They passed several rooms along the way. Most of the doorways were covered by pelts, which kept heat from escaping. More than once, she heard echoes of laughing children.
Indigo’s room was only a few minute’s from Breeze’s. She waved them in, and once they were inside, she passed the lantern to Boaz and went to flop down on her bed. Structurally, her room was similar to Breeze’s, with it’s domed ceiling and shelved walls. However, Indigo’s shelves were crammed with row upon row of books, and on top of the rows, more books were stacked, as many as could fit.
Ginnifer gravitated towards the books. She recognized many of them, and her finger ran over the spine of Anna Karenina, picking up not a single speck of dust.
“I told you not to touch anything,” Indigo said, though she didn’t sound particularly annoyed.
“Sorry. I remember reading this my freshmen year of college,” she said. “I still can’t believe I made it through the entire book.”
Indigo got up from her bed and approached the bookshelf, giving Ginnifer a measuring look. “You didn’t like it?”
Ginnifer shrugged. “It was pretty depressing. But then again, Russian literature usually is.”
Indigo gave a small smile. “I kept expecting it to get better, but everything got more and more terrible. Have you read this one?”
She pulled a fat red paperback from one of the higher shelves, and Ginnifer recognized it for Gone With the Wind before it was fully in Indigo’s hand.
“That one I read in middle school,” she said. “I hid it inside my pillow so that my mom wouldn’t find it.”
Indigo wrinkled her nose. The gesture made her look younger, and quite cute. “Why would you have to hide books?”
“My mom thought reading for pleasure was a waste of time.”
From behind them, Boaz asked, “What’s this?”
Not waiting for an answer, he did something that made a clicking noise, and all of the sudden, the room lit up. Ginnifer blinked, her eyes seeking out the source of the illumination. There were six sconces carved into the walls, and in each of them, a light bulb attached to a dark base. Small wires ran along the walls, all leading back to a large black box beside Indigo’s bed.
Indigo walked over to the box and kicked the switch with her foot. The lights turned off, and the room was once again dimly lit by the lantern.
“It’s a solar generator,” she said. “And I don’t feel like lugging it outside to charge up today, so don’t waste my juice. I need it to charge my laptop.”
Ginnifer and Boaz exchanged glances. Boaz asked, “You have a laptop? Do you have Wi-Fi?”
Indigo tapped her foot impatiently. “Do you really think I can get internet up here? Do I look like a magician? Now are you going to interview me, or did you just come here to mess with my things?”
After another apology, Boaz set to mounting his camera. Ginnifer convinced Indigo to let them use the lights, promising that she’d bring the generator up for sunlight first thing the following morning.
Once the lighting was settled, Ginnifer helped Indigo get into a camera-ready position on the bed. Indigo was unexpectedly receptive to Ginnifer’s instructions, and once Boaz started filming, she was pleased to see that Indigo looked natural on the video.
She took a seat next to Indigo. They hadn’t decided yet whether Ginnifer herself would appear onscreen, but given that it would be an informal conversation-style interview, it made sense for her to be there this time.
“Your bed is so soft,” Ginnifer commented as she settled into position.
“I made a small mattress out of eider feathers and wool.”
Ginnifer ran her hands over the lilac-colored comforter beneath her. “Did you make this, too?”
Indigo shook her head. “My brother got that for me. There’s a town south of here, he and the others go there sometimes to get things.”
“Aren’t they worried about attracting attention?”
“We can pass for humans when we need to,” she said, sounding a little defensive. She frowned, and then said, “I suppose some of the locals suspect what we are, but I don’t think anyone would believe them. When most humans think of werewolves, they picture hairy, hunchbacked, rabid monsters, not leggy blondes like Tallow, or well, come on, you’ve seen my brother.”
Indigo gave her a sly look, and Ginnifer willed her cheeks to remain cool. She hadn’t done many interviews before, as most of her filming was of animals, with the occasional aside from the locals. Still, she didn’t ruffle easily while on camera. Usually.
