The Juneau Pack 2
By Katherine Rhodes
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
FROZEN ALASKA
All rights reserved.
Copyright 2019 © Katherine Rhodes
Cover: JRA Stevens for Down Write Nuts
Formatting: Down Write Nuts
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author / publisher
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Five friends.
One Summer.
Everything changes.
We wanted to celebrate the end of college. The end of all the hard work, the beginning of our new lives. Brandy had the perfect place:
Alaska.
Delia
I was only too happy to pay for the renovations to my bestie's hard earned homestead. I loved spoiling my friends, and I had ways to do it. I also loved the outdoors, and new adventures.
Jason was definitely a new adventure. We seemed to be the perfect couple, and we fell together easily. I thought it was his secret that was going to drive a wedge between us--I never expected it to be mine.
Jason
Fate has terrible timing. The instant I saw her, I knew Delia was mine-- and I couldn't have her. Still, being around her was amazing and I hoped that we could be together someday.
But there was someone who would go to any lengths to get rid of my mate. It would force me to make decisions that would change the course of our lives...
Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Epilogue
Exploring Alaska
Taming Alaska
Darkwater
Consensual
About the Author
Also by Katherine Rhodes
Also by
Prologue
“I told you this would be worth it!” Brandy crowed.
“My ass is killing me,” I answered. “How much further? Why does this road suck so much?’
“Should be just ahead.” Brandy was clearly excited. I picked at my fingernail. The cabin had been ‘just ahead’ for about an hour.
The window had a great view. I had never been to Alaska and the views of Favorite Channel and Berner Bay were stunning as we managed to rumble, slowly and carefully over the rough road along side Davies Creek. A small sign, after a half an hour of plowing through the underbrush scraping and dinging and ripping the paint on the Land Cruiser and banging around against the car and each other in back seat, that directed us away from the precipice that had been getting closer. I groaned as Brandy took the turn.
Zanna admitted, outloud, she’d been afraid of heading straight for the ice field at the top. I hadn’t told her about the deadly rock faces on the right.
Addi questioned the road even more after a very long mile drive. Couldn’t blame her—I figured everyone’s ass cheeks simply couldn’t be anymore numb.
The view as we rounded what I though was supposed to be a corner, was well worth it. The bay, channel, and the archipelago that hid Glacier Bay National Park from view were set up neatly in picture perfect early summer scenes. It was everything I had ever dreamed June in Alaska would look like. I could never understand why my parents just refused to bring us up here.
The rough-and-tumble, barely functioning Land Cruiser managed to bust through the last bit of underbrush and into a clearing. Allegedly, the cabin would be there, slightly protected by the trees at the edge.
Brandy threw the SUV into park. Her eyes grew wide, and her face contorted with complete disgust. “No!”
Yanking her seat belt out of the lock, she nearly ripped the door off the hinges as she burst into the cool early summer air—and mud. “No, no!” Her feet stuck in the thick, sucking mud as she headed for what sort of looked like a porch. Yanking branches out of the way, screaming and yelling the whole time, it took only a minute before we could see a front door.
Brandy’s words echoed back to us through the trees. “This place is a mess! No! This can’t be! Harrison swore the place was in good order!” She turned to us, as we all climbed out the SUV.
“That lying fucking dick-weasel!”
1
I leaned over to Addi as we pulled the Land Cruiser on to the main road back into Juneau.
“Are we being smart about leaving Jess there alone with the electrician?”
Addi shrugged. “Someone had to stay. We can’t all keep hovering over her all the time. It’s been almost year, and she needs her space.”
I nodded. “You’re right. I’m just worried.”
“We were all worried,” Zanna said. “But I think we’ll all be okay.”
“I wanted this to be a damn vacation.” Brandy slammed her hand on the wheel. “Instead it’s renovation. Harrison is a dick.”
“He’s also your only cousin and you don’t want to alienate him,” I said. “Family is worth a lot.”
“She’s right, you know,” Zanna said.
Addi nodded. “I agree.”
“He lied to me, you guys. Lied. About thousands upon thousands of dollars of upgrades, restoration, rebuilding. There’s no power! I know I wanted to feel a little rustic, but this is insane. He’s a liar.”
“Don’t discount him,” I said, again. “And anyway, this is my treat. Mom and Dad already okayed whatever you need. Graduation gift, Dad said.”
“You are entirely too generous.”
“They are just passing on their luck.”
They all hmm and mmm’ed, but the matter was dropped as we headed for the Home Depot.
I never told my friends how much my parents had won. They didn’t know me when Dad bought the ticket, and we lived in Maryland. They had the option to remain anonymous and did so. I also never told my friends I had set each of them up trusts with the money my parents had given me.
