by Ellis Leigh
She huffed a laugh. “They know where the food is and have no intention of leaving it behind.”
Smart dogs. “Can I help you feed them before I go?”
Cassiel shook her head, her smile falling. Her eyes darker. “That’s not necessary. You’d better get on the trail if you want to make it to your homestead at a decent hour.”
Because she thought there were things in the woods more predatory than he could be. An idea he could play along with…for the moment. “Can’t be out after dark.”
“Right.”
Too bad she had no idea that he was likely the most dangerous thing in the bush. Him and his pack…which he needed to meet up with. He had responsibilities, ones that would take him away from her. But he’d be back. He had no doubt about that.
“I’ll just be on the other side of the lake,” he said, tugging his backpack into place. “If you need anything, I’m more than willing to help.”
“And I’ll just be on this side of the lake. In case you need anything, seeing as how you’re the newbie up here and all.”
Damn, he liked that sass. “Very true. I’ll probably need something. You should expect visits.”
Her neck flushed, and she dropped her gaze to the ground. “That’d be fine. You’re always welcome on my land.”
Fine, indeed.
Luc wanted to stay so badly, to help Cassiel with the dogs and keep learning about her. To give her wolf time to adjust to the presence of his and see if he could somehow reach the poor, weak creature. But he had to walk away from the little cabin and the pretty, dark-haired woman, had to hike into the woods on the pretense of a two-legged trek around the lake. He had to begin his journey to the homestead on the other side because his pack would soon be there. He could feel the anticipation, anger, and love radiating from his packmates as they converged on the far northern area of the Brooks Range—a veritable buffet of emotions spilling out into the world and zooming toward him across the distance, creating a sort of static in his mind. One that didn’t bother him as much as the sort that came from strangers. His pack—his family—would soon be there to help him deal with the local pack. And oddly enough, he couldn’t wait to see them all.
Though, he still wished Cassiel could come with him. Hidden wolf spirit, dogs, and all.
8
Three days. That was how long it took until Luc showed up at Cassiel’s door again, not that she had missed him on those long, lonely days and nights. Not that she had been happy to see him.
Not that she wasn’t exceptionally skilled at lying to herself.
“Hey there, stranger.” She tugged her ponytail a little tighter, hoping the wind hadn’t made her cheeks too red. “How goes the homestead?”
Luc—every tall, thick, muscled inch of him—strolled out of the woods as if he hadn’t just walked what must have been eight hours to get to her. And he looked so darn happy to see her.
“Good afternoon, sweet Cassiel. The homestead is coming along, but I wanted to see you.” He held out a bag, smiling her way. “I wanted to repay you for your hospitality. I wasn’t sure what you needed, but I figured gauze, tape, and antibiotics are pretty standard fare for anyone living up this way.”
He wasn’t kidding. Cassiel took the bag from him, not even considering turning it down out of politeness. Medical supplies were hard to come by. “This is amazing. You really didn’t have to do this, but thank you.”
“I know I didn’t have to—I wanted to. And you’re welcome.”
Cassiel stood there, grinning up at him, unable to look away from those light eyes. Unable to move—at least until the dogs began to yip. She shook her head a little and laughed.
“Sorry. I was just…” Daydreaming? Zoning out? Thinking we should get naked? None of those felt like good answers.
Thankfully, Luc didn’t seem in a hurry for her to finish her sentence. “Yeah, me too.” He reached out and wrapped his fingers around her elbow, still smiling, his movements slow and not at all threatening.
But something wasn’t quite right. “You look tired. Are you feeling okay?”
He sighed, that smile finally falling. “I’ve had…a headache. For a few days.”
“Oh, like a migraine?”
“Similar, yes,” he said, sounding slightly wary.
Cassiel nodded. “I knew a girl once who got those. They really made her sick. Is there anything I can do to help?”
“Just me being here is already helping.” He tugged on the handles of the bag he’d brought her. “How about you put this up, then I can help you with whatever chores you were about to do?”
“I was actually about to make lunch. Would you like to join me?”
“I wouldn’t want to impose,” he said, but his eyes belied his words.
Cassiel couldn’t hold back her grin. “Yes, you would. You’d impose all over the place for more of my homemade bread.”
“Guilty. I miss bread sometimes out in the wild.”
“You should get some yeast and flour. You don’t need anything else. Well, salt. Yeast, flour, and salt, a good Dutch oven, and a fire. There you go.”
Luc followed her inside, ducking through the doorway. “I’d likely just make a big, soupy mess. You’d have to show me what to do with that yeast, flour, and salt.”
“I could do that, though my bread takes a full day to rise. You’d need to be here overnight again.”
She caught the implication behind her words—the hint at another sleepover—and sucked in a breath. Was that too forward? Would he assume she meant more than sleeping on her floor? Would he—
“If you offered the invitation, I would stay again. Your floor was quite comfortable.”
Awkwardness, aborted. “Then we’ll make a plan for that. Are sandwiches okay?”
“You’re just teasing me with more bread.”
She laughed. “Maybe.”
