by Vivian Arend
Now he just had to deal with her underestimating him.
He lifted her chin with his finger so their eyes could meet. “Just what do you think that proved?” She chewed on her lower lip, a crease marring the space between her eyes. He hadn’t reacted as she’d expected. “Should I go hit him? Fine.”
“Erik, wait. I’m…” She grasped his hand. He patted her fingers gently before letting her hand fall away. He wandered over to the confused gathering, his amusement growing by the second. The men were speaking in Russian, and he understood their words with ease.
“What was that all about, Dmitri?”
“I don’t know, but I think I like American girls.”
Erik held out his hand and spoke to them in their own language. “Hello. My name is Erik Costanov. I’m sorry, my wife was teasing you. Are you enjoying your holiday in Alaska?”
He chatted with them for a while, the young men telling about the sights they’d seen on their cruise through the Inside Passage. He gave them a few recommendations for restaurants to try in Skagway and Anchorage. With enthusiastic pats on the back and lots of laughter, Erik said goodbye and returned to where Maggie sat on the stairs. She wiggled her nose and scooted over to make room for him beside her. They sat silently for a while. She turned her red face toward him.
“I didn’t know you could speak Russian.”
“There are a lot of things you don’t know about me.” Her scent rose and tickled his nose, and he took a deep breath, storing it for later. He could hardly wait to be able to sleep with her in his arms.
She spoke softly. “You just don’t look like the type.”
“Appearances can be deceiving. For example, you don’t look like the type to get jealous easily, but I bet if I did what you just did, your wolf wouldn’t like it very much.”
She jerked upright and a faint growl escaped from her lips. Hmm, his suspicions were correct. Her wolf was there, just hiding. He’d have to think about how he could convince her to trust him so they could lure the creature back to the surface. After seven years, this could get rough.
Maggie nodded deliberately then a mischievous expression crossed her face. “Well maybe, maybe not. Tell you what, you go ahead and kiss that guy and we’ll see what happens.”
He laughed along with her. It was enough of a win for this time. Another of her defenses had fallen away, and when she leaned willingly into his side, his world grew a little warmer.
Maggie picked up the pack and fiddled with the straps, adjusting them again. There was nothing wrong with the backpack. The whole situation gave her the heebie jeebies.
“Are you nearly ready to go?”
She squealed and dropped the pack. How in the hell he managed to sneak up on her when he was so huge, Maggie could not understand. She nodded, grabbing at his hand to stop him from turning away. “I’m worried about passing out. What if I have a reaction while I’m on the hike and—”
“There are medical crews providing help if anyone gets hurt. You know that. This isn’t a war game where we expect you to die in the field.” He rubbed a circle on her palm with his thumb and a flash of heat ran up her spine. “You haven’t had any troubles since the night of the banquet, have you?”
Maggie thought for a minute. He was right. Her last dizzy spell had been back in Whitehorse. The last couple of days while she’d been at her sister’s, getting ready for the Games, she’d felt fine. Felt the most energized and healthy she’d been for years.
“I feel…” The expression in his eyes sucked the truth from her lips. “I feel great.”
He winked at her. “Wonder if it has something to do with being with other wolves. Like your sister suggested?”
Oh shit, no way. She looked around his bulk at the other teams standing in groups, waiting to begin the first event. The teams from Whitehorse and Denmark were already underway. The Tombstone pack stood at the line ready for their turn in the staggered start.
“I just don’t want to make trouble for the team. I’ve brought my pills along in case, but I’m not going to be able to do this hike very quickly. I hope I don’t disappoint you.”
He crossed his arms for a moment, leaning his torso away from her. It was impossible to not admire the bulk of his arms, his biceps bulging his T-shirt. “It’s not a race for speed. We have to solve puzzles as we go along. I expect you will be able to keep up just fine, and you’re going to be a big help in contributing to us winning this event.”
He spoke with such confidence her fears faded a little.
