Mate Fur Hire

by T. S. Joyce

  “They’re in a valley. It’s always better where the homestead is.”

  “How long do you think?” Link asked again.

  Vera hugged Link’s waist, and he stopped his pacing. “Soon, Link. Soon.”

  The soft snarl stopped in his throat, and she smiled at Tobias’s baffled look. Now she had the same calming effect on Link that Elyse possessed.

  “She’ll have Miki with her,” Link said low, his eyes blurring with a faraway look. She’ll be to the bend in the road by now, the one that gets bogged down and muddy in the spring. Fuck, I hope it’s not snowing as bad there.”

  “It’s not,” Tobias reassured him.

  “She’ll be running. Elyse sounded worried.” Link hugged Vera’s shoulders. “She’ll be so happy. She’ll be safe. Ian will keep her safe in the winters now.”

  Sadness unfurled in her middle in heavy, inky tendrils. Link wasn’t concerned with her failure to fix him. He was happy because Elyse and Lena would be protected by their own mates during the winter now.

  “Elyse will be past the spring now,” Link said low.

  “If she’s running,” Tobias murmured.

  “She is. Trust me, she is.”

  The minutes stretched on for eternity, but Vera could tell when the boys thought Elyse was getting close to Lena’s cabin because Tobias gestured her over to him and hugged her to his chest. “You should tell them,” he whispered against her ear. “This is possible because of you.”

  Vera whispered, “I want you to.” Tobias had been through so much and loved his family in ways they would never understand. This should come from him. It would mean more.

  Tobias lifted the radio to his lips, his eyes on Link as he nodded once. He pushed the button. “Lena. You there?”

  Static blasted through the line and then, “Yeah, I’m here. So is Elyse.”

  “Let me hear her.”

  “I’m here,” Elyse said into the speaker. “How are you still awake? Did someone hurt you?”

  “No, it’s nothing like that. Listen, I wanted to try this on myself before I put Ian and Jenner at risk.”

  “What are you talking about, Tobias?” Elyse sounded frantic.

  Tobias took a deep, steadying breath, then clicked the button again. “You two go start putting food in their dens. I’m coming to you. I’ll be there in three days.” Tobias smiled down at Vera. “I’m going to wake my brothers up.”

  “Wake them up? Tobias, you can’t. They’re hibernating.”

  Tobias’s chin trembled with emotion so Vera buried her face against his chest and hugged him up tight. “I owe them, Elyse. I owe them. I knew I had to fix this when you were attacked by the McCalls and we couldn’t do a damned thing about it. You wouldn’t have that scar on your face if we were awake to protect you. And Jenner—” Tobias swallowed hard and hit that button again. “Lena, I owed it to him to try. I hurt him.”

  “Tobias,” Lena said. “We don’t understand. And Jenner isn’t mad for what happened when you were kids. You didn’t mean to hurt him. Just…tell us what’s happening.”

  “You’ll never have to worry about winter again,” Tobias said into the speaker. “You’ll never have to wait for your men to wake up.”

  A moment of silence stretched for eternity as Vera cried silent tears of joy against her mate’s sweater.

  “Say it, Tobias,” Lena demanded thickly. “Say it now before we fall apart.”

  Tobias’s voice wavered with emotion as he murmured, “I’ve found a cure.”

  “Oh my God,” Elyse sobbed into the radio. “Tobias, tell me it’s true. Tell me this isn’t some cruel joke.”

  “Vera isn’t just a fox. She isn’t just my mate. She’s a scientist, and she’s been busting her ass to save us from hibernation. I’ll tell you everything you want to know. I’ll explain everything as soon as we can get to you. The weather is shit here, but when it lets up, we’re coming to you.”

  “Vera!” Lena yelled so loudly into the radio, a high pitched noise blasted out of the contraption. “Vera,” she said again, her voice shaking. “Tobias put her on!”

  “I’m here,” Vera said into the speaker as Tobias held her tight.

  “Thank you. Elyse can’t talk right now, but from both of us…thank you.”

  Vera waited a minute to compose herself. Link intertwined his hands behind his head and squatted down, gut-wrenching emotion in his eyes as he dragged his blazing gaze to her.

  Clicking the button again, she said, “You’re welcome. I’ll bring the medicine and the moonshine. We’ll celebrate right. With our men. And Lena?”

