by Milly Taiden
That idea pleased him. Keeping her pregnant for several years, starting their family fast—wait. No. She deserved someone so much better than he was. Someone who could provide a decent home, not a two-room shack; someone who had modern conveniences, not using the permafrost as a fridge or dumping snow into the toilet tank to flush.
No. He couldn’t trap her in what had become of his life. All because of one mistake.
He pulled away from the kiss, as much as he hated to.
12
Hand in hand walking through the forest, Juliet asked questions about his life while he sidestepped as many of them as he could. Something happened that he wasn’t telling her. Something in his past haunted him to this day. In order for him to heal from the pain, he needed to get the poison, the toxin, of the memories out.
Now he wanted to know everything about her. She really was boring. She told him about her job at the snow company which included measuring snow height as well as stats on glaciers. “Well, I almost died twice.”
He jerked around so quickly, she nearly lost her footing on the rocky slope.
“Died? Twice?” he breathed, grabbing her shoulders. He may have said only two words, but his eyes told her so much more. She saw fear, panic, concern, but mostly she saw love. Was it possible to fall head over heels in twenty-four hours? Well, she just did.
Juliet wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him for all she was worth. She wanted him to know she loved him, too, by her actions. He pressed her against him and he felt so good. His body heat radiated out the collar of his coat. The smell of pine, musk, fresh air. He was good enough to eat. If she got her way, tonight she would be full of him in more ways than one.
He pulled away from the kiss much too soon for her taste. Why was he always stepping back from her? Any other man would’ve nailed her to a tree twice already. Was she mistaken about seeing love in his eyes? No, he was her mate. He was born to love her. If Raven made up all this shifter crap and fed her a line of bullshit, she would so kill her best friend, dragon mates or not.
He continued to guide her through the forest for at least an hour. He said he wanted to show her something, but she wondered if he’d forgotten about that.
“Tell me how you almost died once,” he asked.
“Well. . .” Juliet went into the story about her discovering mercury poisoning in the folks of Antler. She had to admit it was rather stupid to confront the man causing the problem head on with accusations. But that was the kind of person she was. No beating around the bush, small talk crap. It was get down to business and fix the hitch right now.
Right after that, she found herself locked up in the back room of the sheriff’s office for a week until Raven rescued her.
After relaying that scary time in her life, Tevrik remained quiet. Something bothered him, but he wasn’t sharing. The reason why smacked her upside the head. He’d been living alone for over a decade. He wasn’t used to talking to others to work out problems. Duh. They’d have to work on that. Communication was the most important aspect of a relationship. Well, after sex.
The woods were starting to get darker. The sun had traveled its short distance, ready to take its rest for the night. They emerged from the trees onto a flat area of stone. Looking around, Juliet was amazed at the beauty.
The valley below them was hundreds of feet down, filled with coniferous trees and a creek that was mostly dry. She could see for miles from their towering location.
She said, “I’ve never seen anything so awe-inspiring. It takes my breath away.”
“Don’t lose too much air. You haven’t seen what we came for yet.” He turned her in the opposite direction. He was right. More beauty than she could take in spread in front of them.
The mountain range ran westward. Several peaks were higher than where they stood. In the dip between two massive pointy mounds, half of a white-hot orb showered fire across the sky. Along the sides of the slopes, liquid gold flowed like molten lava.
Juliet leaned into her mate. He snuggled round her, making her feel safe and loved. They stood quietly watching the changing hues. When the sun disappeared behind the mountains, the sky burned like hell had open its gates to the clouds.
Wisps of yellow and orange streaked the shadowy scape. Tevrik tugged on her. “We need to go. It will get pitch black fast. We’re not far from the cabin. But it’s a long way down.”
She followed behind, connected to him with fingers linked. They hurried back the way they came through the woods. He was right about the dark coming on fast. She knew his shifter eyes were much better at night than humans’. She put her trust in him.
“Hold up a minute.” He lifted his nose slightly. “Turn around.” He walked past her, leading her away.
“Wait. Why are we going a different way?” When he didn’t answer, she yanked on his arm. “Tevrik, what’s back there that you don’t want me to see?”
With a sigh, he said, “It’s more like I don’t want them seeing you.”
“Huh?” was her only response to his strange wording.
“Wolves, Juliet.”
“What about them?” Wolves were fine. Hell, he was a wolf. What was the big deal?
He spun around and faced her. “Are you serious? Wolves could attack you.”
She cozied up to him. “That’s what I’m hoping for later.”
He stepped back. “What?”
Now she said, “Are you serious? You don’t get what I just said?”
He turned around and continued through the trees, heading more in a downward direction. “We’re taking a different route home. It’s faster anyway.”
“Oh, why didn’t we go that way to begin with?” she asked. Not that she didn’t want to spend time with him. Just curious.
He helped her over a log bound on both sides with wild brush.
“Because it can be dangerous,” he answered.
“How so?”
The trees suddenly disappeared like someone drew a line and everything on that side simply vanished, except the tilted muddy ground.
“What happened here?” she asked.
