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“I’m going to hold you to that.”
Carson was ready to go within fifteen minutes, and Amelia was waiting for him with three breakfast burritos in hand. “One for you, one for me, and one for our pilot.”
“I thought you were our pilot.”
“No, Colby wants someone to fly us both over and wait for you to bring you back. I’m going to fly into Anchorage and bring the Apache back here. That way if trouble comes before we’re fully operational, we’ll have two choppers, and the Apache is far more maneuverable.”
They were airborne within minutes and flew directly to Colby’s estate on the fringes of Kodiak Island. The pilot hugged the shoreline making the short jump from the peninsula to the island at the narrowest point before moving north along the shoreline of the island. They flew so close to the water, Carson thought if he leaned out, he could touch the sea.
They landed and after a kiss that was all too brief, Amelia was whisked away to the Apache helicopter. Carson headed inside where he was shown to Colby’s study. Two very large men stood inside, flanking his desk on either side. Colby pushed back and stood.
“Carson Payne, may I introduce you to Tevryn and Warrick of the Phantom Fire.”
Tevryn stepped forward, extending his hand. “My deepest condolences on the loss of your brother, and my most profound apologies for putting your mate in danger. None of us ever dreamed it would be dangerous for her.”
Carson took his hand and shook it. “If you weren’t a fire-breathing dragon, I’d punch you in the mouth.”
Tevryn dropped his hand and raised the other to stop the forward motion of the dragon known as Warrick. “Hold, Warrick. If it had been Dani, you’d have done more than punch me. And if that would help soothe your ire, Dr. Payne—what a delicious name, by the way—I am happy to let you take your best shot.”
“He’s right about if it had been Dani and also that we never thought she was in danger.”
Carson nodded. “Somehow I think you’ve taken all the satisfaction I might get, but I’d lead with your buying her the best de Havilland Beaver ever made when you meet her.”
Warrick groaned. “I don’t think I want Dani to meet your Amelia.”
Tevryn laughed. “Knowing Dani, she’ll punch you in the nose.”
“Colby said you wanted some fresh samples to compare with those they took from me in Seattle,” said Warrick.
“Yes. They could be helpful. We’ll have to duplicate some of their experiments, within reason, to make sense of their results.”
Warrick nodded. “I don’t know if you need to know, but they kept me doused with seawater, which is toxic to dragons in our dragon form. And in the early stages they were dosing me with some of the date rape drugs.”
“I’m sorry you had to go through that. Hopefully we’ll be able to figure out what they were after and beat them at their own game.”
Carson spent the next several hours collecting samples and meeting with Colby about a lot of, as he called them, ‘housekeeping issues.’ The flight back to Polaris seemed long and he found he was missing Amelia far more than he should. Looking out the window at the storm-tossed sea, he once again felt the fleeting presence of his twin.
He shook himself from his melancholy. Anything, anything, he did that helped to defeat the League would avenge his brother and help his shifter brethren defeat the evil that was now known as the Shadow League. They might not know it yet, but the Fire Star Alliance was coming, and they would prove to be undefeatable and victorious.
EPILOGUE
Aleutian Range, Alaska Peninsula
They were flying over the ground, making good time. They might actually get to safety. He hadn’t shared with his brother that the Shadow League was closing in. He’d been sloppy, but then again, he hadn’t known Carson had seen the light and flown the coop. Someone must have seen him. It didn’t really matter; all of their lives were in danger.
A small, red light caught his attention as it seemed to bounce off the trees before heat and searing pain penetrated his body. The sound of the sniper rifle having been fired only came on the heels of agony that was spreading throughout his system. They said you never heard the bullet that killed. They were wrong.
As he slumped over the front of the snowmobile, he knew he was dying. An inability to control his limbs was spreading quickly, and breathing had become unbearable. He tried to gun the engine, but he couldn’t maintain his grip on the throttle. He watched as it slipped off and landed limply on his thigh.
“Mason!”his little brother cried down the link. A link that existed only between fated mates and twins.
As his snowmobile decelerated, Carson’s came up alongside his, slowing until Amelia leaped from one to the other, managing to get in front of him and wrap his arms around her.
“Carson, we’re losing him,” Amelia said into the comm unit. She was cool and steady. His brother had, in Mason’s opinion, been gifted with an extraordinary mate.
“I know. I can feel him slipping away,” said Carson over the comm unit. “Much like the bonding link, twins share a similar link.”
‘Get away. Leave me. I’ll hold them if I can,’whispered Mason down the link to his brother.
