Luke (Bear Shifter) (New World Shifters) (10 page)

When I woke up, the sun was streaming in and the smoke was rising from the dying embers of last night's fire. I told myself that giving up wasn't something I'd done before.

And I wasn't about to start now.

I dragged my phone out of my pocket and looked at my it one last time before setting it aside. There was plenty of charge on it, or in it, or however you were supposed to think about it, but that didn’t mean that there was any purpose to the device, at least not this far North.

The wild reaches of Alaska were many things; gorgeous, untouched, serene beyond any place on earth. But they weren’t forgiving, and they certainly weren’t friendly to mobile phone coverage. A couple of weeks ago Cole had told me that the only thing that would work away from Barrow would be a satellite phone, and it looked like he was right.

I wanted to call Jake. I wanted to tell him that everything was all right, even though he had no reason to believe otherwise. I wanted to hear his little voice call me ‘Mommy’, and I felt a little shadow of fear race through me that I’d never hear him say that word to me again.

But I wasn’t alone up here, not quite. Luke, despite everything he’d said yesterday about loving me, clearly thought that a relationship between he and I wasn’t going to happen. Which was fine. At least, that was what I was still trying to tell myself.

Get your shit together, woman,
I urged myself.
Why do you want to go out on a limb for some guy and risk everything on a virtual stranger? A day ago you were convinced he was a worthless drunk!

He’d saved me and I’d saved him and as far as I was concerned, we were even. I’d told him he’d owed me and he’d agreed, but that was just his machismo and stupid male pride talking. I wouldn’t hold him to it.

I looked around the little cave as I sat up in the sleeping bag, wondering where Luke was. He’d gone to find us more food, no doubt. At least, that’s what he’d say if and when I asked him upon his return. If I had to place a bet though, I’d say he was using the time to clear his head.

That didn’t sound like too bad of an idea, actually. Yesterday had been crazy, and all of this Shifter stuff was going to take some time for me to process. Luke had said I’d be safe if I stayed here, but I wasn’t willing to give up on my lifesavings. It would only be a matter of time before they rented out my room at the motel to someone else, and when they did the new tenant would eventually discover my stash of cash. Once that happened, whoever discovered it would soon find a way to snort it, drink it or inject it and then I’d be even worse off than before.

The very thought made me furious. I’d busted my ass for that money, and far more importantly I’d traded long months of my life for it. That was time that I could have been spending with Jake. I’d be damned if I was just going to write it off, despite what Luke had said about my safety.

I was a big girl. I made my own choices and I stood by the repercussions. If I got in trouble for helping him, maybe I could talk my way out of it. Maybe Bruno would believe me, though I hoped it wouldn’t come to that. If I played it right, I should be in and out of Barrow before anyone so much as knew I was there…

And there was no time like the present. It was early, and everyone back there would be sleeping off last night’s drinks. Luke had shown me where the truck was, and I leapt to my feet and dashed out of the cave in that direction, telling myself I was hurrying because I didn’t want to be out in the cold for too long.

That was a lie, of course. I was really fleeing from Luke and the things I didn’t know how to say to him.

Once I found the truck, I started the engine and cranked on the heater. It looked like there was more than enough gas to get me back to town, which didn’t surprise me. Luke was nothing if not well-prepared and I knew he wouldn’t provide me with a means of escape that wasn’t sufficiently fueled up and ready.

I shoved at the frozen parking break back until I finally got the damn thing to release and then drove forward slowly. I wasn’t under any illusions that there’d be a road right ahead of me, but I figured if I drove for long enough I’d cross a gravel trail that would take me South. Hunters and trappers still came up here on occasion, and they didn’t simply blast across the tundra without a road.

The forest was on my left, and so was the frozen river. I glanced at it, thinking to myself that those trees were a barrier of sorts. On one side of them was the town and the rest of my life, however much in shambles it was. On the other…

On the other side of that forest was Luke. A man that had been brave enough to tell me that he loved me when I’d been crazy enough to ask him something that stupid point blank, even though he was still holding him back from giving himself over to it fully because I didn’t have the right great-great-great-great-great grandmother…

I was torn. Leaving him didn’t feel right, but it
did
feel like the only way I could control my destiny.
You can always come back
, I told myself, knowing it was bullshit.
Just because you’re leaving now doesn’t mean it has to be forever. You can-

A swift slash of shadow in the corner of my eye caught my attention and cut the thought short. I stopped the truck, pumping the brakes as the tires slid around on the ice and snow before bringing me to a jerky halt. Was I seeing things?

