Lion Conquers All by Krystal Shannan

14

AARAV

The office was buzzing. Patsy was on the phone with the Search and Rescue team from Anchorage. His brothers were on their way from the volunteer firehouse. And the whole tribe was supposedly coming to the sheriff’s station.

Aarav’s skin was on fire.

So much emotion.

So many shifters all in one place.

The town was arriving in droves. Everyone who had any hiking ability whatsoever was standing outside waiting for instructions. Gaven was pinning up the maps and instructions to each blind his late wife had built. Then marking them on the giant map on the board. Each red circle represented a place where the kids might be.

There were over two dozen blinds to check. The storm was rolling in faster than we could get organized.

He could send shifters deeper, further up the mountain, but not humans. He’d already spoken to the Roberts and given them the unfortunate update that the kids weren’t where they’d hoped to find them.

“Anchorage guys will be here in five to six hours.” Patsy’s voice shouted over the crowd in the office.

“Thank you.” He let his voice boom back toward her.

“Which ones are furthest away, Connie?” He met her gaze and she knew exactly what he was asking.

She glanced at the table in front of her. Reached for papers, then stopped. “You can’t.” Her words were so quiet. No one but Aarav could hear her. “They can’t. It’s not safe.”

He shook his head. “They know. But they can still get further than any of these other people.”

She gave a half nod, grabbed a stack of papers and freshly printed maps. “There are fifteen that there’s no way we can get to before the storm covers the area and visibility is zero. Vehicles won’t make it out. If they can’t hike out on their own, they will be stuck.”

He took the papers from her hand. “Understood.” He hurried from the office, weaving his way through groups of people all asking how they could help. The whole town seemed to have shown up. The problem was everyone knew what the storm rolling in meant. Everyone was in a hurry.

He stopped at the top of the walk in front of the sheriff’s doublewide. “Listen up.” His voice boomed across the completely full parking lot. “I can’t tell you how proud I am at how many of you have shown up to help us find these kids. Most of us know what those clouds above Denali mean for this search. And if you don’t, it means we are running on a clock. A short one.”

Murmurs of agreement rippled through the crowds of people as they quieted.

“I have certain places that need to be checked before we move to grid searching. Gretchen’s mother worked for the national wildlife service. She had blinds all over the park. I have directions to all of them. Some are too far up the mountain to check until the storm blows over. But if you’re willing and you have a really good radio and a snow machine at your disposal, I’m willing to send you right now. We have to be smart. I can’t afford to lose more people on the mountain when we need to be focused on finding Sam and Gretchen. Is that understood?”

More agreement and nodding.

“If at any point the storm starts coming down hard. You abort the search. That is an order.”

Connie stepped up next to him at the rail. “If you have a snow machine and long distance radio charged and ready, move toward my truck.” She pointed across the parking lot where her EMT emergency vehicle was parked.

“If not.” Aarav continued. “Please stay close. If the storm breaks tomorrow, we will need you for grid searching. Anchorage Search and Rescue will be here in an official capacity by this evening. Due to the storm, it’s likely they won’t need volunteers until tomorrow at dawn.”

The crowd parted. Some left the lot. Some moved toward Connie’s truck. More humans than Aarav would’ve preferred were mixed in with the Reyleans waiting for assignment. Still, he couldn’t help but be impressed. They were brave. Tough. And willing to help.

Connie followed him down the ramp and they made their way through the milling and dispersing crowd to the dozen or so people next to her vehicle.

“Thank you for volunteering.” His brothers stood together. “Shenn and Raj, you take these locations.” He handed them several maps. “Ivann and Veer, you guys take these.” He handed another set of papers to his other brothers. They were some of the furthest locations to check, but none of the Reyleans would get lost or die on that mountain in the storm.

“No problem, brother. We’ll check in as soon as we have eyes on them.”

All four of them slipped away immediately.

Aarav turned. More of the tribe was there, along with six or seven humans. “This one isn’t too far. You should be able to get in and out in less than two hours.” He handed a paper to one of the humans.

“Not a problem. I know this area well. I’m Detrich Pavlovik, Deputy Di’Rham.” He held out his hand and Aarav shook it it.

