Chapter 2

What were the odds that the woman Gavin had accused of stealing Samoyeds would be the one piloting the plane he had to take today? He recalled that was her occupation in Big Lake and how he’d thought she could be smuggling stolen pets across the border.

He still felt like he’d met her in Seattle. Which was why he’d asked if she had a sister. Since wolves often had multiple births, maybe he’d seen her twin instead.

All decked out in a leather flight jacket and black, skintight pants and laced-up boots, her blond hair cut shoulder length and her green eyes fixed on him, the Arctic wolf was just as beautiful as when he’d met her in Alaska. He wondered how she’d feel if she knew he hated to fly. She’d looked highly annoyed that she had to fly him anywhere and probably wanted to kick him out somewhere over the Boundary Waters—until she’d discovered he was a wolf like her. Not just any kind of wolf. A white wolf too.

Even so, she was…prickly. Holding a grudge against him for entering her home and seeing her naked, maybe. He didn’t entirely blame her there. His cop training told him she was hiding something else. Something about having been in Seattle.

“Have you been flying for long?” he asked, stowing his gear in the seaplane and hoping to get her mind off how they’d met before, because he was certain she was thinking of that meeting between them in Alaska, like he was.

“Since I was sixteen. So for twelve years.” She motioned to a building. “I need you to fill out a couple of forms and make the payment.”

Inside the office, a huge dog greeted them. A brown-and-white Saint Bernard, amber eyes smiling as he hurried to nuzzle Amelia. He licked her hands and then crossed the floor to greet Gavin.

“Hey, fella.” Gavin loved dogs and scratched his head, making the dog’s long tail wag.

“That’s Winston. He’s going with us.”

“He must weigh about the same as a man,” Gavin said, filling out the forms. “He’ll burn more fuel.” He couldn’t imagine why she’d want to take the dog on a trip like that.

“Yeah, you’re right. He’s only a year old but weighs a hundred and fifty pounds. I need to take him with me.” She didn’t offer a reason why, only gave Winston a hug and then waited while Gavin filled out the paperwork.

“I take it Henry is your dad.”

“He is.”

“Well, your dad said he and your brother took a group out earlier.” Gavin was hoping he’d learn something about the company group before he and Amelia even took off. He’d managed to get here only an hour after they left. Perfect, so he could locate them without looking like he was following them.

“Yeah, a couple of hours ago. A greeting-card company team out of Seattle. Don’t tell me you missed your party and are trying to catch up with them!”

A couple of hours ago? They must have left ahead of schedule. “No, I’m not with them. I just wondered where they’ll be staying, hoping I can find more solitude.” Gavin wanted to tell her the truth, but he couldn’t. Work ethics prevented it. “Did they show up early then?”

“Yeah. Dad and Slade were glad because they had to take two planes to carry them there. They took them earlier than planned so Slade could return and take another group up. Since you said you helped the police take down Asher and Mindy Michaels, I wondered if you were here concerning Mindy.”

“What do you mean?” Gavin asked, not following her.

“She was one of the passengers that my brother took to the drop-off point in the Boundary Waters.”

Gavin rubbed his smooth chin. That was a new wrinkle in the situation. Was Mindy Michaels involved in criminal activities again, or had she cleaned up her act? “No, I didn’t have any idea she was here. She’s with the greeting-card company now?”

“She’s a sales associate, I think. Well, believe me, it surprised me to see her here.” Amelia took a deep breath.

Probably as much as he’d surprised Amelia by being here.

“You can’t be a lone wolf, not if you’re with a pack. So why would you be here alone? Oh, you want to run in the wilderness as a wolf. Gotcha.”

“Right.” Gavin paid her and then headed out to the SUV to get his canoe. Though he was glad to meet the she-wolf, he really needed to hurry so he could reach Conrad and his group as soon as possible.

She was beautiful, sexy, and…hell, she was a wolf. Gavin was always mission first, but…he cast another glance her way. She caught his gaze, then quickly looked away.

She loaded Winston, a huge, brown dog bed, his leather leash, a bag of treats, and chew toys while Gavin carried the canoe.

“So, you’ve only been here for two months and are fairly new to the area.” Gavin helped her to secure the canoe on the plane.

“Yeah, we moved straight here from Alaska. We have to be careful about being seen in our wolf forms. We do much better in winter, though we have lots of wilderness out here too, so we’ve been enjoying the change.”

