Sharon's Wolves (Wolf Masters Book 10) (26 page)

Several ambulances had pulled into the parking lot, the blare of their sirens mixing with the wail from the emergency system. Deafening.

The faint smell of rotten eggs filled the air too, making her cringe.

Volcano.

“This is as far as we’re going to be able to go by truck. We’ll have to walk the rest of the way,” Melinda said as Isaiah pulled the truck to a stop.

Sitting between the two men she hardly knew for the last thirty minutes had been a humbling experience. Never in her life had she encountered anyone who could so thoroughly block her. And she was pretty sure it was intentional.

“Excellent.” Wyatt opened the passenger door and hopped down to the ground. He turned toward Melinda and took her hand to help her descend behind him.

She stared at Wyatt for several seconds, wondering how this was going to go down. First of all, it was cold out, hovering in the low forties. She wasn’t dressed to walk anywhere in human form. Shit, neither were either of the men.

Second of all, they didn’t have time for a lengthy explanation and lessons on wolf shifters. But if Melinda’s hunch was correct, these two didn’t need any lessons. They knew. Why they knew was about to become apparent.

“So…” She toed the ground at her feet and tried to think of the right thing to say.

“Look,” Isaiah said, “we know. So, you aren’t going to shock us. We also know you need to remove your clothes or risk destroying them. We’ll turn around. You can leave your things in the truck.”

She widened her eyes. “I’m not even going to ask how you know so much because we don’t have time. But what are you going to do? Run along beside me?”

Wyatt chuckled. “Hardly. I’m pretty fast. You can try to keep up.” When she glared at him, he sobered and spoke again. “Just shift. It’s easier to demonstrate than explain. And like you said, we’re in a bit of a hurry here.”

“Shoot. I don’t have a pack. I need something to put my clothes in.” She slapped her forehead. It wasn’t as though she could traipse up to the biology students naked in the cold and let them know what was happening on the mountain.

Isaiah shook his head. “No worries. You won’t need clothes. Just get us close. We’ll handle it.”

Both men turned around to face the darkness.

Melinda quickly divested herself of everything she wore, piled it on the front seat of the truck, and shifted faster than she’d ever done before.

When she padded up to Wyatt and Isaiah, she found neither man impressed. Instead they were both surveying the area.

“Ready?” Wyatt asked.

She cocked her head to one side and nodded. How the hell was she going to communicate with them? It wasn’t terribly unnerving that these two strangers knew about her kind. It happened sometimes. Maybe they had a relative mated to a shifter. Anything was possible.

What was making her nervous was the fact that she was certain there was more to it.

And holy mother of God…

She sat back on her haunches and drew in a deep breath when both men leaped into the air and transformed into something else in just seconds. If she had blinked, she would have missed it.

She held her breath for several seconds.

Bears. Grizzly bears, if she wasn’t mistaken.

Holy shit
.

“Ready?”
Wyatt repeated into her head. Hearing his voice made her almost shit herself.

She didn’t move a muscle. She couldn’t.

Bears? There are other shifters?

“Come on, wolf girl. Your tongue is hanging out. Tuck it back in and let’s go.”
Isaiah nodded toward the trees and took off at a fast trot. Run? Gallop?

Jesus
.

She finally found the ability to command her paws to move and followed Isaiah. Wyatt took up the rear.

“You guys… You…”
She tried to communicate with them, but fell short, not sure what to say. The enormous brown bear in front of her kept moving. Wyatt wasn’t kidding; they were fast. She knew she could run faster than the average bear, but who knew about shifters? If they were anything like wolf shifters, they were stronger than their animal counterparts. Better diet. Longer lifespan. Access to medical care. All the things wild animals lacked.

They ran hard. Time was of the essence.

She gathered her thoughts and started firing questions.
“Your clothes?”

“They shift with us,”
Wyatt communicated.
“It’s a bonus. When we arrive, we can shift back, handle things, and leave.”

“They shift with you? That’s incredible. How is that possible?”

