Chloe bit her lip. “Do you think they’re going to fire me?”
The man snorted. “Doubtful. They need the help too badly, and insurance will cover the truck. Besides, from what I understand, hitting a moose is a fairly common occurrence around here. Almost a rite of passage. I think your collision just ended up a little worse than most since you were coming down a hill when you hit the poor thing. It’s hard to decelerate a truck barreling down a slope of ice.”
Chloe nodded and stared out the window. She wasn’t sure where they were, or even what time it was. The clock in this truck’s dashboard didn’t seem to be functioning, since it was only displaying a string of four zeroes.
“What happens now?” Chloe asked.
“We drive back to base, where I was heading anyway. They’ll probably do an accident report, and they’ll probably want you to get cleared with medical. I suspect once that’s all done they’ll have you back on the road.”
“How far are we from base?”
“I’d say about four or five hours still.”
Chloe sighed. She didn’t want to spend another four hours on the road with this strange shifter, but she didn’t have much of a choice. At least he hadn’t attacked her yet. He didn’t seem friendly, but he had saved her from the wrecked truck. Surely, he didn’t have any intentions of harming her. Chloe relaxed a little bit. He must not know who she was. Her suspicion had been correct—no one outside of Alaska knew who the Blizzards were.
Chloe suddenly realized that she hadn’t even introduced herself, which seemed a bit rude since the man had just saved her life and all.
“I’m Chloe, by the way,” she said.
The man frowned. “I’m Seth. But I’m not really interested in being friends. I saved you from the wreck because I don’t want a fellow shifter’s death on my conscience, but I don’t want to be buddies.”
Chloe felt a little sting of rejection at the man’s comments. Sheesh, she thought. No need to be so unpleasant. She would have thought he might have actually enjoyed having company for the long, boring ride, but apparently not. Chloe set her face in a hard line and stared out the window. The light out on the tundra was beginning to wane as the sun made its way behind the horizon. An hour went by as Chloe watched it slowly disappearing in a brilliant display of reds, oranges, and pinks. The sunsets out here were incredible, just like the sunrises.
As darkness settled over the pair, Chloe found it harder and harder not to talk. She was outgoing by nature, and the last few years of being cooped up in hiding had resulted in a lot of pent up longing for companionship. Now that she had finally found a place where no one knew the Blizzards existed, she wanted to make friends. Why had she ended up stuck in a truck with a guy who was determined to be an unsociable asshole?
When he pulled out a bag of salt and vinegar potato chips, she decided to venture a comment.
“Those are my favorite kind of chips,” she said. “I’ve been eating way too many bags of them while out on the road.”
Seth frowned and stuck a handful of chips in his mouth without replying. Chloe sighed. This guy was a real peach. She decided she would keep talking, even if he didn’t want to.
“I also really like sour cream and onion chips. Or barbeque flavored. These trips are so long, you have to mix it up a little bit on the snacks, you know? I usually bring some chocolate chip cookies with me as well.”
The man continued frowning as he chewed and then swallowed. He gave Chloe a long sideways glance, and opened his mouth like he was about to say something, but then shut it again. Chloe took the brief moment as an encouraging sign, and plowed ahead with her monologue.
“Of course, it’s important to have a good assortment of drinks, too. I had given up soda for a while, but I’ve started drinking it again while doing this job. It’s hard to spend twelve or more hours on the road and only drink water, you know? I’d have more coffee, but it gets cold too quickly. No one wants cold coffee. Yuck.”
Chloe realized she was rambling, but she didn’t care. It felt good to talk to someone besides herself. Even though this guy wasn’t responding, at least he was a real, live person. But just as she opened her mouth to continue her discussion of the best snacks and drinks for the road, Seth cut her off.
“Look, Chloe, I’m not interested in being friends,” he said, his frown deepening.