“Same with us as far as blending with the snow as Arctic wolves. Were you born that way? Since I wasn’t a wolf when I met you the first time, I didn’t have a clue if you were one before.” He retrieved his cooler and set it inside the plane.

“We were born that way. What happened to you?”

“We were turned by an Arctic wolf pack from Canada while we were in Maine. Long story. You wouldn’t have any Canadian kin, would you?” Gavin figured it would be a good idea not to insult any of her family members if some of them were from the pack that had turned him and his partners.

“Some. Are you newly turned? Or were you changed some time ago? The full moon won’t be a problem for you for a couple of weeks. Then the new moon means you won’t be able to shift at all.”

“We’re not real new. There are nine of us…four adult males, two of whom are mated; their mates; and one of the couples has six-year-old triplets, two boys and a girl, born lupus garous. I’ll be well out of the Boundary Waters and home before I have trouble with shifting.”

“You have another bachelor male in the pack? That’s why you asked if I had a sister.”

“Yeah. For the other guy.” And to know if she had a sister who was such a look-alike that he’d mistaken Amelia for the one he’d seen in Seattle. “Are you single?”

“I am, and so is my brother. You don’t have any single women in your pack?”

“No.” He wondered if she believed his pack being more newly turned could be a problem for them. Some wolves who were born that way—like the pack in Seattle—really didn’t like newly turned wolves. That made him think about the issue of Amelia being in Seattle. She wasn’t newly turned, but he suspected the gray pack there wouldn’t like any Arctic wolf encroaching on their territory.

The Seattle gray pack had figured the Arctic wolves would be nothing but trouble for their pack, too easily seen when running around Washington State as wolves, too much of a risk for the others.

Amelia finished tying stuff down. “Are you ready to go?”

“Yeah, sure.” Gavin didn’t sound sure at all, despite trying his darnedest to pretend otherwise. He looked at the plane for a moment, telling himself he wasn’t going to crash this time, no matter how much he felt that any flight he took would end up that way.

She frowned at him. “Don’t tell me you’re afraid I can’t fly you there.”

She’d put Winston in a dog life jacket and had harnessed him in, which Gavin knew was a safety precaution. It didn’t make him feel any less worried about it.

“It’s not you.” Gavin had no intention of telling her he hated to fly and ruin any chance he might have to date her.

* * *

Gavin seemed sincere that he wasn’t worried about Amelia’s ability to get him there in one piece. Then she wondered if he had a fear of flying, and she was the reason for it. She hated to think she might be. “You’re…you’re afraid of flying.” Not that she had any plans to date the wolf. She could see him turning her over to the police! Despite that trouble, if he hated what she loved to do most, that could cause issues—especially if she was the reason he hated to fly.

That was one thing she’d liked about her former boyfriend Heaton Compton, who lived in the area. He was a gray wolf, and he was also a pilot. If he hadn’t been drinking bourbon while flying, they might have had a real start to a relationship. As it was, they didn’t last long.

She handed Gavin an inflatable personal flotation device, a PFD, their hands touching, and their gazes caught for an instant. “Put that on. We’ll be there in no time. Just climb aboard, strap yourself in, and close your eyes.” Sometimes, she had to transport someone who was so terrified of flying that the passenger would have to take pills to relax.

“A life preserver.” He got in and strapped himself in but didn’t confirm his fear of flying. Which was a typical response from an alpha wolf who didn’t want to appear weak.

“Yeah, we’re not going to crash. If we did, everyone who is seat belted in and wearing a life preserver has a better chance at survival.”

“Uh, yeah. My seat belt is on. I’m a good swimmer though. We didn’t know any other Arctic wolf shifters were in the area, living only about two hours from us.”

“Same here. You must run in different woods and have no need to come up to our area.” She taxied out onto the runway, then took off. They were flying now, headed for the Boundary Waters, and Gavin sat back in his seat, seeming more at ease.

It appeared he wasn’t going to talk about his flying phobia, which was probably best.

“We came because my mom wanted to be closer to civilization, as if we’re at the center of any hot spot once we moved to this location. We’re happy doing our business out here though. I was afraid there weren’t any Arctic wolves in the area. What made you choose this area?”

