by Rider, C. P.
"I'm not forcing Amir to go. He wants to go." One corner of his mouth curled up. "He's got his own reasons."
"I'm glad for the company." I rolled down my window and squinted up at the sky. It didn’t take me long to spot the speck in the cloudless blue. "But why didn't he ride to town with us?"
"We thought it would be smart to have a person on the outside in case the wolf gave chase out of town." Lucas's gaze flicked to the rearview mirror. "So far, I'm seeing nothing."
"If Guillermo is planning to beat me to Texas, he'll need to fly there."
"You make it sound as if that's some great impossibility. Neely, with a few connections, Juan Martinez and I managed to arrange a next-day flight out of La Paloma in a couple of hours. If you think this Legion organization doesn't have access to what we have and more, then you haven't been paying attention." He squeezed the steering wheel until his knuckles whitened and the plastic cracked. "The kind of people who run anti-paranormal agencies like sanctuaries have nearly unlimited resources. There are a lot of people out there who would love to see us all dead."
"I know that," I said.
"And if they have actual paranormals working against us?" He shook his head. "The worst threat to paranormals isn't humans. It's our own kind, mired in self-hatred and angry at the world. That's the kind of battle even your dad would have trouble fighting."
Everything Lucas said was true. Depressing, but true. "I called him. He says he'll be in town while I'm there, but you know how that goes."
"He is a busy man. The guy runs an international covert paranormal security brokerage."
"Whatever that means," I muttered, even though I knew what it was. Paranormals reported dangerous situations to my dad—things like sanctuaries and rogue dire wolves—and he located someone in the area to help. The man had connections everywhere.
"Do you think he'll open up about your mother?"
Dad and I were at an impasse. He wasn't lying to me, but we both knew he hadn't told me even half of the whole truth about my family history. Our relationship was a complicated one.
"If by 'open up,' you mean he'll finally admit that she's a spiker like me, then no. He did say he'd look into Legion. He said there was another group operating in the area that he was aware of, but he'd never heard of Legion, which I found suspect since I know he talks to Alpha Juan."
"To be fair, Johnny came to us first. He might not have told your dad yet."
"Maybe."
My cell rang and I picked it up, hoping it wasn't bad news. "Hi, Chandra."
"Hey. Sorry to bother you, but uh, Alpha forgot his phone and I need to talk to him."
I held out my cell. "Chandra needs to talk to you."
"I heard. Put her on speaker," he said.
"Look, I was going to wait to tell you this when you got back, but we've had some issues in town this morning. Last night, too. Apparently a white wolf attacked a couple of Blacke shifters in their homes. They're spooked, but okay. She almost got into Carter Reid's house, but he chased her off."
The muscles in Lucas's jaw flexed.
"Earp called a few minutes ago and said Margaret Lentz and Larry Galvin stormed into Sundance Auto together looking, and I quote, 'One bubble off plumb,' which I assume means they looked out of their minds, and tried to attack King Jones. He locked them both in his cool-down room under the auto shop until they came to their senses a few minutes later."
"Did anyone get into the bakery?" Lucas asked.
"When I started getting these calls, I drove over there, but I didn't see or scent anyone."
"Chandra, can you please ask Ana and Tellis to not go there until we know the dire wolf has cleared out of town? And to not go alone? Diego, too."
"Yeah, that's the reason I'm calling. All this happened in a matter of minutes, then came to an abrupt halt about twenty minutes ago. No one has seen the dire wolf, only the white wolf. I'm worried they might be following you. Watch your backs."
"If they are, they're keeping their distance," Lucas said. "We're watching. So is Amir."
Chandra said she'd keep an eye on things, and hung up.
"Is it possible that the white wolf has abilities similar to the dire wolf?" Lucas asked.
"Gods, I hope not." Two wolves capable of producing terrifying illusions was not good. "At this point, though, we should assume the worst."
"If the white wolf has the same abilities and no one has seen Gil, then Chandra might actually be wrong."
"In what way?"
"Gil might not be following us. He might be anticipating us."
I shivered. "You're saying he's already on his way to Texas."
"It's possible. And if this Legion organization is centralized in Austin, there may be more shifters there capable of gods know what."