It was fun to spoil my friends. I couldn’t wait until they all found out that their school loans were paid.
“Home Depot, on vacation. How is this a vacation?” Brandy scowled at the store’s edifice. “I don’t want to pick out plumbing.”
“We’re here for a fridge, and that’s about it for now,” I reminded her. “We also need cleaning supplies and beds. So we need to hit a few places. Let’s get going, and we’ll catch lunch at a local place.”
“Got it,” Addi said, with her signature thumbs up. “Brandy and I will get over to appliance, and you two head to the cleaning supplies and decide what we need.”
“Good idea,” Zanna said. “If I can’t identify the mold, we’ll just use industrial cleaner to kill it.” She grabbed a cart as we walked in and we wheeled it into the store as Brandy and Addi split off.
Zanna stared describing all the molds and mildews that could be in the house, and I just start grabbing the heaviest cleaners they had. I wasn’t going to mess around. Brandy had asthma and watching her suffe
r an attack was torture, so it was better to just kill it all.
I stopped in front of another aisle. “Do you think we should buy a generator?”
“I think the house has one. If not, I’m sure we’re going to be back here eight or ten times in the next two weeks trying to salvage that place.”
“Brandy is really pissed.” I shook my head.
“Yeah, you think? I can’t really blame her.” Zanna sighed. “Did you hear how much she paid Harrison for that place? He wouldn’t surrender it even though the grandfather’s will specified that it must be lived in, at least six months of the year.”
“Oh, so he’s a dick on top of being a liar? Great.”
“Her grandfather didn’t want Harrison to have it at all. But there was something wrong with the will and he got it. She’s up to her eyeballs with the mortgage.”
I quirked an eyebrow. “Oh, really.”
“Stop. Give her this. She worked her ass off to be able to afford that place. Fix it up for her, but don’t pay it off.”
I picked at the shopping cart we had grabbed along the way. “Yeah, so, I don’t have to pay for it. She can. It might be why she got the loan.”
Zanna turned her head slowly toward me. “What did you do?”
“So, after we all moved into the house and I realized all of you, minus that twatcicle, Wendy, were my people, I may have…maybe might have set you all up with little trusts?”
“You what?”
I grabbed the bottle of Nature’s Miracle off the shelf. “I set you all up with trusts. Small ones. For when we all turn twenty-five.”
“What the hell, Madeline? Are you nuts?”
“Look, Mom and Dad are always generous. I took some of mine, set up some well invested trusts, and sent them on their way.”
Zanna shook her head. “Jesus. You’re something else. You should be investing in your own future.”
I grunted. None of their business, and I didn’t advertise. Mostly because Dad didn’t want Uncle Chuck to know about the money.
Uncle Chuck was not a good person.
We marched through the store and halfway there, I pretended that I suddenly remembered something. “Zanna, can you handle this? I have to go to the store for…protection.”
“Uh…”
“Not that kind. The opposite.”
“Ohh,” she drawled. “Right. Better just grab everything for everyone. We’re here for three months.”
I handed her the Amex card and told her to just fake my signature. They probably wouldn’t check her ID, anyway. I made a beeline for the exit and out to the Land Cruiser.
As I thought, the door was open, and Brandy had dropped the keys in the glovebox. It was what people did when there were only 33,000 people in a land locked city. I pulled the massive vehicle down the road to a strip mall where I had seen a grocery store.
And, a gun store.
Jess and I had a conversation about what had both heard the night before. We didn’t like what we’d heard.
Jess had tossed a glance over her shoulder at the others getting ready to get going. “Did you hear…things…last night?”
“Things?” I cocked my head.
“Paws. Scratching. Yips.”
“Ah. Yeah. I did. I figured it was just me being paranoid about being this far in the woods with a shit door on the cabin. Make sure you ask the electrician about a carpenter and doors.”
“So, I wasn’t hallucinating those noises?”
“Nope.”
“Not good.”
“Nope.”
She watched our other friends for a moment. “Does anyone know how to fire a gun?”
“A—” I snapped my head around to her. “Wow. Um, Zanna does. Her dad took her shooting a few times. But, do you really think…?”
“Look, we’re here for three months, and I’d rather have than not. If she can shoot, maybe a shotgun or a rifle? No one has to know we have it. I’m sure there’s a place to stash it.”
“Precaution?”
She nodded.
“Rifle. Not a handgun.”
“Handguns are too unpredictable. And can a Ruger really take down a bear if we had to?”
“In desperation, yes.”
