I was shaking in reaction to the close call, gasping from the exertion. I looked around frantically for Mike. He was sitting on his butt on the ground, knees up, with his head between them. His breathing was strange, halting and gasping. I worried I had injured him in the fall.
“Mike! Are you all right?“
He sat up straight and looked at me with glee. “Let’s do that again! I haven’t had that much fun in years.“
“Do it again? I didn’t want to do it the first time! That scared the crap out of me. How can you be so calm?”
Mike stood and stepped over to me, holding out his hand to help me up. Despite my being stronger and faster than him, my knees were wobbly, and I appreciated his help.
“Because you said, ‘Have faith, Mike.’ I had faith that Lady Luna, the patron saint of lycanthropes, would see us through the danger.”
More jokes about starting a religion in my name. “I’m no saint. Landing without dying was pure luck.”
Mike rubbed his chest, where his good-luck charm hung. “Of course it required good luck, so it’s a good thing I was wearing this.”
That talisman was more than a good-luck trinket. Created by Mason from enchanted gold, infused with the magic of both Earth and Fae, it could do amazing things. Could it have helped? With magic, who could know?
“Let’s keep our luck going by finding Ariel and getting on with our mission.”
Despite the setback of losing our aircraft, our support team, and most of our equipment, Mike didn’t hesitate, “Luna, where you lead, I will follow.”
We trudged to the top of the nearest dune, relying on my ‘bullet radar’ to warn me if Ariel tried to take another shot. I turned my head to catch the scent of our last remaining contact.
We found her three sand dunes away. She was down in the hollow section between dunes, still in shadow while the tops of the dunes were barely touched by the morning light. She was hunched over, holding her left leg in her hands.
Far enough away that the scent of magic wouldn’t betray me, I activated the spell to disable her weapon’s cartridges. Even if she were faking an injury to trap us, she wouldn’t be able to shoot.
“Ariel, get your ass in gear.”
She jerked around and aimed her weapon at us. When she pulled the trigger, nothing happened.
“Sand must have jammed your weapon,” said Mike. “Lucky for us.”
“Get up here!” I commanded. “I have questions and you will answer them.”
“I can’t move. My leg’s broken.”
A broken leg shouldn’t stop a werewolf. We can recover from much worse than that.
“Heal yourself and get up here.”
“I can’t,” she gritted out. “My pack is gone. Without their energy, I can only heal at a normal rate until the moon comes up.”
Mike gave me a puzzled look, so I explained. “Members of a pack can share lunar energy, and alphas can control the energy flow. Alphas are stronger than the rest of the pack because they can direct the energy to themselves.”
“So without her pack…?”
“She’s just a hairy bitch with anger issues. At least until she can absorb some moonlight.”
“The lack of moonlight doesn’t seem to bother you. That gash on your cheek has already healed.”
I rubbed my cheek, dislodging dried blood. “I didn’t even notice. Anyway, higher-strength alphas can store lunar energy inside themselves.” I left it unsaid that, aside from my natural storage ability, I had an amulet, crafted by Mason, which held centuries of lunar energy.
Still turned away from us, Ariel muttered, “I will kill you, you know. For what you did to my pack.”
“See?” I said to Mike. “Anger issues.” I raised my voice. “I had nothing to do with what happened up there. I was lucky enough to see the glint of starlight on that incoming missile. You must have a mole in your organization. Once we complete this mission, I’m going to go up your chain of command and kill them one by one until I find out who tried to kill us.”
“The traitor isn’t Israeli. Of that, I am sure. Anyway, you’ll never be allowed back into my country. You may as well go back to the US now, commit suicide, and save everyone the trouble of hunting you down.”
“How do you plan on stopping us?” I included my allies in that statement.
“We kept your mate out of here.” She sounded petulant.
I shot a look at Mike. He was one of the few people who knew that my mate Mason was stuck in the magical equivalent of an ICU in Fae, recovering from our last adventure. The thought of Mason lying injured and unconscious sent a sharp pain through my heart. At least the cubs were safe, napping in a slow time bubble next to him.
Mike jumped in. “You think Mason didn’t come on this mission because he was afraid?”
“Why isn’t he here, then?”
“Because Mason coming here would be the magical equivalent of bringing a nuclear submarine into Jeddah port. It would restart the Gulf War.” He looked down and shook his head. “Only this time we would fight it with supernaturals and magic, neither of which have much regard for human life.”
I changed the subject. “Mike, there’s no sense arguing with her. Let’s head out.”
“But she’ll die here.”
“So? She swore she would kill me the first chance she gets.” I pointed to my nose. “And she meant it. She’s not lying. Hell, she tried to shoot us as soon as we showed up.”
“That’s because I thought you had sabotaged the aircraft.”
“You’re a werewolf like me. You can smell a lie,” I said. “I did not sabotage the aircraft. I will do everything in my power to save the hostages.”
There was a lengthy pause as she inhaled deeply.
“Did I speak the truth, or a lie?” I asked.
“Truth,” she confirmed reluctantly. “But you’re sneaky. Maybe you were targeted. That means you’re still responsible for the deaths of my pack.”
“See, Mike? There’s
