Sleep took her before she could have another coherent thought.
*
A knock on the door woke Saskia from a dreamless sleep. She moaned when Sedge’s warm body rolled from hers, and she curled up farther under the furs.
Sedge opened the door. Female whispers, his murmurs.
Saskia opened one eye and saw through the window the sun was setting. Had they really slept that long? But oh, she needed it. No more screaming pain in her body.
“Saskia,” Sedge said from behind her. “There will be a feast tonight. The womenfolk have come to help you clean up.”
What the hell? Saskia didn’t want to attend a feast. She wanted quiet, meat, sleep, and more meat. Before she could say anything, his footsteps crunched through the snow, and the scent of women filled the cabin. The sloshing of water accompanied them.
Dammit. She sat and rubbed her eyes with her fingers.
Just as she opened her eyes, she was enveloped in a tight hug. She grunted with surprise as Yakone wept on her shoulder.
Behind Yakone, Aluki stood grinning beside a young woman with tears in her eyes.
Saskia patted and rubbed her back until the crying stopped. Comforting people was never her thing.
“Thank you.” Yakone clasped Saskia’s hands. “Thank you for bringing Pakak back to us. He told us how you protected him. You stood alone against the Jinxioc for my son. You are family now.”
Saskia wanted to brush it off, say anyone would do it. But that wasn’t even believable to herself. The truth of the matter was that she’d been the one who should have stopped the Jinxioc from taking the boy in the first place. The poor kid would have nightmares for the rest of his life from what he experienced.
To add to that, she would have been dead and the boy too, if the tribe hadn’t shown up. Savior was not a title she wanted to take on, especially when she didn’t deserve it.
“Well, the tribe—”
Aluki cut Saskia off by flinging herself at her and hugging her. “Sister!”
Saskia winced at a jolt of pain in her hip.
The other woman came and hugged her too. “Sister.”
Maybe Saskia let her confusion show on her face because Yakone smiled and said, “This is Uputsi. She is Dave’s intended. We are all sisters now.”
“But you’re my mom.” Aluki cocked her head and stared up at Yakone.
This made them all smile. Saskia relaxed a little just as her stomach growled.
Aluki giggled, and Yakone extracted her daughter from Saskia. “The feast is waiting, but first we shall help you cleanse yourself of the battle.”
Half of Saskia was still covered by the furs, but glancing down, she inwardly cringed. If she thought Sedge had been sloppily painted by blood, she’d been dunked in it.
The women had brought two large buckets of hot water. Any hope of them leaving while she cleaned was dashed as they removed their coats and wet some rags. While Saskia understood this was a sign of respect and bonding, she loathed being catered to.
After some negotiating, Saskia convinced them to let her wash her own body and they would wash and brush her hair. Aluki chattered on, especially upon seeing Saskia’s many tattoos. She had to know the story behind each one.
“And the black feather is for my teacher Azarius. He is like a big brother to me.” Saskia’s body was warm and clean. Uputsi braided her hair so that it hung heavily down her back and tickled just above her tailbone.
“Just like Nanuk is your big brother now.” From her spot beside the stove, Aluki brushed her doll’s hair.
Uputsi tittered, and Yakone stood to lift one bucket of red tinged water. “Nanuk is her mate, dear.”
Saskia choked on her next breath. She held up her hands when they looked at her with concern. “Nanuk was once my father’s teacher, and now he is mine. Such a situation does not allow us to be mates.”
Uputsi and Yakone exchanged a look and laughed. What? That made sense. So why were… Oh. Even Inuit women had those silent female exchanges which said she knew nothing or that she was deluding herself.
The women took the buckets and carried them outside.
Alone with the child, Saskia let out a long breath. “I think maybe they’re trying to play matchmaker.”
“What’s that?” Aluki blinked her wide eyes.
Yeah, not a conversation she was going to have with the kid. Instead, she lowered her voice and leaned in. “Did you know it was the little people who led Nanuk and me to your brother?”
