Chapter 7
SEBASTIAN
After a few tense days on the space station, checking the shuttle for every possible weakness, we finally dropped out of orbit and used our last burst of fuel to enter the atmosphere.
As soon as we did, we received transmissions from the cruise ship.
I refused to answer the ship's call-sign for a full minute, so my dad grabbed someone's hot mic and shouted, "Sebastian, say something! "
Alone, I would have returned to face my father's consequences for our botched mission. Except I wasn't alone. Gunnar was a wolf like me, and he was my mate. He needed my protection.
I flipped the switch to turn off all shuttle communication. "May I borrow your cell phone?"
Gunnar rolled his eyes. "We're crash-landing a stolen shuttle, and you want to order a pizza?"
Gods, he was ridiculous. I couldn't help but laugh as I wriggled my fingers toward the pocket where I knew he kept his phone.
"Fine." He took it out and reached across the aisle but pulled his hand back at the last second. "Lock screen," he muttered. "Unless you planned on hacking it."
"That would be a breach of privacy." I was pretty sure he used his sister's birth month and date as his code, but I kept that information to myself for now. He was helping me for once, and I was grateful.
"So's kidnapping, but you don't seem too averse to that."
"I'm not kidnapping you," I said as I dialed the only number I knew by heart.
"Yes, you are," Gunnar said at the same time my best friend answered the call with, "Jay-sus Christ! Seb, is that you?"
"Shh," I waved a hand at Gunnar. He scowled at me as I turned my attention toward getting us somewhere safe.
"Hey, Lonnie. Yeah, it's me. Do you still have those backdoor coordinates to the space shuttle I gave you before we left?"
"Sure do! I've already got you pulled up. Your dad's been watching the skies since you returned to the space station. Why'd you do that, by the way?"
"Long story. I'm trying to head toward Hawaii, the big island. Were my coordinates even close?"
"You're off by an ocean."
"Shit, what?"
"You're going to land in the Indian Ocean, by my calculations."
I heaved a sigh of relief. The Indian Ocean was still better than the Atlantic. My dad had no hope of intercepting us before we disappeared.
"How close to land?"
"You'll probably wait a few hours before they find you, but I can send you a ship."
"Shit." I glanced at Gunnar and whispered into the phone, "please tell me you're not sending a bunch of pirates to get us."
"I could say that, but you're landing off the coast of Somalia.
I'm sending bloody pirates to get you. Would you rather I send the nearest aircraft carrier?
It's days away, and the government will have questions for you and your dad.
" Voices crackled across what sounded like a CB radio on his end.
"You are trying to avoid Ivan, aren't you? "
"Yes." I hissed through my teeth and risked another glance at Gunnar, who glared at me like he'd heard every word. He had wolf hearing and, now that we'd cleared reentry, the shuttle was too quiet.
"They're already on their way. Looks like that naval ship is on the move, too, but it'll take them a half-hour to turn in your direction, and by then we'll be halfway there. Do you need the shuttle?"
"No. Let him find it."
"Good. I don't know the shape of the ship these pirates run, but it's probably not a tugboat."
"We'll wait until they knock to open the door."
"We still haven't tested the door," Gunnar reminded me. "What if we can't open it?"
"Do they have a cutting torch?" I asked Lonnie.
"They're pirates! What do you think? You're lucky I like you, roomie." He sighed. "That aircraft carrier is turning faster than I thought it could."
Just our luck. If the navy caught us before the pirates did, my dad would be the least of our worries. "Please hurry."
"This is going on our running tab. Munich. October 30th. You'd better be there."
"I promise. I wouldn't miss your fiftieth birthday for the world."
"Asshole. I'll be thirty, same as you. Are you already senile?"
We insulted each other a few more times before I disconnected and handed Gunnar his phone.
"Pirates?" he asked.
"It's either that or answer a bunch of questions when the navy finds us."
"Why is the navy upset with us, exactly?"
"If it were serious, they would have blown us out of the sky.
