What the Outlaw Keeps

by Samantha Leal

  Saber wrapped his arms tightly around her and pulled her into his side. It wasn’t long before he was asleep and they dozed by the fire, cuddled underneath the fur pelts as the sounds of howling creatures roamed the icy lands outside.

  Even though Melissa knew there were probably countless creatures out there that could kill her, she had never felt safer in his arms.

  8.

  The embers burned low on the fire, and when Melissa woke, Saber was already up, stoking it and adding more wood.

  She approached him from behind, wrapped her arms around him and kissed his neck. She had never felt more like a woman around him. She had never felt sexier.

  “A kiss,” she whispered as he turned to her and her lips met his. He ran his hand through her hair and slipped his tongue against hers.

  It was all so perfect. She wished it never had to end.

  But she knew she couldn’t stay there.

  When they broke apart, his eyes looked sad, as if he knew it was all over, too.

  “I need to go,” she said. “Can you take me back to the cave?”

  Saber looked out at the fire and ignored her for a moment. She could tell he didn’t want her to leave.

  Her heart ached as she was torn between her decision and the man in front of her… Could she leave him now they had met? Their connection was so pure and fierce. Could she walk away from him?

  Tears stung her eyes and she wiped them away. Saber shook his head and held onto her chin. He looked at her deep in the eyes and said, “No.”

  Melissa smiled and nodded.

  “Come with me?” she said as a stroke of genius flooded through her. “You don’t have to stay here… Come back with me?”

  She knew it was a crazy concept, but she also knew it was the only answer. She didn’t want to leave him; there was no life for him there. But she didn’t think he would let her go. If she managed to get him back to the cave and they found a way to reopen the vortex, maybe they could be back in 2015 and live happily ever after.

  Saber was looking at her as if he didn’t understand anything she was saying. It was the first time he had looked confused since he found her. Melissa took his hand and smiled.

  “Trust me,” she said.

  He smiled back and nodded.

  ***

  The journey back to the Neanderthals’ cave was short and frightening. Saber threw her up over his shoulder and ran with her back down the incline, past the rocks and cliff face and over a small rise. The opening was there and Saber sniffed the air. He nodded and moved forward, happy that the coast was clear.

  Inside the cave, the carcass of the tiger was lying limply on the floor and the Neanderthals had already removed its tusks. Melissa shivered as she opened her mind to suggestion and hoped the rocks would call to her again.

  Saber watched her as she held onto his hand and looked around. Her heart was pounding and she was about to panic when suddenly a light shone on the corner of the room and two points from two rocks, one above and one below, were almost touching.

  “That’s it,” she smiled as she led him over to them.

  Saber held her hand and with their other hands, they both took hold of the rock points. Just as before, Melissa felt a surge of power run through her and Saber roared like a lion as the pain hit them and the earth began to move.

  The world went black, but she could still feel his hand.

  And then… nothing.

  ***

  A big arm cradled her, and as she opened her eyes, they met his.

  “Melissa,” he said with a smile as he brushed the hair out of her face and kissed her gently on the lips.

  She sat up and looked around in panic.

  Were they back? Had she brought him back to the present?

  They were in the cave and it looked similar to when she had been there with Quattro, but there was still something different.

  She looked down and they were both still wearing the fur pelts and their skin was dirty.

  “Dr. Quattro?” she called out, but her voice echoed around the cave. She knew there was no one there.

  “If this were 2015, this cave would be crawling with archaeologists after yesterday,” she said. “Something’s changed.”

  She could see the shaft they needed to climb in order to get back to the surface, and Saber led the way. He put her on his back and climbed it with his bare hands and feet with such incredible strength Melissa couldn’t believe he was actually capable of doing it.

  He had lived a long time in a savage land with only himself to rely on, but now he had found her and he wanted to protect her. When he reached the top of the small cave opening, he heaved himself up and out with Melissa still clinging to him. As they rolled back onto the grass in the French field, Melissa looked around and was surprised that there was still no one there.

  “Looks like we’ll have to walk,” she said.

  Saber put her over his shoulder again and headed east.

  They reached a road after about two hours and the first car that pulled over held an old couple who looked intrigued and confused by what they were seeing. Saber’s eyes were like saucers as he watched the car as if it were a predator. Melissa assured him it was all fine, and as they made their way back to Bordeaux, she asked the couple in basic French what the date was.

  “April 10th, 1973,” the woman said as she turned to smile at her.

  Melissa’s heart pounded and she didn’t know where to look. Saber wrapped an arm around her and pulled her close.

  She wasn’t even born until 1990… She couldn’t help but laugh.

  She thought back to her life in 2015 and of all she was lacking. She may have had a great career, but she could still do that in 1973. Her family were long gone and she didn’t have a boyfriend or husband to speak of. The explorer in her wanted to stay where she was, to never tell anyone what had happened to her and to integrate Saber into society without anyone being any wiser.

