by E A Price
His wolf huffed.
“Where’s your little hobbit, Suki?” she slurred.
Now, his wolf snarled.
“Susie is in our room. Roxanne…”
“I can’t believe you care about her!” she spat.
“I…”
“I see the way you look at her. You’re like a fucking puppy dog, all goo-goo eyes and big, floppy, wet tongue. Makes me sick. I mean, what does she have that I don’t have?”
Roxanne stood up and twirled around, sloshing her drink all over the floor.
He grasped her arm to get her attention and to stop her from tumbling to the ground.
“Roxanne, you stay away from Susie, do you hear me?”
“Ooh, heaven forbid I hurt your precious Susie!” she taunted.
His grip tightened as his wolf bared his fangs. “Was that you driving the car last night?”
Roxanne scrunched her nose. “Car? Last night? Where was I last night? I don’t think I was driving a car.”
“Did you lock Susie in the sauna?” he demanded.
“She got locked in a sauna! Boy, what an idiot!”
Barlow curled his lip, but he felt a sliver of relief. Roxanne could lie well enough when she wanted, but he didn’t sense a lie now. Though, that may just be because she was too drunk to realize she was lying. He really should warn her off again when she was sober.
Barlow’s wolf stood to attention as he scented someone approaching – Edward. Poor idiot – did he really believe Roxanne was the woman for him? He ought to see how awful she was.
Roxanne wrapped her arms around Barlow’s shoulders, and his first instinct was to pry her off him and push her away, but he stopped himself. Edward should witness this for himself.
“Roxanne,” he growled in warning. “You’re engaged.”
“Not for long,” she snorted. “As soon as the house sells, I’m off. Edward is useless in bed, not like you, honey.”
“That so?”
She giggled and licked his cheek and Barlow had to force himself not to shudder. She reeked of alcohol; the stench was overpowering, so much so that he missed the sweet magnolia scent that flooded the room.
Roxanne moved to try and kiss him, and he pushed her away – not too roughly, though. It was likely she would fall over given her inebriated state.
He looked up to find Edward staring at him, though without much malice. He probably already had an idea of what his fiancée was really like. But the look on Susie’s face was something else.
His wolf yowled at him.
“Susie, it’s not…”
“Doesn’t matter,” she said quickly. “I’m spending the night in Candace’s room, and I’ll get a ride back home with her.”
“Susie,” he said in a warning voice.
“No!” she snapped. “Don’t, because it doesn’t matter. We’re not a couple, so you can do what you want with whatever skank you like. Sorry, Edward,” she added.
Her gaze drifted to Roxanne who was currently trying to give her the finger. But the she-wolf was using the wrong finger, so it was more confusing than insulting.
“I’ll see you around,” she muttered and strode off.
Stop her snarled his wolf. He was going to, but surely this was better for her. Better that she hate him.
For the first time in a long while, both he and his wolf agreed about one thing - the fact that he was a complete and utter dick.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Susie didn’t come back to the room for her things – she sent Candace to get them. Though judging by the looks Candace was giving him, she volunteered for the job so she could growl at him. He didn’t care about that, he just warned Candace that she better keep Susie safe. That earned him a roar and a flip of her hair.
He looked in the mirror and scowled at his reflection. “What the hell are you doing?” Naturally, the asshole in the mirror didn’t reply.
What was he doing with Susie? He knew from the moment he met her she was special. Hell, he had even agreed to come up to this lodge and waste a weekend at a damn wedding because he was jealous of the idea of her spending the time with someone else. He spent the long weekend panting after her, yet he was still afraid.
His phone rang and he groaned. It was the tenth phone call from his father that weekend. He ignored the first nine. What on earth couldn’t wait?
“What?” he snapped on answering.
“Hello to you too, son,” growled Greyson. “Glad to hear you’re still alive since you just disappeared from town.”
Barlow grunted.
“Maguire’s been trying to get hold of you – he says he wants you to knock down the wall between the dining room and the kitchen.”
“Fine.”
He could care less – he would do whatever the old man wanted. He had more important things to worry about.
There was a pause, before Greyson said, “What the hell are you doing up there? Terri told me that you’re up in the mountains with Susie.”
“I was invited.”
“To a wedding?” scoffed his father. “Who’d invite you to a wedding?”
“Just some friend of Susie’s.”
Someone who didn’t know him – which was true in this case. He was banned from mating ceremonies when he was a teenager. There was an incident with his ant farm that he brought with him to a ceremony and… well, it was decided that he just wasn’t ceremony material.
Barlow could almost hear the disapproval emanating from his dad. “You’re not planning on playing around with Susie and dumping her are you? Because both Violet and Terri are fond of her and you’re not too old for a cuff to the back of the head.”
“I haven’t dumped her – we’re not dating.” No, he never dated. You didn’t let us even try dating Susie complained his animal.
Another pause and then a sigh.
“Son, what happened to your mother is not your fault.”
Barlow inhaled sharply. He was going to growl at his father, but the sound died in this throat.
