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CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Decker spent the firsthalf of the short private flight to Colorado Springs glaring at me, disgust curling his upper lip. After Brutus thumped him on the arm, he spent the rest of the flight staring out the small window into the late afternoon sky, shaking his head and huffing. Decker didn’t dare speak. Both Brutus and Seff had threatened to toss his ass out if he couldn’t keep a civil tongue. So, he stayed silent.
I was amazed.
And a little sad.
We’d been so close when we were young. Being the only children in the pack, we’d only had each other to play with. We’d run Beartooth like it was our own personal playground. Our parents had depended on Deck to protect me if we’d run into anything dangerous, like a deer, a stray dog, a bear, or possibly the most dangerous of all, a human. Deck had changed, grown bold, reckless, and put me in dangerous situations to see how I’d react. And because Decker was my twin, the only sibling I had, I’d never told our parents. Still, his recklessness had forced a change in me I wasn’t ready for. A change affecting my life and our relationship forever.
A warm hand smoothed down my forearm.
“Hey.” Seff laced his fingers with mine. He leaned across the narrow aisle, brought my hand to his lips, and kissed my fingers.
I smiled as oursakanabond filled me, calming me, burying the buzzy feel of Decker’s irritation.
“You doin’ okay?”
I nodded, leaned into the aisle, and kissed him. “I’m good.”
His eyes twinkled as the touch of our lips seemed to send little electric impulses straight to my most sensitive parts. He knew what his kisses did to me. He felt it through our bond.
Decker snorted, “Seriously? Can’t you—”
Without a word, Brutus shot him a threatening glance, interrupting my brother’s potential criticism.
Decker shot out of his seat and stepped to the back of the plane. He flopped down into the seat behind a partition, next to the retractable stairwell door.
Behind us, in the cockpit, the human pilot my dad had hired to fly us to Colorado Springs, spoke into his radio and received landing clearance. “We’ll be landing in about fifteen minutes, so make sure you’re all strapped in.”
There had been minimal conversation during the entire short flight. Discussing our plans to hunt down two males and deliver swift wolf justice wasn’t something humans needed to overhear.
We landed and taxied off the main runway. “Do you have someone meeting you here?” the pilot asked as he activated the exit door.
Brutus answered, “Yeah, and thanks for the ride. Have a safe trip back.”
Dark gray clouds hung low, filling the sky. A light dusting of snowflakes swirled around us on the icy breeze. I zipped up my snow jacket as the freezing air hit me when I exited the small plane.
Seff shifted his duffle bag and my backpack to one hand and tucked me into his side with the other hand. I swept my long bangs out of my eyes and gazed around. The white peaks of the Rocky Mountains stood to the west. To the east, there was nothing but flat land.
Seff’s arm tightened around my shoulders. The rush of his excitement flowed like warm honey through my veins.
“What—”
“Gimme a second,” he whispered as he lifted his nose to the air. His muscular chest rose and fell with each deep breath he took.
Brutus turned to look at us when he noticed we hadn’t moved. He cocked an eyebrow in question but stayed silent—waiting.
A sly grin spread across Seff’s face. “Oh, yeah, they’re here.” He nodded at Brutus. “At least one is still here.” His dark eyes moved to mine. “Do you smell it—do you smell the sick?”
I inhaled, trying to pinpoint what Seff had scented. The smell of diesel and oil masked almost everything. I caught mysakana’sscent, Decker’s sage and apple, Brutus’ eucalyptus scent—and two other wolf scents not familiar to me but close by. However—sickwas not an odor I detected. I shook my head and looked at Brutus, who concentrated on every breath. Eventually, he ended up shaking his head as well.
“Well, you’re gonna have to trust me on this,” Seff said. He winked at me, his grin not fading. “And it’s not just sick I smell, it’s—he’s—near death.”
Near death. A wolf would die because of me.
Some small human part of me wanted to recoil at the thought.