The girl smiled and nodded. “Yes! They came back and told me you needed help. I told my father, and he told the chief. All the men ran off to help kill the Jinxioc.”
That’s how the tribe found them in time. Saskia let out a little laugh. “They are heroes. They saved many lives. We must remember to leave them something extra special tonight as a thank you.”
“I will leave them a whole cut of meat!” Aluki bounced on her knees.
The women returned, declaring the tribe waited for them at the feast. Saskia took a deep breath and prepared herself. If she was lucky, she could sit in a corner and eat without interruption. Somehow she doubted that would happen.
Toasts, cheers, laughter, remembrance, and tears. Plenty of meat and drink flowed in abundance. Saskia did not escape without ceremony, but Sedge took the spotlight, and for once, she was glad for it.
Sedge had washed and changed too. And damn, he looked amazingly hot in all white. Good thing the children sat with her to keep her attention elsewhere.
Though Saskia hadn’t wanted to go to the feast, a warm sense of well-being filled her being there. When she left the long house to go back to the cabin to sleep, she smiled. Being with family healed body and soul, even if they were an adopted family.
Her smile faded. She wished her phone could get a connection out here so she could call her father and sisters. She had no doubt Azarius took care of everything there, but she worried for them. She had asked Aujaq for a dogsled and a team to go to Galbraith in the morning. She’d call her family then.
Inside the cabin, she stripped down, stoked the fire, and climbed under the furs. Her hip would take awhile to heal. But the rest of her wounds would be bruises and scabs by the morning.
The door swung open before she could even get comfortable. Sedge strode in and shut the door. He motioned for her to get up. “No rest yet. The feasting is done. Now we must go back and find the totem.”
Saskia propped herself up on her elbows. The battle was a bloody blur, but she did remember one thing clearly. “It’s not there. It’s gone.”
“Why would it be gone?” He folded his arms.
He was going to think her bonkers for this, but she said it anyway. “I saw Death walk off with the token.”
Sedge snorted and shook his head. “Get up. Don’t be so lazy.”
She frowned at him. “If you truly know me, you know I’m not lazy. Death was on the battlefield. Dressed in black, supernaturally fast, beckoning to me as I was dying. He took the totem. I saw it around his neck as he left.”
“What would Death want with the totem? You were hallucinating from loss of blood. Come on.” Sedge bent over to reach for her arm.
She batted his hand away. Not that it was a surprise he didn’t believe her, but she wasn’t going to budge. It was the truth. She felt it in her core, and she wasn’t the type to give in to self-delusions. “The token is gone. I know it. I feel it. We lost it.”
“We did not lose it.” He hissed through his teeth.
“We did.” Saskia lay back and glared at him. As happy as she was he was alive, she wanted to kick him at the moment. “I don’t like it any more than you. But it’s the fucking truth. I’m not going out to search for something that isn’t there.”
Sedge growled and slammed a fist on the top of the stove. “We did not lose it.”
With that, he marched out the door and slammed it behind him.
Saskia could go after him, make him listen to her, but it would be pointless. He
would go searching for the token no matter what she said. Not that she liked to lose, but he was the worst loser in the great north.
She stared at the door for a minute and then turned away. A heaviness pressed on her chest. How easily he caused her emotions to whip up. Admiration, misery, fury, love, and dismay.
Breathing out with long, slow breaths, she calmed herself. As Azarius instructed her on several occasions, she needed to let all of it go. She couldn’t do battle with things out of her control like Sedge or her heart. What she could do was choose the path she walked.
So it was best she got some sleep. Let Sedge look if he needed to. She didn’t hallucinate Death.
And that thought was way more frightening than the Jinxioc.
