ROMANCE: Mason (Bad Boy Alpha Male Stepbrother Romance Boxset) (New Adult Contemporary Stepbrother Romance Collection) (9 page)

BONUS

DRAWN BY THE

WOLF

By Sicily Duval

Chapter 1

I watched as Mrs. Van der Groot walked around her apartment, going over every tiny detail, from the eggplant color of her curtains to the thread count on the pillow cases. She inspected it with a hawk’s eye, but I wasn’t worried. I’d done this a million times before. Catering to the Manhattan Elite was just a matter of knowing what they wanted.

Image was everything.

“This is good, thank you Nadine,” Mrs. Van der Groot finally said. “I’ll transfer the funds.”

“Always a pleasure,” I said and walked out the front door, the clack of my high heels echoing off the newly installed wooden floors. Real wood, not wood laminate, because even though Mrs. Van der Groot couldn’t tell the difference, she was sure her friends would be able to.

I’d been an interior designer working the Upper East Side for four years, and my clientele included people just short of celebrities. I made a lot of money, and I loved it. The finished product was always my favorite, the idea that something old could be transformed into something new, a cave could become a palace of dreams.

Not that these rich homes ever were caves to begin with, but it was the concept.

My phone rang, and I tapped the ‘talk’ button.

“You have a meeting at three, and your mother called,” Lidia, my assistant, told me.

“I’m headed back to the office now.”

My offices were on Park Avenue, in the Manhattan Business Center. The center was alive with the hustle and bustle of men and women at work, making money.

In my office I opened the salad I’d picked up on the way, and took a bite. Half an hour to eat, call my mom, and then next client at three.

“This came for you in the mail.” Lidia placed a manila envelope on my desk. It contained a ticket to Alaska. I rolled my eyes and dialed my mother’s number.

“I could have afforded the ticket mom, you don’t have to go and spend money on something like that when I have more than enough.”

“Oh, nonsense. It’s a gift, you can’t refuse it. Besides, your father and I wanted to see you, and if it’s up to you, you just won’t come. We didn’t want to take that chance, dear.”

“I’m really busy, mom. I have a lot of important clients. I have to shoot to another one in about twenty minutes. I can’t just let everything go and run to the wilderness.”

My mother snorted. “This isn’t the wilderness. Everyone has time off, don’t they? You’re the boss, schedule leave for yourself. You have to come. We haven’t seen you in four years!”

My parents had moved the same time I had. I’d grown up in Ann Arbor, a small-town girl with big dreams. I’d moved to the city, they’d moved to a god forsaken town in Alaska and opened a fishing and hunting shop. I looked at the ticket. It was return.

“I can’t get away for two weeks, mom,” I said. “That’s a lot of time—“

“So hire an intern or something. Make a plan. Daddy will be at the dock to pick you up.”

I sighed. “I’ll see you, then.”

My mom squealed. “Then you can finally meet Mac!”

Mac was the guy working in the shop they owned. I heard about this guy every single time I spoke to my parents.

“Right, the guy that has conveniently replaced me in your family,” I said.

“Don’t be a snob. You wanted to move to New York. You’ll always be our daughter. But Mac is a swell guy. You’ll really like him.”

“Sure mom. But I have to go. I have a meeting. We’ll talk more next week.”

“Oh I wanted to tell you—“

“Bye, mom,” I said and hung up. I put my phone down on the table and leaned back in my swivel chair, covering my face with my hands.

“Is everything okay?” Lidia asked, bringing in a cup of coffee.

“I have to go away for two weeks from next Monday.”

Lidia nodded. “What do you want me to do?”

“Book some time off for me. You can take some time for yourself as well, as long as the calls redirect to your cell. Make sure I have no clients or appointments until after I’m back.”

“What about your three o’clock?”

“I’ll speak to them.”

Lidia smiled. “Thank you, Nadine,” she said and left the office, closing the door behind her.

After work I went to the hairdresser. I used the same lady every time, she knew what I needed and understood my style.

“You’re back earlier than expected,” Marie said when I sat down.

“I need to go on a trip. I want something different, something a bit more stylish. Something with flair,” I said.

“Is it a business trip?”

I sighed. “I wish. I’m heading out to Alaska to see my parents.”

“Prettying up for them, are you?” She finger-combed my hair out of my face, measure it against my jaw. It was in a shoulder-length bob now, my general go-to for my meetings.

“Something like that.”

The fact was that I wanted to change my hair because I was forever trying to fight the small-town girl I’d grown up to be. I wanted to look classy, like a business woman. Interesting. I’d spent my childhood looking at pictures of people that I imagined lived life in the fast lane. I wanted to show my parents I’d managed. I wanted to prove to them the life I’d made was better than the one they chose.

I wanted to look the part, so no one would realize there was still a void inside me that I’d thought money and clothes and reputation would fill.

Marie cut my hair in an A-symmetric stacked bob that reached just below my jaw on the one side and just above it on the other. The layers brought the red in my auburn hair out.

“This style brings out your eyes a lot more,” Marie said when she was done.

“It will bring out my freckles, too,” I said, frowning at myself in the mirror.

“You look great. Freckles are beautiful, in my opinion. Besides, you always cover them with concealer. Who will know?”

“You’re just saying that because I pay you,” I said, forcing a smile. Marie chuckled and swiped the card I’d given her.

I usually hopped on the treadmill in the mornings before work. It made me more productive if I was up and at it first thing. But tonight I got into my running shoes and started at a fast walk. The treadmill faced the corner of my office where two large windows met to make the walls seem like they didn’t exist. The view of Central Park in the dusk was magnificent. I walked just until I knew I was warmed up enough, and then I pushed my treadmill up to eight point five miles per hour at a twelve percent incline. I balanced on the sides, and when it was up to speed I sprinted.

