“Those!” I point.
“What the heck?” I start to ask, but Jase collides with me, his body covering mine as he looks up at the sky while shielding me.
“Home. Now! On my back.”
“What was that?” I ask.
“Hurry!” he clips.
I climb on Jase’s back and he runs, lightning fast, the ground blurring as he gets us back to the yard with superspeed, going directly inside, grabbing his phone, and connecting to the contactSurveillance Room.
I hear Joel answer.
“Drone, seen four or five hundred feet from my back fence along the river heading west, not more than a minute ago.”
“More?” Joel asks.
“Me and Bay were both shifting. Don’t know if it got footage. Also ran at superspeed, don’t know if that was caught on footage either. Code orange?”
“Definitely, bro,” Joel says.
“You look. I’ll text the group chat.”
He ends the call and opens his messaging app. We’re both still naked and I’m still on his back, watching him tap outORANGEbefore he squats enough that I can easily put my feet on the floor.
I reach for my clothes to get dressed while he’s continuing to tap on his phone.
“Your foot feeling better?” he asks.
“Yes, it’s better. What was that?” I ask.
“Sit, let me see.”
I pull my pants up the rest of the way and sit on the dining room chair so he can lift my foot and inspect it. “Your wolf stepped onto a little plant shoot. I don’t know what plant it was and it didn’t hurt me. The bottom of your paw swelled up, pad looked shredded. I’ll send a text to Cat and ask her to come take a look in the morning and identify it. But right now, we need to figure this drone out.” He rubs my foot. “No sign of any injury. It’s okay?”
“It’s fine.”
He lifts his phone again and I get to my feet and move to the fridge to get myself a bottle of water.
“Drink?” I ask.
“Yes, please.”
***
Jase blows out a heavy breath of relief, tossing his phone to the table. It’s been about half an hour and I feel relief at both the look on his face as well as the sensation of it in our bond.
As suspected, the gunshot we heard was Joel shooting the drone down.
Jase says, “Footage taken off the shores along the river, a few minutes circling the space over the falls, and that’s pretty much it. Nothing on there of us shifting or me running at superspeed. Just my face as it zoomed over when I clocked it. It’s an older unit, only has an SD card, so it’s not broadcasting the footage anywhere.”
“Really? That’s a relief. I wonder who it belongs to.”
“We’ll be atcode orangeuntil we’re sure it’s no threat.”
“Should we be worried?” I ask.
“My job. You don’t worry about a thing, Bay, except maybe washing my back up in that shower right now. You down?”