Chapter 5

When Billy started nodding off, I was forced to admit that I, too, was tired. My sleep the night before had been restless, filled with bad dreams and memories.

There were a couple of benches, under which were the storage bens that held the bewitched luggage, some chairs and a plushy couch available to sleep on. I gave Billy the couch, considering he'd had less sleep than I had, getting him settled in. He was out almost immediately.

Despite him being older, he was like a little brother to me, someone I was always looking out for and keeping out of trouble.

I chose the padded bench that shifted the least, accepting the pillow and blanket Marcus gave me gratefully as I emptied the contents of my pockets into my discarded shoes before stretching out and closing my eyes.

I awoke a while later to someone whispering my name and running their cool hand across my cheek.

"Ramirez, you need to wake up now."

"Talon?" I asked groggily, snuggling into the pillow while instinctively exposing more of my cheek to his caress in an unconscious gesture.

"Come on, time to get up," he said quietly, withdrawing his soothing fingers and I struggled not to whimper. "We'll be landing in a few minutes and we all need to be buckled in."

After a huge, toe-curling stretch, I sat up and tossed my pillow down the aisle, hitting Billy in the face.

"What?! Huh?!" he said, startled but awake as he fumbled for his glasses, his limp brown hair messy.

"Get up, we're fixing to land," I called to him, getting to my feet to stretch some more. I felt eyes on me as I settled down, catching Talon's quick evaluation of me.

"What?" I asked, pulling my shirt back down and checking to see if there was anything showing that shouldn't be. Not that I thought he would stare if there was, but it never hurt to check. I didn't doubt that he'd seen me naked before; his property did overlook mine.

"I like your hair," he said with a small smile.

"Stuff it," I told him, pulling the band out of my hair and finger combing it. "I doubt your hair would look any better for sleeping on a padded bench for," I glanced at my watch, "three and a half hours. Don't private jets usually have beds?"

"Where's the bathroom?" Billy asked, interrupting whatever Talon was about to say.

"Right this way," Marcus said, leading Billy through a doorway towards the back.

"How long until we actually land?" I asked, sitting back down to put my shoes on.

"About ten minutes now," he said, "I figured you would need a few minutes to wake up."

"Why did you wake me up that way?" Not that I minded, it was just a little unnerving considering our fairly platonic relationship.

"You've been known to come up swinging before," he told me and I rolled my eyes. He may not have been lying but he certainly wasn't saying something. His expression suddenly serious, he said, "What were you two discussing earlier? When we first boarded the plane?"

"I was warning him to behave himself," I replied calmly, folding my blanket. "I was also telling him what he could expect." Neither of my answers were lies, just good evasions. I had no intention of telling either him or Marcus that the chances of my walking out of this situation unscathed were very slim if they decided to take offense at me bringing strangers into pack business.

"Okay. I'll allow you your secrets," he told me. "For now."

"Since when do I need permission from you for Jack shit?!" I asked, slightly bewildered and a little aggravated, working on Billy's blanket. I turned to look at him and found he was very close to me.

"Since you put yourself in danger by not asking for help," he said quietly. "Since you started running instead of fighting, a very unusual thing for you and since you started calling me." He gently tugged the folded blanket from my hands as I stood there, staring at him. My breath came quickly, his scent washing through me, making my skin tingle.

"I have never called you," I said, picking the least offensive topic out of the group to steady myself. It was true enough; if I wanted to talk to him, I went up to his house. When I called, I talked to Marcus. He's called me before, though never to chit-chat. It wasn't his style.

"I wasn't talking about a phone call," he turned to replace the bedding in another storage compartment and I took a deep breath to steady myself. He tapped his temple with one long finger, drawing my attention first to his dark-tinted nail and then to the significance of the gesture.

"Telepathy?" I asked incredulously and he just stared at me. "And how do you propose I'd do that?" Shape Shifters aren't usually gifted with telepathy except occasionally between mates and sometimes family and he wasn't either.

He just shrugged, his large t-shirt barely moving with the gesture. I opened my mouth to say more when Marcus and Billy returned.

"My turn," I said instead, finding my own way by following Billy's scent. I thought about what Talon had said as I took care of my business and braided my hair to keep it out of my face.

He knew something or he wouldn't have bothered commenting, though I hadn't the slightest idea what or how. If he'd been a powerful enough telepath to by-pass my shields, I'm fairly sure he'd have read me before now. It's possible he could have read Billy, but not likely; Billy was supposed to have better shields than me.

"At least when he's awake," I whispered and swore. I'd forgotten his tendency for talking in his sleep, as well as sometimes projecting his thoughts loud enough for even someone like me to "hear", and I had a relatively weak Empathic ability.

As for the oddly intimate touch and the idea I was "calling" him, I shied away from the thought. It wasn't that I didn't like Talon, the idea of dating him was intoxicating, I just had too much on my plate to give it the thought it deserved.