  “Yeah,” Lena said across the line.

  “We’ll be spending the holidays with our boys from here on.”

  “I can’t wait.” Moments passed before Lena’s voice came back on. “I have to take care of Elyse now. We’ll be ready with food. We’ll be waiting.”

  The door banged closed, and Link was gone. Vera hung the radio speaker on the receiver and padded over to the window in time to see Link’s gray wolf lope off into the trees. Just as he made it to the tree line, he turned and laid his bright gray gaze on hers. His breath steamed in front of his muzzle, and he looked so heartbreakingly beautiful, standing there alone in the snow. One McCall against the world. Link turned and trotted off, disappearing like a ghost into the snowfall.

  Tobias gripped her shoulders and kissed the back of her hair. “He’ll be back.”

  But Vera wasn’t so sure.

  She was safe now with Tobias to protect her during the winter. Elyse and Lena would be safe as soon as Vera administered the serum to Ian and Jenner.

  Link had clung to his sanity when he had a job to do—when he had friends who needed his protection.

  What could possibly tether a half-mad McCall to this world now?

  Chapter Twenty

  Tobias cut the engine of the snow machine and held out his hand for her to lean on as she dismounted from behind him. Vera took off her sunglasses and pulled her winter hat off her hair as she waited for Tobias to shoulder the backpack he’d tied to the back. He handed Vera one of the two carefully stored jars of blueberry moonshine and pulled his gloves off with his teeth before he led the way to the small homesteader cabin nestled in the clearing.

  There were several cattle in a pen, a pair of horses in a coral, and the clucking and flapping of chickens sounded from inside of a massive coop. Such a strange feeling washed over her. She halted in the middle of an undisturbed snowy patch.

  “What’s wrong?” Tobias asked with a worried frown.

  “I don’t know. I just had déjà vu or something.” Vera huffed a laugh. She’d apparently lost her damned mind. She’d never been to Elyse’s and Ian’s homestead before, so déjà vu didn’t make any sense. “Forget it.”

  Tobias lifted his hand to knock, but a dog let off a sharp bark from inside and Elyse threw the door open before he could rap his knuckles against the rough wood. Her eyes were bright green-gold, her cheeks flushed with excitement. A black and white husky with bi-colored eyes bounced around them barking until Elyse shushed him. She pulled Tobias into a hug.

  “Oh, I had myself convinced Lena and I misheard you or misunderstood. I thought I dreamed your voice on the radio, but you’re really here. You aren’t hibernating. This is really happening. Tell me it’s happening.”

  “I’m really here, and we’re really going to wake up Ian.”

  Vera handed Elyse a jar of moonshine. She’d tied a pretty bow on this one for Elyse as a congratulations gift. “No more waiting.”

  Elyse nodded her chin and hugged the jar of clear liquor to her chest as if she was nervous. “Ian’s down in the root cellar. He talked about hibernating somewhere farther away, but after last year, I couldn’t stand the thought of not being able to protect his body. I put lots of food down there for him. And warm clothes.”

  “You did good.” Vera hugged her tight. “I’ll take care of him. Everything will be all right, but you should wait outside just in case he go
es Winter Bear before we get him all the way awake. I’ll come out here and wait with you.”

  “The medicine won’t hurt him, will it?”

  “Elyse, he’ll be fine,” Tobias said. “Vera figured out a way to suppress the animal. One shot a month, but the side effect is that Ian won’t be able to shift during the winters. He’ll go back off the injections in the warm months so his bear gets time out. Vera has used this type of medicine on herself long term, and she’s fine.”

  Elyse inhaled deeply and nodded. “Do it then. I trust you. And Tobias, I want him back.” Her voice squeaked at the end as her eyes rimmed with moisture.

  “Give him half an hour to wake up,” Tobias murmured. “I’ll stay with him the whole time.”

  “But what about your bear? You can’t be around each other without fighting.”

  Tobias smiled sadly. “My bear sleeps now, remember? It’ll be okay.”

  Vera followed Tobias into the house and through the living room, then down into the cold root cellar where a giant grizzly took up most of the floor space. Ian was so still, he didn’t even look like he was breathing.