Erik motioned to the others. “Come on, team, let’s take another look at the instructions. We have thirty minutes still until our start.”
They gathered around, backs to the trees at the edge of the clearing. Before them the Dyea flats stretched to meet the ocean. The early-afternoon air was warm with the promise of heating up nicely. Erik spread out the map at their feet and traced the route they would follow. She was happy to see that once they started hiking, they’d be in the trees for the first third of the hike.
“Three days is the maximum time allotted to complete the thirty-three miles to Bennett Lake. That’s a good solid hike, but it’s not a race pace. We’ll be going faster than the original Gold Rushers, but we don’t have to carry as much gear. However, we not only have to reach the checkpoint in time, we have a series of clues to find. Some of them will be used later in the Games challenges.”
“What if we can’t find them all?” TJ asked.
“Missing one or two, we have a chance. Missing more will make the final challenge tough to win. So this isn’t a sprint. We’ll camp out for two nights and I really don’t care if we see other teams passing us.” He winked at Maggie. “It’s not a race, although some of the other teams will try to convince you it is. This is a setup for later events. All we have to do is finish.”
He pulled out the puzzle instructions, spreading them on the ground next to the map. Jared leaned a little too close and Maggie drew away, backing into the safety of Erik’s side. He casually shifted his position, tucking her against his body and she relaxed. Why did he have to feel so good?
She looked down at the strange maps. Contour lines, altitude markers, not much else. “They’re not giving GPS waypoints, are they?”
He shook his head. “We have to do this the old-fashioned way with only compasses and our noses. For this challenge, one of the team travels in wolf. They can shift back at night, but while on the trail and searching for clues, they have to be in their animal form.”
Maggie’s throat closed tight and she found it hard to breath. One of them was going to turn into a wolf. She had to be around a wolf.
She was going to die.
Without saying a word, Erik rubbed her back, a slow soothing motion. She closed her eyes and concentrated on the feel of his hand instead of thinking about the gnawing fear in her belly.
TJ cursed as his foot caught the edge of the paper and it ripped. “Damn it, sorry. Look, I’d like to volunteer to be the one who stays in wolf.” He wrapped his long arms around his legs like he was trying to stop from touching anything near him. “I know I’ve got a bad reputation, but I am capable of pulling my own weight, especially if you keep me in my wolf form for most of the Games. It’s just my human form that sucks rocks when it comes to coordination.”
For the first time Maggie examined him more closely. He was as dark as his brother, the Alpha, but nowhere near as bulky. Long limbs, square jaw. TJ wasn’t a bad-looking fellow, he just never seemed to be in the right place at the right time. There was a dark-coloured stain on his shirt where she’d seen someone bump into him and dump their ketchup-covered fries all over him.
Erik nodded. “I hoped you’d volunteer for the position, but not because I plan to keep you in wolf the whole time. You have an awesome sense of smell, and we need it for this challenge.” TJ grinned, his limbs jerking in enthusiasm. Erik pulled the map out of range in the nick of time and laughed. “You’re getting better. You’ve still got a little growing
up to do, that’s all.”
The pleased expression in TJ’s eyes made Maggie forget some of her own fears. Over the past couple of days every other time someone mentioned TJ’s name, he had been called a klutz, whether he was standing there or not. Suddenly she felt indignant for him. What kind of crap was that?
“You just don’t want to carry a pack.” Jared poked TJ in the side and the two of them fell to the ground to wrestle like puppies for a minute. A tug on her sleeve caught her attention and she followed Erik off to the side a few steps.
“I’m going to get TJ to change now. You okay?”
How did he know? “I…have to be, don’t I?”
He stepped closer and spoke softly, for her ears only. “You think I haven’t noticed you’ve tensed every time one of the other teams had a member shift? I didn’t think it was because you were embarrassed by their nudity.”