" I didn't want to think about the number of international treaties we'd most likely violated by landing nowhere near US soil.
"Swear to God, I thought we were landing near Hawaii.
I have a resort there. My friend Lonnie runs it for me. That's why I called him."
Gunnar turned to his computer screen, his fingers ghosting over his keyboard faster than I'd ever seen anyone type. "You couldn't have been off by that much."
I didn't recognize the computer program as one of Paskal's shuttle protocols. "Are you … did you hack into the internet?"
"They gave us a link, so yes." He shrugged. "We're right where you wanted to be, in the Pacific Ocean."
I huffed a relieved laugh. "That bastard Lonnie played me."
"Paskal's got a ship in the general area, but it's already a day north of Hawaii on its way to Vancouver. There's a naval fleet stationed at Pearl Harbor for repairs, but we'll be on the Big Island before they can reach us."
He pointed to his screen, where the blip for our shuttle flashed red about a centimeter below the big island on the map.
"Why is it blinking?"
Gunnar tucked his keyboard away and checked his seatbelts. A split-second later, the shuttle bounced and shook from impact. It hit hard, rattling the consoles and shaking us in our seats. Then, we skidded across the water, reminding me of the speedboats I used to race around the islands.
By the time we slowed to a stop, Gunnar looked like he was going to be sick. He unbuckled in record time, and then proceeded to undress to his boxers.
"What the hell—" was as far as I got before he shifted into his wolf in the small space between our seats. He lay down and rested his head on his front paws by my feet.
I couldn't resist the soft fur of his ears. I stroked them and then scratched behind them.
"Feeling better?"
"Yes. Much."
"Do you always get sea sickness?"
He nodded his big wolf head and sat back on his haunches.
"Well, I need the Gunnar with opposable thumbs to help me with the airlock."
He returned to his human form and rested his back against the cockpit door. "I didn't know if it would work, but I had to try."
"Did it?"
He shrugged. "I'm still queasy, but I won't puke on your space boots. Er, I hope."
He still looked a little green, but at least he could function.
Lonnie had wanted to surprise us when he greeted us in person.
At least, that's what he said when we finally got the airlock and bay doors open, and he helped us onto the prettiest boat on the ocean, my 17-foot speedboat with a 450-horsepower in-board motor and green shadow flames licking the gold flake paint.
Lonnie was a monster of a man at six-feet-four and three hundred pounds.
He'd slimmed down from his linebacker days, but I still preferred to have him at my back rather than a hired bodyguard.
His long black hair was pulled back into a braided ponytail, and his thick black beard hid the dimpled chin and chiseled jawline of the preppy gym rat I first met.
"This is my boat," I said in the sternest voice I could muster.
Lonnie had strict orders to leave her at home after he almost beached her on a coral reef.
I patted the warm vinyl seat as I slid over to give Gunnar room beside me.
"It's okay, baby," I whispered to the boat. "We'll get you home soon."
"It's faster than your yacht," Lonnie said.
Gunnar turned to me with a look of betrayal.
"I don't have a yacht," I lied.
Lonnie returned to his place at the wheel. "I wasn't joking about that aircraft carrier turning on a dime. It's headed this way. Your dad has higher connections than I thought."
"He wants his shuttle back. It'll take them a few minutes to figure out how to tow it." We'd left the airlocks open with the waves lapping at her sides. It was only a matter of time before a wave caught the opening just right and she took on water.
Gunnar sat on the bench seat beside me. In the shuttle, I'd had my seatbelts to keep me in line, but here, I draped my arm over his shoulders and pulled him against me. He fit perfectly under my arm, though his glare from so close made me regret my life decisions almost immediately.
"What are you doing?" He pushed off my chest, stiff-arming me until he was on the opposite end, where only my fingertips could brush his shoulder.
"You're my mate," I whispered so only he could hear me over the engine's roar and the waves splashing against the side of the boat as Lonnie picked up speed.
