Taming Alaska

by Katherine Rhodes

  “I know, babe. I know. That’s why I came running as fast as I could. I didn’t want you hurt.”

  “They were really going to kill me.”

  I just held her against me and stroked the thick brown locks that fell to her back. She sobbed hysterically for a few minutes and then finally started to quiet, her cheek pressed against my shoulder.

  This erection was a real problem. I couldn’t pull her closer because I’d probably poke her hip and leave a bruise. Rock. Hard.

  I needed my jeans. At least then I could tuck it away and deal later.

  With careful motion, I managed to maneuver Jess into the crook of my arm and head toward the truck again. Most of the way there, I found my pants in the underbrush just at the edge of the road. I snagged them and quickly made our way back to the truck.

  Jessica was so tired, I needed to get her home to bed. I didn’t think anyone would mind if I left the cabin unlocked. I opened the door and lifted her into the passenger seat. She gave a yelp when I picked her up but didn’t protest. Once she was in, I shoved my legs into my pants and tucked my erection in. Painfully.

  Ambling around the truck, trying to get Mister Unwelcome into a better position, I pulled out the phone that had miraculously not slid out of the pants and not shattered on impact. I pressed the contact for my brother and put him on speaker.

  It rang a long time. Which was weird for Patrick. He was usually close to his phone. I was all the way in the truck, door shut and seat belt on when he answered.

  “What?” he snapped.

  “Are you out of breath?”

  “The hell do you want, Garr?”

  Mm. Lady friend. “I was going to ask you to come up and lock the cabin. Jess got attacked by the exiles and I had to go after her. She’s exhausted and I need to get her back to the house.”

  “Attacked?”

  Jess coughed, then spoke, “Walked into the living room.”

  “What?” That was me and my brother chorusing our shock.

  “The coyote walked into the living room and howled.”

  Livid was an understatement. “I locked the door behind me.”

  “They have a key.” Patrick picked up right away on the problem. “I’ll come up and change the locks…in a bit. Lock the cabin up. Get Jess home, and did you—”

  “Yes, I know!” Jess tried to yell but yawned so hard she interrupted herself.

  “Got it. Get her home, Garrett. Tell me what happened tomorrow.”

  “Thanks, man. I owe you.”

  “You have no damn idea.” The line went dead.

  Moody bastard.

  I backed down the road and turned the truck around. Jess was already asleep by the time I had it facing the right direction.

  * * *

  I snapped my eyes open.

  The ceiling above me was white and littered with sunlight, and I was warm, clean, and naked in a bed.

  Just no idea where that bed was located.

  Slowly, I sat up and looked around. Masculine room, smelled like man-soap. And man.

  Garrett’s room.

  I paused as all the memories of the night came rushing back in a jumble and realized I must have been dreaming. Chased by smarter-than-average coyotes through the moonlit forest, being saved by a giant wolf that turned into Garrett, who sported a massive erection.

  I cleared my throat. I didn’t know how I had gotten into bed, or clean, but…I needed coffee.

  Mourning the loss of the warmth and softness of the bed, I climbed out and found my night shirt and a pair of panties. Slipping everything on after I used the bathroom, I headed down the stairs, expecting to see the same crowd at the breakfast table.

  But there was no one. Not even Garrett.

  There was, however, coffee.

  As I poured and dressed my coffee, I saw Garrett on the back porch. He was wearing jeans and a big sweater, his hands wrapped around a mug of coffee as he stared out and away from the house.

  There was a big blanket near the door. I grabbed it and wrapped it around me, walking out to the porch to plop down next to him in one of the Adirondack chairs near him.

  He looked over at me, his eyes beset with sadness, lack of sleep, and dark thoughts.

  “Garrett?” I was thoroughly confused.

  “How are you?”

  How was I? I took stock. “I’m sore. Every possible bone in my body is exhausted. And it’s not… a good tired.”

  He offered a grunt and took my hand. “How much do you remember about last night?”

