Zander closed his hand around hers, bringing it to the space between them to press it to his lips. The light kiss seared her fingers and sent Rae’s heartbeat into numbing swiftness. She needed his touch, his nearness, and she knew she craved it for more than a basic need for comfort.
A glance into Zander’s eyes told her that he needed the closeness too. They’d hold each other and make everything bad go away, if only for a little while.
A shrill, buzzing tinkle split the air. Rae jumped. Zander, unmoving, slowly closed his eyes.
“Fucking cell phones,” he muttered.
He opened his eyes again, silver glittering in the black, and carefully released Rae’s hand. The chain tatt on the small of his back stretched as he reached to the bench where he’d left his phone.
He swiped it on and lifted it to his ear. “Go for Zander,” he growled.
Rae was about to make a quip about lame people who said Go for when they answered their phone but it died when she saw his face.
All impatience, interest, or teasing drained from him, leaving Zander’s expression absolutely blank. His gaze rested on the wall in front of him, his face unmoving, no warmth in his eyes.
Rae couldn’t hear the words on the other end, even with her Shifter hearing, as much as she strained to listen. A man, was all she could tell. He was pitching his voice low, likely deliberately, which meant he knew Zander had a Shifter with him.
One emotion crept back into Zander’s eyes—anger. “Why don’t you use your own?” he snapped. “What’s the point?”
He listened to the answer and then said, “Yeah, yeah, all right. We’ll be there.”
Zander ended the call and threw the phone to the bench. When he turned to Rae, she took an involuntary step back. The rage in his eyes burned through him in white-hot heat.
Rae saw in that moment that while Zander might play the half-insane recluse who only lived to fish, he was in truth a huge, fearsome polar bear, stronger and more ferocious than any bear Shifter she’d ever met. He could have stopped Eoin and Rae coming on board, if he’d decided, with one swat of his giant paw. He’d let them on because he’d chosen to.
Rae watched Zander suppress his fury and the power that went with it. When he spoke, his voice was level though tinged with sorrow.
“A Shifter is asking for a Guardian, Little Wolf. We’re the only ones who can get there in time and so that Guardian is going to have to be you.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Zander watched Rae go through a rapid succession of emotions—surprise, disbelief, dismay, anger, terror.
“Why?” she asked, her gray eyes enormous. “I’m not ready. There are plenty of Guardians who know what they’re doing. Why do they want me?”
Zander kept his voice as gentle as possible, knowing she could spook any second. “It’s an elderly Shifter, a wolf, out in the country on the Alaskan peninsula, not far from here. He’s un-Collared and doesn’t live in a Shiftertown. All members of their clan have either gone to dust or have been taken to a Shiftertown in the lower forty-eight. He wants a Lupine Guardian, and the son was determined to find one even if it has to be a woman. The lesser of two evils, his son says.” The son had said many more choice words, expressing his fury that he had little alternative. “His dad’s old and highly respected and gets what he wants.”
Rae shook her head, wisps of hair moving about her face. “There are other Lupine Guardians. The Guardian in the Las Vegas Shiftertown—Neal, I think his name is—is Lupine.”
“Too far away. We’re close and can get there in time. The Las Vegas Guardian can’t, even if he arranged to fly.”
Shifters weren’t allowed to fly on commercial airlines—they weren’t allowed to even leave their state without special permission. That said, Shifters were excellent at getting around the rules. There were people out there who would fly Shifters where they needed to go, in secret—like the one who’d flown Eoin and Rae to the sparsely populated, cold island where another human who didn’t mind helping Shifters kept his boat, but it took time and money to set it up. Plus, it was a huge risk. If Neal was caught, he’d be arrested and probably killed.
“You said we were two hours from Alaska,” Rae pointed out.
“Probably a bit closer now.” Zander knew she was arguing from fear, willing him to tell her she didn’t have to go. He opened a cupboard and pulled out dry jeans and underwear—the clothes he’d worn to train had shredded and drifted away when he’d turned bear underwater. “We can get to the Lupine before he dies.”
“Can’t you heal him?” Rae asked in rising alarm.
Zander dropped the towel to slide into the clothes. While a few minutes ago, Rae had gazed at him in hunger, now she only watched, frozen.
“I plan to try,” Zander said as he zipped and buttoned. “But he’s nearly four hundred years old, which is the upper limit for a Shifter. At this point, keeping him alive might not be the kindest thing to do.”
“But you’ll at least try,” Rae pleaded, clamping her arms over her chest.
“I can’t know until I walk into the situation. I promise you, Little Wolf, if he can be healed, I’ll do it.”
Zander pulled on a dark gray sweatshirt and buckled his belt around his jeans. Rae remained in place, every line of her body tight, as though she’d fall to pieces if she unclenched.
Zander held out a hand to her. “I’ll be right beside you the whole time. I won’t leave you alone, sweetheart. Promise.”
Rae regarded his outstretched hand in panic. “Zander, I can’t do this. I’m not ready.”
“I know you’re scared. But you don’t have to worry. The sword will do the work.” Zander opened the door, still holding out his hand. “Think of it this way—if I can’t heal him with my gift, you can ease his pain with yours. This Shifter will either live today or go cleanly into the Summerland.”
Rae’s eyes never left his hand. Her chest rose and fell under the ribbed tank, then finally she lifted her head and gave him a tight nod.
“All right,” she said, without taking his hand. “We’ll go.”
She snatched up her bulky sweater, not looking at him. Zander curled his fingers to a fist, then led the way out of the cabin and topside.
* * *
The boat started to Zander’s touch. It didn’t always—sometimes he had to coax it, swear at it, even go below to the engine and kick it. Today the engine roared to life and the readouts came up without a problem.