by Dakota West
Charlie forced herself to smile.
“That’s me,” she said. “I got away from them, and I’ve been walking since.”
He gave her a long, hard look, but Charlie was too tired to care much.
Finally, he spoke again.
“Come on,” he said. “I’ve got a truck on a fire road not that far away.” He started to walk, and Charlie followed him, the wolf taking up the rear.
Thank God, thought Charlie, but even as the thought went through her head, she remembered: you can’t seem like a threat. You have to seem like you’re barely alive after escaping the bears.
She intentionally hit her foot against a tree root and went down, landing on her hands and knees. Her gasp of pain wasn’t an act, though, and she gritted her teeth together as the stitches in her back screamed in pain.
The man turned and looked at her, then crouched down next to her.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
Charlie took a few deep breaths before she could answer.
“Yeah,” she said. “I’m okay. It’s just my back.”
She looked up into his face. His jaw flexed, and his mouth made a flat line.
Then he stood and extended his hand down, offering it to her. Charlie took it.
“It isn’t much further,” he said. “We’ll slow down. You can hang onto me.”
He cast another look back at the wolf behind them, and then Charlie and the blue-eyed, dark-haired wolf shifter walked slowly to the fire road, her hand gripping his arm tightly.
When they found the truck, Charlie thought she might cry with relief. The hike had been harder than she’d thought — after all, it hadn’t been very long since she’d lost so much blood.
Be easier on yourself, she thought.
Soon.
The truck entered the ranch through a gate, which slid back in front of them and closed behind them. Charlie noted that there was a fence around the ranch, but it was only a few feet high — for cattle, not people.
Even though the shifter in human form hadn’t talked much, she still liked him better than the wolf, who’d hopped into the truck’s jump seat and then sat there, staring at her.
Finally they pulled up in front of a big farmhouse, in the middle of four or five other outbuildings. Two looked like barracks, one was a barn, and the other two were some sort of farm buildings that Charlie couldn’t identify.
To be honest, she didn’t really care. She was tired, her back hurt something fierce, and it was going to be ages before she saw Kade and Daniel again. She wasn’t even sure which part was the worst.
They got out of the truck, and the wolf trotted away, its tail held out straight behind it. The man watched it go, and then turned his face toward Charlie.
“I’m sorry about all this,” he said.
Charlie frowned.
“Thanks,” she said uncertainly.
“The people in charge don’t speak for all wolves,” he said, his voice tight and angry. “Not all of us take part in stupid pissing contests over territory or think that humans should be used as bargaining chips.”
“I see,” Charlie said.
“Aiden and Dwayne got what they deserved,” he said.
The names sounded familiar, but Charlie couldn’t put her finger on who they were.
“The dead wolves,” the man explained, as they mounted the steps to the big house. Then the man was opening the door, ushering Charlie into the front hallway.
The two of them walked back to the kitchen, where Buck stood along with an older woman, leaning against the counter, holding beers.
When the man and Charlie walked in, the conversation stopped dead. The woman looked from one man to the other and then left without a word.
“It’s the human that the bears were keeping,” the man who’d brought her said.
Buck started at Charlie’s toes and let his gaze sweep upward.
“So it is,” he said. “They let you go?”
Charlie shook her head.
“I escaped,” she said, trying to think fast. “They thought I was too injured to go anywhere, so they left me alone for a while when they went out for bear time.”
“I see you’re better than they thought,” Buck said. “Maybe not anymore, though.”
The other man opened a cabinet, took out a glass, then poured water from a cold pitcher into it and handed it to Charlie. She drained it in seconds.
Buck pulled out a chair, and motioned for Charlie to sit on it.
“You’ll free Olivia?” she said. Her voice sounded tired, even to her.
“Of course,” Buck said, like it was an afterthought. “Trevor, a word?”
Trevor, she thought.
The two men left into an adjoining room, and Charlie sat still, just looking around.
Then she realized that she could just barely hear them through the door. She leaned toward it straining her ears.
“Of course the bear can’t go free,” Buck said.
Trevor murmured something that she couldn’t hear, and she could hear Buck reprimand him sharply.
“Too hurt,” Trevor said. “Not yet.”
“Tomorrow,” Buck said.
More murmuring from Trevor, but nothing that Charlie could hear.
She was dismayed, but not surprised. She hadn’t believed Buck’s offer to free Olivia any more than Kade and Daniel had. Now she was just going to have to find the bear, free her, and then call the cavalry.
All in a day’s work, right?
Unless there was some way she could escape without calling the FBI. The truck, maybe? She didn’t have the keys, though — and besides, she barely knew where she was, let alone where Kade and Daniel’s cabin was.
The mere thought of it sent a pang through her heart. More than anything, she wanted to be in their kitchen, watching Daniel carve lions into wood, at the table he’d built. Instead, she was here, dealing with wolves.
The door swung open, and Charlie tried to look like she hadn’t been listening.
“You’ve had a long day,” Buck said. “Get some rest, and we’ll do the rest tomorrow.”