“Nice to meet you and thank you for your help. You should pair up with—”

“Grigory can come with me.” Detrich pointed at a man on his right. “We hunt together often. We know the land here.”

“Good. Thank you.”

Both men nodded and headed off.

Aarav handed out several more, being careful to make sure the humans paired with each other. When only tribe were left. He handed each of them the sites he had left.

“You all should pair up as well. Even though you can tolerate the weather, it’s still not a good—”

“Aarav, we will. Give us the maps.”

He handed the stack to Col and the chief glanced through them, handing several to each of the men. Tor and Owen left together. Knox went with Kann.”

“Vraka, you shouldn’t…” He let his words fade away under the glare of the dragon. If anyone wasn’t worried about a storm, it was a fire-breathing dragon. Col’s heat vision alone would allow him to scan the mountain faster than any of them. But the dragon couldn’t shift. He couldn’t fly. It would be too risky. Thermal vision or not, Col would be slowed down to walking like the rest of them without wings.

“Ryder went to look for the three younger wolves. I will find him first, then we will check these sites.”

“I saw them. The wolves. They were up near Crooked Rock.”

The dragon male’s eyes lit up with a hopeful fire. “Good. Perhaps they have seen the children then. If they are patrolling this side of Denali, there’s a good chance they have.”

“They showed themselves?” Connie’s voice tripped a little on the question.

“I think they were curious. There were a bunch of high school boys out camping there. I think they were watching them. The Tragher boys were with me. They saw them too.”

“But, they would know they weren’t natural wolves. If they got a good look at them.”

“Connie. It’s fine. The boys made a comment that they looked bigger than normal, but that was it. There wasn’t a long debate. It’s fine.” Aarav stopped himself from touching her. It was so difficult. Every fiber of his body was fighting him. His lion knew the promise they had made, but it didn’t make it any easier.

“If they were that close, Ryder probably found their scent quickly. They will be easy to find.” Col rolled his neck and cracked a couple of knuckles.

“What about the Tragher boys and everyone who was up there? I should go. I should make sure they made it back home.”

“They’re likely already down off the mountain. Those boys know what they are doing.” The last thing Aarav needed, was Connie headed up the mountain too. “Call Mrs. Tragher and verify for me. Can you do that, please?”

“Yes.” The request for help seemed to snap Connie out of the panic and planning she’d sunk into. “Yes. Of course. You’re right, they probably came home at the first sign of the storm. I’ll check back with you as soon as I speak with Helen.”

Aarav stepped in front of Connie and made eye contact. “Promise.”

“Yes. I’ll step outside to call Helen. Then I’ll be right back to the office.”

He watched her walk away and shook off the worry nipping at the back of his neck.

“Keep them calm, Aarav. All of them.” Col gestured to the remaining crowd of people who had refused to leave the parking lot. “Give them something to do.”

“Yes, Vraka.”

Col left and Aarav turned back toward the problem at hand. They needed to avoid a panic. They needed to get out of the weather. The sheriff’s office wasn’t big enough for everyone, but they couldn’t stay in the parking lot either.

The temperature was dropping. Soon it would be snowing.

He pulled his cell phone from his pocket and dialed Katherine.

“Deputy?”

“I need the community center.”

There was a low chuckle from the female on the other end. “I figured. Send everyone over. Tables are out. We can set up whatever else you need. Send at least ten people home to get food.”

Aarav felt a heavy weight lift from his chest. “Thank you.”

“Deputy Di’Rham, what the damn hell is going on?”

Aarav whirled to find the sheriff climbing out of his patrol car. “Sir. We have two missing teens. Searches have been organized. We’re moving to the community center to get all the volunteers out of the approaching storm.”

The sheriff wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and frowned. The smell of whiskey on his breath was strong and the man was stumbling a little to the left as he walked.

He was drunk. Not a little drunk. A lot drunk.

“I’ll be in my office if you need me. Carry on.”

Aarav released the breath he’d been holding after telling him what was happening. The sheriff disappeared inside the building and not a single person spoke to him the whole way.

Everyone knew the sheriff was a drunk.

Everyone knew he got elected because his family made sure of it.

And everyone knew the only real officer of the law who cared about the town of Mystery was Aarav.

He had to find these kids. No matter what. He had to find them.