  “Not much…” I could hear the suspicion in my own voice. “I had a really strange, frightening dream.”

  “Wasn’t a dream, Jess.”

  I swallowed. “Had to be. That stuff doesn’t happen in real life.”

  “Me shifting?”

  “Yes, and the coyotes—wait.” My hands started to shake. I hadn’t said a thing about what the dream was about. There was a strange tingling on my hand and I looked down.

  I was holding a wolf’s paw in my hand.

  Launching out of my chair, coffee mug flying out of my hand and at his head, I flew down the steps into the backyard. I was nearly at the trees in the back when strong arms wrapped around me and yanked me to a halt.

  I started thrashing, and I felt the moment my head connected with a nose.

  “Ouch! Fuck! Jess, stop fighting me.”

  I stilled. It was Garrett’s voice, and Garrett’s arms around me. He put me down a moment later and I spun to look as he lifted a hand to his nose. Blood was gushing down his lips and chin and I stepped back from him.

  “Oh, God, Garrett, I’m so sorry!”

  Raising a finger from his other hand, he tipped his head back and pinched his nose. He stayed that way for just twenty seconds then lowered his head to face me.

  “Accelerated healing.”

  I stared at him. I couldn’t find a thing to say.

  He held his hand out. “Come back to the porch. Please? We need to talk. I’d like it if you stopped hitting me, too.”

  “Sorry.” It was a reflex. I wasn’t sure I was sorry. But I stared at his hand and let him pull me back to the porch.

  He seated me and disappeared into the house. He came back out a moment later with a fresh mug of coffee and handed it to me. Sitting down in the chair again, he let out a breath.

  “I’ve screwed this up completely, Jess. I’m sorry. I needed to tell you the truth, but I chose the wrong way and the wrong time to do it.”

  “I live in the real world. My world is full of science. Observation, analysis, experiments, collection of data, peer review. I need evidence. I need proof. I need… things to be explained. Make sense. Logic.” I spun toward him. “And none of this makes sense. I can’t see an iota of logic. It’s fucking killing me, because I saw—I observed—you shift from wolf to man. That’s not possible.”

  “It is possible. I do it all the time.” He swung around in his chair and stared at me. “I am real. My wolf is real. We exist in each other. It’s not something I can explain. But I do it every day, it’s real.”

  I took a draught of coffee and stared at the mug. “I don’t know what to think about this.”

  “My wolf really likes you.”

  “So does my cat. I feed him. He likes me.”

  “Your turn to be flippant.”

  I looked up that the mountain where the sun was well above the ridge. “You’ll forgive me if I’m flippant as I’ve just found out there are fucking wolf shifter in my logical, ordered world.”

  He scrubbed a hand over his face. “I guess I deserve that. Jess, this is—”

  “You’re supposed to be a summer fling.” For some reason, words were very hard. “You were just supposed to be a hot summer fling before I got back to real life and get my master’s degree. I have a life I need to find. Why did you have to be so sexy, so sweet, and turn my world so goddamned upside down?”

  I jerked out of the chair and paced the boards of the deck. “It’s not right that my
feelings have gone this out of control this fast for something that’s supposed to be over in three months.”

  I took a glance at him. I couldn’t believe the look of utter defeat on his face. He was crushed. But I was so confused and lost at that moment.

  “Are you going to keep me prisoner here now?”

  His eyes snapped to mine. “What? No. Why would you think that?”

  “I know your secret.”

  “Does my father look like a jailer? Does my mother? My brother? Better than half the people who were working on the cabin yesterday? I didn’t tell you to trap you. I told you because you were in danger and a big ass wolf came out of nowhere and got the damn coyotes away from you. I clearly made a mistake showing you at once instead of easing you into it. And for that I’m sorry.”

  “Why would you tell me at all? Why didn’t you just let me think that a big ass wolf saved me?”

  “Because I don’t want to be a summer fling for you.”

  Hanging my head, I sighed. “We’ve known each other for three whole damn days. How can you even think that’s a possibility?”

