“I was thinking that if I could get my hands on an extra generator, I can set up some sort of greenery. It would have to be underground, my brother would never let me build a real greenhouse.”
“Do you plan on growing vegetables?”
Indigo gagged. “Ew, no. Herbs, and things I can use to make medicines. Now that Marl’s gone, it’s going to be tougher to get those sorts of things.”
“I could help,” Ginnifer said. “Before I leave, I’ll give you my number and if you ever need anything, you can call me and I’ll make it happen.”
Indigo turned a page without responding.
“I could even get you a generator and the supplies you need to get set up with your—”
The book snapped shut. “If you really want to help me, you can stay here with my brother instead of running back to wherever it was you came from.”
Ginnifer had been prepared for Indigo to say something to that effect. Indigo had been taking jabs at her all week, ever since Ginnifer had told her that she was still going back to the states.
“I’m not running away,” Ginnifer said patiently. “I’m going home. It doesn’t mean I won’t be back.”
As it stood, she and Boaz had already gathered more footage than they needed. Despite their best efforts in planning and organization, she was going to be wading through hundreds of hours of video, and trying to condense it into a film that was less than two hours long, not to mention cohesive.
She could have left already, would have left already, if not for Zane. She wasn’t ready to give up waking beside him every morning, or falling asleep in his arms. She wasn’t sure how she could get through a day without him checking in on her every hour, feigning concern over her arm while surreptitiously glaring at any men that were standing too close to her. And the thought of never kissing his lips again—that was the worst.
“You don’t get to take half measures,” Indigo said, and something about her tone reminded Ginnifer of her older sister. “You can’t expect Zane to wait around for you to come back, and if you do, then you’re no better than Raine.”
That was new.
“Who’s Raine?”
Indigo shook her head. “Forget about it. If you don’t already know, then that’s because it’s none of your business.”
As she contemplated that, Ginnifer unconsciously rubbed at her splint. She winced and let out a whistling breath as she tapped it too hard.
“You have a terrible pain tolerance,” Indigo said. “It really shouldn’t be hurting that badly anymore.”
Ginnifer was glad for the change of subject. “I don’t heal as quickly as a shifter.”
“Still, it shouldn’t be hurting so badly.” Indigo set her book aside. “Let me see it.”
Indigo removed the outer layer of cloth, then the splint, and then began unwrapping the final layer. Beneath the cloth, her skin still looked inflamed, but no worse than when it had been wrapped, Ginnifer thought.
“Oh,” Indigo said, clicking her tongue. She brushed her index finger over the inflamed area, and Ginnifer twitched away from her.
“What is it?”
“This shouldn’t look like this. It felt like a clean break, but now I’m not so sure. There could be a fragment of bone in the muscle tissue.”
Ginnifer’s stomach churned. In a small voice, she asked, “What are you going to do?”
“Me?” Indigo asked, taken aback. “I know how to set a bone, but I’m no doctor. You’re probably going to need surgery.”
Ginnifer took her arm back. “Maybe you’re wrong. We should give it a few more days and see what happens.”
***
“We’re going to Port Trent,” Zane said, folding his arms across his chest. It was difficult to be firm when Ginnifer’s face was as white as fresh snow.
He had stopped by the room to look in on Ginnifer, and had found her with her cast off, she and Indigo with their noses buried in a book on human anatomy.
“Uh uh,” Ginnifer said, shaking her head. “We just got back. Besides, it doesn’t hurt as much as I thought. In fact, it’s already feeling a little better.”
“Don’t make me blow on it,” he said dryly.
Zane had been concerned about her arm all week. Ever since she’d stopped taking the medicine Indigo had given her, Ginnifer had been sleeping fitfully at night and hiding her discomfort behind forced smiles during the day. Aside from making him worry, it had made sex impossible. The one time they’d tried to be intimate, he’d had her near to tears when he’d accidentally bumped her arm.