“We’re from Seattle originally, born and raised. Once we were turned, we couldn’t return there. A gray pack had claimed the territory and threatened to kill us. Being newly turned, we didn’t really have any recourse. We sold our business office and our homes, and we kept searching for a place that wasn’t populated by wolf shifters. We needed to be up north so we had snow at least part of the year and found this place.”

“That’s awful that you had trouble with another pack! We’ve been lucky. We haven’t had problems with any gray wolf packs. I guess none live in the area. Have you ever seen a guy by the name of Heaton Compton? He’s a gray wolf. A loner. I dated him a couple of times. When I realized you were a wolf, I thought you might know him.”

“No. Never heard of him. He probably has never traveled through our area.” Gavin glanced back at Winston. He was peering out the window. “Your dog appears to love flying.”

“Winston? First trip up. Yeah, he does seem to enjoy it. He’s not my dog though. He was dropped off at a shelter because the owner got laid off and couldn’t afford to feed him.”

“That’s a shame. I can’t imagine anything harder than having to give up your dog.”

“I agree.”

“You’re still fostering pets, like you were with the Samoyeds when I first saw you.”

She felt her face heat. “I took him in. He’s way too big for my duplex and its small yard for me to keep him. I was fostering him while looking for a home for him. With such a lightly populated area, I couldn’t find anyone who wanted him. I fly pets to other shelters sometimes through a nonprofit volunteer service. I’m taking him to a bigger shelter in Saint Paul, where a couple want to adopt him for their ten-year-old boy’s birthday. The caveat is that they need him by late this afternoon. The birthday party is tomorrow morning. If I don’t get him there in time, they’ll find another pet locally. That’s why I’m flying him out. I’ll have plenty of time to get him there, well before the deadline after I drop you off.”

“Sounds like a good cause. Do you think he’ll work out for the family?”

“Pilots for Pets is an excellent cause. I hope Winston will be good with the family. He’s a real sweetheart. This breed loves families, other dogs, and strangers. They’re intelligent. That means they need a lot of mental stimulation. And they love to play. The family has a large fenced-in yard. Hopefully, they’ll give him plenty of exercise and teach him all kinds of things.”

Air turbulence caused the plane to drop, and Gavin grabbed his seat.

“Sorry,” she said.

“It’s not you. I was in a plane crash once. I was a police officer in Seattle at the time. I was the first to arrive at the scene of a jewelry-store robbery and offered to take the place of a woman they were holding hostage. She appeared to be around eight or nine months pregnant. They readily agreed.”

Amelia hadn’t known Gavin had taken the place of a pregnant store clerk. Had he done so as a good cop, or had he been in on the crime?

“I thought my fellow officers would rescue me. Instead, the robbers made off with the jewelry and me. What I hadn’t expected was to end up at a small airfield and then be forced onto a plane that took off for Canada. Except we didn’t make it. Wind shear probably caused the plane to hit the tops of the trees, and we ended up crashing. I was given a commendation for taking the jewelry-store clerk’s place as a hostage. We all assumed she wouldn’t have survived, had she been forced to go with them, between the plane crash and being left to fend for herself in the wilderness. I was out there four days before rescuers found me. I was lucky.”

Amelia’s heart was thundering, and she was glad he wouldn’t be able to hear it over the engine noise. He hadn’t mentioned a woman flying the plane or shown any indication he knew she’d been the one flying it. Which she was grateful for. The men hadn’t blindfolded Gavin, and most of the robbers had worn masks only part of the time, so she’d suspected Gavin might have been in on the heist. Or, they’d planned to kill him.

“That’s awful. I’m so sorry to hear it. At least you survived.”

“Uh, yeah, with two cracked ribs, a broken leg, and a concussion. And the trepidation of getting onto another plane after that.”

“I’m so sorry,” she said again. “You are a true hero.” If he hadn’t been in cahoots with her dead boyfriend. “What about the men who committed the heist?” What about Clayton? Had Gavin known him? They must have known each other if they were on the same police force.

“One of the robbers, the guy who seemed to be in charge—at least he was giving all the orders—died in the accident. Two of the other three were caught a few days later, one with a broken wrist, the other with cracked ribs. One got away scot-free. The robbers had been trying to make their way to the Canadian border, lugging the bags of jewelry. Some of it was never found. Either the one that got away had all the rest, or speculation was that the guy in charge had hidden his share before he died, knowing he couldn’t hike it out of there like the other men thought they could.

