Nothing to Do With Pride (5 page)

KC looked at him with round eyes. “I’m sure…I mean, he must…right?”

As if on cue, the pilot came back over the intercom. “Assume the crash position. We are going in for an emergency landing. I repeat, assume crash position.”

After sharing another look, the men immediately crouched over into the correct position. KC let out a sigh as Dennis clasped his hand.

“We’ll be all right,” Dennis said, but he wasn’t entirely sure whether he said it for KC’s benefit or his own.

“Sure…sure we will. He’s a good pilot or Kevin wouldn’t have hired him.”

Dennis could hear the panic in KC’s voice. He didn’t get a chance to comment, though, because the plane plunged down and both men gasped from the sudden change in altitude.

Bouncing in his seat from the jarring motion of the plane, Dennis tried to stay calm for his mate…while inside he was screaming like a little girl in a horror movie.

I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die,
he silently chanted. He didn’t want to say the words out loud and freak out KC. Surely fate wouldn’t be so cruel to have him meet his mate only to take his beautiful fox away from him before they even had a chance for a life together.

Another bone-rattling shake and suddenly the plane plunged into freefall. Dennis’

stomach fell with it. The plane levelled out for a moment only to plunge again. Dennis was glad that they hadn’t had a chance to eat because any food in his stomach would’ve been decorating the cabin at that point. Even KC’s normally pale skin looked a little greenish.

Even though he’d been told to take the crash position, Dennis had naively thought they wouldn’t actually crash. That only happened in bad disaster movies, not during routine flights. He knew the pilot would try to come down in a sparsely populated area, but he equally hoped that wouldn’t strand them in some godforsaken corner of the state.

At a frightening speed, they slammed into the ground. Dennis let out a shout as the plane hit then flipped over tail over tip enough times that Dennis lost both count and consciousness.

* * * *

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KC opened his eyes. Everything hurt. It was as if a giant had put him in a drink shaker and rattled him about before pouring him out on the ground.

“Ouch.”

Everything he had—and a few things he wished he didn’t—ached. Rotating his head slowly, he realised he was dangling by the seatbelt and the ceiling lay below him.

Dennis.

Turning he found his mate hanging beside him. A red gash covered Dennis’ forehead and he was bleeding copiously from the wound.

“Oh no you don’t. You don’t get to leave me.” KC fumbled with his belt, but he couldn’t get the latch to release. His heart beat double time as he tried to reach his mate.

“Help!” he called out. Surely the pilot would help. No one came after he’d been shouting for a long time, and he realised that maybe the pilot hadn’t survived.

Focusing inward, KC transformed from man to fox. KC’s much smaller form slipped from the belt and his clothes and dropped to the ceiling.

Once on his feet, he transformed back to a man. He didn’t worry about his nudity since there wasn’t anyone around to be offended.

After a few failed attempts, he finally got Dennis’ seatbelt off. The fact that his mate didn’t regain consciousness with all his efforts disturbed KC a great deal. He let out a soft noise as he accepted Dennis’ weight, careful to not let his mate fall to the floor. He laid Dennis down and adjusted him to a more comfortable angle. After making sure Dennis’

breathing was regular, he went in search of the pilot.

Unfortunately, he found him.

KC had to pause and throw up the bile in his empty stomach before he could proceed.

After its multiple tumbles the plane had impaled itself—and the pilot—on a tree. A long branch neatly bisected the pilot.

The image would forever be burned onto KC’s retinas. Scrambling away from the sight, KC backtracked to the cabin. His hands shook as he returned to Dennis. What was he going to do?

“What can I do?” He was stronger than the average person but significantly smaller than Dennis. Not to mention he was afraid of moving Dennis any further. What if the man’s
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neck was injured, or his spine? It was difficult to kill shifters but not impossible, as proven by the pilot’s fate.

The smell of smoke reached KC’s nose. “Oh, damn.” He sniffed again, hoping he’d been mistaken. Nope. The smell still lingered. “Hell.”

He didn’t know what the smell came from, but he couldn’t imagine any scenario where the smell of smoke and a downed plane were a good combination. He had to get them out of there, right now!