"Maybe when we're wolves, but when we're human … we don't fit."
"I think we fit together pretty well," I said, remembering how wonderful he felt against my side.
He shook his head and turned his attention to the spray of water arcing alongside the boat. This time, he laughed when I scooted closer and pulled him against me again.
"You don't take a hint, do you."
I nosed along his neck and up the close-shaved part of his scalp. He smelled divine, even after a week without a real shower. "I want to lick you."
"Please don't."
"Port's busy today." Lonnie pointed, but he was still revving the engine so high, I saw nothing but sky out the windshield. I kissed Gunnar's temple, which earned me a swat on the chest before I ventured against gravity to the front passenger seat opposite Lonnie.
"Holy shit, you don't say." My resort had its own dock three miles north of Kailua Bay.
I was thankful for it today. "Did Dad offer a reward for information on our whereabouts or something?
" I could see a few news cameras setting up on the boardwalk, and several fishing vessels prepared to set sail.
"You're lucky you left the shuttle," Lonnie said. "That would have been a dead giveaway."
"This is my boat," I reminded him. A few of the younger folks on the dock had already turned their phones toward us. "He already knows we're here."
"You'll be in the air in less than a half-hour," my best friend in the world reassured me. "Meanwhile, he'll think you and your new boyfriend are at the Vegas suite for the next week."
I blinked at the title. The Vegas suite was the perfect ruse, but Gunnar was so much more than my boyfriend.
"Where are you headed?" Lonnie asked. "Wait. Don't tell me. Plausible deniability. Tell your pilot when you're in the air."
He knew me too well. "One day, you're coming with me."
"Munich," he reminded me. "October 30th. Don't forget."
"I won't," I promised. It would take a natural disaster or prison time to keep me from spending my bestie's birthday with him.
The resort's boat had just returned from a snorkeling trip, judging by the guests' gear. Lonnie surprised me by skipping the dock and pulling around to the boat house instead. We pulled alongside the 75-foot offshore yacht I kept there when I wasn't using it.
"No yacht?" Gunnar pointed at her hull, where her name, Moonrise, glittered in the same gold flake paint outlined in black.
"That's the resort's ship."
"We just passed your resort's ship," he reminded me. "It looked a little … less."
Lonnie killed the engine and cackled at us. "You two argue like an old married couple. I love it." I hopped out of the boat while Lonnie helped Gunnar find his land legs. After so long in space, we both needed to be checked out by a doctor.
"Have Dr. Monroe meet us on the runway," I said.
"She's already on her way. Don't I take care of you?"
Lonnie still held Gunnar around the waist. My wolf hated that. It took all my willpower to pry his hands from Gunnar without throwing him across the boathouse. I shoved him toward the door a little harder than intended.
He only laughed as he ushered us into the black Lincoln SUV waiting outside. I heard a commotion from somewhere further inland, but Lonnie shut us securely in the back and hopped into the front passenger seat before anyone reached us.
"Hey boss!" Clint, the resort's head of security greeted me from behind the wheel as the pane of tinted glass came down between us. "Don't worry, we'll—"
The window sealed shut, and I was alone with Gunnar once more.
"What the fuck was all that?" he asked. "Are you a secret agent or something?"
"This is a pretty uneventful trip to the resort," I said. "You should see the place when my dad is here."
He blinked. "Who are all these people?"
"Lonnie was my roommate in college. He's my best friend. Clint's the head of the resort's security detail, but when I'm in town, he's my personal driver."
"And the doctor?" He frowned at me.
"Dr. Monroe will check us over on the flight. She's been studying astronaut data for the last few years, ever since my dad said I would be going to space."
"I take it they're not taking us to the local airport?"
Clint had already pulled to a stop at the airstrip outside the resort. "No. We're taking a private jet."
"To where?"
"I haven't decided yet." That wasn't true. I knew exactly where I wanted to take Gunnar, high into the Swiss Alps and far away from the demands of my father.