the end of the day, they’ll fall in line or they can find a new pack.”
Rhodes chuckled and grinned at me. “Hell yeah.”
Even Dante cracked a small smile.
I looked at my sister. “I want you there, too.”
She blinked, surprised.
“Most of the people I trust are standing right here,” I told her. “I’ll need all of you for what comes next.”
Rhodes sighed hard. “Be a hell of a lot easier if we knew exactly what was coming next.”
“We do,” I replied grimly, finally giving into the urge to pull the chain from my pocket. I clenched it in my fist, the crescent moon pendant digging into my palm. “We stop Norwood, we find the missing shifters, and I get my girl back.”
3
Skye
By the time the plane landed on a snow and ice covered runway, my nerves were shot and my brain was turning faster than I could keep up with. Whatever medicine Dimitri had given me was starting to wear off, and the jarring jolt from the wheels touching down made my stomach roll with nausea as my pulse hammered against my temples.
The roaring inside the plane was deafening as the flaps lifted, slowing our arrival. I glanced over, relieved to see that Tate was still out of it.
The plane slowed, the noise receding, as Dimitri unhooked his belt buckle across from me and stood up before the plane coasted to a gentle stop. He jerked his head at the guys in the back and called out a few words in Russian that I didn’t understand.
He looked down at me. “We’re switching to a helicopter.”
“Why?” I asked, looking out my window at the small building that served as the airport. There was no one around. Dirty snow mounds lined the airstrip, but a fine mix of snow and ice was still coming down.
“The pack is located in the mountains. We can’t land a plane there, so we have to switch. Usually we’d drive, but there’s a storm coming in from the North that we won’t beat. The last place we want to be is driving up a narrow road on the side of a mountain when it starts coming down.”
The mechanical beep of a lock behind me had me twisting in my seat to see the door opening as the two men unlocked it.
I could make out a vague shape in the dim light. A man was slumped over in his seat. From this angle I couldn’t tell if it was Elias or my uncle, though. Still, panic made me stiffen in my seat, my fingers curling around the armrest until my knuckles were white.
Dimitri’s hand touched my shoulder lightly. “They can’t hurt you, Skye. They won’t wake up for several more hours. Besides, we won’t all fit in one helicopter. They’ll be in a second one behind us.”
“Tate’s coming with us,” I told him, shrugging away from his touch and unbuckling my belt as the plane coasted to a stop. I shot a glance at her, not willing to be separated.
A smile tugged at his lips, a mixture of amusement and compliance. “Okay.”
He turned to the front of the plane and snapped out another sentence in Russian to the men in the front of the plane. One headed for the small galley separating the interior of the plane from the cockpit and the other came towards us.
I stood up, warily watching the newcomer as he headed towards us.
He was tall enough that the blonde spikes in the front of his hair nearly brushed the ceiling. He had to angle his large body to move down the aisle to us, his icy blue eyes flicking from me to Tate and then settling on Dimitri. He settled his massive hands on the headrests of the seats on either side of the aisle, his tattooed knuckles curving around the leather until it squeaked in protest.
“This is Alexei,” Dimitri told me, standing between us. “He’s going to move Tate to the helicopter, okay?”
I narrowed my eyes at him before looking at Tate. I wished like hell she was either able to walk on her own or I could lift her myself. Something told me Dante and Ryder would have my ass for letting some strange guy carry her around.
“No,” I said finally, giving Alexei another glance, trying not to stare too long at the tattoo on his throat, before shifting my gaze to my brother.
Dimitri shot me a look. “You want me to leave her here?”
“No, you’re going to carry her,” I informed him