1. Chapter 1 #2
“You know that’s not how this works, Max. The sooner we get to Talinsk, the sooner we can get to work.” I shook my head, watching the private jet take off and when we got to the four-seater Cessna, I tossed my bag into the cargo area and grabbed her suitcase. “Thanks.”
Her gaze locked onto me and I wished that I could see her, really appreciate how beautiful I knew she was, interpret her emotions through her expressions, have a conversation where I didn’t struggle to know exactly what she meant.
I was aware that lycans, wolf shifters, were more prone to prosopagnosia, but my case was severe.
It was a disability and made social situations extremely awkward, but I hadn’t always been that way.
I remembered faces from my childhood — friends, relatives, acquaintances — as clearly as if I'd seen them yesterday, but anyone I’d met since was a blur.
As we boarded the plane, and I slipped on the giant headphones for the flight, I refused to think about it.
I'd learned the hard way that it was pointless to dwell on things I couldn’t change. I was here to work, not ruminate, and the sooner we got this shit taken care of, the sooner I could get back to that empty thing I called a life.
“This will be a short flight if we don’t run into anything unexpected, maybe forty-five minutes.
” The pilot briefed us through the headphones as we got into position and readied for takeoff.
I stared through the window as the captain focused on the controls and we roared down the runway, picking up speed before we lifted into the air.
Isla was up front and I stretched out on the uncomfortable bench in the back.
I was big; taller than my father had been by at least a head despite the lousy food in the group home where I'd spent the middle part of my teenage years. It was tough, but I’d been forced to fend for myself and it was a skill that had come in handy.
Fighting was normal; I'd get the shit kicked out of me, then I'd kick the shit out of someone else — it was about asserting dominance.
Humans also understand the implicit hierarchy present in their social structures.
After getting rejected from the Army for my disability, I bumped around between a few odd jobs and was ultimately tracked down by The Institute for Extrahuman Research, known colloquially as The Peerage.
Working for the government was a hell of a lot better than starving; it didn’t hurt that I fell for Isla the second I saw her.
I glanced at Isla. I'd always remember the day she found me, plucking me off the self destructive path I was headed down like my goddamn fairy godmother. Everything changed, I had a purpose, a reason for pushing ahead.
She was fae, the only one I'd ever met and I knew so little about her that it drove me crazy.
I knew her favorite tea, her disdain for low thread count sheets, and how she liked to be touched, but anything deeper was kept hidden, locked away.
I was aware that she'd been through a lot, but she wasn't the kind of person to dwell on the past.
We connected instantly. I had barely dated in high school — no girl dreamed of going out with a broke loser with nothing but the clothes on his back.
She saw something in me, coaxed out strengths I didn't know I possessed and even though I wanted to be more than friends with benefits, it was probably better this way — easier, at least.
She chatted with the pilot and my gaze drifted over the dramatic landscape below.
Immense trees carpeted the mountains and valleys that stretched towards the horizon.
The wolf inside of me grew restless. He wanted to run through the open landscape, to hunt and rut and be free of the human body in which he was kept kenneled.
I'd indulge him later, but now I needed to focus on why we were here.
I exhaled, crossing my arms and trying to get as comfortable as I could in the cramped back seat, almost dozing off just as we started our descent. I jerked awake as the landscape revealed itself from beneath the clouds.
Talinsk Island was a sparsely inhabited volcanic rock fifty miles off the west coast of Alaska. Its population of just over two hundred people and several large herds of muskox fluctuated significantly throughout the year.
The forested mountains had remained on the mainland. The landscape was as desolate as I expected. We deplaned and I gazed into the gray sky, then inhaled, surveying my surroundings and shivering as the wind chilled me to the bone.
It was the first time I’d ever felt cold.
“What do you think?” Isla asked as we waited for our ride under a shelter next to the heavily patched tarmac.
The plane that brought us was already getting the hell out of Dodge, leaving us to fend for ourselves in this godforsaken place.
A deeper chill passed through me and I sincerely regretted not bringing a heavier coat.
“Are you asking if I like Talinsk or if I think we’ll get to the bottom of whatever you dragged me here for?”
“Both,” Isla said, then pulled her fur lined coat tighter around her body.
I offered her my thin leather jacket and she refused, then stared towards the west coast, her gaze focused on the array.
The line of dishes rose out of the ground in the distance and were a dramatic contrast to the almost flat surface of the island.
A classic Bronco crept towards us and I looked at Isla, then shrugged.
“I won't be able to answer that until you give me more information.”
“Sorry I've been so tight-lipped, but I needed to tell you in person. Hopefully we can get some time alone tonight.” Her voice was like silk and her strange accent caressed the words, giving them extra weight.
Normally I'd be thrilled at the thought of being with her, but the spark that had sizzled between us before seemed grounded.
Maybe she'd moved on, found someone more suitable, some guy with a fat bank account and a taste for the finer things.
The vehicle pulled up and I opened the front door for Isla, then tossed our bags in the rear before climbing into the back seat and rubbing my hands together in an attempt to get the blood moving.