  “Our bodies slow down a lot in hibernation,” Tobias whispered. “He’s okay.”

  Vera clenched her cold fingers to steady her hands and pulled out the case with the sterile needles, filled with the right dose for each Silver brother, from Tobias’s backpack.

  “Ready?” she asked.

  Tobias only had eyes for his brother as he nodded. “Give him the injection, and then I want you outside with Elyse.”

  Vera pushed the needle into Ian’s massive shoulder and emptied the syringe, then pulled it out and kissed Tobias before she crawled up the ladder and made her way outside.

  Elyse was huddled on the seat of the snow machine, cradling the moonshine like a baby as she stared off into the woods. The long scar down her cheek was stark and red against her porcelain skin. Tobias had told her all about how she’d gotten that. Elyse was a warrior.

  “Want to help me get the sled ready?”

  “For what?”

  “Ian will be tired and a little numb for a bit. It’ll be hard for him to move around easily, but we need to go wake Jenner up, too. Unless you want to stay here?”

  “No. No, we’ll come. It should be a family affair.” Elyse’s face stretched into a smile, and she squeezed Vera’s hand. “I’m glad you found Tobias.”

  “I hired him,” Vera said lightly as she made her way over to the sled hooked to the back of the snow machine.

  “Wait, you hired Tobias?”

  “He’s my mate for hire.”

  “Ian is my husband for hire! I needed someone to help me with the homestead. And Lena hired Jenner to take her to photograph the brown bears.”

  “But he is a bear.” Vera giggled. “Bear for hire. These Silvers didn’t even know what hit them.”

  “No,” Elyse said laughing as she helped Vera unfold blankets onto the sled. “I guess they didn’t.”

  A soft noise brushed Vera’s oversensitive ears, and her inner fox drew to attention. Vera snapped her gaze to the house and listened harder. Two men were talking low. One was Tobias.

  “Elyse,” she whispered through a smile. “I can hear him.”

  “Ian?”

  “He’s asking where you are. If you’re okay. Tobias is trying to get him to hurry up and eat.”

  Elyse leaned heavily on the snow machine and clasped her hand over her mouth. Her eyes looked so full of hope and joy it stole Vera’s breath away. She laughed thickly and said, “Ian just said ‘Fuck eating. Where is my mate?’”

  Elyse laughed and set the moonshine down in the sled, then wrung her hands, waiting.

  The door opened and Elyse gasped, frozen in the snow like some beautiful garden angel statue. Tobias came out first, but he had Ian’s arm over his shoulder. The second Ian’s eyes landed on Elyse, he let off a long sigh of relief and stood straighter. By the time he was down the porch stairs, Ian shoved off Tobias and wrapped Elyse up in his arms. “I love you. I love you,” he murmured over and over as his mate cried against his shoulder. The dog went crazy, crying and yipping and rubbing all over Ian’s jeans like a giant cat.

  Ian cupped Elyse’s cheeks and kissed her, and Vera’s cheeks flushed with heat at witnessing such an intimate reunion.

  When Ian released Elyse, he looked around, eyes bright. “Where’s Jenner?”

  “Still asleep,” Tobias explained. “We woke you up first.”

  Ian stumbled toward Vera, and she caught his weight, but just barely. He was still clinging to Elyse’s hand, but he hugged Vera so tight she couldn’t breathe. “You did this. Thank you.”

  How did she tell him she did it for selfish reasons? How did she explain she needed Tobias awake to stay happy and steady? How did she explain she couldn’t stand the thought of Lena and Elyse alone out here, protecting their mates’ bodies half the year? She needed the Silvers awake so she could be okay. Maybe someday she would find the words, but not today. “You’re welcome,” she whispered instead.

  “Lena’s waiting,” Elyse said, tugging his hand.

  Ian sat heavily in the sled, and Elyse nestled herself between his legs while Vera and Tobias settled onto the seat of the snow machine. The snowy mile ride to Lena’s cabin seemed to take forever. Ian and Elyse talked quietly in the back, too low to understand over the roar of the motor, and Vera held onto Tobias’s strong waist as she let her other hand catch the crisp breeze. Twice, the dog, Miki, Elyse called him, bounced up and touched her outstretched glove with his head, as if he couldn’t wait for the snow machine to stop for an affectionate pat on the head.

