Grounding Gracus (First Wave Book 6) by Mikayla Lane

Gracus secured himself into a seat behind him. He tried to stop his hands from shaking and the fear from overwhelming him as he waited for the craft to finally take off.
    When they left the docking bay, the pilot stated, “Eight minutes to drop.”
    Gracus nodded his head and sighed. Even though they were now in flight, his fear and paranoia had not subsided and he hoped that he would feel better when he was finally on the ground at the cabin.
    He was so wrapped in his thoughts, he almost missed the pilot’s warning. “Ready to drop in five… four… three…”
    Gracus stood too quickly, swaying slightly before the door opened and he was pulled outside. His body, unprepared for the drop due to his inattention, sprawled through the air with arms and legs flailing wildly before he hit the ground so hard his air was knocked from his lungs.
    He stared up at the sky as he lay on the ground a moment, trying to get his breath back and felt the whoosh of air on his face as the transport craft headed back to Dillon. He sat up, knowing that he had a limited amount of time to find Rebecca before Scaden and Amun hauled him back to the Adaria.
    Gracus stood slowly, making sure he was steady and headed into the cabin. He sighed in relief at the sight of all of his gear and pulled off the sweat pants, putting on his own tact gear instead.
    He had expected the fear and paranoia to diminish once he had arrived, but it didn’t and he struggled with his slower movements and unreasonable thoughts as he went through the rest of his gear. Gracus knew that they would come to find him and he would make sure that they couldn’t get him before he found his mate.
    With that thought in mind, Gracus grabbed the gear he’d already had packed for a long trek into the mountains and headed to the garage. He sighed as he saw the long scratches that ran along the side of the vehicle and threw his gear into the backseat before he got in the driver’s seat.
    He was startled when the EAT system came on immediately. “Welcome Gracus. Please specify desired location.”
    Gracus stared at the dashboard unit with narrowed eyes. He knew damn well that the others could track his every movement with the annoying system and didn’t want to make it easy on them. So, he leaned down and looked to find a way to remove it. Unable to see an easy way, he grabbed hold of both sides and ripped it out of the dashboard.
    Rolling down the window, he threw it out onto the garage floor, with a grin. He hated that damn thing , he thought, happy that he was remembering things, even if it was slowly.
    Gracus started the car, only a little nervous about driving it again and backed out of the garage without hitting anything. Just when he thought that his slower movements might be a bonus for some things, he tried to slam on the brakes when he got too close to a tree that was lining the driveway, but hit the damn thing anyway.
    Within seconds he was smacked in the chest with the deployed airbag. Gracus punched wildly at the rapidly deflating bag and was grateful that the seat was so far back that he’d barely felt the bag hit him.
    He leaned his head against the steering wheel and now deflated airbag for a moment before realizing that the vehicle was still running. Gracus looked in the rearview mirror and saw the back hatch door of the vehicle was crumpled inward and assumed that it must still be fine to drive if it was still running, so he put the vehicle in drive and tried to pull forward. When he saw that the SUV was running fine, he maneuvered it out onto the road, reminding himself to stay on the right side of the yellow line.
    He pulled his comm out of his side pocket and completed the security measures that he’d taken at Dillon, to make sure that Scaden couldn’t track him with the device before he activated the navigation to find Rebecca’s house.
    Gracus had never rolled up the window after he’d thrown the navigation system out and marveled at the feel of the wind