“It seems like you have an appreciation for modern conveniences,” Ginnifer said, gently redirecting Indigo. “I would have never expected to find electronic devices here, and your book collection is impressive.”
“We’re not all comfortable living in the stone age around here. Would you want to live by firelight, or without a computer?”
“Actually, I’ve done both,” Ginnifer told her. “Boaz and I have spent a lot of time in developing nations. Believe it or not, you and your pack seem better off than most humans. You have clean water, plenty of food, clothes, shelter, and from what I’ve seen, it’s pretty peaceful here.”
“Most packs don’t live like this. It’s because of my brother that we have as much as we do. He’s a good alpha.” A fond smile graced her lips, but only a second. “When he’s not being an overbearing asshole.”
“Is that why you ran away? Did you and Zane get into a fight?”
Indigo stiffened. “Pups run away. I’m an adult, I can go where I please.”
“Of course,” Ginnifer said, not a hint of mockery in her tone.
“Your mother was strict?” Indigo asked, relaxing a bit.
Ginnifer nodded.
“I’ll bet she didn’t allow you to share your body with males, or pursue a mate, did she?”
A grin broke out over Ginnifer’s face. “I couldn’t look too long at a boy without her whacking me over the back of the head. I did have my fair share of teenage romance, though. I just had to be a little more…creative than most of my peers.”
“Yes, well imagine if your mother could have smelled arousal, or a male’s sweat clinging to your skin. Or if your mother was in charge of every male you knew and they were all afraid of incurring her wrath.”
“I see,” Ginnifer said, cringing. “So your brother doesn’t approve of you pursuing a relationship?”
She didn’t ask about Indigo’s parents. No one had mentioned them, and she suspected that Zane’s position as alpha meant that they weren’t around anymore.
Indigo’s gaze shifted to trail over her books. “I’m nineteen. All of the other females my age are free to do as they please with males, but as soon as I show any interest in one, my brother interferes. He still sees me as a juvenile, and thinks I should only be interested in boys my own age.”
Indigo cast Boaz a pointed look, and he popped his head from behind the camera.
“I’m twenty-six,” he grumbled.
Ginnifer shot him a reproachful look. He was always good at fading into the background while he worked, but his age was a hot-button issue he could never seem to get over.
Getting back to the interview, Ginnifer asked, “So it isn’t that your brother is against you having a relationship, he only wants you to be with someone your own age?”
Indigo hissed her frustration. “It’s not a matter of age. If there was a boy my own age that had all of the qualities I wanted, then I would gladly consider him.”
“So what is it that you’re looking for, then?”
She didn’t hesitate, and Ginnifer got the impression that she’d gone over this list many times. “For starters, I want an alpha. I’ll settle for a beta male, but only if he’s strong enough to become an alpha, because I want my own pack. Our pack will be close enough to my brother’s so that our pups will be able to play together—we’ll have four, but not one after the other, I’m not going to be some broodmare. Three years apart is good, that way they can still play wit
h each other if my brother’s pups turn out to be little jerks like him. And we won’t live so close that Zane can come over and boss me around. And besides, my mate won’t let Zane tell me what to do. In fact, Zane will probably be afraid of him, because he’ll be very strong and he’ll have a bad reputation, but it will all be for show, you know? Deep down, he’ll be kind and gentle, but only with me and our pups. And if he’s all of those things, I won’t mind so much if he’s not that handsome, I don’t expect him to be perfect, only exceptional. Is that unreasonable?”
There were several seconds of silence before Ginnifer realized that Indigo was waiting for an answer.
“Well, it’s rather specific,” Ginnifer said tentatively. “Did you already have someone in mind?”
With a small sigh, Indigo fell back on the bed. “No, not really. One time, I think…it’s weird, I thought I could smell him out there. I don’t know how to explain it. But that’s why I needed to get away from the den. Every moment I spend here is a moment I could be out there, looking for him.”
Ginnifer thought that maybe Indigo needed to lay off the romance stories, but she kept that to herself.
