Bearing The Long Road Home (Ice Bear Shifters 7) (4 page)

Chloe opened her eyes and blinked a few times at the brightness of the sunlight reflecting off of the snow. Her head bounced rhythmically against the back of the seat, and she scrunched up her face in confusion. Why was she in the passenger seat of a truck? Why had she been sleeping? A glance to her left revealed that the driver of the truck was none other than the shifter she had seen in the office two days earlier. When she saw him, the events of the morning came flooding back. In a flash, she remembered coming over the hill and seeing the moose, then hearing the awful sound the truck made as it collided with the animal. She remembered the cracking of glass and everything going black. Then she remembered seeing the shifter’s face hovering over hers in the smoky cabin of her truck, and his helping her up and through the broken window. After that, things got a little fuzzy. She seemed to remember running for her life as she saw flames burning from the engine of her truck, but she couldn’t say for sure how she’d gotten into this guy’s truck.

She stole another glance at him, trying to see if he bore any distinct markings that might identify him as a member of any of the clans that were familiar to her. But she didn’t see anything that would give away his ancestry. If it wasn’t for the fact that he gave off a strong bear scent, she wouldn’t have even known he was a shifter. He looked so…human. His hair was dark brown, but she could see reddish tints to it where the sunlight hit it. His eyes were a deep shade of green, a color she didn’t recognize as being specific to any of the clans she knew. His skin was surprisingly tan for someone living in the Arctic. Chloe frowned. Maybe he lived with a shifter clan somewhere warmer, and had only come north to work for the winter. He had thick stubble on his face, like he hadn’t shaved in a few days. Chloe wondered if he had decided to grow a beard to try to keep his face warmer. She would have, if it was an option for her. The temperatures out here were no joke.

As Chloe admired his strong jaw line, he seemed to sense her looking at her. He glanced over, and she tried to look away, but she was too slow. He had caught her staring.

“Welcome back,” he said. His voice sounded guarded, and devoid of any sort of emotion.

“Um, thanks,” Chloe said. “I guess I should thank you for saving my life, too. I’m not sure exactly what happened, but from the bits and pieces I do remember, it seems like you pulled me out of my burning truck.”

The man nodded, looking straight ahead at the road as he spoke. “Yup. Your truck is toast. Went up in flames just a few minutes after I got you out of there.”

Chloe bit her lip. “Do you think they’re going to fire me?”

The man snorted. “Doubtful. They need the help too badly, and insurance will cover the truck. Besides, from what I understand, hitting a moose is a fairly common occurrence around here. Almost a rite of passage. I think your collision just ended up a little worse than most since you were coming down a hill when you hit the poor thing. It’s hard to decelerate a truck barreling down a slope of ice.”

Chloe nodded and stared out the window. She wasn’t sure where they were, or even what time it was. The clock in this truck’s dashboard didn’t seem to be functioning, since it was only displaying a string of four zeroes.

“What happens now?” Chloe asked.

“We drive back to base, where I was heading anyway. They’ll probably do an accident report, and they’ll probably want you to get cleared with medical. I suspect once that’s all done they’ll have you back on the road.”

“How far are we from base?”

“I’d say about four or five hours still.”

Chloe sighed. She didn’t want to spend another four hours on the road with this strange shifter, but she didn’t have much of a choice. At least he hadn’t attacked her yet. He didn’t seem friendly, but he had saved her from the wrecked truck. Surely, he didn’t have any intentions of harming her. Chloe relaxed a little bit. He must not know who she was. Her suspicion had been correct—no one outside of Alaska knew who the Blizzards were.

Chloe suddenly realized that she hadn’t even introduced herself, which seemed a bit rude since the man
had
just saved her life and all.

“I’m Chloe, by the way,” she said.

The man frowned. “I’m Seth. But I’m not really interested in being friends. I saved you from the wreck because I don’t want a fellow shifter’s death on my conscience, but I don’t want to be buddies.”