Ginnifer said, “Fine, but how are we going to get there? There are bear traps down the south road and actual bears on the eastern pass, so what, we go west and run into your crazy neighbors?”
“I thought you’d be glad to be going back to civilization,” Zane said smoothly.
Their debate about her staying in the pack had reached a standstill. Every time Zane thought that he was making progress convincing her, she would casually mention something she planned on doing once she got home. It put Zane in a difficult position, as he wanted—needed—her to stay, but he also wasn’t willing to stoop to pleading.
After days of frustration, he’d considered a different strategy, a risky strategy, and now was the perfect time to deploy it.
“Indigo, give us a moment.”
His sister was more stubborn even than Tallow, and never one to be ordered around, least of all ordered out of her own room. So when she got up and left with an overstated sigh, Zane knew she planned on listening outside the door.
When she was gone, Ginnifer said, “All right, if you want the truth, I’m not a big fan of doctors, I’m more of a homeopathic type of woman. I’m sure this is only hurting because…”
Zane tuned out of whatever else she said, wanting to roll his eyes. This from the female who said she wouldn’t give birth except in a hospital and on as many drugs as they could give her.
There was another reason she didn’t want to go back, a reason she didn’t want to admit, and Zane thought he knew what that reason was. If his suspicions were correct, then his plan would work perfectly.
But if you’re wrong…
“I’m going to take you to Port Trent tonight,” he said, interrupting her ramblings. “You should bring your things. I think it would be best for you to go home while you heal.”
Her eyes widened. “What? You mean your home, the den, right?”
“No, of course not. Your home would be best. That way if any complications arise, you’ll have all the medical assistance that you need.” It was a struggle to get the words out, but she appeared too taken aback to notice the strain in his voice.
“What about Boaz? I can’t leave him here all by himself. I think it’s best that I come back and—”
“I’ll have Tallow bring him to town as soon as she’s back,” Zane told her. “And in the meantime, I’m sure he’ll be fine.”
Ginnifer was standing now, and he wondered if she realized that she was pacing. “So, okay, you’re going to take me to Port Trent and then…what? You’ll leave me there?”
“I can wait for you to see the doctor, if you want,” he said with a shrug. “But I’d prefer to head back to the den as soon as possible. I’ve already been away for too long these past few weeks.”
Before she could think too much, Zane was ushering her out the door with a hand on her back. “Go pack you’re things. We’ll leave once you’re ready.”
“I’m really tired,” she said, trying to turn to face him. “Can we at least stay, have dinner, and get some sleep. Who knows, maybe things will look better in the morning and we can save ourselves a trip.”
Zane kept his hand firm and continued pushing her forward. “I’d rather not wait and risk your arm getting any worse. I’ll meet you at my room shortly.”
Not waiting for her to reply, he turned to walk in the opposite direction. She’d reacted in exactly the way he’d hoped—better than he’d hoped, but it didn’t feel like a victory.
He rounded a corner to find Indigo waiting for him, tapping a finger to her cheek and frowning. As soon as she saw him, she narrowed her eyes.
“What are you doing?” she hissed. “You’re sending her back to stupid Florida—which isn’t her home, by the way, this is.” She stamped her foot on the ground for emphasis. “Tell me this is some sort of plan and that you aren’t sending her off so that you can mate with Coral instead.”
Zane flicked her nose, earning a scowl. “I do have a plan. Though it’s more of a gamble.”
Indigo considered him for a moment, and then took a quick breath. “Oh!” An impish grin transformed her face, making her look less like a woman and more like the little sister he knew. “You’re giving her the cold shoulder!”
She spoke so loudly that Zane had to look around the corner to make sure Ginnifer wasn’t still within earshot. The space where she’d been was gone.
“I’m giving her a chance to evaluate her priorities,” he said.
It sounded a lot less manipulative that way.
“I get it! It’s reverse psychology,” she said, her hands gesticulating wildly with her excitement. “You make her think you don’t care whether she stays, and she’ll realize this is where she really wants to be. How did you come up with that?”