“Let her go tonight,” Charlie said, even though she didn’t feel like there was much fight in her. It would be so much easier if they just let poor Olivia go.
“Tomorrow,” Buck said again, his smile slowly taking over his face. “It’s dark out tonight, and I don’t think she knows her way around just yet.”
Charlie just shrugged.
“Come on,” Trevor said. “I’ll put you up in the dorms. You can get a shower and I can bring dinner over.”
He led her to one of the outbuildings, this one apparently designed just for people to stay in. As they walked, he explained that in season, lots of people lived on the ranch. Mostly cowboys, and mostly wolves.
Finally he opened a wooden door to a nice, small bedroom with a single twin bed. There was one towel on it.
“Bathroom’s down the hall, second door on the right.”
“Thanks,” Charlie said. She didn’t dare say more. There were wolves everywhere.
“Bring you some dinner in forty-five?” Trevor asked. “Chili and cornbread tonight.”
Charlie’s stomach rumbled, and for the first time in hours, she laughed.
“Sounds perfect,” she said.
At last, Trevor cracked a smile.
“I’ll be back,” he said.
Charlie still couldn’t really shower with the bandages on her back, but she gave herself a sponge bath and even washed her hair in the sink. When she got back to her room, as clean as she was going to be, she felt like a new person.
Amazing how different washing your hair makes you feel, she thought.
I’ll just find Olivia, free her, call in the FBI, and in a month I’ll be on a plane back here, she thought.
It’ll be a long month, but it’s doable.
A few minutes later, there was a knock on the door. When she opened it, Trevor was standing there, a tray full of steaming food in his hands, and he w
alked into the room and sat it on the room’s small table.
“It looks amazing,” Charlie said, her stomach making its presence known yet again.
Trevor paused.
“Buck asked me to request that you not leave this building,” he said. “Don’t go to the other dorm, to the main house, and definitely don’t go to the outbuilding past the barn,” he said.
Then he nodded once.
“Enjoy your dinner,” he said.
That was weird, thought Charlie, but she didn’t give it much thought. For the past couple days, everything had been weird, so she ate the chili in meditative silence.
Then she picked up the cornbread and stopped.
Underneath it was a key.
Reflexively, she looked at the door, which was shut. It was placed so perfectly underneath the cornbread that there was no way it was an accident, but she had no idea what it unlocked.
She shoved the key into her pocket, then ate the rest of the chili and tried to think, her tired brain resisting every step of the process.
Finally, it dawned on her.
The outbuilding past the barn, dummy, she thought.
Jeez, I’m slow today.
Charlie finished the rest of her dinner quickly, then brushed her teeth with the toothbrush from her pack.
Before she went to bed, she dug out the emergency beacon and stuck it in her pocket, then laid down and waited for the ranch to get quiet.
When Charlie got out of bed, it was completely dark, the dorm was quiet, and the moon was completely up. She slipped into her clothes, made sure that she had the key and the emergency beacon, and slipped out.
She didn’t know why Trevor was helping her, but it sure did make things easier. Searching through the entire ranch could have taken forever, but instead she went straight to the outbuilding, doing her best to keep to the shadows.
The door was unlocked, and she pushed it open just enough to slip through.
It looked like it had been some sort of milking barn at one time, she thought. It was full of stalls and had high, long windows that let the moonlight stream through, the bright white light in the darkness almost made the interior of the barn look like it was in black and white.
Then, at the far end, Charlie saw the cage. She curled her hand around the key in her pocket and walked forward, her heart thumping so hard she was afraid that whatever was inside might hear her.
As she approached, the grizzly looked up. Charlie stopped ten feet away, suddenly uncertain about this plan. After all, she was about to free a feral shifter.
She swallowed.
“Olivia?” she said softly.
The bear stood, looking intently at Charlie.
Charlie took another few steps forward, but she could see the bear’s hackles rise, and she stopped again.
“Your brother Kade has been looking for you,” she said softly.
The bear just looked at her, its expression unreadable.
Of course it’s unreadable, she’s a bear, Charlie thought.
She took another step forward, and the bear didn’t do anything. Charlie got the key out of her pocket and showed the bear.
“Trevor gave me this,” she said. “I think he wants me to let you go.”
Charlie could hear the blood rushing through her ears.
“If I let you out, is that okay?” she asked.
Olivia grunted. Charlie took another step forward. Now she was within arm’s reach of the cage, and she reached one hand out to the bars.
Olivia looked at it, but didn’t do anything.
Charlie took another step forward. Now her hand was through the bars, and she was shaking.
Is Kade’s sister even still in there? She wondered. Am I just taunting a grizzly bear?
Then Olivia nudged her nose right under Charlie’s fingers, before Charlie could move her hand away, and nuzzled the girl.
The fur on top of her nose was soft, spiky but velvety, and Charlie found herself petting it. Olivia’s eyes closed in satisfaction as she did, and Charlie got brave enough to move her hand to her ears.
I’m petting someone’s sister, she thought. This is a little weird.
“I’m going to unlock this, okay?” she asked the bear.