Chloe felt a little sting of rejection at the man’s comments. Sheesh, she thought. No need to be so unpleasant. She would have thought he might have actually enjoyed having company for the long, boring ride, but apparently not. Chloe set her face in a hard line and stared out the window. The light out on the tundra was beginning to wane as the sun made its way behind the horizon. An hour went by as Chloe watched it slowly disappearing in a brilliant display of reds, oranges, and pinks. The sunsets out here were incredible, just like the sunrises.

As darkness settled over the pair, Chloe found it harder and harder not to talk. She was outgoing by nature, and the last few years of being cooped up in hiding had resulted in a lot of pent up longing for companionship. Now that she had finally found a place where no one knew the Blizzards existed, she wanted to make friends. Why had she ended up stuck in a truck with a guy who was determined to be an unsociable asshole?

When he pulled out a bag of salt and vinegar potato chips, she decided to venture a comment.

“Those are my favorite kind of chips,” she said. “I’ve been eating way too many bags of them while out on the road.”

Seth frowned and stuck a handful of chips in his mouth without replying. Chloe sighed. This guy was a real peach. She decided she would keep talking, even if he didn’t want to.

“I also really like sour cream and onion chips. Or barbeque flavored. These trips are so long, you have to mix it up a little bit on the snacks, you know? I usually bring some chocolate chip cookies with me as well.”

The man continued frowning as he chewed and then swallowed. He gave Chloe a long sideways glance, and opened his mouth like he was about to say something, but then shut it again. Chloe took the brief moment as an encouraging sign, and plowed ahead with her monologue.

“Of course, it’s important to have a good assortment of drinks, too. I had given up soda for a while, but I’ve started drinking it again while doing this job. It’s hard to spend twelve or more hours on the road and only drink water, you know? I’d have more coffee, but it gets cold too quickly. No one wants cold coffee. Yuck.”

Chloe realized she was rambling, but she didn’t care. It felt good to talk to someone besides herself. Even though this guy wasn’t responding, at least he was a real, live person. But just as she opened her mouth to continue her discussion of the best snacks and drinks for the road, Seth cut her off.

“Look, Chloe, I’m not interested in being friends,” he said, his frown deepening.

Chloe held back a sigh and fell silent. The only sound in the cabin was the hum of the heater and engine, and the crunching of potato chips as Seth ate his way through the bag. She realized with disgust that he hadn’t even offered her any. Sure, he had already done plenty for her by saving her from her wrecked truck. But she would never have been rude enough to sit and eat someone’s favorite kind of potato chip in front of them without offering them any. Chloe crossed her arms and stared angrily out the front windshield. What an asshole. Didn’t anyone have any manners anymore?

Seth noticed her huffy mood, and he didn’t take kindly to it. He scowled in her direction, and his voice took on a venomous tone. “If you want to sulk because I’m not interested in discussing potato chips, you’re welcome to get out and walk. I told you I don’t want to be friends. Can’t you just sit there and ride for a few hours in silence?”

“I don’t understand what the big deal is,” Chloe said, her own voice beginning to drip venom as well. “I just wanted to help pass the time a little bit. Small talk about snacks doesn’t mean you have to be friends with someone. It just means you’re carrying on a conversation like a decent human being.”

“Oh. I’m sorry. I thought rescuing you from a burning truck made me a decent human being, but I guess that wasn’t enough. I have to shoot the shit about potato chips, too.”

Chloe felt like she had been slapped in the face. Seth was acting like a jerk, but there was no way she could win this argument with him. No matter what she said, he had a trump card. It was hard to argue that he owed her potato chips or a casual conversation when he reminded her of his heroic efforts. Chloe crossed her arms tighter and stared out the passenger window into the blackness. She bit her lip and told herself to just stay calm for the next few hours. As soon as they got back to base, she could get out of the truck and she never had to see him again.

But the more she stared out the window, the more she felt her anger seeping away. He was rude, but he was also kind of right. He had saved her life. She shouldn’t try to force him into a conversation if he didn’t want to talk. Chloe had almost managed to calm down completely when Seth broke the silence, startling her.

“I know who you are,” he said.

Chloe whipped her head around to look at him, and her heart started pounding. “What do you mean?” she asked.