She raised an eyebrow and stared at me. “Do you want to be so desperate we have to take down a bear with a Ruger?”
“Fuck no.” I vigorously shook my head. “Rifle. Mid caliber. I’ll see what I can do.” With one last glance at the others, I asked, “Are you going to be okay here while we go into town?”
“Someone has to stay,” she answered. “Better me and a rusty cast iron pan and a wicked swing than one of the others.”
“Good point. You do have that wicked softball swing.”
“Division champs, baby.”
The lighthearted chatter was a way of both of us dealing with the fact we didn’t actually want to purchase a gun. But the sound of scratching the night before echoed in my head.
I didn’t know what I was buying, but the gentleman behind the counter, who was assuredly a rabid supporter of our second amendment rights and the right to ogle my breasts indiscreetly, was more than helpful. He helped me select a Remington 700 bolt action with extra ammo. He was desperately pushing a semi-auto, but that was a world I didn’t want to explore, at all.
I stashed the insanely expensive rifle under the back seat and with the ammo in my purse, and quickly made a run for all the wonderful feminine products we might need in the next month. Those got tossed in the back cargo area and I headed back to the store.
Brandy, Zanna, and Addi were just walking out of the store with the cart of cleaning supplies as I pulled in. They all piled in, completely unaware of the rifle under the seat.
This was, I swore to myself, the only time I was going to transport a deadly weapon. Ever.
After we stopped at the local furniture store for an order of three queen beds, a queen trundle, and queen pull out couch, everyone was exhausted from spending my money, and we decided it was time for lunch.
The bar we chose, at my insistence, was smoky. Mostly because the interpretation of non-smoking was ‘blow the smoke toward the ceilings and doors.’ Because of Brandy’s asthma, we opted to sit outside on the back patio.
I was determined to try this place. I had heard that they served a spruce beer that was amazing.
One didn’t often get to drink conifer juice.
Addi took one look at the menu and was slightly terrified.
“Elk? Elk burger? Caribou? Are you serious?”
Brandy sighed. “We’re in Alaska, Addison. What did you expect? Vegan kale bean burger and kombucha?”
“But…reindeer…”
“Mm. Dinner.” Zanna teased her.
Waving at the two of them to shut up, I pointed out other options. “Addi, they have chicken, and fish. Look. Fresh salmon.”
They really didn’t understand how close Addi was to being a vegetarian. One wrong move, one wrong bite of a chicken, and she was going to be done. She had problems with her digestion, and she couldn’t afford to give up her omnivore status. I’d have to explain that to the others.
For as smart as we all were, I seemed to be the only who knew all the little details about my friends.
Like the fact that if the electrician was even remotely hot, Jess was going to climb him like a hungry monkey up a banana tree. Woman was starved for sex, but I knew that she was also afraid to try. Out here, where she knew no one, and we were only committed for three months? Perfect for some random, anonymous sex.
We ordered our drinks, and Brandy decided to try the spruce beer too. Addi safely went with the fresh salmon, and the rest of us ordered chicken. I’d had caribou and reindeer when my parents had taken me and my brother to Finland for the summer in high school.
It was good, but I still preferred chicken.
We sat in the high sun of noon in Juneau, enjoying beer and each other. It was, despite the mess at the top of mountain, a very good day.
Ad
di leaned forward between rounds of beer and dropped her voice. “Do you guys feel that?”
“The dude staring at us?” Brandy asked.
“Yes. He’s at the bar inside and he’s been staring at the four of us for most of the time we’ve been here.”
“He’s creepy as Hell with those beady little eyes and gray streak.” Brandy picked up her glass and drained the rest of the beer.
“I agree,” Zanna said.
Addi dropped her voice and giggled. “He’s the kind of guy who thinks a dick would make you straight, Bran.”
“Gold star. No interest.”
We all chuckled. Brandy had no interest in men at all. Not sexually. She was as hard left on the spectrum as someone could get. She’d known she was attracted to girls when she was little, and her parents knew it before she came out to them.
All of us who had roomed together through college couldn’t care less, and all of us joked about it.
Except Zanna.
She was no fool. None of us were. We all knew that Brandy held a quiet torch for her, but Zanna had never responded. Not even a little. She also never made a joke of it, which was probably the hardest thing ever considering we’d lived together for four years at this point.
“What do we do about creepo?” Brandy asked. “I mean, I’m not interested, but I’m not the only one who has a convenient place for him to stick his tiny ego.”
“Is that our new euphemism? Tiny ego?” Addi chuckled as the waitress placed the plates of food around the table and retrieved our glasses for another round. Brandy declined, anticipating the drive back to the house.
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