They sat together at her wobbly little table, him dwarfing his side. He really was quite large—unusually so—not that Cassiel much cared. He was handsome in a cruel and harsh sort of way, but kind and not at all scary to her, even though he had to be three times her size. The man moved as if comfortable with his height, though. As if he understood people might be nervous about him. No quick jerks or sudden stops—he moved with a fluidity that defied his size and showed more natural grace than Cassiel had ever seen in another person. She loved to watch him maneuver her world.
She really just loved watching him.
After lunch, Luc joined her to tidy up the dog pen, though how he got any work done, she had no idea. Every time she glanced up, his eyes were on her, his body angled in her direction. Not that she minded. He looked at her in a way that made something go molten inside her, made her body tingle in ways she was not accustomed to. She couldn’t decide if she wanted to drag him to her bed or kick him off her land. More than likely the first option, which brought with it loads of issues and possible complications. Best to keep her hands to herself.
“So,” she started as they moved to put away her tools in her shed. “What are you doing up here anyway?”
Luc stretched past her to hold open the door, handing her a pitchfork as she ducked past him. “Research.”
That seemed awfully…vague. “What kind of research?”
“Biological. Examining and investigating the region’s animal populations and diversity.”
“That sounds…” like way more than she could ever do seeing as how she never actually went to school “…hard.”
Luc’s lips ticked up in what she considered a smile, though it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “I watch animals do what they do all day, tracking the sick ones to see how their illness affects the rest of the population. It’s not hard at all.”
“Oh.” Yeah, it still sounded like more than she’d know how to do. “You don’t look like a biologist.”
“I don’t?”
“No. You look like…” like sex, like desire, like a runway model “…you should be on TV.”
He
laughed and turned away, seeming embarrassed by what she could only assume sounded like a compliment. Sweet Luc.
“The dogs look good.”
Subject change, accepted. “They do. I’ve been letting them rest a little bit more than usual, but we’re going on a run tomorrow.”
That caught Luc’s attention. “Where will you be mushing to?”
“Just across the valley and around the far forest. It’s not a rough path, but it’ll take almost all day to do the loop, especially with the weather so warm.” Not that Cassiel thought forty-five degrees should be considered warm, but when you were bred for snow and wore a thick fur coat, air temperature became something to worry about.
“And the dogs can run that far?”
“That much and farther. They love to run.” She slipped past Moxie, patting the beauty on the head and leading Luc toward her cabin. “These dogs were made to run—they were bred for it. I need to keep them happy, and running makes them happy.”
Luc looked over her dogs, following her onto her porch. “They certainly seem happy.”
Cassiel took a seat on one of the chairs she’d salvaged from a dumpster one of the few times she’d gone into a larger city. It had taken her days to bring them back, the bulk and weight slowing her down considerably, but she loved them. They were definitely a luxury item and one she rarely got to use, but the day had warmed nicely, and the house was blocking the worst of the wind. Sitting on the porch with her new friend seemed like the most perfect thing to do.
Luc must have agreed with her because he took the chair next to hers and settled in, looking out over her land. Staring off at the lake in the distance.
“What other runs do you normally do?” he asked.
“We run all over the land here. We’ve mushed all the way to the oil field along the ice road in the winter—which, even in Alaska, brought a lot of attention our way.”
He steeled her with his light gaze, his lips lifting into a smile again. “I bet you just loved that.”
Sarcasm…she was fluent in it. “Totally. Fifteen people staring as if you were some sort of sideshow act? It’s every girl’s dream.”
Luc chuckled, settling deeper into his chair. “So, you giving me rides to the oil fields is pretty much out of the picture?”
“You would be correct. I want to be nice, but you can take a hike on out there yourself. Or hop on one of the supply planes that comes to Bettles.”
“They come through there often?”
“Every other week, just like clockwork. At least, the bush plane. The stuff for the oil fields will start coming in once the ice road forms across the Jim River.”
“And you meet the bush plane every time?”
“No, but usually once a month, for sure. For picking up supplies and for trading my wares.”
That definitely piqued his attention. “What do you trade?”
“Herbal remedies.”
He sat back, looking at her in what she could only describe as shock. “You make medicine?”
“Yep. Soaps and salves and ointments to help others in the bush with the most common of maladies.”
“Like a doctor.”
It was her turn to laugh. “Goodness, no. I didn’t even go to high school—I’m no doctor. I’m just a girl who pays attention when people way smarter than I am tell me stuff. There are lots of plants that can fight things like skin irritations and inflammation just as good as the drugs we don’t have easy access to, but it’s hard in this climate. I grow them in a shed that is surprisingly warm, process them into usable products, and sell those. Simple.”
Luc leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees as he stared straight into her soul. “Cassiel, you are anything but simple.”
Her heart jumped, her body warming under his gaze. Who was this man, and why did he affect her so? Why was she so drawn to him? And why did he look at her as if he felt the same sort of way—attracted?
But then he stopped looking, his head whipping toward the lake as if he’d heard something. His face hardening for a moment before her sweet, calm Luc returned. But his smile didn’t.