“He must have convinced them to move on, or why wouldn’t they have taken his share? We speculated that he hid it, thinking he’d retrieve it when he was feeling better, only he never got any better. He was armed with a gun, which is probably why the other robbers didn’t take the jewelry from him. They wanted to get out of there before anyone located them. Unless the other man had the lion’s share, and that seems unlikely.”

Her jaw dropped. Clayton had hidden some of the jewels nearby? He must have done it when she was unconscious. She didn’t know how long she’d been out of it. Once she was aware of her surroundings, she’d chosen to stay quiet, half hidden in brush, cautious, wanting to know what was going on before she made a move. She’d planned to take them out as a wolf, if anyone had discovered she was still alive. It was the only protection she’d had against them. All the men had been armed with guns, and she hadn’t wanted to risk getting shot.

The woods had been filled with woodland noises—birds singing, bugs chirping—but no human sounds at all. Either everyone had perished, was unconscious, or had left the area. She’d finally decided she had to see who had survived and noticed Clayton on his knees, readying his gun to shoot Gavin. She’d grabbed a sturdy branch lying on the ground, rushed forth, and swung it at Clayton, thanking God he hadn’t smelled her first. He’d heard her footfalls though and had turned to shoot her. She had gotten close to him and swung at him, connecting with him just as he’d fired a round. Thankfully, that had ruined his aim, the bullet missing her and hitting a tree behind her.

Gavin looked at her. “Oh, I forgot to mention the pilot.”

Chills raced up her spine.

“The pilot got away,” Gavin said.

“Out in the wilderness?” she asked, trying to feign real surprise, despite knowing that one of the robbers had made it out alive. But maybe not. Just because they hadn’t captured him didn’t mean he’d actually survived.

“Yeah. It was odd too. Searchers found her clothes buried some distance from the plane wreckage. The bloodhounds lost her trail. They easily tracked down two of the robbers’ trails. The other guy must have had some wilderness savvy. The police figured the pilot must have dressed in a change of clothes—something more suitable for the weather and terrain—and torn off. Maybe she even took the loot. She would have been getting a cut, unless they’d paid her a set amount to fly the plane.”

“Oh right. When most of the men couldn’t survive out there on their own or get away without a trace, a woman had no trouble? Sounds like a stretch to me.”

“She might have hooked up with the guy who disappeared. The men they caught would never tell investigators the whole story…who he was, who she was. We figure someday someone will find her and the other guy’s remains. They suspect she didn’t survive. Unless she was a rugged mountain woman or had friends who were able to pick them both up somewhere. As many days as it took rescuers to come for me that far out in the wilderness, that would be an unlikely scenario.”

It was way past time to change the subject. “Why did you leave the force?”

“We just needed a change of pace.”

Or he was on the take and he had to leave before the police found out about it? “Are you still a PI?”

“Yeah. My buddies and I grew up together, and after we did our time on the police force, we went into the PI business together. Which was a good thing, considering what happened to us. As newly turned wolves, we had a really hard time keeping our shifting under control for quite a while.”

“I can only imagine. My family are royals, pure lupus garous for many generations, so we’re fortunate that we can shift anytime we want.”

Gavin glanced out the window at the view of the Boundary Waters. “It must be nice having control over your shifting at all times. I’d sure love to have that ability.”

“It is. I guess you’re planning to get a ride back to our hangar later to pick up your vehicle. You weren’t going to get a flight back?”

“I’ll be paddling to Ely. The guys were all on jobs, or I would have asked one of them to drive me there. Cameron’s mate is minding the shop and the triplets so she couldn’t drive me either. And Owen’s mate is much more newly turned than us, so she sticks closer to the cabin.”

“How did that happen?”

“One of Cameron’s pups bit her when she fed him at a campsite near where we live.”

“Oh no, that’s not good.”

“In the end, it all worked out great for Owen.” A breeze was beginning to pick up, and Gavin frowned, feeling anxious. “We’re not going to have trouble landing, are we?”

“The bay where I land should be sheltered enough if the wind doesn’t pick up any more than this. It can be dangerous landing when the water is glassy too. Um, I guess I shouldn’t have mentioned that part.”

