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“Yes,” Logan replied.

“We just received a message from the Snowy Range Parliament. Twin owls were netted approximately ten minutes ago. One escaped and is attempting to keep pace with the vehicle carrying his brother. They request our assistance.”

“On it,” Logan replied, bringing up the location of their closest team. “What direction are they traveling?”

Seconds dragged like minutes while Logan waited for the information he needed in order to alert the correct team.

“West on the byway.”

“I’m sending the team from Medicine Bow to intercept. Relaying contact information to you now to coordinate,” Logan said as he sent the messages he needed and received confirmation from the Medicine Bow team that they were scrambling to assist. “Centennial Pack’s team will be mobilizing to better offer assistance if needed.”

Scrambling two teams was a common practice that had saved Logan’s hide more than once. He sent a be on the lookout alert to the shifter groups in the immediate area, warning them of the threat as well as relaying the vehicle description as it came in. Sam had moved back to his station, while Brooks leaned forward in his chair, watching the situation unfold as several members of the Medicine Bow team headed for the byway while two headed for the small prop plane located at a nearby airstrip.

It was a different sort of adrenaline rush, waiting for reports to come in while steadily coordinating the secondary pieces of the mission, which included a medical team and specially crafted mobile prison that would be used to ferry the offenders, should they survive, to Snowy Range Parliament lands to be dealt with.

There was no way off that road until they reached the other end.

Once the plane was in the air, Logan relayed the coordinates, fingers nervously drumming on his notepad as he waited for someone to get eyes on the vehicle.

“The snowy is still trailing the vehicle but falling behind,” Frost relayed. “He says that someone in the car took a shot at him.”

Logan immediately relayed a message to the pilot and the rest of the team that the kidnappers were armed and had already fired at least one shot at the owl pursuing them, heart hammering as he ran his fingers through his hair.

“I’ve got them in my sights,” the pilot announced three minutes later.

“We’re five minutes from your location,” the leader of the response team replied.

“There’s no down shaft close enough for them to reach if they decide to take off into the woods,” Logan muttered, keeping a close eye on the map and the plane’s position.

“Doesn’t mean they won’t try it,” Brooks grumbled as another minute ticked past.

“They took a shot at us,” the pilot said. “Missed by a mile, but they are packing a long-range rifle, so watch your tails out there.”

“Understood,” the response team leader replied, “we’re setting up a roadblock now.”

“I’m circling around,” the pilot said, “going to stay behind them and out of range.”

“Good plan.”

Seconds passed, the view changed to show the body cams worn by the wolves at the roadblock, three heavy, armored SUVs blocking the highway with armed wolves positioned behind it like something straight out of SWAT TV. It was risky, but with no one else on the road now, it seemed like their best shot of ending the vehicle pursuit.

“They’re slowing.”

Logan and Brooks leaned closer, peering at the monitor, as the vehicle began to crawl along the byway before the door opened and two men bailed out and bolted for the woods.

“Move in, move in, Tyler, stop that vehicle, the rest of you get after them,” the response team leader instructed.

Logan heard the plane flying overhead to try and spot the kidnappers from above, while Tyler raced to the rolling vehicle and hopped in, bringing it to a halt completely. It took everything in Logan to wait for the response team leader to check the back of the vehicle, rather than demand they tell him if the owl was safe or not.

“We’ve got him!” the team leader declared a few seconds later. “Pissed off and missing a few feathers, but he’s safe. Just need to get him untangled from the net.”

“Yes!” Brooks howled while Frost relayed the message to the Parliament.

“I think the other one just arrived as well,” the team leader said as a second snowy owl flew into view, landed beside the netted one, and pressed against him, beak open like he was panting as he rubbed his head against his brother’s.

Several members of the owl parliament tumbled out of a ramshackle van minutes later and rushed toward the team leader and the owls. They never would have stood a chance of catching up to the kidnappers’ vehicle if it wasn’t for the wolves of Medicine Bow, and they knew it. One owl thanked them repeatedly while the rest shifted and flew off to join the hunt.

“All is in hand here, central command,” the team leader declared a short time later. “Suspects have been apprehended and justice has been served.”