  She looked at him, and when he looked back at her with his beautiful and innocent eyes, she knew they could make it work. They could stay in France and build a life. Now that they had each other, anything was possible.

  Neither of them were from that time and that made it all the more real. It made it so much more exciting for them to be experiencing the journey together.

  “Let’s do this,” she smiled and she squeezed Saber’s hand.

  The archaeologist had her very own caveman, and they were about to embark on the wildest ride either of them would ever have thought possible.

  “Time doesn’t exist when you’ve got love,” she whispered to him. And even though he was still learning, she was pretty sure he understood.

  THE END

  Also if you enjoyed this story please check out the companion story Mated to the Caveman which you can find here.

  Babies for the Bear

  Cynthia Wilde

  Copyright ©2015 by Cynthia Wilde. All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic of mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Thank you so much for your interest in my work!

  Chapter 1

  Lois was on her way back to Barrow. She had been unable to take off from work to travel the previous summer, marking the first year of her life to miss the majestic views of Alaska. Now she stood looking out from the boat once again, feeling warm nostalgia for the summers spent in that tiny town on the Arctic Ocean. Her parents had brought her each year to see the whales. Her mother was a marine biologist, who loved sharing the mystery of the sea with her daughter, and her father was the doting spouse, there at her mother’s beck and call for whatever she needed. Lois closed her eyes and felt for a moment as if they were still there with her. It had been 5 years since her parents had been lost in a car accident. Barrow was all she had left of them.

  Her eyes adjusted to the ref
lecting sun and her heart soared as she took in the small town from a distance. Coming here was like coming home. She still rented the same room at the boarding house where her family had always stayed together, ate at the same restaurants, and haunted the same local hangouts. Her life had been so upside down for the last few years that the familiar had become a rare and precious thing. She had been on edge for a month, waiting for the trip. The laboratory where she conducted research at home had been growing smaller by the day, and once the weather was warm enough for traveling north she was more than ready to go.

  There was still about twenty minutes from the dock and Lois spent the time repacking the few things that she had pulled out of one of her bags. She hadn’t brought much considering her plan to stay on for at least three months, so she was able to carry all of her things off the boat on her own. She walked two blocks to an old garage where she paid to keep her truck and visited with the owner, Old Merl, before she took off to the boarding house on the other side of town. Burrow was quaint; she loved everything about its rugged, small town charm.

  Lois parked her truck and walked toward an old two-story house.

  An older woman hurried out onto the porch, opening her arms toward her. “Oh! You’re finally here! I heard there’s a terrible storm coming and I was afraid you would get caught in Ketchikan.”

  Lois set her bags on the ground to embrace the nearest likeness to a mother she had left in the world. It was as if this woman had been placed in her life long ago for a future that had already been set in stone.

  They walked into the old house together and the familiarity enveloped her. It was exactly like it had always been. Her hand softly ran over the back of one of the couches. “It never changes. That’s why I love it here so much, Miss Beth.” Lois was looking around, soaking up the memories that hung in the air, thick as the scent of the large spruce beams that met overhead in the homey living room. “Do you have a lot of visitors right now?”

  “Oh just you and one other, Jeffrey, he’s in town for some hunting I think. You know how those men are, they get all riled up to kill something with a gun. He is kinda cute, maybe you two will hit it off…” Beth turned away slightly, trying to stay casual.

  Lois raised her eyebrows in amusement. “I doubt that,” she smiled dryly. “And how do you know I’m single?”

  “’Cause I know. You don’t have that glow about you yet, but just wait, it will come in time.” The older woman thought herself something of a matchmaker, and though Lois knew Beth’s successes had been due to the miniscule population of Barrow providing little opportunity for ideal prospects, she wanted to believe her. At twenty-two, she had yet to be in a substantial relationship that went beyond a few dates and awkward kisses. It was long past time for her to get serious, but she found it hard to get close to many people.

  “We’ll see, I guess. When it happens, it happens,” she resolved out loud.

  “That sounds well and good dear, but sometimes you gotta get out there and take what you want. The hell with trying to wait for it to fall in your lap, go find it.”

  Lois was surprised by the advice, but more surprised by the gumption in Beth’s expression. She considered the last few men she had written off after hardly taking time to know them. She weakly attempted to reassure herself that they hadn’t been worth her time. She could keep an open mind without changing what she wanted in a man, after all. He was out there somewhere, but she was becoming impatient.

  “What are you thinking about, dear? You’ve got the strangest look on your face,” Beth interrupted her thoughts.

  Lois blushed and started up the stairs towards her room. She knew it would already be ready for her, probably had been for a week. “Nothing, just my love life,” she laughed absently, “Maybe you’re right, Miss Beth. I need to get out more, and I will, after I get back home this fall. You know there aren’t very many men out here, even at this time of year.”

  “You never know,” said Beth with a twinkle in her eye.