“I mean, I know who you are,” he said, narrowing his eyes. “You’re not from around here, and neither am I.”

Chloe’s hand involuntarily reached for the door handle. Seth couldn’t possibly be saying what she thought he was, could he? She wasn’t sure how dangerous it would be to leap from a truck going twenty miles per hour, but surely it was safer than sitting next to a shifter who was familiar with her clan.

“Where are you from?” she asked. She hated the way her voice sounded small and weak, but she couldn’t push down the fear creeping up in her body.

“I live in Glacier Point, Alaska. You know, near the caverns.”

Chloe sat perfectly still, her hand frozen on the doorknob. He knew she was a Blizzard. Yet he hadn’t attacked her. What clan was he from? Is it possible he was part of one of the few clans the Blizzards hadn’t attacked? Chloe still couldn’t place him. The only clan she knew of in Glacier Point was the Northern Lights Clan, and they had definitely been affected by the Blizzards.

Chloe didn’t have to ponder these questions for long. Seth was suddenly feeling talkative.

“Your clan wiped out almost my entire clan. Only three of us survived. We’re all that’s left of the Frozen Claws Clan, but we don’t even call ourselves the Frozen Claws anymore. We joined the Northern Lights Clan. Not a day goes by that I don’t miss my old clan members. Not a day goes by that I don’t relive the awful massacre in my mind. I hate you. I hate your clan! What a senseless waste of space you all are.”

Chloe blinked rapidly a few times, trying to calm herself down. A rush of fear and adrenaline ran through her body. She was sitting a few feet away from a shifter who hated her, on a truck in the middle of a frozen wasteland. There was nowhere for her to run. There was no safe place to hide. So she sat there, trying and failing to even out her breathing. Seth was looking out the front windshield, but she could see from his side profile that his face had one of the angriest expressions she had ever seen.

“If you hate me so much, why didn’t you just leave me to die?” Chloe asked, despite the fact that her mind was screaming at her to just keep her mouth shut.

“Because, despite my lack of interest in discussing potato chips, I’m a ‘decent human being,’” Seth said. “Or, maybe I should say I’m a decent shifter. Unlike you and your clan. The Northern Lights Clan has a policy of not killing woman and children, which is the only reason you still exist.”

The adrenaline rushing through Chloe’s body changed from fear to anger. “Don’t tell me I’m not a decent shifter!” she yelled at Seth. “You don’t even know me. You think you do, because you’ve seen what the men in my clan did. But you don’t. You’re judging me for the actions of a crazed alpha. I had no control over him. You don’t know the full story.”

“Oh, well, by all means then,
please
enlighten me. What is your excuse for your clan’s actions? This oughta be good,” Seth said. His tone made it clear that he wasn’t interested in actually hearing any excuses that Chloe might offer.

At first, Chloe crossed her arms and stared silently out the window. She didn’t want to waste her breath on this guy. But after a few minutes of angry silence, she decided to just let him have it. She had been wishing for two years that she could explain to the shifters who hated her that she hadn’t wanted their clans to die, and that she truly was sorry for their losses. She had wanted to stand on a tall hillside in Alaska and broadcast the truth—that she wasn’t an evil unfeeling monster. She had just been under the rule of one.

Chloe took a deep breath and started talking. She started at the very beginning, when Dominic had first taken over as alpha of the Blizzards. She told Seth about the early clan wars, and how the initial tastes of victory had only driven Dominic to take over more clans. She talked about the awful experience of watching her own clan members be tortured and killed when they tried to resist Dominic’s dictatorship. And she talked about the awful months of being cooped up in the caverns, forced to endure life below the surface thanks to Dominic’s crazy crusade against the Northern Lights Clan. She described the terror of the day that the Northern Lights Clan attacked the Blizzards and forced them from the caverns using fire. She told Seth how she had been sure she was about to suffer a violent death at the paws of one of the Northern Lights bears, until she realized that they were letting all of the women and children escape. Then she described the awful existence she had lived since that day, hiding in the shadows and always looking over her shoulder, always on the run.