If Sedge got any sleep the night before, his sour mood didn’t show it. Both he and Saskia manned a sled team on the trip to Galbraith, which was less than ten miles from Kuci. Saskia felt as if she had stepped out from one century into another. Galbraith had an airport and service center. Not huge by any means, but bustling compared to Kuci. They’d be able to get new tires for her truck and coffee. Fuck, she needed hot coffee right now.
They tied up the dogs, and before she could go inside, Sedge stepped in front of her.
“Aren’t you going to ask if I found the totem?”
She shook her head. The man better move out of the way until she had some coffee. “No. Because you didn’t find it.”
His jaw twitched, and he did not budge. “You saw Death.”
“Yes.” Saskia sighed and shifted her body to rest most of her weight on her good side.
“In the field.”
“Yes.” And to save him from not asking any more questions, she said, “He walked the field, and just before the tribe arrived, he beckoned to me. I assumed I was going to die, but the tides changed. I fell over and saw him leave with the token.”
“Do you know what this means if he has taken the totem?” Sedge’s eyes darkened further.
She pinched the bridge of her nose and shook her head. “I don’t know. Death is a being apart from us all. I can’t even pretend to guess his motives.”
“It means I don’t have the totem.” The force with which he said it startled her. “If I don’t have all the tokens, I cannot mend the totem pole. If I cannot mend the pole, every shifter could die.” He suddenly seemed larger than a man without shifting. “It is my duty. I am the one who must protect all shifters.”
Saskia swallowed and nodded once. Well, fuck. She knew this, but it hadn’t really sunk in. Bear had a heavy duty. It was why he created the Black Shaman.
“We will find all the tokens.” She laid a hand on his chest as she assured him. “I will hunt down Death himself to get that one back for you.”
Sedge grabbed her hand and squeezed it. “You will not put yourself in Death’s path again.”
The wind whipped past them as they stood there. The dogs yipped. The fate of all shifters weighed down on his shoulders, and she refused to let him carry the load on his own.
“I go where you go.” She stated, her gaze unwavering.
His grip on her hand loosened as his features softened.
No. They were not going to have a moment.
Saskia pulled her hand free. “But right now, I go where the coffee is.”
She hurriedly walked into the service center. Heaters blew a gust of hot air onto her as she entered. Not that she was really cold, but she stood for a half a minute as she composed herself.
No more dark thoughts. She fetched her coffee, and while it wasn’t great—thanks to Ametta for always buying her the gourmet kind—it was still steaming hot caffeine. Plugging her cell into an outlet since the battery was low, she opened it to find a half dozen texts from Kinley and a voicemail from her father.
“Call as soon as you get this message.”
Shit. Not good.
Saskia clicked on his number and put the phone to her ear. It rang four times, and with each ring, her chest grew tighter.
Her father answered. “Saskia.”
“Dad. Hey.”
“Where are you? Why haven’t you answered your phone?”
“I’m at Galbraith right now. Sedge and I have been at a little village called Kuci. They had a Jinxioc problem.”
“A what?”
“Evil gnomes. It’s actually much more frightening than it sounds.” It did sound kind of ridiculous when she said it out loud like that. “They were taking people, kids. We stopped them. And found the fox totem.”
“You got the token?”
“No. We lost it.” She rubbed her forehead with her free hand.
Her father sighed. “Damn.”
He didn’t need to tell her. Saskia took a sip of coffee. “So did Azarius get the totem there? He’ll be pissed he missed all the action here.”
There were ten seconds of silence. “No, the token was taken by a hunter, the golden eagle shifter.”
“What the fuck?” Saskia nearly spilled her coffee on her as she abruptly stood. “I thought Lucky and Mett killed that bitch?”
“So did they. They’re still sure they did.”
Did it mean there was another eagle shifter? A whole clan of them? Or did Lucky and Ametta make a mistake? The hunter might’ve been able to play possum really well.
Whatever happened, it just fucked up her life even more. Two tokens gone out of their hands. Sedge was going to freak out when he heard.
