“Finn!” She spun, hurling herself at him. “I have to leave, right now!”
“Then we are leaving.” He pulled her close to his side, his sword raised and ready. “And I will kill anyone who stands in our way.”
Scarlet made an impatient sound under her breath. “Put that thing away before someone gets hurt. As I was saying, Mrs. Hernandez, the next plane isn’t scheduled to arrive at the island until Saturday. I can’t get it here any faster than that.”
“I can’t wait until Saturday. I have to get home!”
“Martha, what is wrong?” He didn’t lower his blade yet.
“It’s Roddie, my youngest son. He’s gone missing. Nita called and called, she’s frantic with worry. He was last seen on rattlesnake territory and half the pack is baying for war and she doesn’t know how to settle them…” Martha took a deep breath, her jaw setting again into the firm line he’d come to know so well. “I have to go,” she repeated, more calmly. “Scarlet, please, there must be something you can do.”
“There might be something leaving from the mainland.” The resort manager took out her cellphone, frowning down at the screen. “Yes, there’s a flight out in four hours. Bastian?”
A man with the unmistakable smoke-and-metal scent of a dragon shifter stepped forward from the watching group of staff. “I can fly her there in time. We’ll have to leave soon, though.”
“Travis, Breck, go help pack up Mrs. Hernandez’s cases,” Scarlet ordered. “Mrs. Hernandez, I’ll book your ticket now.”
“Two tickets.”
All eyes turned to him.
“I think airport security might object to the sword,” Tex murmured from somewhere in the crowd. “Though I’d love to see them try to take it off him.”
He ignored the whispers, focused only on Martha. “I am coming with you.”
For a second, he imagined he saw a flare of relief in her eyes—but then she pushed him away. “No. This is my pack. My responsibility.”
“And you are mine. I am coming with you.”
“You can’t, Finn!” She retreated a step, holding up both hands as if to stop him from following. “They don’t even know about you! How on earth would I explain why a shark’s interested in coyote business?”
“You could tell them the truth.” The instant, slight shake of her head cut him to his heart, but he persisted anyway. “That I am your mate.”
“I can’t! Not now, not after this!” Martha’s face crumpled, her mouth trembling. “She was calling and calling all day, Finn, and I wasn’t here!”
Her words took his own away, as surely as if she’d slit his throat.
She hadn’t been there for her pack…because she’d been in Atlantis.
With him.
“I never should have left them,” Martha whispered, tears streaking her face. “I can’t do this. I’m sorry, Finn. I’m so, so sorry.”
She turned away. And he could do nothing but watch her go.
Chapter 17
“Ma!”
Nita flung herself into Martha’s arms the instant she stepped out of the airport gate. Martha hugged her eldest tight, feeling her shake.
“It’s okay, sweetheart,” Martha whispered, rocking her as if she was just a baby again. “I’m back now. Everything’s going to be just fine.”
She breathed in Nita’s familiar scent. Desert and dry grass, warm fur and sunbaked rock, just as always. The scent of pack, of family, of home. Yet she had a strange, nagging sense that something was different.
That something was missing.
“Where are the kids?” she asked, wondering if that was what was bothering her. “And Xo? Did you come all by yourself?”