Hunter's Heart (Alpha Pack #4)(7)
Aric stood. "In that case, I'm in."
The other three echoed him, and Ryon looked to Micah. The brown wolf/Dreamwalker had been rescued along with Aric, weeks ago, by the Pack and Rowan, Micah's sister, an LAPD cop who turned out to be Aric's mate. Micah had fared much worse in the lab facility where he and Aric had been held, and had endured heinous experiments for months at the hands of the now-deceased Dr. Gene Bowman. Micah was horribly scarred inside and out. But with drugs and therapy he was making progress, it seemed.
"You ready to test the waters?" Ryon asked him. He was fairly sure Nick wouldn't object to their Pack brother stretching his long-unused muscles while assisting on a simple rescue. If so, he'd take the heat later.
Micah nodded eagerly, pushing a long strand of brown hair from his face. "You bet. If I have to stay behind again, I'll lose what's left of my mind."
"That's settled, then. We're meeting Nick at the hangar with the medical team. Anybody know where Jax is?" Jaxon Law was their unofficial Pack leader, right after Nick.
"I'll find him and Rowan. We'll see you there." Aric jogged off.
"I'll get dressed and be there in a few."
Ryon shifted again and took off in the direction of his personal quarters. Everyone had his own apartment at the compound and Ryon's was situated at the end of one of the wings that housed the Pack and the rest of the staff. At his door, he shifted to human form again and cursed the necessity. His wolf was much stronger and faster in many aspects. He could follow a scent trail and locate someone in a way that was impossible as a man. But they would need vehicles and emergency equipment. No help for that.
Anxious, he punched his code into the security pad and let himself into his quarters. As quickly as possible, given his own injuries, he dressed in a T-shirt, jeans, and hiking boots, and then braced his hands on the dresser. Mirrors didn't lie, and this one was telling him to go straight back to bed and stay there for another week.
Unfortunately, on top of looking like shit, he felt even worse. As he headed out again, the stab of pain in his side reminded him that he'd missed the promised dose of pain meds. But it wasn't the pain that concerned him-he'd been through plenty of scrapes and survived. It was the possibility that his body might fail him before he found the woman.
He didn't doubt that if something happened to him, the Pack would find her. But every instinct in his body screamed that it was vitally important that he be with them. He couldn't fail.
Half-limping, he jogged into the hangar to see Nick and the others waiting. The group of men, plus the medical team, was swallowed by the cavernous space that held a number of vehicles, including SUVs, three Hueys, and a private jet. Several pairs of eyes turned in his direction, and a couple of his buddies exchanged dubious looks.
Aric shook his head. "You need to sit this one out, bro."
"I agree," Jax said, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Forget it." Slowing to a walk, he joined his team. "The woman reached out to me for help, nobody else. That makes it sort of personal."
Jax persisted. "We'll find her and bring her here. You've done enough-"
"We're wasting time," he snapped. "Can we just get on with the plan?"
Anger flashed in Jax's gaze and for a couple of heartbeats, Ryon thought they were about to get into it. Nick didn't intervene, simply watched and waited. Even Aric, the smartass, went silent. But then his friend relented, albeit reluctantly. "Fine. But if you pass out, I'm not carrying your stubborn ass back to the vehicles."
"Like nobody's had to carry you before," he shot back. Jax had no comeback, and the decency to appear contrite.
The tension gradually dissipated as Nick brought them up to speed. "I contacted the rangers' station and learned some interesting things. First, the woman we're looking for is probably Daria Bradford. She's a wildlife biologist studying the wolf population in the Shoshone-the real kind."
Daria. What a pretty name. Ryon's insides fluttered, but he hid his reaction.
Micah snorted. "Wolves? How's that for irony?"
"They're also not too concerned about her just yet. Miss Bradford checked in with the rangers this morning as scheduled, and gave them the coordinates for her next campsite. She's not due to call in for another few hours."
"So how did you explain the inquiry?" Ryon asked.
"I told them I'd heard a call over the radio on my office from someone in distress. Of course, they were baffled that they didn't hear anything, but they were too distracted by another development to focus too much on the discrepancy."
"What's going on?"
"A couple of campers have gone missing, a man and his wife from Nebraska who are, or were, here on vacation." Nick's expression was grim. "They arrived eight days ago, according to a daughter who spoke with them by cell phone before they settled in. The couple didn't check in with the rangers when they got here, though. They were only supposed to camp for four nights, and then head home, calling their daughter when they left. They never made that call and by the morning of the sixth day, she started to panic."
"So, Search and Rescue is already out there, looking for them," Ryon mused. "This could complicate our effort to find the biologist."
Nick shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not. We'll stay out of their way, but it won't hurt for us to keep an eye out for the missing couple while we're looking for Miss Bradford. We'll definitely have to be cautious about shifting with extra people combing the forest. Don't let out your wolf, or panther," he said, nodding to Kalen, "unless absolutely necessary."