Shards of Hope

Chapter 22

REMI’S VOICE CAME on over the speaker system seconds later. “We have a lost cub. Jasper may have snuck outside and become turned around. All trained personnel head out now.” What followed were numbers and compass points.

Aden realized the alpha was sectioning off people to make sure the entire area around the network of aeries was searched. “I can assist,” he said to Finn when the healer grabbed a coat. “I’m fully trained for search and rescue and so is Zaira.” It was a little-known facet of the Arrow mandate, but they’d quietly assisted in a number of difficult rescues over the years.

“You think you can keep from getting lost out there?”

“Do you have a compass?”

Finn took off his watch and threw it to him. “It’s got one built in. You two should go to the northeast quadrant. It’s the biggest. I have to stay close to the aeries in case they locate him and he needs medical attention.” Then he was gone.

Aden hit the corridor to see Zaira coming down from their aerie. She was already wearing the big outdoor camouflage jacket the changelings had repaired after Finn ripped it getting to her wounds, and she was holding his. “I assumed we would help,” she said, no sign on her face of the woman who’d bitten his lip.

The sense of loss in his gut was raw, but he was used to putting his own needs aside for the good of the squad. Today, he did it for the needs of a scared, lost child. Having already strapped on Finn’s watch, he shrugged into the jacket and told her to stay within visual sight of him. “We don’t have the advantage of following scents and the location is unfamiliar. You may become disoriented without a compass.”

“Understood.”

Hoods up, they headed out into the pounding rain, the area already at near night-darkness because of the heavy cloud cover. Other searchers shouted out the boy’s name multiple times, their eyes flashing night-glow in the darkness every so often when the different groups came close before separating again. Realizing it was possible the child could hear them, given the acute nature of changeling senses, Aden and Zaira also called out at regular intervals.

With every minute that passed, the risk to the child rose exponentially. Aden understood changelings had greater immunity to the cold, but he had a feeling cubs were nowhere near as strong as their parents.

When Zaira held up her hand, head tilted, he stayed silent.

“This way,” she said, running left over ground that had become slippery and muddy, her face dripping water. “It may be nothing, but I thought I heard a faint growling sound.”

Reaching a heavy copse of waterlogged trees that looked like they might be maples, they began to scan the area. Aden saw nothing . . . then his foot slipped out from under him in the mud. He would’ve gone sliding down into a steeply sloped gully if he hadn’t grabbed on to a tree limb. His mind immediately putting the pieces together, he followed the line of sight to where he would’ve fallen if he hadn’t stopped himself, and saw a glint of golden fur through the wind-driven sheets of rain.

“Zaira, I see him!” He slid down the embankment in a controlled descent as Zaira shouted to the other searchers.

Bringing himself to a stop a couple of feet from the tiny leopard cub curled nose to tail on himself, his fur pasted to his body, Aden opened his jacket and lifted the child against him before checking for a pulse. He couldn’t feel a beat and the small body was so cold. Zipping the jacket closed, he ran back to the embankment and began to climb it. He’d taken only a single step when Remi bounded down.

Aden unzipped his jacket to hand over the icy body of the cub. “Get him to Finn.” Remi was faster and more sure-footed in this terrain and the child was critical. “I can’t feel a pulse.”

Racing up the incline using claws that had sliced out of his boots, Remi disappeared back toward the aeries. It took Aden longer to climb up the muddy incline and Angel was there to help haul him over the final edge when he reached it.

“Thank you.” He could’ve done it himself, but the help had been offered in good faith and should be acknowledged.

The man slapped the side of his neck in a nonthreatening manner, holding his hand there for a second before letting go. “Good spotting, Arrow.”

The three of them made their way directly to the infirmary once they reached the aerie trees. There were a number of changelings in the corridor outside, each with a strained face. Someone threw Aden, Zaira, and Angel towels and, taking off their jackets, they wiped their faces. Changing out of their waterlogged pants and socks would have to wait.

“How did he get out?” Jojo’s mother asked, her arms hugging her body. “We’re so careful.”

“He’s seven.” A packmate linked hands with the woman. “That’s what cubs do at that age. Sneak out, explore. The poor baby just got lost.”

Beside Aden, Zaira spoke in a muted tone. “He’s so small.”

“Yes.” Aden could still feel the boy’s fragile bones, the chill of his body. “I’m going to see if I can offer any assistance.” When he reached the infirmary door, it was to see Finn and Remi bent over the small feline body, faces grimly intent. Two more people, a man and a woman who had their arms tight around one another, stood not far from the bed.

Seeing no other patients who needed medical aid, Aden was about to step away when he saw Lark enter the corridor, a bloodied towel wrapped around her hand. “I’m fine,” she snapped at a packmate who made a sound of concern. “Just a stupid cut while I was fixing one of the generators. How’s Jasper?” Her wet hair and clothes said she must’ve headed directly to the generator after Jasper was located.

Aden had ducked inside the infirmary by then and returned with the tools he needed. “I’m a trained medic,” he said to her. “I can seal up your wound.”

Her lips curled up into a snarl. Before she could snap at him, a packmate nudged at her and spoke in a subvocal whisper—Aden could see the man’s mouth moving but could not make out the words.

Snarl turning into a deep smile almost at once, Lark held out her injured hand. “You found Jasper?”

“Stay still.”

“Definitely a medic,” Lark said dryly. “Clearly has the bedside manner down pat.”

A faint ripple of laughter that quickly faded.

Ignoring it all, Aden ran the sealer over the cut once he’d calibrated it to the right strength and after he’d used a scanner to make sure there was no nerve damage. “It’s done,” he said. “The skin will remain tender for a day or so, so be careful not to injure it again.”

“Got it, doc.”

When high-pitched and scared crying suddenly sounded from the other room, the relief was palpable. A minute later, Remi officially confirmed that Jasper would be all right and the crowd dispersed. Aden and Zaira, however, remained. Walking quietly to the infirmary door, the two of them looked in.

What they saw was the cub, now in his human form, curled up in his mother’s lap while his father stroked his hair, his face. One of the boy’s hands was in Remi’s, the other in Finn’s. He was sobbing, but Aden saw no despair on his face, none of the hopelessness that was so often on an Arrow child’s face.

Zaira was the one to articulate it. “He feels safe. He can cry because he feels safe.”

“Yes.” It was something neither he nor Zaira had ever known.

Unlike Zaira’s sadistic mother and father, Aden’s parents hadn’t beaten him, but they had left him alone in a squad of assassins after making sure he knew he was a sleeper for their rebellion. He’d never been able to lower his guard, never been able to forget that should he be discovered, he’d end up dead and buried.