An Alpha's Lightning (Water Bear Shifters 2)

  An Alpha’s Lightning

  Water Bear Shifters, Book 2

  By Sloane Meyers

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Similarities to actual people or events are entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2015 by Sloane Meyers. All rights reserved.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  More Books by Sloane Meyers

  Thank You For Reading!

  Author’s Note

  About the Author

  Chapter One

  Jade Fuller put her small, white car into park and jumped out, already running before her feet hit the ground. Her adrenaline ran high as she headed for the spot on the beach where a small crowd had gathered. She knew that’s where she would find the animal she had come here to rescue: a baby gray whale separated from its mother. The whale was beached on this stretch of sand just north of San Diego.

  Jade spent her days rescuing and rehabilitating sea mammals, but most of the time those rescues involved smaller animals, such as sea lions or seals. A whale rescue was something special. Jade had only been involved in one before, five years ago. Back then, she had been a mere apprentice at the San Diego Marine Mammal Rescue Center. She had spent the entire rescue following along wide-eyed behind the director as he confidently barked out instructions.

  During today’s rescue, however, she was in charge. She would be the one giving directions, and the lifeguards and other volunteers on the scene would be listening to her. Jade slowed her run as she drew closer to the crowd. Several lifeguards, a few police officers, and a handful of beachgoers had surrounded the whale, trying to keep it stable as the incoming tide crashed against it. Jade, already wearing a wetsuit, ran up to the group and began assessing the situation. One of the lifeguards explained that they had tried to push the whale further out to sea, but after a few minutes it had washed up on the beach again.

  Jade took a closer look. The baby whale looked like it was only a few days old. It had somehow been separated from its mother, and was understandably disoriented and upset. The stress of being tossed back and forth on the sand by the surf wasn’t helping things, and Jade feared that sand was getting into the whale’s blowhole.

  “We have to get him back out to the ocean and search for his mother. If we can find the pod of whales he was separated from, we can get some boats and guide him back to them,” Jade said. “But we could really use some air surveillance. Finding the whales using just boats will take a lot longer.”

  “I could call the Coast Guard,” one of the police officers suggested. “We have a pretty good working relationship with them, and they might have a helicopter pilot free who could help out.”

  “That would be awesome,” Jade said. “Can you give them a call and beg them to send someone out?”

  “Will do,” the police officer said, and started heading off across the beach. Jade started giving directions to the ragtag group of volunteers, organizing them for the big job of pushing the baby whale back out to sea. Although the whale was only days old, it already weighed fifteen hundred pounds, so getting it back into the ocean again would require some serious strength. Jade looked around gratefully at the volunteers on the scene. Most of them looked strong and capable, and, with a strong joint effort, they could get the whale back into the ocean.

  Once the baby whale was returned to the water, the real work would begin. Finding the whale’s mother wasn’t going to be easy. On her drive to the beach, Jade had radioed for one of her colleagues to send a boat. The lifeguards were offering the use of their rescue boats as well. The group would be able to follow the baby whale easily enough, but if they couldn’t find his pod, he would be in serious trouble.

  As Jade positioned herself next to the whale to assist in pushing it back out to sea, she sent up a silent prayer that the Coast Guard would be willing to spare a helicopter pilot. Air surveillance would give this little whale his best chance of being reunited with his family.

  * * *

  Ace Grimes flipped mindlessly through the channels on the large TV in the common room of the Coast Guard’s San Diego air station. He only had two hours left on his on-call shift, and odds were pretty good that nothing exciting was going to happen in those last two hours. This whole three day shift had been pretty boring. He and his search and rescue crew had done a few training sessions, but that was nowhere near as exciting as the real thing. Ace served as the pilot for the helicopter that the crew used to conduct rescue missions for people stranded out in the open ocean. His fellow team members—Ben, Lance, and Brett—were his best friends, and he loved working with them. Which was fortunate, since Ace spent the majority of his time working.

  Ace flipped the channel once more, landing on a cooking show just before Lance burst into the room.

  “Hey! There you are. Do you want to have some fun?” Lance asked, his blue-gray eyes dancing.

  Ace raised an eyebrow suspiciously. “I’m always up for some fun. But I’m also wary of the mischievous look in your eyes right now.”

  “I just convinced the Lieutenant Commander to let us go out on a whale rescue mission.”

  Ace laughed out loud. “A whale rescue? I know our helicopter is pretty badass, but I don’t think we can airlift a whale in the rescue basket.”

  Lance rolled his eyes. “We’re obviously not going to try to lift the whale. The San Diego P.D. just called. They’re working with a marine mammal rescue group to try to get a beached baby whale back to its mother, and they need air surveillance to help find the pod of whales that the baby belongs to. The baby will die if they can’t find his mom, so it’s pretty urgent.”

  Ace sat up straighter. “I would love to help out. It sounds like the most excitement I’ve had all week, and I hate to see animals suffer. The Lieutenant Commander actually approved this?”

  “Yeah, I guess he’s in a good mood today or something. Let’s get going and get out of here before he changes his mind. Ben’s already prepping the helicopter.”