Amir met us on a farm road just outside of La Paloma, shifted and dressed in a suit taken from the garment bag Lucas had put in the truck for him, and we met the jet at precisely five-thirty a.m. All of us, including Lucas, showed our IDs to security. Amir and I watched our luggage be whisked away by an attendant and loaded onto the plane. His was way fancier than mine.
"Have you flown on a private jet before?" I asked Amir, then answered myself before he could respond. "Dumb question. Look at you, all handsome and dashing in that posh suit. You look like you were born on a private jet and fed champagne and caviar as your first meal."
That netted me a smile from the eagle shifter. He adjusted his tie and tugged the cuffs of what had to be a hand-tailored jacket it fit him so perfectly. "Let's just say, I always fly first-class."
"Sorry about that." Lucas jogged up to us. He'd been off chatting with an associate of his. It was the fifth one he'd run into this morning, including the ones he knew working security.
I slipped my hand into his as the three of us walked out onto the apron, what some people referred to as a tarmac, to board. La Paloma Airport was small and catered to mostly private air travel, though a couple of the big airlines still flew out to it. Their security team was fairly relaxed, and apparently Lucas knew every member. They respected him but, more than that, they liked him. This I knew because I read every brain we came into contact with. I wasn't taking any chances.
"Aren't you the popular fellow?" I nudged him.
"That was Dale Hutchens. He's got a plane here. He's a pilot, mechanic, and a shifter—pretty much everyone here is some kind of shifter. We tend to fly private or not at all, for obvious reasons."
Yeah, shifters and commercial flights were a bad combination. All it took was a claustrophobic wolf and one swift punch to the nearest window. A shifter with an irrational fear of confinement wasn't as uncommon as a person might imagine—especially if they've spent any time in a sanctuary.
"Has anyone spoken to the pilot?" Amir asked.
"I did. He's one of Juan Martinez's cousins. In fact, everyone on board is related to the Martinezes except for you two. Apparently dire wolves have difficulty affecting people to whom they're related."
"They also seem to have difficulty affecting other prehistoric shifters," Amir grumbled.
"Come on, it's been years." Lucas glanced at his fourth, trying unsuccessfully to hide a grin. "Are you really still pissed about that?"
"Yes."
I was going to ask what they were talking about, but Amir's scowl put that idea straight out of my head.
"Wait. You said all of them are Martinezes?" Thunder rolled into Amir's eyes. "You didn't…"
"Well, I didn't," Lucas said. "But Johnny might have."
"What is it? What's wrong?" The tension was growing between the men, and I was starting to get nervous.
"She's on the damned flight, isn't she?" Amir looked like someone had kicked him. "Gert."
"You got it, eagle eyes. Now get on board and buckle up, because I don't like being late to anything—unless it's my own funeral."
The elderly woman who said this was small and as lean as a piece of beef jerky. Her snowy white hair was pulled into a tight bun, her brown
skin was creased but not wrinkled, and her smile was sharp and devious. Her mind was a busy place, filled with chatter and machinations. Naughty machinations, though, not evil.
"Fuck me," Amir muttered under his breath.
"Mercy." The woman, who had to have been a shifter to have heard him, sent him a mock-coquettish eye flutter. "Not in front of everyone, feathers."
He groaned in response.
"Hi, Auntie Gert." Lucas waved to the elderly woman. "Amir sure has been looking forward to seeing you again."
"Well, of course he has. I'm a hot commodity." She adjusted her cat-eye glasses on her bony nose and zeroed in on me. "Who's the cutie? You single, sweetheart, because my nephew is one heck of a good-looking cowboy, I'll tell you what. And he's—"
"She's my mate, Auntie Gert," Lucas said, firmly but kindly. "Johnny's going to have to find his own."
"Aww, darn. If I have to wait for him, we'll never have any young 'uns around. Do you know he turned thirty-seven on his last birthday?" She wrinkled her nose and waved us inside. "Come on board. Just like with my nephew, time's a-wasting."
Amir dragged himself up the few steps to the plane.
