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"What's he going to do to her?" Alex asked, worry creasing her brow.
"It's all right," Kade said. "If something is wrong, he can help her." Brock smoothed his hands over Jenna's back, then gently swept aside her hair and placed his dark fingers against the wan paleness of her cheek. "She's been tranced," he said. "She's coming out of it, though. Gonna be fine."
Chase and Hunter strode into the cabin and looked to Tegan. "The yard is cleared. The two of us can start searching the area for the Ancient's trail."
Tegan pursed his lips, blew out a sharp sigh. "He's miles away from here by now. A needle in a haystack. We'll never catch him in this wilderness. It's not like we can track the son of a bitch across the whole damn interior in this blizzard."
Kade felt Alex's gaze light on him. "What about Luna? If you used your talent with her, would she be able to help us track the Ancient?"
Tegan eyed the wolf dog that had come over to nuzzle Kade's hand. "It might be our best shot, man."
"Yeah, I can do it," he said, "but what about the rest of you? Are we all going to run with her, fully loaded with weapons in case we catch up to the bastard?"
"I can fly you," Alex suggested.
"No way." Kade shook his head. "No fucking way. I'm not going to put you any farther into this whole thing than I already have. That's a risk I'm not willing to take."
"I want to do it. I'm not going to leave Luna, and I can carry all of you in my plane while she tracks the Ancient on the ground."
"It's dark, Alex," he bit off harshly. "And it's snowing like a bitch."
"I'm not seeing your point," she countered. "And the longer we stand here arguing about this, the farther that creature can run. That's a risk that I'm not willing to take." Tegan leveled a questioning look on Kade. "She's right. You know she is." Kade slanted his gaze to Alex, seeing in her eyes all of the courage and determination that had made him fall in love with her in the first place. The fact was, the Order needed her right now. He was proud of Alex and petrified at the same time. But he exhaled a low curse and said, "Yeah. Okay, let's do this."
"What about the human?" Chase asked, gesturing toward Jenna. "We'd better scrub her before she sees anything more than she already has."
When the ex-Enforcement Agent started to walk toward her, Brock wheeled his head around, fangs gleaming behind his lips. "Back off, Harvard. You don't touch her. Got it?" Chase paused at once. He gave a negligent shrug and withdrew as Brock turned his attention back to the human female.
As the tension in the cabin subsided, Alex kneeled down beside Luna and wrapped the wolf dog in a loving hug, whispering something to her before she looked up at Kade. "All right, she's in your hands. Promise me you'll be careful with her."
"I promise," he said, meaning it completely.
As Alex moved away, Kade took Luna's chin in his palm and met her intelligent gaze. He established his connection with the canine's mind, then gave her the silent command to show him where the Ancient fled.
Alex had her arms crossed over her chest, one hand pressed to her mouth, as Luna took off running from the cabin and into the swirling snowstorm outside.
Chapter Twenty-eight
Not long afterward, Alex was flying them over the dark wilderness landscape, with Kade in the copilot's seat and three of his Breed brethren huddled in the cargo area behind them. Kade called out directions to her, navigating their course through his mental link to Luna on the ground. directions to her, navigating their course through his mental link to Luna on the ground. Alex couldn't see her. They were too far up, the snow too thick in the darkness, for her to make out anything much farther than the nose of the plane. These were dangerous conditions to fly in--potentially deadly--but Alex knew this terrain intimately. She followed Kade's directions, practically able to anticipate the path Luna was tracking along the Koyukuk, the most logical route the Ancient would have taken into the bush.
"Keep following the river," Kade told her. "The trail is getting fresher now. We're gaining on him." Alex nodded, focusing on her flying and the heavy gusts that blew down off the Brooks Range as they pushed farther north along the frozen river below. Although she could barely see the icy ribbon of water, she knew that they were coming up on a spot where the fleeing Ancient would have been forced to make a choice: stay low to the ground and trust the thickening woodlands to conceal him from pursuit, or veer to the west and take his flight to higher terrain, up into the craggy ridges of the mountains. Neither option would provide the best landing conditions, but in this weather, there was little more treacherous than attempting a short landing on high, potentially unstable rock.
"The trail is turning," Kade announced. "We need to bank left."
"Okay," Alex replied, sending up a silent prayer as she changed course away from the river and headed toward the mountain range instead. "Hang on, everyone. There are going to be some bumps as we turn into the headwinds."
"How you doing up there?" Tegan asked from behind her. "You sure you can handle this?"
"Piece of cake," she said--not quite the truth--and felt Kade's hand slide over to brush hers. It felt good, the contact of his touch. Even though she still carried the chilling vision of what she'd seen in the woods, her stomach still coiled with ice from that experience and the even greater terror of having seen the Ancient at Jenna's cabin, Alex could not deny her feelings for Kade. He was the one person who knew her, better than any other now. Despite everything that had occurred between them and around them, her heart could not completely seal itself off from the comfort that only he could give her. Some of the betrayal and anger she'd had for Kade and the rest of his kind had melted when she'd seen how he and his friends from the Order had handled the awful situation at the cabin. Kade had been tender and loving with Alex, respectful and considerate with Jenna. The other warriors had been, too. Especially the one called Brock, who had stayed behind to tend to Jenna.>"Jenna!" she called. "Jenna, it's me!"
Almost to the steps, Alex heard Zach's snowmachine grind to a halt behind her. "Don't take another step, Alex."
Oh, God.
"Jenna!" she cried. "Are you there?"
There was no answer. No movement of any kind came from inside the cabin. Behind her, the soft click of the pistol's hammer.
"Goddamn you, Alex." Zach's voice sounded wooden, utterly devoid of emotion. "Why are you making me do this?"