“I should get back before it gets too dark.” He sighed and gave her what she could only describe as a sad sort of look. “Wouldn’t want to run into any predators on their nightly hunts out there.”
She didn’t know what had just happened, but she wasn’t going to try to force him to stay if he wanted to leave. It was already late enough that she wouldn’t have started the trek around the lake, but Luc seemed set on leaving. Or perhaps he was sad to say goodbye.
She preferred that thought.
Cassiel followed Luc off the porch, watching silently as he hoisted his hiking pack onto his back. Crossing her arms over her chest as he finally turned as if to say goodbye. Saying the only words she could in that moment.
“Thank you for your help and your company today. Stay safe, Luc.”
“You too, Cassiel.” His eyes burned into hers, calling something from deep within her toward the surface. Making her skin itch and her blood run hot. What was it with this man? Never before had she reacted to anyone that way, just Luc. Her huge, muscular, light-eyed neighbor.
The one who had his own homestead to get back to.
Luc nodded once before turning and walking away, leaving her alone with her dogs once more. Cassiel watched him go, unable not to follow him with her eyes. A heavy sort of sadness entering her chest once he disappeared through the trees.
“Ridiculous,” she finally said to herself before spinning on her heel and heading back to the house. She needed to get some work done—check on her still and put up some fire cider so it would be ready to sell in the fall. Already, the days were getting shorter and the nights colder. Summer would be over soon enough, and she’d be fighting off the Arctic cold. So much work to do before then.
That night, Cassiel sat on her porch once more, this time alone and in the dark. She’d been unnerved all evening because of Luc and his quick departure, but her unease was more than that. Something in the air, something she couldn’t explain, had made her anxious. Had been pinging at her survival instincts all evening. Her dogs seemed calm as ever, though, so it couldn’t be something in the woods.
And yet, as she sat in the dark, she felt watched. Hunted, even. But Moxie and her crew lay at her feet, mostly sleeping. No barking or whining, no ears up and focus locked on something Cassiel couldn’t see. They were completely at ease while she fretted.
“You are losing your mind,” she said to herself before grabbing her blanket and heading inside. The dogs followed as usual, rushing toward their favorite spots for sleeping. Her protectors completely calm and ready for bed. She needed to relax.
And yet, for the first time since she’d moved in, she engaged the lock on the door before walking farther into the cabin to get ready for bed. Double-checked that the rifle she kept in the little table she used as a nightstand was loaded, too.
No sense courting trouble and all that.
9
Hunting for days on end left Luc tired and frustrated. In the past—before his pack had started sending members to the region to assist him—he’d have curled up under a tree and napped away his ire. He couldn’t do that any longer. He also couldn’t avoid his homestead because it was no longer just one or two members he needed to spend his time with. His entire pack had finally arrived.
The chaos in his mind from all of the input of his pack descending had worn on him, so he’d held off going back to the cabins Phego and Michaela had worked hard to set up for the group. They’d turned eight abandoned structures into proper homes, ones he had barely spent any time in, choosing instead to sleep in the woods halfway between his homestead and Cassiel’s. He was grateful for all the work and for his pack to join him on this mission, but the constant static in his head grew with every day, every hour, and every mile lessened between them. He just wanted silence, which was why he’d broken down and headed back to Cassiel’s that morning. He had craved her peaceful s
oul and needed the quiet being around her brought his mind. She silenced the world for him, which was quite the feat.
As Luc raced back to the cabins where he could sense the final members of his pack had arrived, he wished for more time with Cassiel and her quiet mind. More mornings of breakfast and warm smiles, of taking care of the dogs and her kind words. He needed her brightness, craved the safe harbor of her little cabin in the woods. He also wanted to keep her safe from what was coming. What was out in the woods and on the range, far too close to her for his liking. His attention was split between his pack, the women he needed to find, and Cassiel. The pressure from all sides felt enormous.
Luc had left Cassiel behind this past time with nothing much more than a see you later, falling prey to the darkness permeating the area the farther he’d moved away from her. Cassiel’s light, her pure heart and clear emotions, couldn’t penetrate the bleakness, but they had definitely held it back while he’d spent time with her. The farther he’d moved, though, the less he’d felt that peace. The less he sensed her as well. It had been days since the last whisper of her spirit had joined his, which was why he’d gone to see her. He’d been anxious over thoughts of her alone in the woods, and that anxiety seemed to only amp up now that he had to leave her behind a second time.
Soon, he told his wolf. We’ll come back to her soon.
Luc hated the thought of soon because he knew it would never be soon enough.
“The prodigal son returns.” Deus stood on the porch with his mate, Zoe, as Luc took the final steps onto their land. The two radiated love, a warmth that drifted through the home and the land around them. His pack was a happy one, a full one, with him being the only unmated member left. The loneliness of that fact was not lost on him.
Still, he shifted and threw on the cloak Deus tossed him, coming to grab his brother’s forearm in a traditional greeting. “Good to see you again, brother.”
“And you.” Deus nodded to Zoe. “She’s going to take you inside to meet the others.”