by Sicily Duval
I stood up and held my ski pole in front of me like a sword.
A dark shadow suddenly materialized through the trees, and a moment later a large, white wolf jumped out of the trees. It had big black eyes, rimmed with yellow. The coat was ice white with a gray stripe running along the length its back, but its muzzle drew my attention. I would bet anything it was full of sharp, white teeth, ready to rip my throat out.
We stood frozen like that for a moment. I was ready for it with my ski pole ready to defend myself. I ignored the fear that curdled my blood. It was do or die and there was no way I was going to die.
But then it curled up in the snow, and started moving. It’s skin rippled like something was moving underneath it, and I realized it was the wolf’s bones. It took on a different shape, the bones shifting with a strange sound I’ve never heard before. The fur started retracting, crawling towards the spine, and white skin replaced the hair.
A moment later a man lay curled up in the snow, wearing a coat with fur the same color as the wolf’s had been.
When he looked up at me, those ice blue eyes smiled at me, and he got up. It was George.
Chapter 4
“George!” I cried out and threw my arms around his neck before I remembered I didn’t like him. I took a step back, reluctantly sacrificing the body heat that radiated from him, and wrapped my arms around myself instead.
“Are you okay?” he asked. His eyes were concerned when he ran them over my body. I almost physically felt everywhere his gaze touched.
“I’m okay… a bit battered but nothing’s broken, I don’t think. My shoulder’s badly sprained, or something.”
He took half a step forward before he stopped.
“May I?” he asked his hand hanging in the air between us. He wanted to check my shoulder. I nodded. I wasn’t sure but he looked like he was on top of everything. He touched my shoulder, softly probing with his fingers, pushing them into my skin, feeling the bone. I flinched when he pressed against the spot that hurt.
He asked me to lift my arm, and roll it over. When I did I winced.
“Not broken, you’re right,” he said. “Just sprained. I would be better for you to use it as little as possible.”
I could have told him all of that, I’d figured it out by myself, but I nodded.
“Everyone’s looking for you,” George said.
“Have they sent out a rescue team?”
“They don’t know where to start, the search is very wide right now.”
“But you found me,” I pointed out.
“That’s because I have other skills… your scent was easy to find.”
He was a werewolf. He’d changed in front of me. I hadn’t been hallucinating, and I had to remind myself of that.
“Right. So shall we get back then? I’m freezing.”
“We’ll have to double back up and then move around the other side,” he said. “A couple of yards down there’s a drop you won’t be able to make.”
“But you will?”
He nodded, and he didn’t have to say it for me to know what he meant. As a wolf he could, but I was just a human.
We started the climb, back in the direction we’d come. It was pitch dark among the trees now, and the snow was like a thick carpet under my feet. I followed George. His white fur coat was visible in the dark, and it led me like a beacon.
“Do you need that thing to be able to change?” I asked him after we’d climbed in silence for a while. I was out of breath and I felt lightheaded. Maybe the conversation would distract me.
“No, I can change whenever and wherever I like, most of the time.”
“Most of the time?”
“Full moon pulls the wolf out of me without me being able to stop it.” He stepped over a log and held out his hand to me. I didn’t take it, instead I climbed over myself. My legs hurt and it was hard with my shoulder, but I wasn’t going to let him help me.
“I wear this coat because it changes with me. Otherwise I end up naked. I didn’t think you’d be very happy about that, if I rocked out of the trees naked to save you.” He grinned, his blue eyes almost glowing in the night. I could just imagine what he would look like naked – muscled and strong, I would probably be able to trace the individual muscles with my finger. Or my tongue. I knew he was cut under all those snow clothes. Or fur coat.
I shook my head and snorted. “Yeah, well. Good thing you thought about it.” Inwardly I scolded myself for thinking dirty thoughts about him. I didn’t like him. He was a werewolf. A freak of nature. He was weird and I didn’t need that kind of drama in my life.
A shudder traveled through my body and I told myself it was the cold, not the fact that I was alone with George in the woods, and he had mentioned his body.
Another hour later I was about ready to fall over. I couldn’t feel my fingers or my toes anymore. For that matter I couldn’t feel any part of my body. My shoulder ached in time with my pulse, which kept changing speed, and my head felt airy.
When I tried to climb over a stick and tripped, George crouched down next to me.
“Are you alright?”
“I’m fine,” I lied. I wasn’t fine at all.
“I think we need to rest. We can head out again in the morning.”
“We can’t overnight in this place,” I said, still lying in the snow. My teeth started chattering and tremors spread over the rest of my body.
George paced around, fanning out from where I was. I pushed myself up so I was sitting in the snow, and pulled up my knees, huddling in a little ball.
A few minutes later, George returned.
“There’s a hollow a bit further up we can stay in. If I block off the one side a bit and we make a fire, we should be warm enough until sunrise. After you rest we can make the last of the trip.”