“I didn’t think you’d have to worry about water that’s too smooth.” Gavin noticed she was frowning, and he smelled her anxiousness too, which didn’t bode well. The smell of electrical charges and the rain in the air warned of an impending storm. It wasn’t supposed to storm until tomorrow and then continue for a couple of days.

“Yeah, it’s hard to tell you’re close to the water when it looks like glass. I hate to mention this. Can you smell and feel the electrical charges in the air?” Amelia asked.

“Yeah. Are we going to make it?” He hoped they didn’t have to return. He’d have to wait a couple of days to come back out here. He wanted every day to count during his investigation.

“If the bay’s too choppy, no. I can’t risk the plane or us. I’ll have to take us back.”

“Wouldn’t that be risky for us too?” And if she managed to drop him off in the Boundary Waters, then tried to fly in the storm, she would continue to be at risk. He didn’t want that.

“I’ll take you with me to Saint Paul. That’s saying the weather is better there. You can help me take Winston to the new shelter. We’d be ahead of the storm and just leave the plane there for the night.”

He glanced at her. “And stay the night there together somewhere?”

“Let’s just see what happens here. Hopefully, I can drop you off, no problem, and continue on my way.”

“How far is it to the bay?” He hoped they would be there soon.

“Another twenty minutes. Just enjoy the view. Think of yourself as a wolf with wings, soaring high above two thousand lakes connected by rivers, all that beautiful forested land, islands, pristine. Pine, spruce, and fir make up the forests, along with birch, aspen, and maple. One million acres of woodlands and waterways. Couldn’t be more perfect for a paddler. Or a wolf.”

They suddenly heard a loud popping sound over the noise of the single-engine plane.

Fearing the worse, Gavin gritted his teeth. He knew that wasn’t a sound he should be hearing.

The engine began making a grinding noise, a sputtering sound next, and then a final death rattle.

Amelia considered the instrument panels, then began looking at the area they were flying over.

The smell of smoke and burning fuel filled the air.

Gavin was sure this was bad. He wasn’t going to comment, certain Amelia knew what she had to do, and he didn’t want to interrupt her concentration by stating his biggest fear: they were going to crash.

The emergency light came on, indicating an engine fire. The propeller ground to a standstill. The plane grew eerily quiet.

Another pop sounded. Calm and in control, Amelia tried to call a Mayday. When she keyed the radio in and hit the transmission button, no squelch sounded to indicate it was working. She quickly ran through her checklist. The lights on the instrument panel all went dark. “Emergency backup battery should come on.”

It didn’t.

She glided the plane over a frothing river filled with rocks and rapids, cliffs on one side of the river, trees on the other. She couldn’t land here. “Under normal conditions, we can land a seaplane either with the power off or the power on. With the power on, the pilot has better control of the plane.”

Gavin couldn’t believe it. He hoped they’d make it safely when they landed. With choppy water and no power, he didn’t think they would.

* * *

Amelia prayed she’d reach the lake, even if she couldn’t make it to the more sheltered bay. The land was covered in trees, so she couldn’t attempt to land anywhere else, and the surrounding lakes were too small to land on.

“The transponder,” Gavin said, looking like he’d prefer jumping from the aircraft than landing in it on the rough water that was getting rougher as the winds picked up.

“Electrical system is out, and the emergency backup battery didn’t come on. I would have set the transponder to Mode A Code 7700 to let everyone know we have a state of emergency, but I can’t.”

“What’s the next step?” he asked.

She was glad he wasn’t panicking, despite his fear of flying. She couldn’t believe she could be crashing a second plane with him on board. “I’m gliding us in. If I do this right and we’re lucky, we’ll be fine. If we flip, the plane will fill with water. Quickly. If that happens, unfasten your harness. You have to find the door and swim out. It’ll be dark in the cabin. With our wolf’s night vision, you should be able to make out some things.”

“What about Winston?”

“I’ll get him. You just get yourself out of the plane.” The pup was her concern. She didn’t want to lose a passenger too.

Gavin unbuckled his harness and reached back to get one of his bags.

“What are you doing? Stay buckled in. I’ve got to land the plane.”

“I’ve got to grab my satellite phone and let people know where we are, if you don’t have any other way to do it.”

She glanced at the pocket where she normally kept her own sat phone and realized she was flying her dad’s plane and her sat phone was in the seat pocket on her plane.

“Hurry then.”