  Lois nodded and promised to be down in a bit for dinner after she cleaned up. She felt tired and dirty from an entire day of travel. She had ended up sleeping in an airport during a storm in Chicago that delayed her flight, and a shower was in order. As she climbed into the relaxing steamy water, her thoughts were still on her non-existent love life and the older woman’s words. It sounded like something her mother would have said. Lois had never truly imagined allowing someone beyond the barriers she had placed between herself and the men she knew in the past. She realized the only thing that held her back from new experiences was fear of the unknown. Looking down at her body, slick with water and suds, she wondered what a man would think of her if she were indeed to open herself up to knowing someone on a deeper level.

  The hot water was a blessing and she was soon feeling human again. Throwing her shoulder-length hair in a bun, she tiptoed down the hall with a towel wrapped around her. There was a tall man in the hallway next to her open door and she could tell he was looking in. He hadn’t noticed her and she almost backed into the bathroom, but she did not want to put the old clothes that reeked of fish back on after her shower.

  “Excuse me, I need to get through,” she said hurriedly. The man turned around and his blue eyes held hers for several moments before the words seemed to reach his brain enough for him to move. She thanked him and walked into her room, shutting the door softly behind her. Her heart thudded as she looked down at herself and was thankful that no part of her had been sticking out. The towel certainly exposed a bit more than she would have liked for a first meeting.

  As she was getting dressed, she couldn’t help but think about the man in the hallway. She tried to remember if Beth had given her his name, then she recalled it was Jeffrey. He was blonde and blue eyed, with broad shoulders, surely over six feet tall. It was the way in which he had looked at her and his set jaw that caused her to think about it for the rest of the evening. She really did not care for hunting, but with Beth’s words in mind, she figured she could go down to dinner with an open mind.

  Beth’s boarding house was one of the best places in town to get food. Many wanted her to turn the old place into a restaurant, but she insisted if you wanted her food, you would just have to stay the night and have dinner. It was one of Lois’ favorite times as she wasn’t much of a cook herself and had mainly subsisted on take-out in the city for the past year. There was also more than a passing thought of seeing Jeffrey again, and at least the next time, she would have some clothes on.

  Chapter 2

  Lois finally made her way downstairs and the aroma of a home cooked meal immediately greeted her as she entered the dining room. Beth had made her favorite, as she always did on the first evening of a summer trip.

  “Smells great, Miss Beth!” she chirped gleefully. Taking a seat, she smiled over at one of the men already seated at the small table. He introduced himself and Lois shook his hand. She nodded to Jeffrey, who was sitting a few chairs down the length of the table. She was unsure whether a proper introduction was even necessary at this point considering their unofficial meeting in the hall only minutes before.

  The three of them quickly fell into conversation about some of the animal sightings around the hotel, and Jeffrey’s face lit up with excitement as he told them about the polar bears he had spotted a few days before.

  “I only get to take one head home. There are some endangerment laws, but I paid a pretty penny to get the one, so I want it to be the biggest damn one I can get out there. I almost got one earlier this week, but thankfully I missed because that one was a runt compared to the two I saw today.” He paused with a confused look on his face, “They are strange creatures though. I’ve never seen an animal that acted like these bears.”

  Lois was entirely disgusted with the conversation. The idea that someone would pay money to kill something was beyond her. It was not as if he would be eating the bear, he only wanted the head as a trophy. She shook the image from her mind and decided that sleep was in order
.

  Miss Beth looked at her half-full bowl with questioning eyes, and Lois shrugged. She bade the group goodnight and plodded up the stairs. Her hopes of a romance with the striking Swedish man were off the table.

  ***

  The next morning, Lois was up and at the dock before seven. The older gentlemen that had let her use his boat in previous years had died over the winter and Lois had sought other arrangements. She had talked to an old friend who suggested she contact Conner Vern. She knew the name from town, but had not met anyone from the locally esteemed Vern family in person. Vern Corporations owned nearly half of the business that operated in Barrow.

  Conner wasn’t able to arrange meeting with her, but keys and a schedule had been left at the boarding house for her use, so all she had to do was find the boat. Looking down at the dock number she had written down, it became clear that the boat was a lot smaller than she had hoped.

  “Well, less money on gas,” she said to herself as she looked at the small boat that was looking like a dinghy compared to all of the others docked around it. She was too eager to get out on the water for it to matter much anyway. She approached her mini boat from the dock and noticed the name, “Fate” painted across the bow. When she climbed onboard, she was pleasantly surprised. While it was old, there were many modern conveniences that she had not enjoyed in a boat before. A crocheted red blanket was neatly rolled and tied with twine, lying in the captain’s chair. She reached to unfold it, and discovered a beautiful notecard attached to the twine. It had a helpful note with basic instructions and well wishes, and at the bottom “The Verns” was signed in large scrolling letters. As she pulled the blanket tightly around her shoulders, she wondered for a moment what kind of people they were, feeling certain that members of the Vern family did not actually take the time to sign cards for placing in each of their rental boats. Starting the engine up, the purr made her smile and she was soon untying herself from the dock and taking off towards the unbroken horizon.