Fire? Shelter? I didn’t know how to do any of this.
“How far do we still have to go?”
“Because of the mountain’s layout it’s further around for us to climb. Straight to the hotel is half a mile, but we have to make a big detour. The cliffs are dangerous here.”
“You guys built the beginner slope next to a dangerous cliff-area?” I accused. I was tired. I was scared. I was hungry. I felt sick and sore. I wasn’t in a good place and I was taking it out on him.
“It’s not ‘you guys’, I just work here. And yes, but beginners don’t usually dive into the forest head first or go another round without their instructors.”
I remembered there had been some rule about that. I shrugged and then moaned from the pain.
“Come on,” George said and I followed him again because there was nothing else I could do.
The hollow was created by a fallen trees and mulch that had accumulated over a while. George found branches and closed the one side off until we had a make-shift shelter that blocked off most of the wind. The ground underneath was free of snow and dry, and even though it was still cold, it was the best thing I’d seen all night. George found twigs and branches somewhere, and made a fire the way a Boy Scout would, with what he could find in nature. I was relieved one of us actually knew what to do.
The fire was small and it gave off more smoke than warmth, but it was welcome. I shuffled as close to it as I could, and stretched out my hand. I’d removed my gloves and I tried to warm up my fingers.
“You should rest,” George said.
I didn’t argue with him. I was suddenly so tired. I curled up on the dirt, not even caring about the fact that it was the wilderness, and I fell asleep.
When I woke up again, gray light filtered through the gaps in the make-shift wall. It was dawn. The sun hadn’t risen yet, but it would soon. It wasn’t so cold anymore. I became aware of an arm thrown around my waist. George lay behind me, spooning me, and his body was warm. It was almost like a blanket. I leaned back slightly, turning my head to look at him. With his eyes closed, asleep, he looked harmless and human. Normal. The hard eyes weren’t visible and his face was softer somehow. I traced it
with a finger.
He opened his eyes and looked at me. His irises were a darker blue, sky blue, and warm. He didn’t move or say anything, only looked at me. His face was close to mine, and the warmth that streamed from his body was intoxicating. I leaned forward and pushed my lips against his.
He froze for a moment, but then he kissed me back. I turned so I was lying on my back and his arm over my pulled me closer, against his body. He was lean and muscled, just as I’d thought, and I could feel his washboard-abs through his fur coat. He didn’t have morning breath, either. How did he sleep and not have morning breath? I was sure I tasted terrible. But with the way he was kissing me it didn’t seem to bug him.
I ran my good hand over his arm and up his shoulder, around his neck and twirling my fingers in his hair. He shifted even closer to me, placing one leg between my mine, and pressed his body firmly against mine. I sighed into his mouth.
I tried to move, but pain shot through my shoulder. The sharp throbbing ache ripped me out of the spell I was in, and I snatched my head away from him.
“What are you doing?!” I cried out.
“Hey, I wasn’t doing anything. You started it.” He looked calm, controlled. I felt like I was going to lose it. I felt disoriented, rocked off my axis. I felt like I wanted to kiss him again. And again. And do everything else with him because he drew me like a magnet.
But that was the problem. How could I control myself around this man? He made me lose control all the time and I hated it. I wasn’t the kind of person that lost control.
“Get away from me,” I said, scrambling backwards. My body complained about the sudden movement and a sharp pain shot through my shoulder again.
“The sun is up. Let’s just get home,” I said. George shrugged and got up. The fire he’d made the night before was just a pile of ash now. I wondered vaguely if there was some kind of rule against making campfires on the mountain. Maybe survival didn’t count as a trespass.
He started walking in a direction.
“Why won’t you just leave me alone?” I demanded, following him. He stopped and turned around to look at me.
“I came to get you because you would probably have died out here last night,” he said. His voice was still calm even though in his eyes a storm was brewing.
“Well, I don’t want you to rescue me. I don’t need you.” I knew I sounded like an idiot. I was being childish. I was angry at myself, not at him. But there was no way I was going to admit to that. He had to take the fall because I had to get away from him before I did something drastic. Like sleep with him.
“Just tell me which way to go, and I’ll find my own way home,” I said.
“You’re seriously going to this back in my face?” He was angry now. He had a white circle around his mouth and his breath came in quick gasps that made small circles of mist around his face.
“Just show me,” I said again. He raised his eyebrows and sighed, but then he pointed in a direction. I stomped past him. I didn’t need him. I didn’t want to need him. I hated that my body said otherwise.
I stomped through the trees. It was more difficult now that I didn’t have George to follow to the easier passages, but I could make it. It was light enough for me to see, and it couldn’t be far now. I climbed over a log and stepped around a couple of branches. The snow had changed under my feet and I had better footing. I was confident I could do this now.
A twig snapped behind me. I rolled my eyes and turned. If he was following me…
I looked into the face of a mountain lion.