Chloe held back a sigh and fell silent. The only sound in the cabin was the hum of the heater and engine, and the crunching of potato chips as Seth ate his way through the bag. She realized with disgust that he hadn’t even offered her any. Sure, he had already done plenty for her by saving her from her wrecked truck. But she would never have been rude enough to sit and eat someone’s favorite kind of potato chip in front of them without offering them any. Chloe crossed her arms and stared angrily out the front windshield. What an asshole. Didn’t anyone have any manners anymore?
Seth noticed her huffy mood, and he didn’t take kindly to it. He scowled in her direction, and his voice took on a venomous tone. “If you want to sulk because I’m not interested in discussing potato chips, you’re welcome to get out and walk. I told you I don’t want to be friends. Can’t you just sit there and ride for a few hours in silence?”
“I don’t understand what the big deal is,” Chloe said, her own voice beginning to drip venom as well. “I just wanted to help pass the time a little bit. Small talk about snacks doesn’t mean you have to be friends with someone. It just means you’re carrying on a conversation like a decent human being.”
“Oh. I’m sorry. I thought rescuing you from a burning truck made me a decent human being, but I guess that wasn’t enough. I have to shoot the shit about potato chips, too.”
Chloe felt like she had been slapped in the face. Seth was acting like a jerk, but there was no way she could win this argument with him. No matter what she said, he had a trump card. It was hard to argue that he owed her potato chips or a casual conversation when he reminded her of his heroic efforts. Chloe crossed her arms tighter and stared out the passenger window into the blackness. She bit her lip and told herself to just stay calm for the next few hours. As soon as they got back to base, she could get out of the truck and she never had to see him again.
But the more she stared out the window, the more she felt her anger seeping away. He was rude, but he was also kind of right. He had saved her life. She shouldn’t try to force him into a conversation if he didn’t want to talk. Chloe had almost managed to calm down completely when Seth broke the silence, startling her.
“I know who you are,” he said.
Chloe whipped her head around to look at him, and her heart started pounding. “What do you mean?” she asked.
“I mean, I know who you are,” he said, narrowing his eyes. “You’re not from around here, and neither am I.”
Chloe’s hand involuntarily reached for the door handle. Seth couldn’t possibly be saying what she thought he was, could he? She wasn’t sure how dangerous it would be to leap from a truck going twenty miles per hour, but surely it was safer than sitting next to a shifter who was familiar with her clan.
“Where are you from?” she asked. She hated the way her voice sounded small and weak, but she couldn’t push down the fear creeping up in her body.
“I live in Glacier Point, Alaska. You know, near the caverns.”
Chloe sat perfectly still, her hand frozen on the doorknob. He knew she was a Blizzard. Yet he hadn’t attacked her. What clan was he from? Is it possible he was part of one of the few clans the Blizzards hadn’t attacked? Chloe still couldn’t place him. The only clan she knew of in Glacier Point was the Northern Lights Clan, and they had definitely been affected by the Blizzards.
Chloe didn’t have to ponder these questions for long. Seth was suddenly feeling talkative.
“Your clan wiped out almost my entire clan. Only three of us survived. We’re all that’s left of the Frozen Claws Clan, but we don’t even call ourselves the Frozen Claws anymore. We joined the Northern L
ights Clan. Not a day goes by that I don’t miss my old clan members. Not a day goes by that I don’t relive the awful massacre in my mind. I hate you. I hate your clan! What a senseless waste of space you all are.”
Chloe blinked rapidly a few times, trying to calm herself down. A rush of fear and adrenaline ran through her body. She was sitting a few feet away from a shifter who hated her, on a truck in the middle of a frozen wasteland. There was nowhere for her to run. There was no safe place to hide. So she sat there, trying and failing to even out her breathing. Seth was looking out the front windshield, but she could see from his side profile that his face had one of the angriest expressions she had ever seen.
“If you hate me so much, why didn’t you just leave me to die?” Chloe asked, despite the fact that her mind was screaming at her to just keep her mouth shut.