The lake came into view, and she flew into the wind to slow the plane down, which would hopefully cause the lowest impact damage if she ran into trouble. She could easily lose control of the seaplane if she didn’t compensate for the shifts in wind, with the gusts picking up.

Amelia began looking for a smoother area in the water to land. She’d never had to do this without power and with the water as choppy as this. From her training, she knew she had to put the plane down in the valley of the waves, landing on the crest of the wave and nosing in to go down into the valley. She only wished she could land under full control. She had to make do with what she had.

As she went over the landing checklist mentally, she realized the gear warning system was not working. She did a quick visual check to make sure. The landing gear was up.

“I’m landing. Return to your seat, and strap yourself in. As soon as we land, if we need to quickly evacuate, open the door to the aircraft, and get out.”

“My sat phone is in one of my bags. I’ve almost got it.” He buckled himself in, then pulled out the phone.

She landed on the crest of a wave. A gust of wind lifted the left wing, making the right wing clip the water and breaking it off with a crack. Her heart stuttered.

The plane flipped so quickly that she felt like she was on a roller-coaster ride, sideways, up, down, holding on for dear life, trying to recall what she needed to do. Make sure Gavin got out ahead of her, unharness Winston, help him out of the plane, then inflate the dog’s life vest. She’d have to get the raft after that.

The plane had flipped upside down and was taking on water.

“Gavin, are you okay?” She hurried to unhook her harness. Every second counted.

It was dark inside as she unfastened her belt and heard Gavin unlocking his.

“Yeah. Door to my right. I’ll get Winston. Do you have a life raft?”

“Back there with Winston, under his seat.” Amelia headed back to Winston. “Don’t inflate your PFD until you’re outside the plane. I’ll get—”

“Do you have another preserver?”

“Yeah. All the seat cushions are.”

“Can you attach the carabineer from my bags to one of the seat cushions and shove it outside the plane?”

“Yeah.” She was supposed to be in charge, but she was glad Gavin was good at coordinating an escape under pressure too.

“Let me help you unharness Winston,” he said.

She unfastened the harness, and Gavin helped the dog to his feet.

“I’m taking him out now. Winston, come on, boy. You can do this.” Gavin swam out of the plane, pulling Winston by the collar.

She hooked Gavin’s bags to the seat-cushion flotation device and pushed them out through the open door. Before she could swim out, Gavin returned and took a breath of the air in the cabin. “Go, I’ll get the raft. See to Winston. We’re a long way from shore, so we could have a problem with hypothermia. Maybe not Winston though. His fur coat might protect him. The raft should help us get in safely. I’m afraid the pup wouldn’t make that long swim.”

Gavin shoved the raft out, and Amelia reached around. She couldn’t locate Winston’s waterproof container of kibble. She swam out to join Gavin and the dog. She’d thought of getting out of the water and sitting on top of the seaplane’s floats. But they might not get rescued until the storms died down, and the wind and cold air and their wet clothes would be worse. Plus, with a thunderstorm approaching, staying out on the water was much too dangerous. Not to mention that the seaplane was sinking.

The winds were whipping up the waves even worse now, and the sky was growing dark, thunder grumbling off in the distance, the storm headed their way. And they were a long damn way from shore. They needed to use the raft to get there as quickly as they could.

* * *

Gavin was tying the box-shaped form of the raft to one of the floats. Starting to feel the effects of the chilly air and water, he fumbled with the rope on the raft. If he could shift, his muscles would heat up significantly, and his wolf coat would help to warm him. But he needed to do this as a human.

The raft secured, he yanked the cord to inflate it. Nothing. Hell. He yanked again, and then with one last jerk on the cord, the raft popped open with such force that it knocked him back a foot in the water.

He was damn grateful the raft was intact, with no tears that he could see. He lifted his bags into the raft with them still hooked to the seat cushion. “My cooler’s still inside the seaplane. Maybe we should get it in case we don’t get rescued for a while,” he said. “Do you want to get in and pull Winston while I push from behind?”

“Yeah, sure.”

Amelia swam around to the other side, searching, and finally found the rope ladder, then climbed in while Gavin held on to the raft to stabilize it. She crawled across the floor of the raft to reach for Winston’s collar. He was dog-paddling next to the raft.

As soon as she had hold of him and started pulling, Gavin began trying to push the heavy dog. “Up, up,” Gavin said, straining to push the deadweight into the raft.