Besides, I'd be damned if I would chase him.

There was a heavy silence when I returned to the main cabin and I felt like a deer in the headlights as all eyes swung to me. I took a deep breath, assessing the emotions of my companions.

I could sense nothing out of the ordinary, no negative emotions, at least not since I left, but also no abundance of positive emotions, either. I wasn't sure whether the air filtration system was that good or nothing at all had happened. Or they'd been talking about me.

I walked slowly back to the chair I'd occupied earlier, feeling like I had a huge zit on my forehead or something. I knew I didn't and, with my hair still a little disheveled and not entirely caught in my braid, they weren't able to see much of my face anyway. It wasn't an intentional move, hiding behind my hair; it just did that.

"I didn't do it?" I asked, raising my hands up in surrender, a playful smile on my face.

"You always say that," Billy replied, "even when you did do it." He looked thoughtful for a second. "Especially when you did do it."

"And how would you know?" I asked. He'd become Aunt Annie's apprentice while I'd still been in college; I'd lived on campus rather than drive two hours to school every day and we hadn't lived together for my really crazy years.

"Who do you think used you as an example of teenage mischief?" he asked.

"Aunt Gene," I said, making a face and he nodded. "I suppose she forgot to mention that I was pretty much the best behaved teenager in Shamrock, especially considering who I ran with and how much trouble I kept everyone else out of."

"Sure, sure, play it off like there were only a few minor pranks," he told me, waving his hand. "I'll have you know that, according to my cousin, that statue disappears every year, only to be returned in drag. It's become such a huge deal for the graduating classes that the mayor has people photograph it for the town scrapbook."

Fortunately, I was saved an explanation by the pilot's announcement.

"All right everybody, we're about two minutes from landing, so I'd suggest securing you belongings and tossing any open containers before buckling in."

I fastened my seatbelt and closed my eyes, leaning into the comfortable chair, resting and bracing myself for the obstacles ahead as well as the landing; this was my first time flying and I didn't know what to expect.

Once we landed, and I was assuming he'd arranged to land on an airstrip as close to our destination as possible which meant either a private strip owned by a cranky millionaire or a small airport (and I was banking on the airport so we could re-fuel), then it would be another hour's worth of driving until we got to our destination, maybe two.

The plane touched down smoothly, proving the talent of the pilot, and I breathed a sigh of relief at the thought of getting out of the steel cage.

It was 12:15pm by my watch, meaning it had taken just about five hours to get here. When a quick set of calculations told me I might just now be in Nebraska, I was appropriately grateful to have flown, though I still didn't know all the strings that were attached. Talon was a nice guy but he didn't do anything for free.

The luggage was in a better mood (or maybe just exhausted) as we left the plane and I was satisfied to have guessed correctly where we'd landed.

The tiny airport boasted a couple of hangers, a re-fueling station and a two-story flight tower with a small cluster of buildings at its base. It was mainly used as a layover stop or for private planes, though I supposed other aircraft could land there. It was closest to the mountains so I assumed Search and Rescue probably used it as well.

The temperature was only slightly cooler here, about eighty degrees, the sky a brilliant blue with a few puffy white clouds, a light breeze bringing the smells of fuel, fresh-cut grass and hot metal to my nose, as well as the scents of humans.

I led the way to the buildings that made up the terminal at the base of the tower, my posture easing a bit as the sun and wind soothed my restless soul. I missed living in the middle of nowhere, even if going to the store required a two hour drive. The city, while filled with conveniences, was highly overrated.

The two men that came out to meet us were unfamiliar to me, though that wasn't a big shock. The shock came when Talon and Marcus greeted them by name and exchanged friendly handshakes. When I thought about it, though, I shouldn't have been surprised; they'd lived a long time and Talon was constantly gone on business. Why shouldn't he know people in Montana?

"Danny, Chuck, these are Miss Kinkade and Mr. Camden," Marcus introduced us and we shook their hands in turn; they felt all right. The two men looked enough alike to be brothers, though the wind was coming from the wrong direction to get a scent. They looked like your average Joe; medium-build, weathered skin, brown hair and eyes, nothing to make them stand out.

"Everything's prepared, Mr. Marcus," Chuck said and led the way around the building.

"Good," Marcus told him. "Anything new out this way since we were last here?"

"Not really," Danny answered. "We heard there might have been some fires and a rockslide up towards Silver Vale but nothing else."

They continued to talk but I tuned them out. Silver Vale was the town the pack lived in, the town they'd created a long time ago. I pulled out my cell phone and dialed the number I'd called this morning.

"Kinkade here," the voice on the other end answered roughly.

"Dad," I said and fell back a little from the others. "We just landed at the airport and I'll be there soon."

"I still don't think you coming was a good idea," he told me with a sigh, "but I can't say I blame you. Who's with you?"