Isaiah fielded that one. “
We’ve been around longer. Evolved more. Adapted.”

“Longer than what? Wolves?”

“Yep.”

“My head is spinning. How did I not scent you?”

Wyatt communicated again.
“We have existed centuries longer than your species. When I say we’re more evolved, I mean it. We have blocking capabilities you’ve only dreamed of. We can conceal our scent from anyone, including your species. We project ourselves as human even to your kind.”

“No one knows? I mean no wolves?”

He glanced at her. Was he laughing?
“A few know. They’re sworn to secrecy.”

A few? Who?
Her own people? She was about to ask when Isaiah interrupted her thinking.

He moved to one side to let her pass.
“You take the lead. You truly do know this territory better than us. When we get close, let us know, and we’ll shift and hike into the group.”

“Okay.”
She couldn’t see how they were going to explain themselves under any circumstances, but the choices were limited. All she could do was defer to them and hope for the best.

She could see the campfire before she got close enough to stop. Thank God the group was exactly where Melinda and Laurie had last seen them. When she skidded to a halt, the bears did too.

“Wait right here while we speak to them,”
Wyatt commanded. He lifted onto his hind legs and jerked his entire body as though shaking the bear right off him. Seconds later, he stood in human form in the same clothes he’d had on when they left.

Amazing.

“I’m serious,” he said out loud now. “I do not want to face the wrath of your mates by returning to civilization without you.”

She nodded.
“I’m not stupid.”
Did he understand her communication even in human form? Insanity.

“Let’s go,” Isaiah said. “I’m betting these aren’t the only people we need to rescue tonight.” He led the way through the trees with Wyatt on his heels.

The second they were out of sight, Melinda blocked herself from all others except her mates and called out to them.
“You will not believe this.”

“Thank fuck,”
Trace responded.
“Do you know how worried we are?”

“Where are you?”
Keegan asked.

“Near the biologists. Wyatt and Isaiah went to speak to them.”

“Why not you?”
Trace asked.

“Don’t have clothes.”

“How did you get there so fast with two humans?”
Keegan asked.

“You will not believe it when I tell you. But let’s save it for later.”

“Are you safe, Melinda?”
Keegan’s thoughts were filled with alarm.

“Very. Trust me. I’ve never been safer. Now, tell me where we need to head next. Who else is on this mountain?”

Trace gave an exasperated sigh.
“You’re really going to run to another location and rescue more stranded people?”

“Until I can’t run another pace from exhaustion or because active lava is in the way.”

“Okay.”
Trace hesitated.
“Fine. Hikers. Die hards who wouldn’t come down when the earthquakes started. Camping. About a half mile to the west and a quarter mile down the mountain. At least that’s what they declared when they left the lodge. My dad is here with a list of who he knows is up there and where he thinks they are.

“A lot of people from both Sojourn and Cambridge are helping get to everyone who lives on the mountain, but sending them to find people without specific addresses is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Some of them are in range of the sirens. Others might not be able to hear the warnings. In either case, they won’t necessarily descend just because they hear a siren. They’ve been experiencing earthquakes for days.”

“I can scent them.”

“I know, baby. That’s why I’m going to direct you.”

Keegan interrupted.
“Please be careful, hon. You mean the world to me. Don’t do anything heroic that will get you killed.”

“Oh, trust me. I’m in good hands. Nothing’s going to happen to me up here.”

“I can’t wait to hear the details of this saga.”
Trace’s voice trailed off, and she cut the connection just as Wyatt and Isaiah returned.

“Done,” Wyatt said. “They were already packing up after that last quake. They don’t have communication, but they were concerned. They’re heading down as we speak. Who’s next?”

It was still weird speaking to any living being telepathically who wasn’t shifted, a mate, or a female relative. Weirder was knowing these two were actually bear shifters with powers that far exceeded her own.

She turned around to face the direction they would head next, almost stumbling when she found a spirit hovering yards away. Even in the darkness, she could easily make it out. There was just enough light from the moon and stars to help guide them.