“Because, despite my lack of interest in discussing potato chips, I’m a ‘decent human being,’” Seth said. “Or, maybe I should say I’m a decent shifter. Unlike you and your clan. The Northern Lights Clan has a policy of not killing woman and children, which is the only reason you still exist.”
The adrenaline rushing through Chloe’s body changed from fear to anger. “Don’t tell me I’m not a decent shifter!” she yelled at Seth. “You don’t even know me. You think you do, because you’ve seen what the men in my clan did. But you don’t. You’re judging me for the actions of a crazed alpha. I had no control over him. You don’t know the full story.”
“Oh, well, by all means then, please enlighten me. What is your excuse for your clan’s actions? This oughta be good,” Seth said. His tone made it clear that he wasn’t interested in actually hearing any excuses that Chloe might offer.
At first, Chloe crossed her arms and stared silently out the window. She didn’t want to waste her breath on this guy. But after a few minutes of angry silence, she decided to just let him have it. She had been wishing for two years that she could explain to the shifters who hated her that she hadn’t wanted their clans to die, and that she truly was sorry for their losses. She had wanted to stand on a tall hillside in Alaska and broadcast the truth—that she wasn’t an evil unfeeling monster. She had just been under the rule of one.
Chloe took a deep breath and started talking. She started at the very beginning, when Dominic had first taken over as alpha of the Blizzards. She told Seth about the early clan wars, and how the initial tastes of victory had only driven Dominic to take over more clans. She talked about the awful experience of watching her own clan members be tortured and killed when they tried to resist Dominic’s dictatorship. And she talked about the awful months of being cooped up in the caverns, forced to endure life below the surface thanks to Dominic’s crazy crusade against the Northern Lights Clan. She described the terror of the day that the Northern Lights Clan attacked the Blizzards and forced them from the caverns using fire. She told Seth how she had been sure she was about to suffer a violent death at the paws of one of the Northern Lights bears, until she realized that they were letting all of the women and children escape. Then she described the awful existence she had lived since that day, hiding in the shadows and always looking over her shoulder, always on the run.
When Chloe finished talking, she waited with bated breath for Seth to respond. It had been therapeutic to get all of that off of her chest. If nothing else, at least one shifter outside of the Blizzard clan now knew the truth. But Seth didn’t say anything. He kept staring straight ahead at the road, not so much as glancing over at Chloe. They were approaching the base camp in Yellowknife, and for the last fifteen minutes, Seth drove in complete silence. It was only when they finally pulled up to their destination and he parked the truck in first gear that he looked over at Chloe and spoke. His voice was icy as he looked over at her with an unreadable expression in his eyes.
“Get out of my truck. Now.”
And Chloe did, looking over her shoulder one last time as she left him. This was the story of her life. Always, always, looking over her shoulder.
Chapter Eight
Seth was so exhausted that he could feel it in his bones as he finally made his way back to his room. He couldn’t bear to look at his face in the tiny mirror above the sink in the bathroom. He felt awful, but he wasn’t even sure why.
Chloe was a strong woman, there was no denying that. Seth had fought back the urge to reach over and squeeze her shoulder as she described the horrors she had seen at the hands of her own alpha. If everything she had told him was true, then she had been through years of pain and agony, just like him. She had just experienced the heartache from the other side.
Seth finally forced himself to meet his own gaze in the mirror. He had dark circles under his eyes, and the stubble he had neglected had almost turned into a full-on beard. His eyes were dark and churning, reflecting the current state of his soul. He was searching within himself for answers. He felt dirty, like he made some sort of pact with the enemy, even though he had said nothing to her, and given nothing away.
All he had done was listen to her speak, and yet he knew he had let her words soften and open his heart. He felt guilty for even considering relaxing his staunch hatred for anyone who was a Blizzard, but how could he hold against her the actions of others which she’d had no control over? Seth had always considered himself an open-minded individual, but he had sworn after the Blizzards killed his clan that he would never forgive any of them, no matter what their excuse.