“Well, there was that one guy…”
“Hush.” He kissed her nose, and she went all soft and melty inside. Three days on the trail with him. It was going to be heaven and hell. Oh no, they would be camping out. How was she supposed to avoid him in the evening? Avoid giving in to the attraction between them that grew by the minute? It was one thing to say she wanted to hold off on becoming mates, it was another to stick to her guns.
TJ stripped off his clothes and folded them neatly, slipping everything into one of the three packs waiting nearby. Maggie admired his muscular body. He might have two left feet in human form, but it was a pretty nice package of clumsy altogether. A low grumble from her left distracted her and she turned to see Erik staring, one brow raised. “You seen enough? Or do you want him to pirouette for you?”
No way. “Are you jealous?”
“Yes.” The warmth he’d started earlier grew into raging heat. “I want you to be looking at me like that, not at TJ. I want to see admiration in your eyes for me—for your mate. It doesn’t mean I’m going to go Rambo on his ass, but I’d appreciate if you’d stop drooling in front of me.”
Maggie stepped into his body space and wrapped her arms around his torso, hugging him as close as she could.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you.” Her instant need to comfort him puzzled her. Being in his arms satisfied something deep inside. Made her wolf rumble, low and needy. He stroked one hand down her back, the fingers of his other hand running though her hair. He held her for a minute, their heartbeats slowly synchronizing, and it felt so damn good she almost forgot where they were.
“It’s okay. Apology accepted. He’s a good-looking kid and an even better-looking wolf. You ready to meet him?”
She froze. TJ had shifted. Had Erik deliberately distracted her? Knotting her fingers in his shirt, she glanced over her shoulder. TJ sat on his haunches, his tongue lolling to the side as he panted in the heat of the noontime sun. His silver-grey fur shone, his eyes were bright and his nose twitched as he sniffed the air.
She reminded herself again—it was TJ. They were in public. Erik was nearby. “He is a goo…good…looking wolf…isn’t he?”
She could do this. Only she wasn’t doing it alone. She grabbed Erik, tugging him with her as she approached. She held out her hand, palm open like a person would with a strange dog.
“What the hell?” Jared muttered.
“Let her be,” Erik ordered. He squatted to the side and ran his free hand over TJ’s flank. She was squeezing the blood out of his other hand. TJ tilted his head to the side, confused, before sniffing her palm. His wet nose brushed her skin and goose bumps rose all over her body. He licked her fingers, then plopped on his belly at her feet.
And rolled over.
Her wolf howled with delight, fighting to take control, fighting to break free. A wave of dizziness rushed her. Erik’s grip tightened and he moved to support her. “Okay?”
Wilderness. Starlit skies. Cool mountain water. The wind in her fur. Maggie ached for all the things she’d missed for so long. Again her wolf bumped the surface, making her blood sing, making the knot in her belly loosen a little more. She shook off Erik’s supporting arms and reached for TJ, touching his chest, running her fingers along the stiffer fur of his muzzle. She took a deep breath and soaked in the scent of a wolf giving her obeisance. It felt good. Oh so very good.
“Granite Lake. You’re up in ten minutes. You can take your place at the starting line.” The Games Marshal passed them quietly, headed back to the officials’ area.
TJ scrambled to his paws. Erik smiled at her as he helped her up. He kept hold of her hands. “Are we ready?”
He wasn’t talking about the event. Maggie squared her shoulders and let the joy inside her shine out a little as she nodded. For the first time in years she felt like there really was hope.
Chapter 6
Maggie drew another deep breath of crisp mountain air into her lungs before quick-stepping to catch up. Erik walked ahead of them with TJ. She found herself surprised to be enjoying the chance to get to know Jared better.
“You’ve lived in the North long?”
Jared scrambled over a fallen log blocking the trail and turned back to give her a hand. The trail was in good shape, except for people with short legs.
“All my life. I’ve always been in the Granite Lake pack too. I can tell you, things have really changed in the past couple of years. Since Keil and Erik took over running things, conditions have improved so much.”
He lowered her to the ground then motioned for her to walk ahead of him.
