“You guys decide,” Renee said, hiding her amusement. “I’m not up to any acrobatics, anyway.”
* * * * *
A month later
Renee loaded her passengers in her replacement helicopter. She batted away a hand that caressed her butt. “Enough of that, Kansas. I need to concentrate.”
The truth. It was her first time flying since the accident and the Taktuq brothers—her lovers—were helping to ease the anxiety clamoring for priority in her mind.
She turned to Calian who was still standing on the tarmac. “Do we have the supplies from the office?”
“Everything is loaded in the fuselage hold,” he confirmed.
Renee opened the door at the front of the chopper for him. “At least the weather forecast is good for the next three days.”
With Calian settled, headphones over his ears and the door closed, Renee trotted around the chopper to take her own seat.
Her chopper rose off the helipad, and she hovered, the familiar vibrations and sounds filling her mind while she reconnected with her love of flying. The accident investigators had made their reports, and after speaking with Renee’s police contact, they informed her employers of their findings and closed the case.
They soared over the tundra, the Hudson Bay frozen. During the flight over the white landscape, she didn’t glimpse a single polar bear. Not surprising, given that the healthy bears were out on the ice, gorging on seal pups.
The rolling surface of the tundra gave way to snow-covered trees and rocky ridges. They soared past a waterfall, frozen in winter-white splendor.
A flash of movement caught her attention. “Arctic fox at three o’clock.”
“Where? Oh, I see it,” Calian said.
“They blend better than we do,” Matto commented. “With our sooty-gray coats, we stand out like zits on a teenager.”
“Charming,” Renee said. “There’s the lodge now. I need one of you to jump out and clear off the landing pad. I could land but I’d prefer a pristine pad.”
“We’ll get out,” Matto said. “Go for a flight farther inland. Give us ten minutes before you return.”
The three younger brothers jumped out when Renee told them too. The helicopter rose, sensitive to her every touch of the collective, the throttle, the cyclic stick and the tail rotor pedals.
“You were nervous about this flight,” Calian said.
“I was hoping you didn’t notice my hands shaking.”
“You’re skilled at your job, sweetheart. We had confidence in you.”
“Oh! Caribou.” Renee pointed to the shaggy beasts on the ground to their left. “I don’t see them often.”
The caribou herd galloped into the trees, disturbed by thewhop-whopof the helicopter.
“Time to head back,” she said.
When the lodge came into view, three wolves hurtled around, playing in the snow.
Renee laughed as she settled her bird on the cleared landing pad. “Why don’t you play with your brothers? I can handle unloading the boxes of groceries.”
“There’s time. The unloading won’t take long if I help, then you can play too.” His brown eyes glinted gold for a few seconds.
The twins and Matto shifted on their return and yanked on pants and footwear. Many hands made rapid work of their task, and soon Calian and his brothers were tossing their clothes into a plastic bag to keep dry. Four wolves, ranging in color from silver to sooty-gray dashed around in the snow, yipping and throwing back their heads in victorious howls.
Renee picked up her camera and snapped photos, something she knew they wouldn’t allow if they didn’t trust her. In the distance, a wolf answered their joyful howls, the cries echoing over the landscape.
Sax had told them that Artic wolves sometimes came around the lodge, hoping to snag a polar bear cub left on its own. Now, the dens were empty.
