“The two men?”
“No. Well, yes, that too. But a spirit is leading us.”
“Shit. Amazing.”
∙•∙
Isaiah called out as they approached the tent. “Hello? Is anyone in there?” He knew for a fact there were two people inside, both men. Both human. He could scent them from a distance, just as he could scent anyone from a distance.
As the zipper whipped open around the entrance, one man stuck his head out. Isaiah waited. Wyatt stood at his side, his hands in his pockets. It was the easiest way to appear non-threatening and a method Isaiah and Wyatt had adapted over the years to calm people when they approached. At their size and height, eyebrows rose all the time.
“What the hell?” the first guy asked as he crawled from the cramped tent and stood. “Are you lost?”
The second man slipped out behind the first, grabbing his partner’s forearm. “Gerald?”
Gerald, a blond lanky man with his hair flopping over one eye, clasped his hand over the other guy’s.
Isaiah spoke again. “You two aren’t safe. You need to get down the mountain as fast as possible. Do you have a car?”
Gerald’s brow scrunched. “About a half mile down. Are you talking about the quakes? They’ve been happening for days. Who cares? Are we on private property or something?”
Isaiah shook his head. “No. Nothing like that. There’s volcanic activity. The possibility of an eruption is imminent. It’s not safe here.”
Gerald gasped and tipped his head back. He shivered in his T-shirt and tight black jeans as he sniffed the air. “What is that smell?”
“Sulfur. From the volcanic gas,” Wyatt added. “Do you need assistance? Or can you make it out of here quickly?”
“Rick?” Gerald turned to his partner, squeezing his hand now and pulling it toward his chest.
Rick, the shorter of the two with darker hair cropped short, nodded. “We better get a move on.”
Gerald’s shoulders slumped as he mumbled under his breath. “Can we never catch a break?”
Rick turned to face Isaiah. “Thanks for the warning. How did you find us?”
Isaiah turned away quickly, shouting over his shoulder. “Getting coordinates from town. Got to go find others. Don’t waste any time. Get off this mountain.” He jogged behind Wyatt, not willing to stick around long enough to explain the unexplainable.
When they reached Melinda’s side, they shifted back into bear form quickly.
Wyatt nodded at the aura that reappeared in front of them. “And there’s our spirit guide. I say we follow it. Seems like it won’t fail us. Your mate surely has ten thousand other things to take care of.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Sharon stood next to Jackson in the sheriff’s office and listened to Trace’s boss, Sheriff Bergman, shouting out instructions to everyone around him. Every deputy was on call.
Next to him was Sheriff Richards from Sojourn. Since the epicenter of the quakes and the location of the eruption was north of Cambridge, every deputy available from both towns was present at the Cambridge sheriff’s office.
Even Pete Sandhouse was there.
Sharon wanted to glare at the asshole, but it seemed when push came to shove, he was willing to put his bigotry aside and save lives. At least she hoped so.
After the initial instructions were passed out to every willing hand in the high school parking lot, the command center had moved to the sheriff’s office.
The same group of people who had grumbled at each other as though they would sooner kill each other than get along just hours ago were now working side by side to save lives and arrange lodging for stranded hikers and workers from the logging site and the fracking company.
Sharon’s parents had opened their lodge to anyone who was displaced and needed a place to sleep or a meal to eat. Race, sexual orientation, religion, and even status as a human faded away under the crisis.
Sharon’s heart pounded every time she thought about Cooper up on the mountain. She didn’t want to distract him, but she also couldn’t stand going more than fifteen minutes at a time without word. “Coop.”
Jackson turned to face her, his hands fisted at his sides. He did that a lot. She knew it was because he needed to touch her and couldn’t in public. Or at least shouldn’t.
“I’m still here, babe.”
“What’s happening?”
“Nothing new. The volcanologist and the US Geological Survey are here. We’re setting up near a cave just south of the epicenter. There’s no guarantee an eruption would happen specifically in that location, however. It could easily be farther up the mountain.”
“Or not at all?” she asked.