“What do you mean improved?”
“The old Alpha and his crew, they never took part in anything like the Games. Too far beneath them. It’s not just special events like this one. Man, at times it’s tough getting a job in Haines, but Erik and Keil have things arranged so there is never a chance for any of the pack to be unemployed.” He laughed. “That doesn’t mean you won’t be working your ass off. They seem to be able to find the dirtiest, rottenest jobs around for the pack members who are slow to get their acts together. No, it’s been good to see the younger kids find a way to stay in the North instead of having to head south where their wolves aren’t as happy. Plus the old timers? You see them regularly around the pack house now, where before they used to hide out since no one wanted to listen to them talk. Especially the real old geezers who forget they’ve told the same tale a million times.”
She stopped to take a drink from her water bottle, thinking for a moment. It didn’t sound like huge changes to her. Well, jobs were good, but she’d been thinking in the line of murder and other crimes being the issues, not laziness and neglect. “Did you know Erik spoke Russian?”
“Of course. He knows seven languages.”
She jerked the bottle from her lips, the water sloshing down the front of her shirt. “Seven?”
Jared leaned back on a nearby tree, looking at her with a curious expression on his face.
“What?”
“You’re very pretty.”
She felt heat race over her skin. The admiration in his eyes embarrassed her and inside her wolf sniffed with disdain. “Thank you.”
“Is there something between you and Erik? TJ swears you two are scented like mates, but…” He shrugged. “You’re not acting like it. Just in case you’re interested in a—”
“I don’t want to get involved with you.” Maggie’s tongue tripped over itself in her hurry to turn him down. An icky sensation covered her at the thought of touching anyone but Erik.
Jared laughed out loud, his face split with an ear-to-ear grin. When he finally got himself under control he wiped the tears from his eyes and sucked in air. “I was going to ask if you were interested in a little advice. Sweetie, if you’re scented to the Beta, I’m not going anywhere near you in a sexual way, even if you beg. I’d like to keep the family jewels intact and usable for a few more years.”
She didn’t think she could be any more embarrassed. All she’d done lately had been jump to conclusions. “Sorry.” When she lifted her gaze, he was still grinning. “So,
what’s your advice?”
Jared shrugged. “You don’t seem to know much about him. The mate thing is supposed to be cool, as in you’re positive they’re the only one for you. Yada yada. It works, I’ve seen it with the Alphas, and with others in the pack. I still think there’s nothing wrong with a little good old-fashioned conversation to go along with the instant physical attraction and the lifelong chemical bond.”
Maggie stood stunned for a moment.
“What? You look like I just suggested the two of you go bite heads off live chickens or something.”
She snorted. “I’ll confess your advice is not what I expected.”
Jared adjusted the straps on his pack and pointed up the trail. He resumed talking as she walked beside him. “Why? Because you heard I like the ladies? I do, and if you weren’t taken I’d be doing my damnedest to romance you. But I’m not stupid, I like more than a tumble. Sex is fun, but my hand is a lot safer than a regular routine of loving and leaving without more than a howdy-do and goodbye.”
Maggie walked in silence for a minute before facing him. “That’s good advice.”
He winked. “But if you’re not mates, then…”
She swung at him and he danced ahead of her, laughing. She took a deep breath and followed. These wolves were different from what she remembered in her teen years. The posturing and constant one-upmanship weren’t there. It must be because they were involved in the Games. This couldn’t be how they lived all the time.
Could it?
TJ and Erik disappeared from the top of the next rise, heading off the trail into the bush. They must have found another clue. By the time she’d reached the heights, the guys were back, Erik sporting a rather large grin.
“You found another one?” Without thinking, Maggie leaned against him to check out the paper in his hand. His body was warm and solid, and she adjusted herself to nestle closer, tugging until the clue sheet was within her vision. He chuckled and she suddenly realized she was completely inside the circle of his arms. When she would have retreated, he subtly closed the space and trapped her, drawing her attention to the paper.