I wrapped myself around Lucas, tipped my head back for a kiss. He obliged me, then whispered in my ear, "Keep an eye on Amir. Auntie Gert makes him nervous."
"Will do." I kissed him one last time, then broke away. "I'll call when I get there."
"I'll make sure I have my phone with me." His gaze traveled down my arm to my wrist, where I wore his bracelet. He flicked the lock. "Do me a favor and don't take that off, okay?"
"Never." I blew him a kiss and entered the plane.
"Well, aren't you a sight for sore eyes, eagle? I haven't seen you in so long I thought maybe I'd offended you somehow last we spoke."
Amir sat in a chair facing a worktable, set his laptop bag on the floor beside him, and buckled his seatbelt. "You did."
Gert's eyes widened and one side of her mouth lifted. "Well, I'm sure I don't know what you mean."
"You know exactly what you did." Amir stared out the window.
"Now, it can't be about those dreams I sent you, could it? They weren't so bad. I've done much worse to folks who come into my territory unannounced."
"Alpha Juan sent us to you. We were not only announced, we had permission. Besides that, you didn't send any dreams to Alpha Blacke, only me."
"To be fair, I tried, but he's a prehistoric and his head doesn't work like everyone else's. Not that I'd send him the same kind of dreams I sent you. Luke's like a nephew to me. I see you more as—" She waggled her brows. "—a good friend."
Amir groaned again.
Gert plopped on a sofa on the opposite side of the plane and propped her feet up. She wore blue jeans and a Western snap-front shirt. Her Converse sneakers matched the electric blue plaid on her shirt.
I set my pastry box on the table by Amir, took the seat across from him, and buckled in.
"You're the telepathic spiker?" Gert squinted at me. "Could you get inside my head and kill me right now?"
"Yes," Amir said, "she could."
"Wow, now that's really something. In all my seventy-five years of life, I've never met one of you. Pleasure. I'm Gert. Don't bother with anything else. Just Gert'll do."
"Neely," I said. "So, you're a dire wolf shifter? Could you get inside my head and kill me right now?"
"Yes, and maybe, but I'd probably just make you real uncomfortable," Gert replied with a wink in Amir's direction.
Our captain strolled out of the cockpit.
"And I'm Celio, her nephew, and your pilot today. My daughter and copilot, Claudia is prepping the aircraft. You'll meet her later."
Celio was a stout man, mid-sixties, his hair the sort of gray that came across as distinguished rather than elderly. His mind was focused on flight plans and the pint of pistachio ice cream he'd brought. I reached for his daughter's brain and found her also concentrating on flight plans—while sneaking bites of her dad's ice cream.
"Hello, Celio," Amir said.
"Hello, and good to see you again, Mr. Gamal." He shook his finger at Gert. "And if Miss Costa-MacLeod is a telepath as Alpha said, she is well aware that you're eighty-five, not seventy-five years old, Auntie. Be nice to the gentleman. I can see you've already offended him and that's not good manners. We'll be taking off shortly."
"Just Neely," I called out to his retreating back. He waved a hand to indicate he'd heard me.
"Speaking of manners, why'd Celio have to go and tell this hottie how old I am? That was rude." She thumbed at Amir, who leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes. "I'm probably old enough to be his older sister."
"If she were alive, my grandmother would be eighty-two," he said without opening his eyes.
"So, Gert, do you like pastries?" That should help cut the tension between them. Everyone loved sweets, right?
"Sure, do. Bring 'em over here. The eagle looks like he's going to nap the whole flight and I want to visit." She popped off the sofa and motioned me over to a table with two chairs across from each other. "Ooo, those smell good. Don't suppose you brought any mantecadas, did you? I've been hankering for a mantecada for a while now."
I opened the box, and her eyes went wide. "Hot damn, you brought half a dozen. My abuela used to make these and I sure do miss them. Once we're in the air, we'll get some coffee and have us some pastries. Johnny said you have a panaderia in Sundance. How do you like the business?"
The rest of the flight went much the same way. Gert rapid-fired questions at me, drank black coffee, and ate four of the mantecadas. She said they were just like the ones her abuela used to make, so I offered to make her some more when we got to Austin.