  I had the feeling I knew what he was going to say. I’d read enough cheesy romances.

  “My wolf thinks it is.”

  “So, we move from the realm of impossibility to the realm of the trope?”

  “It’s not a trope. I’m not a romance novel. There is a real wolf inside me and he likes you, a lot. More than summer fling status.”

  My coffee was in one hand and I was picking at the blanket with the other. “Show me the wolf again. Let me see you shift in daylight.”

  His head snapped around to me. “What?”

  “You heard me. Shift. I’m a scientist. Let me observe you. Let me hypothesize. Let me see you as a wolf again.”

  Chapter Eight

  My damn wolf would pick the world’s most difficult woman.

  “Jess, this isn’t a game.”

  “Where did I say it was? Let me see your wolf.”

  She was serious. She wanted me to shift again. My wolf was happy, but now I was suspicious.

  “Why?”

  “Science.”

  “No. I’m not an experiment.”

  “You’re an anomaly to me. And I need to observe that.”

  “Planning on doing a paper?”

  “No! Do you want me to stay? I’ll walk away, right now. Find my pants and go stay in the damn cabin—”

  Oh, my wolf didn’t like that. I couldn’t keep the growl inside.

  Jess looked angry. “Are you growling at me?”

  “Can’t help it. You’re threatening my pack and my way of life. I don’t know your intention if you see me shift again.”

  Her arms folded neatly across her chest. “I need to see you shift. Look, I know why you’re trying to make me accept this. I’m not stupid. Wolves mate for life, and you want to know if I’m the one. Your true mate.”

  I stood from the chair and folded my arms. “Any other fictitious fabrication you care to bring to the table?”

  “How about biting me and getting it over with? Just make me one now. Then I can’t leave.” She spun to show me her back, lifting her shirt. “Right over the heart, right?”

  “Jess, please stop.”

  “Then shift! Show me! Because I really think this is all a bad dream and I’m—Aah!”

  I shifted before she could finish. Another pair of jeans ruined. But this argument wasn’t going to stop until she saw my wolf again, and I could shift fast.

  She leapt back, nearly tripping over the chair behind her and losing a second cup of coffee. I managed to hold my wolf back for just a moment so I didn’t continue to startle her. Jess placed her coffee in the chair and stared at me.

  I knew my wolf was huge. It came from being the Alpha’s son and heir apparent. Patrick’s wasn’t much smaller, really. Even my mother’s was impressive.

  Jess put a hand out to touch me, and she hesitated. I turned so she could dig her hand into the ruff of my neck. She did, and damn, it felt good.

  Slanting my head, I was able to take a deep breath of her scent from her side. A whine escaped me—she smelled so good. Like flowers and fresh springs.

  I was very glad I’d shifted at that moment.

  Digging her fingers into the fur, Jess trailed through my coat and wound up by my ears. She scratched a little bit, and I panted happily. Her hand felt nice. It had been a long time since someone had given me a good ear scratch.

  “You’re a very big wolf.”

  I grinned and pushed into her, encouraging her to keep up with the scratching.

  “So, I wasn’t just hallucinating. You did shift last night.”

  A chuff was my answer. I had to go softly and carefully with this. I had already effed it up. I plopped my fuzzy butt down and let her keep scratching.

  “So those coyotes up there are shifters, then. Because you said you locked the door on the way out, so they’d have to have a key to open it. Which a wild coyote couldn’t use. They’re clever but not that much.”

  Whining, I prompted her to keep scratching.

  “What I don’t understand is the physiology of how all this is possible. I mean, it’s not like you’re a FlipaZoo and just flip inside out when you want to be human or wolf. I mean, I don’t get how…”

  Her words trailed off and so did her scratching. I bumped her hand again and yipped.

  She gave me a good hard scratch and looked me dead in the eyes. Blinking a few times, she shook her head. “It’s really you in there. You’re really in there.”