Leaning down, he pulled up resources of strength he’d never accessed before and lifted Dennis across his shoulder in a fireman’s carry. He carefully traversed the upside down plane until he reached the outer door. It wasn’t until he got there that he realised he couldn’t open the door and hold Dennis at the same time.

Groaning, he set Dennis down and checked to see if his mate had made any improvement. The coyote shifter didn’t even twitch.

The smell of smoke became stronger and KC realised it must be coming from the engines. Which meant it might not be quite as urgent, but they still needed to get the hell out of there before the fire reached the cabin.

Hands shaking, KC struggled to open the upside down hatch door. He could do this.

He had to do this. All his adult life, KC had only had himself to worry about. Now, the responsibility of another person, his mate, weighed on him—a heavy burden he would be pleased to carry forever if the fates allowed and they got out of this horrible mess.

KC had planned for an evil sister and a potential battle, but he hadn’t expected that a freak lightning storm and a downed plane might finish them off first.

Finally, the hatch door released and he pushed it open with a sigh of relief.

He picked up Dennis again, his battered and bruised body screaming with the strain.

After stumbling out of the plane, he almost dropped him. Where the hell were they? A sparse forest stretched as far as his eyes could see like an evergreen, nightmarish maze.

Forcing his body to continue walking, KC waited until they were a good distance from the plane before he put Dennis down.

“I’m gonna go back and get our bags, babe. Be awake and ready for action when I return.”
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At this point KC didn’t really care about their clothing and he felt more than a little nervous about leaving Dennis alone in the open, but he didn’t have any options. They needed those tranq guns and if the plane held any food at all, grabbing it now could be the difference between surviving and dying. For all he knew, a street could be right over the hill, or they could still be miles into a strange forest. He wouldn’t know until he explored further.

Brushing back Dennis’ hair, KC placed a soft kiss on his forehead. “When I get back, I want you to be yelling at me about wandering off alone. Understand?”

KC’s muscles ached, his hands shook from the stress and an enormous headache pulsed behind his left eye, but he still needed to secure rations.

He gave a careful look at the burning engine. The fire looked like it might die out, giving KC a burst of hope that using the plane for shelter might be all right if they had no other options. He knew both Talan and Lou would be alerted when the plane didn’t land and they didn’t get their phone call.

Phone!

“I’m an idiot! I can call.”

KC reached into this pocket and sighed when his fingers wrapped around the small cell phone. Pulling it out, he looked at the dead screen.

“Shit!”

In between his mating with Dennis and getting ready for the trip, KC had forgotten to charge his phone. “Charger,” KC muttered. He knew he’d at least remembered to bring his solar chargers for both his cell phone and his computer. At the time he’d laughed at himself, but old habits died hard so he’d brought them anyway.

First, though, he had to find whatever he could to take back to his mate. A small first-aid kid tucked in a side cabinet was his first prize. “Bingo. You’re bound to have some aspirin or something in you.” A small refrigerator netted several bottles of water, a shrink-wrapped pound of smoked salmon and a gallon of milk. KC left the milk and grabbed the salmon and water. The salmon would be good protein until they could find something else.

If they got desperate, they could transform into their animal forms and hunt. KC wasn’t super fond of eating small, furry creatures, but he’d do what he had to in order to survive.

He also grabbed one of the blankets folded in a small cubby. He didn’t want to have too much to carry. Walking into the cockpit, he kept his eyes averted from the dead pilot as he
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searched the area for additional treasures. He found a sack lunch the man had obviously brought to eat later.

“Thanks,” KC told the dead pilot as he passed.

Exiting the plane, he set down his treasures and managed to pop open the cargo hold door. In a plane this size it wasn’t huge, so he easily found his and Dennis’ bags. He tucked his stolen finds into Dennis’ roomier bag.

Laden but happy with his collection, KC headed back to Dennis. “What the hell…” The spot where he’d left Dennis was empty. A slight indentation on the underbrush was the only sign the other man had ever laid there.

KC dropped the bags and looked around. Did Dennis wake up and leave on his own?