The lock wasn’t anything fancy, just a padlock with a chain wrapped around the door. The key fit perfectly, and Charlie unlocked it, then started moving the chains from around the cage.
Olivia’s head jerked up, and Charlie whirled around.
A light was on in the farmhouse.
“Shit,” Charlie muttered, still unwrapping the chains from the cage. “Shit, shit, come on.”
Her hands started shaking again, from fear, blood loss, or both, and as Charlie undid the last loop, she could hear someone approach the barn door.
She gritted her teeth and forced herself to open the cage door.
Please don’t eat me, she thought. Please don’t eat me.
Buck stepped into the barn just as the cage opened silently.
Olivia padded out as Buck stood inside, blinking in the darkness.
I wish I brought the tranq gun, Charlie thought. What the hell was I thinking?
“What’s going on in here?” Buck demanded. “Trevor?”
A shape moved out of the darkness. It growled.
“What the hell?” Buck said, as Olivia kept padding forward, menace in every inch of her dark fur.
Charlie’s eyes fell on some sort of farm implement. She didn’t know what it was, but it was two feet long and heavy wood, and that was all she needed.
“I don’t think you want to pick a fight,” Buck told Olivia. “If you’ve got any sense left in that dumb animal brain, you’ll—”
Charlie lifted her weapon and brought it down straight across the back of Buck’s skull, her stitches screaming in protest.
He fell to the floor without a word. Charlie dropped the wooden tool and grabbed the beacon from her pocket.
“Go,” she told Olivia. “Just go north by northwest until you pick up Kade’s scent. He’s all over there. It’s a cabin in the woods, it’s him and Daniel, his mate.”
She swallowed.
“They’re really nice,” she said, her voice faltering. She looked at the button in her hand. “They rescued me when they didn’t have to, and they took care of me for days—”
Charlie stopped, her eyes filling with tears. She stared at the button. She knew that there was no way she could go back. She was too wounded and too tired to make it. Besides, in a few hours, the other wolves would wake up and find the bear missing.
Buck twitched, lying on the floor.
“Go,” she told Olivia. “I’m calling the FBI and they’re taking me home. I’ll be okay.”
Somehow, despite the darkness, the bear looked skeptical.
“Really,” she said. A single tear made its way out of her eye, and she couldn’t help but think of the cozy cabin, or the way she’d felt that morning, waking up between Kade and Daniel.
Olivia crouched down and jerked her head toward her back. Charlie’s gaze flicked to the main farmhouse. No new lights yet, but it was probably a matter of minutes.
The bear grunted.
Does she want me to ride her? Charlie wondered. Can you even ride a bear?
Then Olivia stood and walked to Charlie, who backed a few steps away, into a wall.
Olivia put her nose under Charlie’s hand, then turned, so her back was against the girl.
“Are you telling me to get on?” Charlie asked.
Another grunt, and Olivia crouched.
This is not the plan, Charlie thought. You go back to their house with her, and then what? Are you going to get a new job in Cascadia? You don’t even have any clothes here.
She thought of the first time she’d opened her eyes on their kitchen table, their faces swimming in front of her.
Every molecule of her tired, damaged body ached to be back there with them.
Even though her stitches ached and felt like they were pulling
apart, Charlie grabbed handfuls of fur and climbed onto Olivia’s back. She hadn’t ridden a horse since a birthday party when she was ten, but she tightened her knees against Olivia’s ribcage and held onto the handfuls of fur for dear life.
This is the dumbest thing I’ve ever done, she thought. I don’t think there’s any going back to my old life after this.
Then they were off. Olivia went through the barbed wire fence, pushing a post down like it was made of straw, as Charlie held on for all she was worth.
They went through the forest, over streams and boulders, through clearings. Somehow, Olivia seemed to have a firm sense of where she was going, stopping to sniff every so often. Charlie felt like all her muscles had locked into place, sore and aching from the long ride.
Then, at last, there it was. The cabin.
“This is it,” Charlie whispered.
When she tried to dismount, she simply fell off and then laid there, on the ground, for a moment as she tried to unclench all her muscles. Olivia nuzzled her, over and over again, until she finally got up.
Just as she did, the door opened.
There were Kade and Daniel, both stark naked.
“Hey,” Charlie said, leaning on the bear for support. “I’m home.”
Chapter Thirteen
Charlie
Charlie adjusted her power suit in the full-length mirror in Kade and Daniel’s bedroom.
Well, it was sort of her bedroom now, too. At least it was where she slept every night. She kept telling herself that her stay there was temporary, and she was going to rent an apartment in town for a while. Moving in with two shifters only days after they’d met was completely insane, after all.
Not that she’d started looking for a place yet.
And, to be honest, everything was going pretty well. They hadn’t complained when she’d had her roommate ship over all her clothes, and they also hadn’t complained when she’d gone grocery shopping and filled their fridge with human food, or when she’d put her foot down and absolutely insisted that they needed a phone line and the internet.
In further miracles, the Cascadia branch of the Fish and Wildlife task force was recruiting, and Charlie had a job interview in two hours.