“Saskia,” her father said her name softly. “There’s more.”
Sedge strode into the service center and over to her. Towering over every man, he drew a few stares. He frowned at her and pointed at the phone with a questioning dip of his head.
She mouthed “my dad” to him. No need to tell him about the lost owl token right here. The building wouldn’t survive his fury.
“What? Are Kin and Mett okay?”
“Yes, but…”
“Good. What else? I’ve got to go get new tires for the truck. If I get them now, I can take them back to Kuci and be on the highway by dinnertime.” Saskia glanced at the clock. Or at least by dark.
Her father let out a long breath. “Azarius. He’s dead.”
Saskia blinked. Surely she didn’t hear him right. “He’s what?”
“Dead, honey. He died fighting the giant out on the mountain. I retrieved… what’s left, for a proper funeral pyre.”
The world fell out from underneath her. She dropped her coffee and fell against the wall, slowly sliding down. Not Azarius. Death could never catch him.
It was like she was thirteen again. Aching, silently screaming, raging against something which she had no control.
“Saskia?” Her father called her name.
Sedge caught her with one arm and took the phone in his other hand. “Kunik? Are you certain of this?”
Saskia lowered the rest of the way to the floor. No. Azarius was the one person who truly understood her. He gave her purpose those times in life when she was lost and kept her sane when everything around her was crazy. She was the person she was today because of him.
Grief’s fangs and claws ripped her open and yanked out her innards.
Her father responded to Sedge, and they exchanged a few more words before Sedge hung up. He sat next to her and pulled her against him, holding her tight even when she weakly attempted to push free of him.
The wound on her hip was but a scratch compared to the gaping hole inside of her. Wetness burned her cheeks. When did she start crying?
“He was my brother too.” Sedge whispered against the top of her head and stroked her upper arm.
Saskia wanted to scream at him, to deny it, to cry that no one would miss Azarius like she would. But it would be a lie.
And knowing Sedge hurt just as much made her sorrow that much deeper.
She buried her face against his chest and clung to him as she let the tears fall. His arms around her were the only things keeping her sane.
TOTEM SERIES
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Three sisters.
Seven totem tokens.
One chance to save their world.
DARK DAWNING (TOTEM #1)
It’s a dark day when someone murders one of their own.
Shifters across Alaska are going missing. When up and coming interior designer Ametta Dorn rescues the gorgeous Kodiak shifter Lucky Osberg, she comes into the crosshairs of two relentless hunters. While Lucky sets his sights on wooing her, the killers seek to not only capture her in her powerful polar bear form but to also take her skin.
To prevent her murder and the deaths of other shifters, she must work with Lucky to track down and stop these merciless hunters. After all, their enemy’s plan for shifter skins is something much more terrifying than collecting mere trophies.
Purchase on Amazon.
Release date: October 17, 2016.
Add to read on Goodreads.
SILENT WHISPERS (TOTEM #2)
It’s not only the dead who whisper upon the wind.
An ancient totem pole has gone missing, and its pieces are scattered across Alaska. Restoring the seven totem tokens may be the only way to save every shifter in the world.
Kinley Dorn, a geeky architect with a heart of gold and a polar bear shifter, jumps at the opportunity to help her family find the lost pieces. Their idea of “helping” involves staying indoors to research online. Work leads Kinley to sexy lynx shifter Ransom Averill. He coaxes her away from the safety behind her computer and into the path of a rampaging giant. Terrifying as the monster might be, she must brave its mountain because the owl totem is calling to her through silent whispers.
Purchase on Amazon.
Release date: October 31, 2016.
Add to read on Goodreads.
TOTEM #4 - Tentative release date: January 9, 2017
TOTEM #5 - Tentative release date: January 23, 2017
TOTEM #6 - Tentative release date: February 6, 2017
TOTEM #7, #8, and #9 release dates yet to be determined.
Cloak of Snow (Totem Book 3) Page 8