Boaz was working to readjust the camera angle, but Ginnifer waved at him to turn it off. They’d gotten a decent amount of footage, and already, she was getting a vision for how she wanted the documentary to play out.
Ginnifer knew that she should have thanked Indigo for her time and left it at that, but she felt strangely compelled by Indigo’s plight. She scooted back on the bed, until she could look down at Indigo without twisting her neck.
“Where I come from, nineteen is awfully young to pursue a lifetime commitment.”
It was the closest she’d dare come to saying ‘maybe your brother is right.’ She couldn’t help but wonder if Indigo’s pursuit of a mate was born out of genuine desire, or if it was a way for her to rebel against her brother. Maybe if she heard it from another woman, it would help put things into perspective.
Indigo smiled up at her, but it seemed a bit too sweet. “So, how old were you when Aaron proposed?”
Ginnifer tried to swallow, but her mouth was suddenly dry. “How do you know about Aaron?”
“Boaz told Tallow about him the morning after we met, remember?”
“Oh, right.”
For a moment, Ginnifer had thought that Indigo had somehow found out about the embarrassing things she’d confessed to Zane. She relaxed a little, realizing that was impossible.
“I was nineteen,” Ginnifer said carefully. “But we agreed to wait until I graduated college, once I had a better idea of what I wanted for my life.”
“You’re not in college any more though, are you?”
“I dropped out of college to pursue my career.”
“But you didn’t get married?”
“Not yet, Aaron and I have both been very busy with our careers. You see, it’s very important that you prioritize your—”
“How hard is it to get married? Isn’t that whole wedding thing optional? Don’t you just have to sign some paperwork?”
Heat began to prickle over Ginnifer’s head, starting at her ears and working its way to her cheeks.
“There’s more to it than that,” Ginnifer explained. “We don’t want to get married and then live on separate continents. When we do marry, it’ll be when we’re ready to buy a house and start a family.”
She hoped the words didn’t sound as bitter as they tasted. It was the same excuse that Aaron always gave whenever they were both in the states and Ginnifer impulsively asked him to fly to Vegas with her. It always sounded reasonable when he said it, but when Ginnifer repeated it, Indigo made a face like she’d just sucked on a lemon.
“That’s horrible. How old are you, thirty?”
Ginnifer’s mouth dropped open, and she heard Boaz snicker.
“I’m twenty-six.”
He laughed harder.
“I guess that’s not that old. But still, that’s seven years! I don’t understand how he could wait so long to claim you. Does he not respect you, or is he not in love with you?”
Abruptly, Boaz stopped laughing, and the room went quiet. Ginnifer felt as if her face had turned to stone, and was surprised when she found herself able to move her lips.
“What do you mean?”
Indigo sat up, her brows knitted with what looked like genuine concern. “Either he doesn’t respect that you deserve commitment or he doesn’t love you enough to give it to you.”
Boaz spoke up. “Marriage isn’t that important where we come from, Indigo. Lots of humans have happy, healthy relationships without it. And men don’t get to decide when a woman marries him, it’s a mutual decision, one that Ginnifer and Aaron will make when they’re both ready.”
Ginnifer was grateful for his intervention, but his words made tears sting at her eyes. Not because none of it applied to her situation, but because Boaz was her best friend and he had no idea what she’d been going through. No one did, except for, of all people, Zane.
“You’re right,” Indigo said coolly. “I guess for all of my reading, I really don’t understand your customs that well. I was only thinking that if a male asked me to be his mate and then thought to string me along for years, I wouldn’t consider him worthy of me. Do you think that’s unreasonable?”
This time, Ginnifer didn’t believe Indigo needed an answer.
CHAPTER EIGHT
“Wow…” Boaz said, rubbing the side of his head. “She’s…something else.”
Ginnifer was relieved to be out of Indigo’s room and back out into the chilly hallway. She felt like she’d been dissected, and all she wanted to do was crawl into bed and try to reassemble herself in private.
“Where are we going?” she asked, as Boaz led her in the opposite direction of Breeze’s room.