I couldn’t be sure. The wind had picked up and visibility was bad. I stared at the tree line so hard that my eyes started to hurt, but try as I might, I couldn’t make out anything strange over there. I’d been expecting to see the silhouette of a wolf, or the dark, racing shadow of a man.

Instead, I saw nothing.

You’re going to drive yourself nuts, Zoe,
I chastised myself.
Just make a decision and stick to it. You wanted to go back to town and grab your money, right? So get going.

I gunned the engine and smashed my foot down on the gas, whipping the truck’s steering wheel around so that I did a quick half-donut in the snow before racing back in the direction I’d come. Luke was in trouble. I couldn’t be sure, but my gut was telling me that it was far better to be safe than sorry.

It didn’t take me long to get back from where I’d ‘borrowed’ the truck, and I turned off the engine and jumped out into the winter, yanking the zipper on my jacket up even closer to my throat as the cold hit me. When I turned around to close the door, I saw a long survival knife in a holder on the dashboard, and on a whim I grabbed it.

Who knew if it would come in handy? I sure didn’t, but it had been laying on the air vent, so it felt warm in my hand.

I ran to the cave, only to see that Luke hadn’t returned. The fire was out, and the winter filled the space completely with its swirling, frosty air. Here I was, with only the wind and the threat of frostbite for company, feeling more and more like whichever way I turned I was in over my head.

For the first time in a long time, I was afraid. Even yesterday, when I’d seen Luke and Bruno shift I hadn’t felt the chill touch of a fear like the one seeping into my bones now. I’d watched that happen, and then last night I’d gone right back out into the wilderness to rescue Luke. I’d seen the bodies of the men he’d killed when he’d climbed out of the hole, and Everly’s corpse as well.

None of that had scared me in the same way, but now I felt a desperate shiver of horror creep down my spine, and it pissed me off. “You don’t own me,” I said out loud, through teeth clenched tightly so that they wouldn’t chatter. “You never did, and you never will.”

I didn’t know who I was talking to, but it seemed to work anyway. The fear backed off, and the cold at least became a touch more tolerable. Whatever had been pressing me down into oblivion gave me just enough space to maneuver, and I hurried to the river before it could overwhelm me again. If Luke was nearby, he may be getting fish like he had yesterday. If something was wrong, I could alert him to the danger.

And if it wasn’t, at least I could say goodbye. That way I could leave with my head held high, and not like some thief, slinking off with his truck to head right back into the lions’ den.

Wolves' den
, I reminded myself.

As I walked to the river, I started to feel more and more silly. It was clear to anybody that I was out of place up here, but I’d made myself look fairly ridiculous, stalking around in the peaceful morning with a big knife and what was no doubt a fierce expression on my face.

There was nothing wrong. I’d find Luke and he’d think I was nuts. The fresh snow on the ground crunched merrily beneath my shoes, and the sound and sensation of it began to drive away whatever fear or worry I’d felt a couple of minutes before.

Groups of little brown birds flitted through the trees ahead, and as I walked down what I assumed was a path created along an animal trail I watched as a big, black crow perched in the uppermost branches of a lone pine and it cocked its head at me. Its black eyes were shining in the rising sun.

I gave it a little wave, and it responded with a booming
caw, caw, caw
that echoed up the valley ahead of me.

“Fine,” I said to it under my breath, pushing through a few low hanging branches and their snowy burdens as I left the clearing and headed through the forest, toward the river. “Be that way.”

The crow hopped into the air and stretched its wings, flying over the ridge, headed toward what I hoped was both Luke and the river. I started to smile, but another little shard of fear, as clear and sharp as ice chose that moment to run through me, wedging its way deeper and deeper into my heart with every step. Something was wrong. I didn’t know what, but the memory of the movement I’d seen from the truck filled me to the brim.

Something bad was coming…

I gulped oxygen, trying to calm myself down. I should be able to hear the river by now, shouldn’t I? I tried to hurry forward, but the air up here was thin and cold, and it burned my lungs to use it. I had no choice but to pause, hands on my knees as I waited for a little of my strength to return.

What was happening? I wasn’t a marathon runner by any stretch of the imagination, but this was ridiculous. My breath was coming out in puffs that spun around my head like wreaths of smoke before being torn to pieces by the wind as it whipped up around me.

Hard as it was to do, I held my breath, listening.

Nothing. No ripple of water or babble of brook. The icicle of fear grew razor sharp barbs, the pain bringing me to my knees as a sick sense of dread flooded me. If the river wasn’t here, I was lost. And if I was
lost
, I was probably dead.

No more Jake. No more ‘Mommy’. No more-

Stop it!
I shouted at myself.
This isn’t you! This is something else, working against you! Luke said you had balls, remember? Grow a pair and get back on your feet or you’re going to die here in the ice and snow
.