But that had been before Chloe, and before he listened to her speak for hours about what she’d been through. It had been before he felt his bear growing restless, hinting at the unthinkable.
Seth’s bear actually thought that a Blizzard was his lifemate.
Seth couldn’t comprehend any universe in which this would be a real possibility, but the more Chloe had talked, the more his bear had stirred, roaring within him the way all inner bears do when a fated lifemate is nearby. He had stared straight ahead at the road for most of the time that she had been talking, unwilling to even glance in her direction. He feared that his eyes would give him away, and the last thing he wanted was for Chloe to think that he was interested in her.
Seth splashed cold water on his face, trying to wash away the conflicting feelings swirling just below the surface. He had been on the prowl for a lifemate for so long. If any other woman had come along who had even a fraction of the beauty and spunk that Chloe demonstrated, Seth would have jumped at the chance to get to know her better. But it didn’t matter how wonderful Chloe was. She was a Blizzard, his sworn enemy. He couldn’t just overlook everything her clan had done to him, even if it wasn’t her fault.
Could he?
Seth slowly pulled off his shirt, revealing his muscular upper body. His arm muscles flexed as he reached over his head to remove the sleeves of his shirt from his arms, and his chest slowly rose and fell above the perfectly sculpted six pack of his abs. He looked at his naked upper body in the mirror for the first time in months, taking in fully the marks of his past that would never let him forget how close he had come to losing his life.
Thick, angry red scars ran across his chest and stomach. The long, diagonal marks ran from his left shoulder down to his right hip, a vivid reminder of the Blizzard who had slit Seth’s chest and stomach open and then left him for dead. Seth had a similar set of scars on his back, although he didn’t remember the actual attack on his back. By the time a Blizzard had sliced up his back, Seth had been passed out from pain and loss of blood. If it hadn’t been for the Northern Lights Clan finding him and nursing him back to health, he would have been dead for sure.
Seth stared at the scars for a long time. He avoided taking his shirt off in front of people or in front of mirrors, because thinking about the memory of the attack was too painful. But tonight, he wanted to think about it. He wanted to remember, and he wanted to stir up his anger enough that it would drown out the small fire starting inside of him, burning with affection for Chloe.
Seth didn’t feel the same anger he normall
y felt as he stared at his scars. He felt confusion instead. Lifemates were fated before a shifter was even born. In another life, he would have been thrilled to have beautiful Chloe for his lifemate. But this wasn’t another life. It was this present life, here and now. It was his scar-filled existence, and no matter how strongly destiny tried to pull him toward Chloe, he would never be able to trust her enough to look at these scars.
Seth sighed and put his shirt back on, then started getting ready for bed. He didn’t even feel like going to the dining hall to grab dinner. He might run into Chloe, and he was afraid of seeing her.
He was afraid of the way she made his heart beat faster.
* * *
The next morning, Seth woke up at 4 a.m., ready to get started on his next load. But when he got to the dispatch center, he learned that all of the trucks were parked for the day. The weather forecast included a severe blizzard right along the ice road route, and the higher ups had decided it wasn’t safe for anyone to run loads that day.
Lest Seth worry that he would have nothing to do on his unplanned day off, the dispatcher let him know that he needed to fill out an accident report to assist with the investigation of Chloe’s moose collision.
“Don’t worry, you’re not in trouble or anything,” the dispatcher hastily assured him. “But for insurance purposes they’d like a witness statement from you to either confirm or contradict Chloe’s story. You know those insurance companies are always looking for a reason not to pay.”
Seth nodded slightly, then ventured to ask about Chloe. “How is she, by the way?”
“Chloe? She’s okay, I guess. Medical checked her out and kept her at the hospital for overnight observation. Seems like they want to make sure she doesn’t have any latent concussion symptoms or something like that. She seemed pretty upset when she reported back here last night. It was hard to get her to really talk about what happened.”
Bearing The Long Road Home (Ice Bear Shifters 7) Page 4