Chapter 5
Its yellow eyes were dangerous, with black pinpricks for pupils. It made a low growling sound at the back of its throat. I glanced down at its paws. It had sharp black nails.
So, definitely dangerous animals in a tourist area, then. This one wasn’t going to turn into a human, too. This time I was really in trouble.
I was rooted to the spot. Too scared to move, too hurt to run, too inexperienced to defend myself. And I’d forgotten the ski pole at the shelter where’d we’d spent the night.
Dammit.
The mountain lion roared, pulling back its lips to show me all its deadly teeth. The roar was strange, but scary nonetheless. This was where I was going to die.
A deep growl sounded behind me, and when I spun around George’s wolf stood there. He’d followed me. He jumped in front of me now, head low, his own yellow eyes locking with the mountain lion. The mountain lion moaned in a low tone and they circled each other. The wolf made a barking sound and lunged forward. The big cat pulled back, ears flat against its head, and then it smacked it’s paw forward. Its claws narrowly missed George. His ears were flat against his head too, lips curled back in a snarl, fangs bare. They were long and deadly, just as I’d imagined them. The mountain lion tried to hit him again, but this time George pulled away with more than enough time to spare.
The mountain lion sat on its haunches, ready to use both paws. George mock-lunged and the cat tried to claw him. The moment its claw was down and out of the way the wolf lunged for the cat’s neck and sunk in its teeth. The mountain lion let out a horrible moan-like sound. The wolf let it go and it squirmed at his feet for a moment. Blood matted the fur in its neck. When George didn’t attack again, the mountain lion fled.
The wolf looked at me with yellow eyes before it changed again. When George stood up, a man, he limped slightly.
“Oh geez, did it hurt you?” I asked. He shook his head.
“I got stuck trying to get to you when I heard that cat. I changed to quickly and ran before I was ready.”
“I’m so sorry,” I said. “For everything. I’m sorry you got hurt.”
“It’s okay,” he said. I took a step closer to him and leaned my head on his shoulder without touching anything else of his. His hand lifted and he put it on the back of my head, his fingers making small circles that were somehow soothing.
“It was a young one,” he said. His deep voice vibrated through his chest and into my body. “Mountain lions usually stay away from humans unless they’re sick or injured, or too young to choose their prey right.”
I shivered.
“Please just take me home,” I said. I didn’t think I could handle much more of this.
We weaved through the trees. He held my good hand, helping me so I wouldn’t fall. I felt faint. We finally cleared the trees, and a moment later a red and white helicopter appeared, the blades roaring in the sky. It came closer and landed on a part where the slope flattened out.
George helped me get into the helicopter where a medic looked me over straight away.
“Aren’t you coming?” I yelled so he could hear me over the noise of the blades. He shook his head.
“I’ll see you for your next lesson,” he said.
“Maybe not just yet,” the medic interrupted, and the helicopter slowly rose into the air.
They took me to a clinic close by and a doctor did a full check-up. I was treated for mild hypothermia and dehydration. An hour later I was in a bed with a drip in my arm.
My friends rushed into the room.
“Oh my gosh Anna. We thought you’d died,” Ash cried out. Kate was crying. Ella squeezed my hand hard enough for my opposite shoulder to ache again.
“I’m okay, guys,” I croaked.
“Listen to us next time, okay?” Kate said. I nodded.
“What did the doctor say?”
“He said I could leave a bit later today if everything was fixed again. Otherwise I might stay overnight, but no more than that.
“I’ll get us movies to watch tonight,” Ella said. “We can stay in and have ice cream.”
“I’ve had enough snow for now,” I said and smiled. The girls forced laughs because they would cry otherwise.
I was back in the hotel room four hours later, tucked in bed. The girls were out on a ski lesson. I’d insisted. I was tired and my shoulder still hurt, and I felt like I could sleep a decade.
A knock at our front door sounded.
We’d put up the ‘do not disturb’ sign so they cleaning crew wouldn’t disturb me, but the door clicked open anyway.
“Don’t disturb,” I called out.
“I just wanted to come check on you,” a deep voice sounded from my bedroom door, and when I looked up it was George. He was dressed in new ski clothes and he’d shaven.
“Don’t you have a lesson?” I asked. I was sure he was teaching the girls.
He shook his head. “Someone else took over. Doctor’s orders. I have to take it slow too, apparently. Pity they don’t know werewolves heal up almost immediately.”
“Thank you,” I whispered, and held out my hand. He walked to the bed and took it, sitting down.
“I would come after you every time,” he said.
My phone rang next to me on the nightstand. When I answered it was Kate.
“We want to head out for cocktails later, you think you’re up for it? Probably too soon, hey?”
I looked at George and smiled.
“I don’t think so, Kate. I have a date.”
George smiled and hung up the phone for me.
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