It took everything I had, but I pushed myself up, grabbing a nearby tree trunk for leverage. The moment I was upright, the fear and the foreboding vanished as if it had never been, and if I needed more proof that something magical was working against me, that was it. One moment I was sick with dread, on the verge of despair, and the next I was perfectly fine.

“What the fuck is happening to me?” I asked the wind, and the only answer I got was the angry caw of that damned crow as it flew off from the top of another tree and headed further South.

Back to town…

I shook my head to clear it of the last of the fear that had swamped me, then regained my strength and forced my way up the snow to the top of the rise. I was greeted by pure majesty and sheer beauty. At first glance, the sight before me made my knees lock and my body sway.

It was gorgeous. A fresh Alaskan snow lined the tree branches and the banks of where the river should be, but from this side I couldn’t see the place that we’d crossed.

“Careful, now,” I said to myself under my breath. Just like when Luke had pointed it out to me last night, I could make out the faint depressions of old game trails that led down to the edge of where the river should be, including the trail I’d just followed over the rise.

I did my best not to be mesmerized by the beauty of the scene in front of me as I picked my way down across the crispness of the snow. The riverbank, at least on this side, turned out to be a lot steeper than it looked, and more than once I caught herself on the verge of taking a nasty tumble.

“Watch your step,” I chided myself. “Break your leg out here, stupid girl, and you’re as good as dead if Luke doesn’t find you.”

Was Luke on the other side? Should I cross it, and try to find him over there? It didn’t seem like a particularly good idea, but I felt like I was running out of options.

Once I’d descended the slope, all that lay ahead of me was an unbroken blanket of about thirty feet of fresh snow until the rise on the other side of the frozen river. Even here, on the rocky banks, I could feel the roar and power of the water beneath the ice rumble up through my feet.

“If you’re looking for me, you could have just shouted,” a low, gravelly voice said from a few feet behind me. It was Luke, thank God, and even if he wanted to try and scare me, I was glad to have found him. Or, at least, to have been found
by
him.

“I was worried something was wrong,” I said, turning around to face him. “I was in the truck and I saw something headed this way. Fast.”

“What was it?” he asked.

“I don’t really know,” I said, feeling lame about the lack of details I could provide. Whatever follow up questions he had, I was going to come off looking like an idiot. “Wait a second. Aren’t you going to ask why I was in the truck?”

He shrugged. “I know why you were. You were headed back to town.”

“Oh…”

“The real question is what are you doing trying to cross the river on your own? I told you last night that the river’s frozen over,” Luke said, and I couldn’t help but hear the scorn in his voice. “You city folk can’t be up here for more than five minutes without wandering off to your death, can you?”

I started to pick my way carefully back up the bank to stand beside him. Of course, the sun decided to come out from behind a cloud just then, framing him in a golden light that shut up whatever retort I’d been about to fire back at him.

Standing there like that, framed by the mountains behind him, Luke was incredible. I tried to ignore his rugged, chiseled jaw, the way his blue eyes looked as deep as glacial ice and yet somehow still held a warmth for me. His broad chest and big, strong biceps had clearly been earned by doing a man’s work outdoors for the entirety of his life. He was wearing jeans and a tightfitting t-shirt, and there was a big hunting knife in a sheath at his belt that reminded me of the one I’d forgotten I was holding.

He shook his head at me. “Get back up here and stay away from the edge, okay?”

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have come back. Obviously you’re fine, and safe, and all of that. I mean, what was I thinking? You’re a Bear. Of course you’ll know when there’s danger on the way…” I said, fuming. I was still on my way back up to him, but now that I was down here, the river bank seemed much slippery than it had felt when I’d was picking my way down it.

A little help up would have been appreciated, but Luke didn’t offer and I’d be damned if I’d ask. I’d sooner let myself slip and fall into the river than give him the satisfaction of a ‘city girl’ begging for a hand, if that was all he was going to think of me as.

Still, the fact that this handsome Shifter had the nerve to just stand there and watch me was infuriating. Was this how it was going to be? Had he decided to conceal his feelings in a thick shell of indifference?

Halfway up the riverbank, I paused and allowed myself to look at him once more, expecting that what-the-hell-are-you-thinking attitude his voice had been full of to be reflected in his eyes.

Instead, Luke was on high alert. That was the only thing I could call it. He’d been pretty relaxed a couple of seconds ago when he’d verbally spanked me for being so foolish near the river, his feet planted shoulder width apart and his big, broad thumbs hooked into the belt buckles of his jeans.