“It is,” he breathed as the memories of his mother flickered before him. She had spent more and more time as her wolf, and was getting wilder and wilder to the point where she would growl at his little brother over nothing. One night, Barlow had wanted her gone from the house, wished she wasn’t there because she upset his brother so much. But, that was the night she never came back.
“I should have stopped her from going out that night. She went out and left us on our own, I knew she shouldn’t be doing that but I just didn’t say anything. I… I wanted her to go. I knew it was wrong but I wanted her gone. I could have saved her, and I didn’t.”
“Barlow, you were six years old,” said his dad in a calm, soothing voice. “Your mother wasn’t your responsibility.”
“Doesn’t matter.” He should have done something.
“Your mother shouldn’t have left you, and I should have been there. We were both headstrong and foolish, and she paid the price.”
“You were in the army, it’s not your fault,” Barlow admitted. “We didn’t protect her; we didn’t save her.”
“No, we couldn’t. But that doesn’t mean it will be the same with your mate.”
His wolf mewled in agreement.
His dad had always been fun loving – the life of the party - before his mate died. After that, he was harder and colder. Like a light inside him died. For years he seemed to be in pain. Though, Barlow had to admit that recently he had changed and was more like his old self again. Probably due to his new mate. Maybe that was why Barlow had been standoffish with Violet. He was annoyed that he was still hung up about his mother while his father had moved on with his life and found someone as lovely as Violet.
But we have Susie cooed his animal.
“What if I can’t protect my mate? What if I lose her like you did?”
“You just try your best, son. Like I’m doing with Violet.”
But something could happen any day, any hour - any minute where Susie was co
ncerned. Just like that she could be gone – poof!
“Is it worth the pain?”
“Yeah, it is.”
Barlow dabbed at some tears that he was grateful his dad could not see.
“You know,” said Greyson in an amused voice, “if I was my brother and you were one of his sons, we’d be crying and telling each other how much we love each other right about now.”
“Thank god we’re not then,” groused Barlow.
“That’s my boy!”
Yeah, they were gruff and growly and they would still fight, but Barlow’s heart eased a little.
“To be clear, boy, you hurt Susie – and by extension my mate – I will punish you. I don’t care how old you are.”
“You going to take my Gameboy away?” snorted Barlow. A favorite punishment from growing up, and not one that really bothered him when he discovered how much more fun nudie magazines were.
“No, but maybe your truck – you forget it’s still in my name.”
“Oh.” Crud.
“And Violet thinks you don’t like her – you better start being nicer.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah.”
“And another thing…”
Barlow hung up. They could be there a while if his dad was listing all the things about Barlow that pissed him off. He was going home tomorrow – he could ignore his father in person then.
For now, he had more important things to think about – like a certain little human who may not want to talk to him again – never mind anything else. The wolf yipped encouragingly. Yeah, he needed all the encouragement he could get.
*
“Where’s Susie?” Barlow snapped at Jules. She and Candace were standing outside the lodge, presumably waiting for the participants of the scavenger hunt to return.
Candace hadn’t allowed him to talk to Susie last night – she had guarded her door as if her life depended on it, but Susie couldn’t hide forever.
Jules pursed her lips at him. “Taking part in the scavenger hunt – you were supposed to go with her,” she replied accusingly.
His wolf clacked his jaws impatiently. “Where’s she headed?”
“I’m not sure. She went off on a snowmobile on her own – she was determined to win those tickets to Hawaii.”
“I need to find her,” he griped urgently.
Barlow would take a snowmobile and scour the countryside until he found her. He spied Allen heading towards a snowmobile and his beast curled his lip.
“That’s the only spare one,” said Jules as she too caught sight of him.
The hell he would let Allen have it! Barlow strode over to him.
“Get lost!” he barked, choosing the least offensive words that sprang to mind.
“I beg your pardon?” said Allen huffily.
Barlow clenched his fists. His beast was all for just tossing this guy aside and taking the snowmobile, but he could be polite. “I need this to find Susie, so push off.” Polite-ish.
Allen scowled. “No, I need it to find Susie.”
Punch him insisted his beast, but something tickled somewhere in the back of Barlow’s brain.
“Why are you trying to find Susie?”
Allen’s eyes widened, and Barlow detected a hint of fear.
“Ah… The same reason as you.”
It better not be - he was planning on finding her so he could tell her he was falling in love with her.
Allen looked around shiftily, and something clicked into place.
“What did you do?” asked Barlow in a hard voice.
“N… nothing,” stammered Allen.
He reeked of guilt, and Susie’s string of bad luck started making sense.
“You’ve been trying to get Susie to come back to you all weekend. So what, you figured if she was in danger and you saved her, she’d come running into your puny arms?”
“You're ridiculous!” spluttered Allen.
“You were right there after I pulled her out of the sauna – I just got there first. Guess you planned on leaving her to cook for a little while longer – well, you left her in there too long. What about the car? Was that you too? You came rushing out of that restaurant awfully quick. I got there first again though, didn’t I? Did you get a friend to drive the car to try and scare the hell out of her?”