  Ace jumped up and tossed the remote aside. “Alright, then. Let’s go save a baby whale.”

  Thirty minutes later, the four men were lifting off from the air station in the helicopter they usually used to save humans. Ace sat in the pilot’s seat, and Ben sat next to him in the copilot’s seat. Brett and Lance, who normally handled the work of pulling survivors from the water, sat in the back to help watch for any signs that might indicate the baby whale’s missing pod was nearby. The February morning was slightly foggy, with gray skies and feisty winds. For Ace, however, who was one of the most experienced pilots around, the conditions were still easy flying. He expertly guided his bird over the ocean waves, and soon spotted the small group of boats that were herding the baby whale out toward sea and away from the shore. He made radio contact with the lead boat, and a woman with a strong, authoritative voice answered, directing him to search the surrounding area for signs of whales. She said to keep an eye out for the waterspouts that resulted when the whales came up to breathe, and told him to search an area further out to sea than where the boats were. She said it was easier to see whales from the boats, but that the boats were more limited than the helicopter in the amount of space they could cover.

  “I’m Jade, by the way. Sorry for the lack of introduction. I’m a little preoccupi
ed with everything going on right now.”

  “No worries. I’m happy to help. And I’m Ace.”

  “Ace? Like Ace Ventura?” Jade asked over the radio, then chuckled.

  Ace rolled his eyes. “Never heard that one before,” he said sarcastically.

  “Sorry, it’s the first thing that popped into my head,” Jade said. “Let me know if you see anything that might be a whale, and I’ll try to stay away from the bad jokes. Thanks for your help.”

  “No problem, we’re on it,” Ace said.

  For the next two hours, Ace and his crew flew a pattern back and forth across the ocean waves, straining to see any signs of whales. The work was tedious, and the crew was now past the time when their three day work shift should have ended, but no one complained. They all hated to see an animal suffering. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that each of the men was a panda shifter, hiding an animal within himself. Or perhaps their protective alpha instincts spurred them on, giving them energy to help a fellow creature in pain. Whatever the reason, the men were committed to the search.

  Several hours later, though, the crew still hadn’t found the whales. Daylight would be fading soon, and Ace had started to worry that the search would have to be called off for the night. But just before he broached the subject with the crew, Lance shouted out in excitement.

  “I see a waterspout, thirty degrees west. And there’s another! We might have found them!”

  Ace swung the helicopter around and flew over for a closer look. The crew could count three whales, and they looked like gray whales, from the description Jade had given them.

  Ace excitedly got back on the radio. “Jade? I think we found that baby’s mama.”

  * * *

  Jade couldn’t keep the tears of happiness stinging at her eyelids from spilling over as the crew of volunteers on her boat erupted into cheers. After an hour of using boats to carefully herd the baby whale, the little guy was finally back with his mother. Jade had nicknamed him Ventura in honor of the Coast Guard pilot assisting with the rescue effort, and the volunteers had adopted the nickname.

  “Swim free, Ventura,” one of the lifeguards called out as they watched the whales begin to swim north. The sun was shining its last rays across the water in a brilliant show of orange and pink, and Jade watched for several minutes as the group of three adult whales and one baby continued to swim away. Finally, Jade nodded to her crew.

  “Alright, everyone. Our work here is done. Let’s head back to shore.”

  Jade could feel the exhaustion in her bones by this point, so she handed the steering wheel of the boat over to one of the volunteers. She went to sit near the rear of the boat, where she could watch the waves that the motor stirred up behind it as they headed back toward the beach. Days like these felt so rewarding. The happy endings reminded her of why she did what she did. Sometimes, in the midst of all the sad stories of the animals that didn’t make it, or the warnings of how pollution and human apathy was ruining the oceans, it was easy to feel discouraged. But when something did go well, Jade felt renewed strength to continue on with her work. She had loved seeing so many people coming together today, with the common goal of saving that beautiful, baby whale. The energy behind the joint effort had been contagious, and heartwarming to see.

  Jade closed her eyes for a moment and relished the feeling of the cool water droplets hitting her face as the boat picked up speed and continued to stir up the water. She was especially impressed that the Coast Guard had agreed to send out a helicopter. Living so close to the ocean in San Diego, she often heard stories about how the Coast Guard had rescued a wayward boater, or stopped an attempted drug smuggling operation. Now, the Coasties here could add rescuing a whale to that list of heroic feats.

  Jade opened her eyes and watched the waves as they grew darker in the fading light of dusk. She should send the Coast Guard crew some sort of thank you note. The whale rescue team probably wouldn’t have found the whale pod without air surveillance, so the helicopter crew had literally saved the day. Jade smiled as she remembered the pilot’s name. Ace. Then she giggled. A pilot named Ace was a bit of a cliché, but the unusual name would hopefully make him easy to find. She wanted to make sure she gave him and his men the recognition they deserved.

  After all, they had helped with something great. It’s not every day you can go home and say you saved a whale, all in a day’s work.