From raising you, he thought wryly.
Indigo’s combative nature had been even worse as a pup. Back then, she would argue a point to death, no matter how much logic was thrown her way. Even when she knew she was wrong, she’d stubbornly stick to her opinions, and the only way to get her to change her mind was to agree with her so much that she ended up arguing for the other side.
It was clear to him that Ginnifer enjoyed being with the pack, and he didn’t doubt that she cared for him. That was why her insistence on leaving had been so confusing, until he’d drawn the parallel between her and his sister. While she wasn’t nearly as stubborn as Indigo, he thought that perhaps she’d defended her choice to the point that she didn’t recognize that it wasn’t what she wanted anymore. If instead of asking her to stay, he urged her to return home, she might realize that she wanted to stay with him.
“You don’t look happy,” Indigo remarked. “Don’t worry, it’ll work for sure. I know she wants to stay.”
Zane wished he could share her conviction. Somewhere inside of him, his wolf was growling.
CHAPTER TWENTY THREE
It was early the next morning when they left, though Ginnifer had no hand in their late departure. At his announcement that he was leaving again, half of the den suddenly had issues that needed his immediate attention. It started with serious issues, such as melting snow causing flooding in one of the lower chambers, but then the problems gradually devolved into interpersonal troubles. At one point, Ginnifer had seen Zane mediating a dispute over stolen figurines.
A lot of it seemed like stuff he could easily delegate, and usually did so far as she’d seen, and Ginnifer almost suspected that he wanted to stall leaving as well. She’d dismissed the notion though, as it had been Zane’s idea to leave in the first place.
Her arm did hurt a lot, but Indigo was right about one thing—Ginnifer had a miserable tolerance for pain. Although she disliked the way the pain medicine made her feel, the memory of being jostled around on Zane’s back without it was still fresh in her mind, and she got a small supply to take with her on the trip.
Despite what Zane had told her, she didn’t pack everything. She left most of the clothes she’d packed in Boaz’s room, as well as two of the three outfits that had been made for her since she’d arrived at Siluit. She left all of her extra toiletries with Indigo, which made the young shifter so happy that she almost forgot that she was still mad at Ginnifer.
Ginnifer was tempted to leave the footage behind, but before she could make up her mind, Boaz unloaded all of his SD and Compact Flash cards on her. She reluctantly packed them up with her tablet, camera, and her own memory sticks.
She didn’t give anyone more than a quick goodbye; after all, the plan was to come back. But as she was boarding the boat to cross the inlet, all of her essential possessions in her backpack, she couldn’t help but feel that this was final.
Of course, she’d been wrong about that before. The night that she’d lain under the stars with Zane, fresh from the hunt, she’d thought that it would be the last time they’d be intimate. And then the following week, they’d blown intimacy out of the water with their torrid, animalistic sex.
Ginnifer had secretly hoped they’d have sex again on the way to Port Trent, but when they finally stopped to rest on the open tundra, Zane remained in his wolf form. She told herself that this was so that he could keep her warm, so that his large body could shield her from the snow and wind. But as she lay curled up beside him, she couldn’t help but remember his insistence on having her return to the states.
Nighttime seemed to conjure up all of her insecurities, and when she dreamed, it was of coming back to the den to find Zane mated to Coral. When he saw Ginnifer, he greeted her with his perfunctory smile, and then carried on as though she weren’t there. She woke with tears in her eyes and shame swelling inside her chest.
When they reached the forest the following morning, Ginnifer recognized that they’d taken the south road. Zane was careful to watch his steps, and would often stop to sniff the air or seemingly random tree trunks, but they still covered a lot of ground by nightfall.
They stopped in a grove of closely-knit pines, which blocked some of the chilly wind. While snow had been dumped on the east, the last of the snow on the south road had melted, leaving the ground hard, but dry.