Surely he would’ve headed back to the plane. He didn’t want to shout in case Dennis was a captive and it alerted the captors to KC’s presence, but then wouldn’t any group that found Dennis be curious about any others who might have been there? His head whirled with thoughts of what could’ve happened to his mate. It wasn’t like they were in the middle of unfriendly territory. They were in the United States, and even if Dennis’ sister had turned feral, she wouldn’t have the accomplices or the ability to mastermind his capture.

The stress and pain in his head forced KC to sit down. His head pulsed from the headache he’d pushed to the back of his mind while he’d focused on getting everything together.

As the world faded to black, KC realised he might have a concussion.

* * * *

Dennis woke to sound of shouting. “I deserve to see him, he’s my brother!” Candice’s shrill voice pierced through his head as he heard a deeper rumble counter hers.

Blinking, he looked around. White-washed walls surrounded him in a small room with a blue, painted side table and a rag rug. It looked like a farmhouse or something.

“KC.” Fear jolted through Dennis as he struggled to stand.

“Oh, hey…what are you doing?” A strange man who would’ve made the sheriff look dainty rushed to settle Dennis back in the bed.

“I’ve got to get KC.”
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“Who’s KC?”

Dennis’ heart pounded so hard, he could feel it shaking his body. “My mate. I have to find him! What if he’s hurt? Oh fuck!”

He struggled against the strange man’s hold even as the other man tried to get him back into bed. “You’re in no condition to run off after anyone.”

“I have to. Did you hear me?” Dennis blinked some more as the man wavered in focus.

Green eyes looked down at him in concern. The man had dark hair and dark brown eyes.

Some Hispanic blood gave his skin a golden brown tone. Not shiny like the lions, but a darker, richer brown. “Who the hell are you?”

“I’m Nicholas, the leader of the coyotes.” The man puffed out his chest as if Dennis should be impressed.

“Well thank you, Nick, for bringing me here, but I’ve got to go find my mate.”

The coyote leader frowned. “I am not Nick.”

“I don’t care who the fuck you are! I need to get to my mate!”

“You do not disrespect me in my own house.”

Dennis’ head hurt, his bones ached and he wasn’t entirely certain he could even walk as his right leg pierced him with pain. He definitely wasn’t in any shape to take on a man who looked like he could snap him like a twig.

“Listen, I’m sorry if I was disrespectful, but I don’t know where I am and my mate is missing and possibly dead.”

“He’s not dead.” Nicholas said the words as if his words would make it so.

“How do you know that?”

“Because if he were dead you would know and your heart would be tearing apart in your chest. Search deep. Do you feel his absence?”

Dennis shook his head. “But we didn’t complete the bond. I claimed him but he didn’t claim me.”

“That does not matter. You are mates, yes?”

Thinking of his gorgeous fox mate, Dennis smiled. “Yes.”

Nicholas smacked him on the thigh. “Then you will know if he is dead.”

“But I still need to find him.”
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Nicholas turned to look at the person in the corridor. Dennis jumped at the shock of recognition. It was his sister…but not. Gone were her long blonde locks and in their place was a shorn cut just short of military regulation. Her easy smile had vanished beneath a grim press of the lips and the wary look she gave Dennis chipped off a piece of his heart.

“Candice, go tell the others to organise a search party.” Nicholas turned back to Dennis.

“What does he look like?”

He watched his sister leave without saying any of the things lingering in her eyes.

Turning back to Nicholas, Dennis said the first thing that came to mind when he thought of his mate. “He’s absolutely beautiful.”

Nicholas threw back his head and laughed. “A bit more detail might be handy. There aren’t a lot of people wandering through the woods, but we don’t want to grab the wrong one and drag him home.”

“He has red hair and stunning brown-gold eyes and he’s not exactly tiny, but small for a man.”

“What is he?”

“Fox shifter.”

“Ahh. Will he eat my chickens while he’s here?” Nicholas asked, frowning at Dennis.

Dennis shrugged. “I don’t know. We haven’t been together long. I’m sure if you ask him not to, he won’t.” The one thought ran through his head. “Why didn’t you search the plane for more survivors?”

“Candice found you and brought just you here. She saw the plane go down when she was out alone, searching for good hunting for later. In her concern for you, she didn’t check the plane. I meant to send others, but we are short on resources and as Candice said the wing was on fire, I didn’t to endanger my people on the off-chance there was another survivor.