“This is the edge of a rockslide. Took out all the trees and topsoil, leaving only slippery mud from the snow earlier.” He pointed to a path she could barely see in the oncoming night. “That’s the trail we want to get to.”
Stepping forward, she said, “Well, let’s—” When her step came down on the mud, the angle of the slope was too much for her boots to cling to. Her leg slid out from under her as she skidded unhindered along the incline. She grabbed at rock edges, but her fingers weren’t strong enough to overcome her downward fall. Her slick vinyl coat only made the issue worse.
Even though it was night, the twilight was bright enough for her to see what lay at the end of her slide—a cliff where the rock cut off, straight down for hundreds of feet.
Panic clawed at her brain, but she held a barrier around her logical mind. How could she slow her body’s momentum? She twisted sideways, rotating her hips so the length of her boots dragged across the ground, slowing her some, but not enough to keep from going over the edge.
Nothing else came to mind to save her. This was her end. A jolt of adrenaline, maybe overwhelming fear, blasted from the center of her chest, but other than that, she felt calm. At least she would die in the place she liked being the most. Much better to die by falling off a cliff than a shark ripping your leg off and slowly bleeding to death.
In the corner of her eye, she saw a white streak dash out of the woods toward her. Next thing she knew, her body was moving sideways instead of down. She tried to see who was dragging her by her coat’s hood but couldn’t see anything.
Next, she was flung in a circular arc then hit rock that wasn’t slick. She rolled a few times and came to a stop, staring at the darkening sky. After a moment, a familiar floppy tongue lapped at her face.
She sat up, forcing the white wolf away from her face. “I’m okay. I’m okay.” The wolf stared at her a minute then ran up the
path, disappearing into the darkness. She lay back, her ribs hurting once again. Then she realized why she couldn’t see the wolf’s tail when he was dragging her.
Hurried footsteps reached her ears before her eyes made out Tevrik, barefoot, his jeans busted open in front, but still on. In an instant, he was on the ground next to her, scooping her up, and rolled her on top of him. He pressed her head to his chest, his other arm around her waist, squeezing.
Her body moved up and down with each of his deep breaths. His body began to shake. Oh, wait. That was her. She brought forward her scientific mind, fighting the shock setting in wanting to take her cool as a cucumber status.
An image of the cucumbers in Tevrik’s greenhouse came to mind. She thought about how warm the area was, the smell of the soil, all the short green plants, and Tevrik beside her. At the herb table, his upper arm brushed hers. It was one of their first touches. Well, for her. During the previous night, he massaged the muscles on her ribs to relax so she could breathe. Right now, she felt those same muscles tightening along her ribs.
“Tevrik,” she whispered, “we need to get home.” He rolled up and was on his feet with her cradled in his arms. Without a word, he walked down the path, doing his best not to slide too much. This rock was crumbled gravel instead of the smooth, slippery face of the rockslide patch.
She would normally ask to walk herself, but now she was afraid her legs wouldn’t hold her up. After several minutes of descending the mountainside, huge boulders and rock lay in a heap. Glancing up the slope, she saw the flat section of rock next to the forest. This was where she would have landed had Tevrik not saved her.
She wrapped an arm over his shoulder and cried onto his bare chest.
13
Tevrik carried his mate in his arms down the path toward home. He had never been so scared in his life. His body was moving before his mind registered what was happening. Juliet was there and gone in a blink.
His alpha wolf had been in control with no complaint from him. He shifted midair, which he didn’t know he could do. His shirt was shredded, but his jeans stretched enough to contain the back end of him.
With the cliff coming fast, his wolf darted from the forest, his claws clinging to the cracks and crevices too small for fingertips to catch. Then, he almost missed her, biting down on the hood as she slid past. The only reason he was able to get close, was her fast thinking.
As her boots scraped over the rock, her course changed from straight down to an angle toward the path. He thanked whatever deity was watching over them for the much-needed help.
Even with his alpha strength, claws, and forward momentum, eventually, gravity took its hold. He was close enough to the trail that if he flung her toward safety, her body should reach the gravel before resuming its plunge. He watched through wolfen eyes as his mate hit the rocks and rolled. With his load gone, he found he could run faster, overcoming some of the downward pull.
So many emotions slammed him as he carried his only love, his reason for living, toward home. His lonely life had not even come close to preparing him for such a barrage. For the longest time, he had been lost in his own pity party to feel much. He woke in the morning, kept busy until sundown, then went to bed. He would go for months without saying a hundred words.
She had gifted so much to him. Reminding him what it felt like to care for someone, to love and cherish. He needed to decide whether he would be selfish and keep her to himself or let her go to find someone who could give her what she deserved.
He’d worry about that later. Right now, his mate needed him, and he needed his mate.
After entering the small home, he placed her on her feet in front of the fire. He wiped mud off the zipper pull and the metal teeth as he opened her now brown coat. He dropped it on the floor. From a chest at the end of the bed, he withdrew two worn blankets. One he draped over a stool and put next to the fire and the other he wrapped around her.
Crouching, he unburied the laces of her boots and pulled them off with her socks. When he stood, he locked eyes with her. Her face was smeared with muck, but she was still beautiful. His hands snaked through the front of the blanket opening and found her belt. He unbuckled and unbuttoned the pants then slid the mud-caked material down and off her legs.