He inhaled deeply through his nose. “Can’t you smell that? You can go back to the room and have a protein bar for lunch if you want, but you haven’t lived until you’ve tried grilled muskox.”
“When did you eat muskox meat?”
“I was awake for dinner last night. Come on, I’ll show you the way to the common room.”
The common room wasn’t far, and the walk wasn’t nearly long enough for Ginnifer to have time to clear her head. However, it did prove to be an adequate distraction from her miserable thoughts.
The large chamber was well lit and warm. It looked big enough to hold a hundred people, and was packed to capacity. Everywhere she looked, there were shifters—some older, many younger—clustered together in tight groups. Most of them were eating, but there were groups of children playing, a circle of females knitting, and somewhere, someone with a gruff voice was singing a song with an upbeat melody.
Boaz pulled her along, helping her to navigate the sea of people. Up ahead, she saw Breeze, Tallow, and Kuva, sitting with three others that she didn’t recognize. As soon as she saw them, she felt a pang of disappointment, and realized she’d been scanning the crowd for Zane.
They were greeted warmly by Breeze. Boaz surprised Ginnifer again, this time by introducing her to the strangers, Roch, Marl and Enzo. Roch was a younger male with a pretty face and an air of confidence. Marl was a middle aged woman, who looked to be in her late fifties, with wiry gray hair and bright blue eyes. Enzo’s age was harder to place. He was tall and lanky, nowhere near as skinny as Boaz, but her grandmother would have said there wasn’t nearly enough meat on his bones. She thought he might be around her age, but his perpetually flushed cheeks made him look ten years younger.
One thing that made Ginnifer feel better was Kuva, who smiled at her as she arrived, and patted the empty space beside him. She’d been worried that she had hurt his feelings before, and she was glad to see that he wasn’t upset with her.
“Where have you been?” Tallow asked, as she yanked Boaz down beside her. Boaz told her that they’d been interviewing Indigo, and Tallow let out a bark of laughter. “Did you manage to get a straight answer past all that juvenile angst?”
Boaz scratched his head. “I wasn’t keeping count, but I think we probably answered more questions than she did.”
There was a wide, round tray on the floor in front of them, half of it filled with a pile of cooked tube roots that looked only slightly edible and the other half with thick strips of grilled meat. Tallow was already feeding Boaz a piece, but Ginnifer hesitated, uncomfortable taking what hadn’t been offered.
She took the opportunity to observe the strange pair, Tallow with her exotic beauty and Boaz with his boyish looks. Boaz wasn’t unattractive, not by any means. When they’d met in middle school, it had been right around the time Lord of the Rings had become popular, and all of the girls had pined over him, thinking he looked like a curly-haired Legolas. Then, puberty had seemed to strike everyone but him, leaving him more cute than handsome. In her mind, he had never really grown up, and it was strange to see him being fawned over by a beautiful woman.
“Are you hungry?” Kuva asked, offering her a slice of meat.
Ginnifer hesitated, but decided that she wasn’t going to shoot him down a second time. Plus, it looked really good.
“I caught it this morning,” Kuva told her. “That is why we have the best plate.”
“Uh huh,” Ginnifer said through a mouthful of succulent meat.
“I helped catch it,” Roch said. He leaned in to offer her another piece, his green eyes expectant. “Try this piece. It’s my favorite part.”
Enzo thrust a third piece of meat in her face.
“This is delicious,” she said, licking her fingers. “I could eat it every day.”
“We will get another one for you tomorrow,” Kuva said.
She wet her lips nervously, unsure what to say to that. Marl came to her rescue, swatting at the air in front of the males.
“Leave the poor girl alone and let her eat in peace.” She passed Ginnifer a cup that sloshed with warm liquid. “Here, have some tea—no strings attached.”
Ginnifer held the cup to her lips, hiding a small grin. She took a few sips, and then picked at the tube roots.
Capturing the Alpha (Shifters of Nunavut Book 1) Page 8