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Chapter 24
Niko
Determination flowed through me as I reached out through the pack bonds to talk with DJ. The conversation lasted all of five minutes, and then I was on the phone again, calling in Alaska to come help the search from the air. She was part dragon shifter but also part something else I hadn’t figured out yet. Who and what she was didn’t matter, though. She had proven her loyalty to the pride twice over already.
“What do you want, panther?” she greeted me.
“I need your help.” I wasn’t going to mix words with this woman.
“Of course, you do. What’s the problem this time? Can’t get information from someone? Another attack on the pride? Fill me in.” Alaska blended her unique smartass attitude with her straightforward down to business approach to everything.
“Amelia has been taken, and I need eyes in the sky to help the search party.”
“You lost her again?” Alaska roared. “You don’t deserve her. Neither of you does. If you hadn’t fought your bond, fought the mating, you wouldn’t be standing there in pain. Your bond would be stronger than any others I know, and you would be able to track her faster than they could take her. I told you if anything happened to her—”
“We didn’t lose her! She was taken!” Her words only thickened the guilt that was already riding on my shoulders.
“How long has she been gone?” I heard the click of her heels on tile in the background as she moved.
“Minutes. DJ told me to call you in. Every minute we talk is one more minute he gets further away with her.”
“I’m about thirty minutes away, so I’ll see you in twenty.” She hung up.
“Drive safe, Alaska. We need you in one piece. I don’t want to have to call my boss yet again to say you crashed or worse,” I said to the dial tone in my ear.
I joined the team outside near the Jeeps and nodded to Jonah, who had already gathered a team together. He was always a step ahead of me, and today, I was thankful for that. “Alaska is on her way. Let’s get everything planned out so we can update her and get on the move when she arrives.” He rolled out a map of the area.
The roar of a motorcycle signaled Alaska’s arrival. Ever since Leo let her take out his Ducati, she had fallen in love and gotten one of her own. Of course, hers was painted with runes in her signature punk-rock pink to match her hair and dragon scales.
We gathered as she dismounted. “Hello, fellas! So, what’s the plan?” She stood in her leather pants, pink halter top and leather jacket, and biker boots with pink soles. Her hair bounced back after she pulled her helmet off, the tips as vibrant pink as the rest of her ensemble.
“Well, I see you haven’t lost your love of pink,” Miguel tried to joke as he enveloped her in a hug. He was one of the few pride members who wasn’t afraid to embrace her.
“Hell no! It’s my signature color.” She cocked a hip, and the line from Steel Magnolias was recited in my head. Yes, I’d seen the movie. Even guys needed a good chick flick every now and then.
Alaska had caught me watching the movie for the hundredth time in my life, and rather than laugh at me, she plopped down on the couch next to me. We spent the next hour reciting every line in time with the movie. She may be gruff and no-nonsense on the outside, but she had a soft heart on the inside. It was nice to see her as just another girl for a moment.
My tiger roared in pain as the connection we had to Amelia was severed. The pain was unbearable. I glanced to the side and saw Miguel doubled over, his hands grasping his head in pain.
Leo yelled for us as he strode down the hall, Kat following close behind him. “Who? Tell me who!” Alaska asked as she followed close behind. “I can’t feel Amelia. What happened? Where did she go?
Leo pulled her close before she could rake her nails through our skin. “Give them time to respond.” He soothed as Alaska’s face turned to stone.
“Fuck that! They don’t get time,” Alaska declared as she got in my face, tendrils of smoke trailing from her nostrils. I knew the tether on her inner dragon was minuscule at best.
“She was taken,” I growled out, still trying to control the pain of the void left by Amelia’s absence.
“That’s enough!” Leo roared, his Alpha power forcing me to kneel and expose my throat in submission. “We don’t have time to stand here and blame each other.” He walked past me to Miguel. “Which way did they go?”
“Through the wall behind DJ’s house,” he replied, still kneeling in submission.
“Alaska,” Leo said, turning toward the dragon.
“Already on it.” Alaska shimmered and stretched as her dragon form emerged, engulfing her human one. Alaska’s was the most unique shift I had ever seen. No bones breaking to realign, no muscles tearing and knitting back together. She didn’t have to strip before she shifted either. She shimmered like a mirage in the desert, and moments later, her massive dragon stood proudly before us. Her pink-tipped iridescent scales reflected the moonlight around us, and with a simple tilt of her body, she could bend and refract that light, essentially making her invisible. Though she also had that ability as well, to fully disappear and turn what I called her stealth mode on. In one word, she was amazing.
