hard. He rolled into his father’s stroking fingers, closed his eyes, and let himself be soothed into sleep.
Brandi stabbed the agent authorized communication panel in the cockpit and called her mate, who answered immediately. “How is he doing?”
Passed out for like the third or fourth time, but lucid and in control when he’s awake. There’s no need to cage him as far as I can tell. I’ll monitor him closely though, just in case. Have you found Stewart’s silent helicopter yet?
“Negative. They either found the tracker in Katarina or they’ve got her in a cage that’s scrambling the signal. I’m looking for a staging area. My research says they opt to stay close to their targets. It makes for a quick getaway. I’m guessing a metal bird that advanced and complicated will need a pit stop after what they put it through,” Brandi said, glancing back over her shoulder. She could feel the angry tension rolling off both the males sitting behind her. “I’m circling back to something that looked big enough to function as a chopper hangar. Their bird might be silent, but it would need big cover to hide in. Guessing the blades fold some, but they would still need a lot of space to store something big enough to carry all those guys. Gareth?”
I’m here.
“Got a passenger demanding a drop off. He wants to go rogue. I’m thinking of letting him.”
Gareth was silent for a moment. Brandi waited to see if he agreed with her.
Tag and release him, Gareth finally said. We’ll have him tracked and do a pick up ourselves when we can. First order of priority though is to get the bears safely to Alaska. We need to contact Ariel and get her up to speed and up to the Black Wolf village. With Reed going rogue and the beta captured… they need someone.
“Agreed,” Brandi said. “I’ll make that call next.” She sighed into her headset mic. Did she really want to know if her son had killed a man today? Fuck it. Yes, of course, she wanted to know. “How’s the hostage doing?”