“Come up here, Winston. Come on.”

The plane was groaning and sinking more.

Gavin was beginning to think he wasn’t going to get the dog in the raft. Hopefully, Winston’s claws wouldn’t rip it. With Amelia pulling, the dog trying to gain purchase, and Gavin pushing from behind, Winston finally scrambled into the life raft and collapsed.

“Is he okay?”

“Yeah,” Amelia said, checking him over. “He looks fine.”

“You?”

“Yeah.”

They needed to untie the rope before the plane sank. Gavin thought about the cooler. “I’m going for the food.”

“The plane is going under. Maybe it’s not such a good idea now. You could be trapped.”

“Untie the rope before it goes down. I’ll get free.”

“Gavin, we need warmth and shelter first and foremost. We can survive without food until someone comes for us.”

“It won’t take but a minute.” He still had a mission, and he planned to accomplish it, despite the setback. He’d need food and all his equipment. And his canoe. It had been secured upside down under the plane. That meant it would be right side up now. The canoe was so versatile that he could convert it to paddle like a kayak, a canoe, or a dinghy. It was virtually unsinkable and untippable. He really wanted to cut it loose.

He swam back to the open door and dove back into the plane, feeling his way around until he reached the cooler. At least it would float on its own. The plane was creaking, and he felt it shift. Hell. He grabbed the handle of the ice chest and shoved it out the door. The chest went straight to the surface of the water.

Gavin went up for air again. Amelia was holding on to his cooler, tying it to the raft.

He wasn’t sure his canoe had made it unscathed, but he wanted to try to release it. He pulled a pocketknife out of his zippered pants pocket and dove down, feeling his way around the canoe until he could grab hold of the rope and begin to cut. It was taking too long. He swam to the surface and took a deep breath of air, and then dove down again. This time, he tried to pull one of the knots free. He felt the plane shifting lower again.

He felt panicked, concerned Amelia hadn’t untied the raft in time before the plane sank completely.

When he went back up for air, he saw that the raft had floated away. Amelia was paddling back toward him.

“What are you doing?” She sounded highly annoyed with him.

“Getting my canoe. Be back in a sec.”

Then he dove under, determined to free his canoe. This time, he felt it give. He tugged and tugged and felt it loosening further. He needed air again, and the plane was sinking. He would lose the canoe if he didn’t keep trying. With a final tug, he felt it come free and shoot to the surface of the lake while he swam to join it.

He finally surfaced and took in great gulps of air. The winds and waves had pushed the raft maybe an eighth of a mile away. He had the canoe but no paddles. His lucky paddle was gone.

“We’re coming for you!” Amelia yelled out to him. They were a little closer to shore.

“I’ll paddle to you.” He finally inflated his life vest. He was so cold that he was having a terrible time getting into the canoe. He finally managed and lay there, exhausted.

* * *

Amelia paddled as fast as she could against the wind and the waves. She was elated that Gavin had freed his canoe, but she was angry with him too. Did he still want to paddle around the Boundary Waters just for fun after this disaster? He could have drowned. In his human form and not wearing cold-weather gear, he had to be freezing after being in the water for so long. She hoped he wouldn’t become hypothermic before he could get into dry clothes and warm up. She was chilled to the bone, and she’d gotten out much quicker than him. If she could strip off her clothes and wear her wolf coat, she’d be fine.

Winston was sitting, panting, and watching Gavin paddle with his hand toward them. The cooler was slowing Amelia down, and she felt she wasn’t making much progress at all.

“Are your paddles with your other gear?” She was glad her family had rafts in each of the planes and PFDs for everyone, including the dog. She was certain Winston couldn’t have swum all the way to shore on his own. And she wasn’t a really good swimmer.

“I think it was left behind.”

“I’m coming and will tow you in.”

The emergency locator transmitter, the ELT, should automatically come on. Then rescuers would know where the plane had gone down. That made Amelia feel slightly better as she continued to paddle toward Gavin. She and Gavin were ten miles at least from the bay where she should have set the plane down.

She kept trying to figure out what had happened to the plane. Why the engine had quit, everything electrical had shorted out, and the emergency backup battery hadn’t come online. She didn’t want to think it was sabotage. If it had been, then had the ELT been disabled too?

Great.

Why would anyone want to crash her plane?