  Chapter Two

  Ace crossed three lanes of traffic way too quickly and cursed at his GPS. The stupid thing never warned him that he needed to exit until seconds before the exit sign appeared. A car that Ace cut off honked angrily at him, but Ace barely noticed. He was overly cautious when flying his helicopter, but he lived on the edge when it came to driving his truck. After managing to make it to the exit without causing a major collision, Ace finally slowed down. His GPS instructed him to turn left at the next stoplight, and then right a few hundred feet after that. Ace did as the GPS ordered, and soon found himself pulling into the parking lot of the San Diego Marine Mammal Rescue Center.

  He parked his beat up pickup truck in one of the many available spots, and headed for the front entrance. He wasn’t sure exactly why he had decided to come here. He’d told the other guys on his crew that he wanted to see whether anyone at the Rescue Center had updated information on the baby whale he’d helped save yesterday. He probably could have just called to find out, but he had the day off and was curious to see what the Rescue Center looked like. He felt drawn here somehow. The other guys had teased him about being a big softy despite his macho exterior. Their jabs didn’t bother Ace, though. He was a tough guy, and he knew it. He didn’t have anything to prove to anyone, and, besides, he didn’t think caring about living creatures made him a softy.

  He walked into the lobby, and an elderly lady behind the desk smiled kindly at him.

  “May I help you?” she asked pleasantly.

  “Uh, sure. I participated in a rescue for a baby whale yesterday. I was just wondering whether anyone had any more information on how the little guy was doing.”

  The woman’s face lit up. “Oh! You were part of that rescue? How marvelous! We haven’t had a whale rescue in ages. I’m so glad this one had a happy ending. Thanks for helping.”

  “It was my pleasure,” Ace said, smiling back at the old lady. Her enthusiasm was infectious. “Do you know if anyone tracked the whale after it rejoined its family?”

  “I don’t know, dear. Jade would be the one with information, if there is any. She’s around here somewhere, probably checking on the sea lions in the hospital area.”

  “Can I go look?” Ace asked.

  “Sure, go right ahead. Here’s a map of the facility. We offer guided tours in the afternoons, but that won’t be for another several hours. Feel free to walk around yourself using this map as a guide.”

  Ace thanked the old lady and took the map, heading for the area marked “hospital.” He passed the kitchen, where fish mash was made to feed the patients at the rescue center, and the autopsy room, where an elephant seal that hadn’t made it was being examined. At the far end of the facility, he found the hospital. The animals were behind a large chain link fence, and were separated into pens that each contained their own kennel and pool area. Several large signs warned visitors to be quiet out of respect for the animals, and Ace felt like he needed to tiptoe through the area. He didn’t see anyone else, so he decided to just stand there and observe the animals for a bit. Several sea lions were sleeping, but a few others were awake and frolicking around their pens. One was pushing a large ball around with his nose while barking. The barking sea lion seemed like quite a character, and Ace found himself chuckling at the animal’s lively antics.

  “He’s a spunky one, isn’t he?” a voice behind him asked.

  Ace turned around and found himself face to face with a woman wearing a pair of bright orange waterproof overalls. She was carrying a bucket of fish, and her strong arm muscles flexed under the weight of the loa
d. Her deep red hair was pulled back in a tight bun, and her tanned skin offset the deep green of her eyes. She had broad, strong shoulders, and looked confident and sure of herself. It was easy to see that this woman was no shrinking violet. After only about three seconds of taking her in, Ace was hooked. She was the most beautiful, self-assured woman he had ever seen.

  “He’s pretty entertaining,” Ace said. “Seems like a pretty happy guy.”

  The woman set down her bucket and walked to the edge of the chain link fence for a better look.

  “That’s Biscuit. And yes, he’s a very happy guy. He wasn’t so happy when we first brought him to the center, though. He was almost dead from malnutrition and dehydration. But he’s a fighter, and has made a full recovery. Should be releasing back to the wild within the next few days.”

  “Biscuit,” Ace repeated. “That’s a cute name.”

  The woman smiled. “Yeah. One of the veterinarians here has a five year old daughter that loves to name our patients. Her latest trend is to give them all food names. In the pen next to Biscuit is Sushi, and right past him is Thin Mint.”

  Ace threw back his head and laughed. “Now I’m hungry,” he said. “And that little girl has quite an impressive palate. Sushi and thin mints.”

  The woman smiled. “Yup. She’s quite a character herself. What about you? What’s your name? Hamburger? French Fry? Filet Mignon?”

  Ace laughed again. “No. Nothing quite so appetizing. I’m Ace.”

  “Ace? From the Coast Guard?” the woman asked, her eyes lighting up.

  “Yes, from the Coast Guard. How did you know?”

  “I’m Jade! Director of rescue operations here. You’re the helicopter pilot, aren’t you? We spoke over the radio last night.”

  Ace worked to smooth over the surprise on his face when he realized that the woman standing in front of him was Jade. Her voice sounded different in her person. It sounded softer, with more of a musical lilt to it. And he hadn’t expected her to be so muscular and strong. She had feminine curves, but there was no mistaking the strength of her physique.