“This is all nonsense,” he denied hotly.
Jules and Candace glared at him.
“I doubt many know she’s allergic to hazelnuts – but I’ll bet you do, and what? Were you just waiting to swoop in with one of those preppy pens?”
“Epi-pens,” murmured Candace.
“Epi-pens,” he corrected.
“These are all lies,” Allen maintained, though he was sweating up a storm.
“What did you do to her snowmobile? Cut the fuel line so she would be stranded?”
“I ah…”
Barlow grasped him by the scruff of the neck and shook him. “I wouldn’t lie if I were you,” he said in a deceptively calm voice, only hinting at the violence his beast was currently contemplating.
“Okay, yes!” cried Allen. “I just wanted my Susie back. I just wanted her to realize she needs me.”
“So you did that by trying to kill her?” squawked Jules.
“I wasn’t trying to kill her, just show her that she needs to be taken care of.” Allen scowled at Barlow. “Would have worked too if you hadn’t got in the way.”
She needs us snarled his beast.
“Moron!” screeched Candace.
“Dick head!” added Jules.
“Asshole!”
Barlow held up his hand. “Enough.” Usually, he would enjoy them insulting him, but he did have somewhere he needed to be.
“She only brought you here to make me jealous,” spat Allen, ineffectually wriggling in Barlow’s grip. “You can’t honestly think someone like Susie would be interested in a dolt like you?”
Yeah, actually he knew she was. Hopefully, still would be, and he was determined to treat her better than this prick ever did.
Barlow dropped Allen, and his wolf mewled at the lack of violence. Hey, getting angry and punching him wouldn’t help Susie.
“Which way did she go?” he asked Jules.
Jules hunched her shoulders. “If I had to guess, I’d say towards the deer farm – heading north. There’s a guy who breeds deer near here. The first thing on her list was a photo of a deer up close.”
Barlow grunted and pushed Allen out the way. He zipped up his coat and swung his leg over the snowmobile.
“What do you think you’re doing?” whined Allen. “I will – ugh!”
Allen crumpled to the ground, and Barlow waggled his fingers. Allen’s head was a lot harder than expected. Yeah, punching Allen wouldn’t help Susie, but it sure as hell made him feel better.
Now, it was time to find his mate and make her listen to his apology.
But he would make a call first. Maybe a little help was needed in this situation.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Susie groaned. She had tried kicking the snowmobile, but that didn’t work, and she was all out of ideas. She supposed she could kick it again, but since it didn’t work the first time, it was unlikely it would work this time either.
She wrapped her scarf around her head and pulled her hood up. She had her cell phone, and a radio, but she was surrounded by trees and wasn’t getting any signal or response for either. Serves her right for trying to take a shortcut, but she was determined to win that trip to Hawaii. Sending her grandparents to Hawaii was at least some consolation for a crappy weekend. Now, she wouldn’t even get that.
Susie started tramping through the snow to find higher ground. She should have let Candace come with her, but Candace would have tried to cheer her up – as she had last night and all morning - and Susie was in no mood for company or being cheered up.
Candace would have spent this time listing all the ways she was better off without Barlow, and Susie didn’t believe any of them for a second.
&nb
sp; She carefully took her time in climbing over a fallen log – after all her mishaps over the weekend, the last thing she needed was to fall on her ass again. Taking her time, she made it over without a trip, a grazed knee or a torn pair of pants. She was about to start patting herself on the back when she heard a blood-curdling roar.
*
Thankfully, all the snowmobiles had trackers. The snowmobiles were always available to guests, and lots of them got lost, so the hotel decided it was for the best that they could track them to retrieve both their guests and their snowmobiles.
Finding the snowmobile proved quite easy. Sadly, Susie wasn’t with it.
His wolf prowled impatiently as Barlow sniffed. Magnolia. He and his beast groaned. She smelled beautiful. He had missed her last night. Her pillow, steeped in her scent was nowhere near a good-enough substitute. He had spooned it all night long nonetheless, but still.
It was snowing lightly, but not enough to cover her footprints. She couldn’t be far, and he wanted to find her quickly. He could scent wild animals in these damn woods.
He strode after her, considering what he would say when he found her.
I’m sorry.
I’m a dick.
I think I’m falling in love with you.
Let’s hurry back to the hotel to have sex because check out is in an hour.
Probably not the last one, but something along the lines of the first three.
He grunted as the footsteps stopped at the bottom of a tree. Had she flown away?
He snarled as something hit his head. He looked up to find Susie sitting in the tree and motioning frantically, mouthing something to him.
“What?”
“Bear, you idiot!” she howled.
His wolf snarled in warning as he spotted something big and fast hurtling his way.
“Aww, crap!”
Barlow scrambled up the tree, and Susie helped pull him onto the branch opposite. He was grateful it was sturdy enough to take his weight.
He looked down at the huge bear, all teeth, claws and black eyes as it roared and beat its paws against the tree.
“I can’t remember if bears can climb trees or not, but this one doesn’t seem able,” whispered Susie.