Now, he was in a half-crouch, every impressive muscle in his powerful frame standing out. Those ice chip eyes were scanning the surrounding forest, and he raised a hand at me without looking, signaling me to stop struggling up the embankment.

I did.

He scowled, and an instant later a Wolf howl ripped through the woods on the other side of the frozen river.

“You shouldn’t have come back,” he said, keeping his voice low. “I didn’t want you to risk your life for me.”

“You wanted me to go?”

He didn’t answer, but the look in his eyes and the set of his jaw told me the truth. He knew that I’d leave. The truck may have been there as a means of escape, but he’d hoped I’d use it to exit his life.

“Where’s the gun?” I asked.

“I put it in the truck’s glove compartment for you. I was trying to keep you safe, but instead you brought that…,” he said, pointing at the knife.

“How the hell was I supposed to know the gun as an option?”

“Shush,” he said, his big hand making a chopping motion. “They’re close now.” He raised his head and seemed to sniff the air, those intense eyes blazing with whatever information the chill wind brought to him. “Too near to get back to the truck, not that it would help you.”

I hurried up the riverbank to stand beside him. There were a lot of things I wanted to ask, though they were all wasted time, since I already knew the answers. He’d made it clear that the Wolves could outrun him, and he made it seem like they were far too close for us to hope his magic would be able to conceal his tracks if we were to try and hide. I swallowed hard and asked, “Is this a good place to fight them?”

The area on our side of the river was flat, and I didn’t think there were enough trees to get in the way. If we had to go down, I was determined to go down swinging. I pulled the knife from the scabbard and gripped it tightly.

It was still warm, a fact which made me cock my head in curiosity for a moment.

“As good as any,” he answered.

I reached up and put my hand on his tanned and toned skin, trying to show him that he had my support. His flesh was so hot it was almost painful to touch.

Fever
. That was the first word that blazed through my mind. Whatever magic was in him, I could practically feel it rushing through his blood right now.

“Stay low,” he said, wrapping his arm around my waist and pressing his mouth to my ear. The incredible heat rolling off of him had somehow ramped up in the second or two since I’d last touched him, and I shivered uncontrollably. He was so damn hot that it made the Alaskan air feel even colder in contrast.

“We’re hiding?” I asked, surprised.

He nodded, and I felt the cupid’s bow of his full lips brush my earlobe just as they had yesterday. “You are. If they get past me, they’ll go for you. Even if they don’t, they’re smart. One or two of the Pack may try and drag you off once they’ve gotten me involved in a brawl. Whatever you do Zoe,” he said, and my name on his tongue made my knees go weak, “don’t let that happen. I hate to say this, but you may be better off using that knife on yourself instead of letting them get their hands on you. I’ll do whatever it takes to stop it from coming to that, but I can’t make any promises.”

“What about you?” I asked, angry at myself when I heard my own voice trembling in the air.

A dark chorus of Wolf howls ripped through the forest, one after the other, long and wavering notes that built upon each other until they shook the ground beneath us.

“I’ll do my best to make sure you survive this in one piece,” he said, “you have my word.”

As soon as the words had crossed his lips Bruno and two of his men stepped out from the dense, snow-lined brush on our side of the river. I recognized his henchman from the bar, skinny guys with long and lanky limbs, tangle-haired and wild-eyed. Bruno limped a little, just like always, but I could sense now that he was the most powerful of the Wolves by far.

All three of them had brown leaves and twisted twigs twirled up in their hair, and as they stalked forward, try as I might, I couldn’t even hear the snow crunch beneath their feet.

“It’s been too long, Luke,” Bruno said. His half-lidded, hungry eyes raked up my body, and he tossed me a wink as he licked his lips. “Thanks for holding on to our prize for us until we got here. She hasn’t gotten the stink of Bear on her already, has she?”

“Put your tail back between your legs and slink off back to your shitty little bar, Bruno. Have a drink. Keep pretending that you’re safe from me.”

Bruno just laughed and shook his head. “Oh, but I am now. And
this
one’s mine. You and I both know you’ve got no claim to her. She’s for the Pack, and there ain’t nothing you can do to change that.”

“She’s not for you,” Luke growled. “She can make up her own damn mind, and that’s that.”

Bruno didn’t answer, but the sneer on his face grew more pronounced. He flicked his hand out and the other two men with him fanned out wider, trying to outflank Luke and I.

“Remember, Zoe,” Luke told me, “Whatever happens here, running will only get you killed.”

I nodded grimly. My usual sarcasm and spitfiery, witty rejoinders had been left long behind. I felt a tingle of intuition as the hair on the back of my neck stood up, and something made me glance away from Bruno and the guys he’d brought.