I ran until my thighs screamed at me. I ran until my chest burned and my skin was slick and shiny with sweat. I watched the city lights come on one by one, the dusk giving way to the navy and then black of the night sky, and the city fall quiet around me.

When I finally got off, my muscles trembled and I felt sufficiently numb. People underestimated the power of exercise. After I showered I crawled into bed and closed my eyes. In three days I was going to have to head out to Alaska and see my parents. I groaned into my pillow.

The flight from New York to Ketchikan was just over nine hours. Before I’d left I’d gone shopping for winter clothes. It was summer, but my mother had warned me the average temperature in the day was about sixty degrees.

My parents lived in Metlakatla, a small town on Annette Island. There weren’t any flights going to a place that small – why would there be? – so I took a ferry. Measuring the weather was one thing. But the actual feel was a whole different thing entirely. Sixty degrees didn’t feel so bad, but the wind sliced through my jacket and I was frozen right down to the marrow before the ferry left the dock.

The view was stunning. I was inside the cabin – there was no way I was going to brave the cold to experience this wild country first hand – but I stood by a window. All around us the country rose and fell in snow-capped mountains and monochrome valleys. The sea was a gun-metal gray, stretching out all around the ferry like glass, and lapping softly against the sides.

The sky mirrored the color of the ocean in a lighter shade of gray.

Two hours later the ferry moored in the dock at Metlakatla. The little town looked exactly the way I’d imagined it: Small. Old. Scattered across the island.

Backwards.

I found my suitcase and got off the ferry. I looked around for the salt-and-pepper gray hair that marked my dad. The passengers around me filtered way, each finding the people they belonged to, until I was left alone on the dock. I pulled out my phone and dialed my parent’s home number, but the line was busy. I cursed under my breath.

Why on earth they wouldn’t get cell phones was beyond me. This was the twenty-first century. I looked around, taking in the off-white buildings and browned roofs that made the whole place look like it had fallen out of a sepia photo. Maybe people here didn’t know what year it was.

I waited an hour. The few people that worked around the dock went about their business ignoring me. Finally I took matters into my own hands and I found the building that contained a reception desk.

“Do you have a car I can call?” I asked. “My ride hasn’t arrived.”

The man behind the counter had skin that looked like it was made of leather and a vacant look in his eyes.

“Excuse me?” I asked when he didn’t answer.

“He doesn’t understand English,” a man behind me spoke, and I turned around to see another native. His eyes were as black as his hair, and he was big. I could tell he was all muscle despite the thick fur jacket he wore. I wondered for a moment if he’d hunted and killed to make that coat himself.

“What do you need?” he asked.

“I ride. My lift didn’t pitch.”

“Where are you going?”

I didn’t have any kind of address, but this town was small enough. Maybe he would know.

“Bullets and Bait? The hunting shop? Owned by the Campbells.”

“That’s not too far in. If you go down—“

“Could you find someone to drive me? I’m not really cut out to navigate this place on foot.”

The guy looked me up and down, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. “I guess I could drive you,” he said. “But it’s out of my way.”

“Please, I’ll pay you.”

He looked at me for a second like he was thinking about it. “Fifty dollars,” he said.

“What? Fifty? This place can’t be more than two miles all the way through!”

He shrugged. “Okay, so what you’re going to do is as soon as you leave the dock you turn left—“

“Fine.” This guy was a pain in the ass. “I’ll pay you fifty dollars. Just get me there.”

He nodded and smiled, revealing a row of perfect white teeth. His canines were just a little more pronounced than the rest of his teeth. His mouth was mesmerizing, his smile changing his entire face. If he wasn’t so infuriating I would have said he was drop dead gorgeous.

When he walked outside he moved fluidly, like he had water in his veins instead of blood. I followed him to a faded truck that had more rust on it than light blue paint, which I assumed was its initial color. He walked around and got in, not bothering to open the door for me. I opened it and fought with my suitcase to get it into the foot well. When I finally managed and I slammed the door shut, my driver chuckled.

“You should have put it in the back.”

“Thanks for letting me now,” I said sarcastically. I took out his money and gave it to him. He shoved it into his pants pocket in a crumpled ball.

He turned the ignition and the truck sputtered to life with a cloud of black smoke. We drove in silence for a while, the rumble of the truck filling up the spaces around us.

“You’re a wolf, aren’t you?” I asked. His fluid movement, his canines, his muscles. It all made sense. We lived side by side with mythical creatures, but in my city life I didn’t encounter many of them.

“I am. Do you know much about them?”

I shook my head. I knew they existed. I knew some trademarks. “I think I noticed because you weren’t bothering to hide it.” Most people did. A lot of people discriminated against mythical creatures the same way they used to discriminate against skin color. Now that there was something worse, it didn’t seem all that important what color their skins were as long as they were human.

“No point in hiding who you are. It just makes it harder for people to get to know you.”

And if I didn’t want people to know the real me?

“What’s your name?” I asked.

“I am Mequssuk.”

“What does it mean?” Something wild. Something fierce. Something equivalent to the raw power I could feel pulsating from him, the authority with which he moved. Courage, Bravery. Something like that. I looked at him eagerly while he rubbed his stubble with one hand.

“Shaggy dog,” he finally said. I stared at him for a moment before I burst out laughing.

“Your parents called you shaggy dog?”

He rolled his eyes at me. I knew I was being rude but I couldn’t help it.

“I’m Nadine,” I finally answered, managing to tame my laughter into a grin.

Chapter 2

We parked in front of Bait & Bullet. The store front was standard with large windows displaying fishing tackle and rifles. The name was painted in a green and gold arc across both windows and I sign hung in the door that said ‘come in we’re open’.