"I've got a small place on the family property, but Johnny's house has a real fancy kitchen. One of those eat-in ones big enough to fit this plane inside. Maybe we'll whip up some mantecadas there."
"Why do you and Lucas call him Johnny instead of Juan?" I asked.
"His daddy was Juan. Kept it from being confusing while he was alive. Juan Sr. and I grew up together. I'm his aunt, but I was born late, and his dad was the oldest in our family and married by the time I came along, so Juan Sr. and I weren't far apart in age. We were raised more like brother and sister." She eyed the pink concha. "I might have to try one of those, too."
We made the flight without incident, landing in a private airfield outside Austin. By the time we arrived, Gert had eaten all of the mantecadas and a pink concha. As my uncle had aged, he often talked about how his appetite had lessened. Auntie Gert ate like a lumberjack after a twelve-hour workday.
I already liked her a lot.
Alpha Juan met us at the airport. Gert had been right about one thing—her nephew was one good-looking cowboy. He arrived wearing jeans, a tight gray T-shirt, and scuffed work boots. A worn white cowboy hat was pulled low over pale-ale eyes.
"I apologize for picking you up in my work clothes. I've been in the barn since dawn and I lost track of time. Please don't take it to mean I'm not glad to see you, because I most certainly am, Neely." He grabbed my bags and gestured to a large Ford truck parked off the apron of the small airport. "Hey, Amir. Good to see you. Hope Auntie Gert didn't hound you too much. I know she's got a crush on you."
Amir walked stiffly to the truck. "Everything is fine, thank you, Alpha Juan."
Juan looked at me. I pressed my lips together, stifling a laugh.
"That bad, huh?" He glanced over his shoulder at his aunt, who was scrambling to catch up with Amir. She was small but scrappy, a little bowlegged, and fast.
"Yeah. But I'm sure they'll work it out." I stopped and took a deep breath of clean Texas air, replacing the stale airplane stuff in my lungs.
"Everything okay?"
I started walking again. "Been seventeen years since I've seen home. Guess I needed a moment to take it in."
Juan smiled. "Is it the way you remember?"
"Since all I've seen so far is the airport, I couldn't say." I peered up. "
Is it me, or is the sky bluer in Texas?"
"If you're looking for an honest opinion, you're asking the wrong person. I'm a bit prejudiced toward this place." He grinned and pulled his hat down over his eyes.
"The California southwest desert sky is wide and has the whitest clouds I've ever seen, but the blue of a clear Texas sky is a sight to behold."
"Give it a sec. A storm will roll in before long."
"And out just as fast," I said, with a laugh.
The sound of Gert's voice broke up the moment. "Now, I wasn't trying to make you mad, eagle…"
Juan shook his head at his aunt. He cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled, "Auntie Gert, Barney Drath stopped by the barn today to see me. He asked about you."
"That guy? Humph. He couldn't keep up with me if he had a pitcher of coffee and a wish from a genie. Besides all that, he's been acting kinda weird lately. Don't know if I want to associate with a guy like that." She waited for us to catch up, trying hard not to appear interested in what her grand-nephew was saying. "So, what did he want?"
"He said he was hoping you'd accompany him to Mom's bar tonight for a beer and some dancing."
"All Barney ever wants to do is go to Dahlia's bar." She homed in on Amir, who had made it to the truck—and probably locked his door. "I need a change."
After she left us and darted over to the truck, Juan nudged me. "My uncle Celio said he felt nothing on the way over. Claudia, neither. It would be unusual for them to be affected, and even more unusual for any dire wolf to affect an aircraft while flying, but anything is possible." He slowed his pace. "I'm having a hard time believing the dire wolf you've described is my little brother. It doesn't sound a thing like him."
"I understand why you'd doubt it. He's your brother."
"Gil and I haven't been real brothers for a long time." Juan kept a neutral expression as he set my luggage into the back of his truck alongside Amir's, but he exuded sadness, and I didn't have to read him to pick up on it, either.
"Yet here you are, fighting to save him."
He leaned against the truck and tipped up his hat so I could better see his face. "Family. No matter how distant you are, they always hold a piece of your heart. At least, that's been my experience."
