“Planning ahead?” she asked, looking at him with a raised eyebrow.
“Keeping my options open,” he replied. “We have a small fleet of planes that could have taken you to your destination, but for the weather conditions, this baby has the engines to muscle through the wind. I’d had her fueled up earlier because I like to go out before dawn, and I didn’t want to mess with it in the dark. I wanted to just climb in and go.”
She nodded. “Sounds nice. I love watching the sun rise over the curvature of the earth. That never gets old.”
Joe was surprised by her words. They were so close to how he felt, he was thrown for a moment. He went back to his checklist, glad to see he was almost done. He finished up and stowed the document, preparing to taxi the plane out of the hangar. There was just enough room to get around the plane that had brought this unique female here.
Joe saw Kevin watching and waiting to close up the hangar for the night. He was on the phone, but he waved to Joe as they passed. Joe knew he’d surprised his youngest by this impulsive decision to fly off suddenly, away from his Pack and all that he’d built here. He didn’t know why he’d decided on this course, but it felt right.
Part of being Alpha was following his instincts, and right now, every last one of them was telling him to leave his hard-won territory and help this woman with her mission. He was committed now, to saving the life of whoever it was who was waiting for that kidney. He didn’t know why. He didn’t know what was so all-fired important about what they were doing. He had no clue as to how it would all end, but he knew, deep down in his Alpha heart-of-hearts, that what they were doing was important. Vital, even.
Something about this woman, and this situation, called to his deepest instincts. He had to help her. There was simply no other way to go.
Joe was pleasantly surprised by how well they worked together in the cockpit as the flight went on. The takeoff was a bit challenging with the crosswinds, but before too long, they’d climbed out of the weather and were up above the clouds.
“I love it up here.” Enid’s voice came to him over the headsets they were both wearing.
“I know what you mean,” he told her. While below, a tempest raged, above the clouds, they were bathed in starlight. He looked over at her in the darkened cockpit and saw her gaze out at the constellations, her eyes filled with wonder.
“I always feel a little closer to Her up here, you know?” Enid said, her voice low with reverence. She looked out at the stars for a moment longer before shaking off her wonder and refocusing on the chart she held in her lap. “We don’t have far to go, actually. In my little plane, it would’ve taken longer, but this jet will get us there in no time.”
“Well, you said time was of the essence,” Joe reminded her. “This is the newest craft in the Big Wolf fleet and the most powerful. Nothing but the best for a priestess of the Lady.”
“Much obliged, Alpha. Much obliged. And the recipient of our cargo will be much better off the faster we get this to her.” Enid glanced in back, checking on the cooler with the organ in it that she’d strapped down in visual range of her seat.
“Who is it going to?” Joe asked.
Enid looked at him, meeting his gaze in the darkened cockpit. “There’s a very small, newly formed wolf Pack in St. Christopher. The Alpha is a good guy, and he only just found his mate. She’s human and only just learning our ways. The kidney is for her.”
An Alpha’s mate? Joe should have asked more questions before jumping into action. He almost shook his head. Normally, he was known as a cautious Alpha, who thought everything through. Tonight, he was acting out of character. What was it about this woman—this priestess—that made him act before thinking?
“There may be a little friction when we land,” Joe said, thinking through the likely outcomes of his presence in another Alpha’s territory.
“I thought about that,” Enid replied. “He’s going to be at the airport, waiting for us. I could call ahead and ask to speak with him. Give him a bit of warning.”
“Over the radio?” Joe shook his head. “That won’t do. Even speaking vaguely, anyone might hear and interpret what you’re saying. No. We’ll just have to brazen this out. You said he was a good guy. I suspect he’s just about flipping out with worry for his mate, right? That adds a variable to the equation, but if he recognizes me as dominant or even just as an equal, we should be all right.”
“I’m going down the steps first, regardless,” Enid insisted. “They’re expecting me. I can always take him aside and try to explain how much help you’ve been.”
“That could work,” Joe said, but he didn’t like it. He didn’t like sending this frail human woman down the stairs first, into possible confrontation. It went against everything he stood for as Alpha. As protector.
But she wasn’t Pack. Why did he feel so strongly protective over a woman who wasn’t even part of his Pack? A human, no less. Joe didn’t understand his own instincts on this one.
Their course was a simple one. Basically a straight line once they got around the weather. In fact, they were already beginning their descent. Thankfully, the storm system had already cleared the area of Louisiana they were heading toward, and aside from some residual winds, they would come down to dry weather.
Joe asked Enid to handle communications with the tower while he piloted the craft downward. After all, they had been expecting her, and she knew some of the folks waiting on the ground. She handled herself as the trained professional he’d been led to expect, and he could just imagine her flying a fighter jet, nerves cool as steel.
She was an impressive woman. For the first time in a very long time, Joe found himself fascinated by a female. Since his mate had died in a tragic accident, he hadn’t been interested in any women. Not shifter women. Not human women. Nobody had roused his interest in any way.
Furthermore, this female roused the interest of his wolf. Something that shouldn’t be able to happen. A shifter got one mate, and that was it. One shot at happiness, granted by the Goddess. If a mate died, often the other would follow, but Joe had stayed. For his children. For his Pack. He’d stayed because he’d been needed, but his heart had been forever shattered.
Or so he’d thought.
Why, then, was he finding the human woman so attractive? He’d not found any female attractive in this way since his mate. It shouldn’t be possible, but yet… The longer he was around Enid, the more he wanted to be around her. Something strange was happening, and he was at a loss to explain it.
Chapter Three
As planned, Enid was first off the jet. The tarmac was wet, and there was a dampness in the air, but it wasn’t raining here. The storm had passed. She could see lights glistening through the trees—Christmas lights on houses in the area, twinkling white, gold and all colors of the rainbow, depending on the taste of those that had strung them. The young Alpha wolf whose mate was so ill met her at the bottom of the steps.
“The Alpha from Big Wolf is right behind me,” she warned the younger man in a voice barely above a whisper. “He’s a good guy, and this is his jet. Play nice with him. He’s here to help.”
A low growl came from the younger man, but he tamped it down as Joe appeared on the top step of the small jet. The two dominant wolves sized each other up as Joe ambled down the steps to the ground, but it was Joe who held out his hand first, clearly the elder and more dominant of the two strong wolves. But he wasn’t playing his dominance card. No, there was true compassion in his eyes, if Enid was any judge, and he was treating the other Alpha as an equal—or, at least, as someone worthy of respect.