Wolves didn’t need much light, but she had no idea how well bears could see.

Speaking of bears… Both men had shifted behind her and now flanked her.
“It’s one of yours,”
Wyatt communicated.
“I say follow it.”

“One of mine?”
She tipped her head to one side to face him.

“The spirit. It’s a wolf spirit. Ours are a lighter shade. The brown ones. Yours are black.”

“Are you kidding me?”
She had never known this tidbit of information, either. She’d always assumed the spirits she and the rest of her people witnessed where wolf guides.

On the flip side, she’d seen a variety of spirits that varied slightly in color, never thinking anything of it. There had been six hovering around the fracking site. Three were black. Three were brown. The brown ones were larger.

She shuddered as she faced the black aura in front of her now.
One of mine…

Interestingly, she’d often thought of the spirits as seeming to coalesce into the form of a bear. That’s how she thought of the auras at times. Other wolves described them as such also. Coincidence?

She shook her head to clear her mind and took off behind the spirit.
“Trace is communicating with me about the location of hikers. Do you two mind covering some more ground tonight?”

“Of course. That’s what we’re here for. We can keep up until there’s either no one to save or the volcano forces us down the mountain.”
Isaiah remained to her left and two paces behind.

Melinda followed the black aura at a quick pace. The aura moved in front of her at exactly the same rate. It knew. It was guiding her on her terms.

It didn’t take them long to reach the next destination. The aura stopped moving, shimmering in front of her and seeming less agitated than she’d ever seen. More like excited. Invigorated at the prospect of saving lives.

Without a word, the bears shifted and trod up to the tent on the side of the mountain.

She reached out to Trace while she waited for them.
“Trace? We found the hikers. Who’s next?”

“Melinda? How did you find them so fast?”

“I have a guide.”

“The two men?”

“No. Well, yes, that too. But a spirit is leading us.”

“Shit. Amazing.”

∙•∙

Isaiah called out as they approached the tent. “Hello? Is anyone in there?” He knew for a fact there were two people inside, both men. Both human. He could scent them from a distance, just as he could scent anyone from a distance.

As the zipper whipped open around the entrance, one man stuck his head out. Isaiah waited. Wyatt stood at his side, his hands in his pockets. It was the easiest way to appear non-threatening and a method Isaiah and Wyatt had adapted over the years to calm people when they approached. At their size and height, eyebrows rose all the time.

“What the hell?” the first guy asked as he crawled from the cramped tent and stood. “Are you lost?”

The second man slipped out behind the first, grabbing his partner’s forearm. “Gerald?”

Gerald, a blond lanky man with his hair flopping over one eye, clasped his hand over the other guy’s.

Isaiah spoke again. “You two aren’t safe. You need to get down the mountain as fast as possible. Do you have a car?”

Gerald’s brow scrunched. “About a half mile down. Are you talking about the quakes? They’ve been happening for days. Who cares? Are we on private property or something?”

Isaiah shook his head. “No. Nothing like that. There’s volcanic activity. The possibility of an eruption is imminent. It’s not safe here.”

Gerald gasped and tipped his head back. He shivered in his T-shirt and tight black jeans as he sniffed the air. “What is that smell?”

“Sulfur. From the volcanic gas,” Wyatt added. “Do you need assistance? Or can you make it out of here quickly?”

“Rick?” Gerald turned to his partner, squeezing his hand now and pulling it toward his chest.

Rick, the shorter of the two with darker hair cropped short, nodded. “We better get a move on.”

Gerald’s shoulders slumped as he mumbled under his breath. “Can we never catch a break?”

Rick turned to face Isaiah. “Thanks for the warning. How did you find us?”

Isaiah turned away quickly, shouting over his shoulder. “Getting coordinates from town. Got to go find others. Don’t waste any time. Get off this mountain.” He jogged behind Wyatt, not willing to stick around long enough to explain the unexplainable.