Ginnifer dropped her bag onto the ground and then crumpled down beside it. With her usable hand, she massaged each of her legs in turn, working out the tension from a day spent riding. The moon was a bright orb, casting light over the woods, and she wished she could go for a walk. But between bear traps and rival wolves, Zane wouldn’t have let her go anywhere, even if she were crazy enough to ask.
While Zane scouted the area, she took her medicine, had a few bites of the food she’d brought, and then busied herself with combing the tangles from her hair until it was straight and glossy in the moonlight. With only one hand, everything took twice the time, and even though Zane was gone for a while, she had only just finished by the time he got back.
He was in his wolf form still, and although she looked at him expectantly, he didn’t shift. The sleek brown wolf stretched his limbs and yawned, before settling down a short distance from Ginnifer and closing his eyes. She cast him an acerbic look that she knew he couldn’t see, and it didn’t make her feel any less annoyed.
Zane had only shifted once during the past two days, and even then, he’d barely said more than a couple words to her. He was being deliberately cold, though she wasn’t sure what she’d done to deserve it. Insecurity told her that he was pushing her away, that he’d told her to pack all of her things because he didn’t want her to have a reason to come back.
Joke’s on you, jerkface. I left my favorite panties between your bed furs.
Refusing to be ignored two nights in a row, Ginnifer got up and walked over to the wolf. She’d planned on giving his ear a tug, but as soon as her hand came in contact with the soft fur, she found herself gently stroking him. His ear twitched, and a golden eye cracked open to regard her.
“Can we talk?”
He stared at her for a few seconds, and then shifted in place, coming into his human form on the ground beneath his pelt. She fell to her knees beside him, smiling before she could think better of it.
“Shape shifting never ceases to amaze me,” she said. “You make it look so easy.”
“It is easy. Though it can grow tiring if done too much. What did you need to talk about?”
She sat back on her rear and chewed her lip for a moment. There hadn’t been anything specific she’d wanted to talk about, she’d only wanted to spend time with him. It was bad enough not talking to anyone for a full day, and eve
n worse when she was feeling depressed.
Ginnifer asked the first thing that popped into her mind. “Who’s Raine?”
“Where did you hear that name?” he asked, appearing deceptively calm.
“Around.”
Zane arched a brow, but Ginnifer shook her head emphatically.
“I keep my sources confidential.”
He grinned, and the sight of it turned her insides to mush.
“Raine is my mother,” he told her.
“She’s alive?”
“Possibly,” he said with a slight shrug. “She was the alpha of a western pack, Iluk. They held the den where Amarok resides now.”
“What happened? Did Amarok take over her pack?”
“No,” he said with a shake of his head. “Iluk was well before Amarok’s time. Their den was invaded by Sivuak, a pack with a very unstable alpha. I was a pup at the time, but from what I’ve heard, most of the Iluk wolves fled, and the rest were killed.”
“And you…still hold out hope?”
His lips twisted into a mirthless smile. “Do we really have to talk about my mother all night?”
“I’m sorry,” she said. “It’s just that this is the most you’ve spoken to me since we left the den. I’d be willing to talk to you about Boaz’s peanut allergy at this point.”
Zane gave her a small smile, but only told her to get some rest. She inwardly kicked herself for reminding him that he was supposed to be giving her the silent treatment.
Ginnifer remained beside him as she debated her next move. The edge of his pelt was under one of her knees, and she knew that if she stood up, he would shift back into his wolf form.
Sabotaging him out of spite, she lifted his pelt and crawled beneath it. Cocooned in his warmth, she wormed out of her coat and outermost sweater, while Zane watched her with a tight expression.
She was genuinely surprised when she felt his erection brush against her thigh. Of all the things that amazed her about Zane, chief among them was how virile he was, and the effect it had on her own body. Just knowing that he was aroused made the folds of her sex begin to throb, growing wet in anticipation of him.
Capturing the Alpha (Shifters of Nunavut Book 1) Page 19