  Thumping my tail, I gave her cheek a good lick.

  “Shift back for me?”

  I nodded and she stepped back. My shift, this time, was slow. I let her see it. The fur pulling back, the bones reshaping, the shortening limbs and muzzle, the teeth retracting. She stared, fascinated, her scientific brain taking it all in and trying to work it out.

  Darting all over my frame, Jess cataloged me from head to toe in my human form.

  She suddenly burst out laughing, and I put my hands on my hips. “What? What is so funny?”

  “You Hulk-ed out of your pants.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Yes, I did. That brings me back to Zero Days Without an Accident. Thank God I’m on my back porch.”

  Her intense stare wasn’t helping me. The cold, no problem. Heat? Not an issue. Jess staring at my naked body?

  Issue.

  Nudity was usually pretty common and casual, though we all preferred clothing. But with her there… I could feel the blood gathering for an assault on my dick and I didn’t want to wreck our conversation with a boner.

  I grabbed the remains of the cardigan and held it at my waist, hiding the offending digit.

  “Let’s talk inside. I can grab a new pair of pants from the dryer.”

  Jess nodded when she realized her eyes locked on my body were a real problem. She might be mad at me, and confused, but she was definitely aroused.

  Grabbing the coffee, Jess turned and slid the back door open and led the way inside. My laundry room was just off to the right, so I ducked in and grabbed a pair of sweats. I cursed at myself for not restocking the jeans there—sweats weren’t going to hide the hard-on.

  Looking tiny at my dining room table, Jess had tucked her feet under her and clutched the coffee like a lifeline. Her big doe eyes looked up at me, and I could see she was scared.

  “How is this possible? I mean—”

  I put my hand over hers. “Stop. Jess. Your scientist’s mind is going to hurt itself trying to figure this out. It’s not explainable with science. It takes magic. Lots of magic, from the power that lies in the earth. My family is ancient Tlingit, diluted with Russian from the eighteen hundreds.”

  “Your mother is Olga.”

  I nodded. “She’s the daughter of a Russian fur trader and a Tlingit medicine woman. Grandmother would tell you all about Raven and how he created the world, if you give her the chance. Her stories are as close as we ever get to understanding
why we are and what we can do. My uncle is a biologist up in Fairbanks. He’s studied how we do what we do.”

  She sat up straight, and I laughed.

  “I will get him down here to talk to you. I promise. But you may not like what he has to say.”

  “Has he ever talked to you about it?”

  “He had to have Dad’s permission to do any studies. My dad is the chief of the village and the Alpha of our pack.”

  “So, I am a prisoner.”

  Shaking my head, I let out a sigh. “No, you’re not a prisoner. We have humans who are in our trust. Not all children born of a human-shifter couple are shifter. Most, yes, but some are not. Those are in our trust. My mother’s youngest brother is moonborn—someone born to a shifter and who can’t shift.”

  “Is that the uncle…?”

  “Nope. Uncle Vadim is up in Fairbank. Uncle Sasha lives in Prince Rupert with his wife.” I walked over to the coffee pot and brought it back to the table to refill her mug. “I swear to you, I will get you permission to talk to Vadim. Dad was really cool about the research and kind of excited.”

  Jess swirled a little creamer into her mug. “So, why did you tell me? You really could have left it as a big ass wolf saving my life.”

  “I needed you to know.”

  “Why?”

  I glanced down and away from her as I cleared my throat. “So, when I yelled before about the fictitious fabrication… maybe I lied a little.”

  “You do think I’m your mate.”

  “There’s no thinking. My wolf knows.”

  Her hands turned the mug around in her grasp. “And what do you know?”

  “That I trust my wolf. And that you don’t.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Because I’m always hard around you. Because every time I touch you the only thing I can think is mine. Because every time we’ve had sex, including the first and the two in the woods yesterday, I want to mark you as mine. I want to protect you and love you. I want to bend you over and fuck you. I want to make you fat with our children and hold you in the night.”