  Lena was sitting on the porch in an oversize sweater, leggings and wool-lined snow boots, clutching a large package wrapped in thick brown paper and twine. She stood as Tobias pulled to a stop in front of her cabin.

  Lena broke out in a disbelieving smile as her gaze landed on Ian, standing slowly from the sled in the back with Elyse’s help. Tobias grabbed the backpack, gave Vera a quick kiss, and whispered, “I’ve got Jenner. He’s deep under the house. You stay here with Lena.”

  Tobias gave Lena a hug and murmured something too low for Vera to hear, then jogged around the side of the cabin.

  Lena looked shocked, and all the blood had drained from her face.

  “I like your place,” Vera said, shyness suddenly creeping in.

  “I got you something,” Lena murmured distractedly as she stared off in the direction Tobias had gone.

  “I got something for you, too. It’s sort of a congratulations gift. Here.”

  Lena blinked hard and dragged her attention to Vera. When they’d exchanged their presents, Lena opened the lid to her jar of moonshine, then inhaled deeply. “Perfect,” she murmured, right before she took a healthy swig and handed it to Vera for a turn.

  With a laugh, Vera took a drink, too, and reveled in the burn that traveled down her throat and warmed her from the inside out.

  “Your eyes are gold again,” Lena observed.

  Vera shrugged self-consciously. “My fox is happy. So am I.”

  Lena’s lip trembled as her gaze went to the side of the house again. “How long does it take?”

  “I can’t say. It’s different for each shifter. Maybe half an hour?”

  But she was wrong. At that moment, Jenner, all mussed dark hair and intense blue eyes, stumbled around the corner of the house, leaning heavily on the log wall. “Come here,” he said in a hoarse, desperate voice as Lena let off a soft gasp beside her.

  She bolted for her mate, and they both barely stayed upright as Lena threw her arms around him.

  Elyse was crying again, and Ian’s eyes were steady on Jenner, who held his mate tight to his side. Miki was bouncing between both couples, barking constantly, and Tobias—her Tobias—was looking at Vera as though he’d never seen anyone more beautiful.

  Her stomach fluttered as he approached. Damn, he was stunning as he strode toward her on those powerful legs, her capable Alaskan m
an. They wouldn’t have to be apart ever again, and the weight of everything they’d been through finally slid off her shoulders. She’d done what she’d promised and given the Silvers freedom from hibernation. And in return, Tobias had given her stability and safety. He’d given her control over her animal. He’d given her freedom, too.

  Hooking his finger under her chin, he lifted her gaze and shook his head like he couldn’t believe he’d gotten so lucky. “You’re everything,” he whispered, just before he lowered his lips to hers.

  Tobias jerked just as cold snow blasted across her cheek. Turning slowly, he murmured, “Dick.”

  Ian was grinning as he packed another snowball.

  With a laugh, Tobias bent down and started gathering snow. From the corner of the house, Jenner lobbed a frozen white ball that landed by Ian’s feet.

  “Man, that sucked.”

  “My arms are numb!” Jenner slurred.

  Vera snorted as she watched Elyse and Lena gather their own frosty weapons to launch. And as the clearing filled with the sound of laughing and Miki’s barking, Vera sat heavily on the porch stairs of the cabin, feeling like a million pounds had been lifted from her shoulders.

  Settling the gift in her lap, Vera untied the twine and ripped into the brown paper covering. She gasped at what was inside. It was an oversize, black and white photo of her and Tobias. It was one Lena must have taken in town, the first time she’d met her. In it, Vera was mid-laugh, her eyes squeezed closed as Tobias kissed her cheek from behind, his arms wrapped tight around her middle. And under it was another. This one was in color. She and Tobias were grinning at the camera, cheek to cheek, looking utterly happy. Vera’s eyes were a strange gold color in the sunlight, and Tobias’s eyes were darker, probably from being so close to Ian at the time. How fitting. Their animals were right there with them, so evident in the picture.

  Lena was watching her from beside Jenner with a smile on her lips and a hand pressed against her chest like she was trying to keep her heart inside.

  Thank you, Vera mouthed, and Lena nodded.

  Hugging the precious gifts, Vera watched her mate goof off with his brothers in the snow. He cast her a happy grin over his shoulder and held her gaze.