She turned her back to him and offered the blanket corners for him to hold. Her delicate arms pulled from her top, then she unhooked her bra, adding it to the pile on the floor. Tevrik wrapped the blanket around her and scooped her up into his arms.
Juliet winced a little. Her ribs probably bothered her again. He’d take care of that in a minute. He placed her in the rocking chair she sat in earlier then stoked the fire to make sure the room would be warm enough. It would all be perfect. It had to be.
This night, he would remember for the rest of his life. This night, he would make love to the only woman he would ever hold. This night would be the last he ever had with her. It must last him a lifetime.
At the back of the greenhouse, he flipped over a tub he’d carved out a long time ago and filled it with snow piled up along the back of the house. He then carried it through to the front and set it before the fire.
Swinging the water kettle out of the embers, he grabbed a padded leather mitt and poured steaming water onto the snow. When he was finished, he put his hand in to test the temperature. He would never chance scalding her silky skin.
When she started to get up from the chair, he raised a hand for her to stop. Seeing confusion on her face, he grinned and lifted her from the rocker. From there, he placed her in the tub, blanket and all.
From a shelf on the front wall of the fire, he took down a handful of boiled soapberries and a sea sponge that had washed ashore from the Beaufort Sea. That journey was long ago when he had yet to find himself. But he remembered it like it was last week.
In clothes that he’d found in a half-buried backpack in the forest a while back, he walked the rocky shoreline of the northern flats of the Book range. He’d been on the run for a long time, not caring what happened to himself. If not for his wolf forcing him to feed and sleep, he wouldn’t have gotten as far as he had.
When he had come across the sponge camped out on the rocks, he studied it for a while.
He realized then that there was so much he didn’t know about the world he lived in. The diverse people, countries, species, foods. So much of all of it unknown. There, he came to a crossroad in his young life.
He’d run from all he knew that one unforgettable day. So young, so stupid. Ran from family, friends, security, love, but most of all from what he had failed to do. His past few years of nomadic lifestyle had taught him much through trial and error, especially how to live through the brutal sub-arctic weather. He was so young that fateful day, but survival matured him faster than anything else could have.
He was truly alone for the first time in his life.
Standing at the brink of the northern Alaska sea, sponge in hand, he had a choice of wandering the land for the rest of his days, which wouldn’t be many in that climate, or he could own up to his faults and failures like a man and try to salvage a life from shattered remains. He always thought he’d eventually go home, but the longer he held out, the more awkward and embarrassing the whole thing became. His pride wouldn’t let him show so much weakness.
He had made a life-changing decision that day and kept the sponge as a reminder. Now the sponge would mark the night he chose the road less taken.
Soapberries in hand, he knelt beside the carved-out mini-tub and rubbed his hands together to create a frothy lather that he spread over her back and sides. He brushed the soaked sponge across her skin that rewarded him with a sultry moan from his mate.
His dick had been hard for the last ten minutes, so becoming harder now was no big deal. The comfort and emotional calmness for his mate was.
He rubbed his palms over her ribs, feeling for the knots that caused her pain. Having her submersed in hot water was better than draping hot towels over her clothes like he ha
d done the night before to loosen the muscles. With the heel of his hand, he pressed on each knot until it released its death grip around the injured area.
When her ribcage was smooth, she took a deep breath and slid down in the water, her knees coming up higher. Grabbing a large pot, he filled it with bathwater then set it on a footstool behind her head. He crushed more berries and worked the soap through her mud-crusted hair. Her beautiful golden strands returned to their previous luster after a second pot of water.
Wringing out her hair, he feathered a kiss on her shoulder. He took her shudder as permission to continue. Following each lathering and rinsing, he placed a kiss on that section of her skin. First her shoulders, then up her sweet neck, he brushed his lips, barely tasting the flesh. Holding her arm above the water, he rubbed the sponge in small circles, massaging as he cleaned.
His kisses trailed up her limb, his eyes locked on hers the entire time. What he read from them humbled him. The love and desire were almost too much to take. If the tub were bigger, he might have jumped in with her. But his wooden creation was definitely for one body.
Plus, this was all about her. His way to worship the goddess she was. His way of ensuring to himself that she was alive and with him. She could’ve so easily not have been.
He lifted one of her legs and scrubbed above the ankle where mud had gotten past her boots. Another kiss had goose bumps popping up her skin. So sweet, so perfect. Before letting her go, he massaged her sides one last time to make sure he muscles were relaxed and causing no pain.
After he had touched, kissed, every part of her that the bath allowed, he retrieved the blanket he had draped over the stool earlier. By now, it was warm and toasty to keep his mate comfortable while he tucked her into bed.
He held the covering up as she stood, giving her the privacy she needed. He wasn’t sure how shy his mate was. She was bold with what she wanted, but when it came right down to it, would she still be the female alpha she’d shown to be? He’d find out, hopefully. It would all be based on what she wanted. When she stepped out of the tub, she took his hand and led him to the bed.