by L. M. Reed
Frozen Dawn
Chrystal Bahl’s Twisted Tails Series
The Prequel
A Paranormal Romance
By L. M. Reed
Copyright L. M. Reed 2013
Chrystal Bahl’s Twisted Tails Series:
Frozen Dawn
The Prequel
Bloodlines
Book 1
Blood Ties
Book 2
Coming soon…
Blood Secrets
Frozen Dawn
January 1992
Prologue
Bellingham, Washington
“Is there anything I can do to help, Sunnie?”
“Oh, hi Jeanluc,” the petite blonde woman standing at the stove smiled over her shoulder at him as he entered the kitchen. “Nicky and Ricky wear you out already?”
“They are rather…er…energetic,” Jeanluc agreed, “but no, I am well able to keep up with your boisterous set of twins, especially as Emily seems to have a calming effect on them.”
“They do love their little cousin,” Sunnie nodded. “So what other reason could there possibly be for you to offer your services when you so obviously hate anything remotely connected to cooking?”
“Hmm…hate may be too harsh a term to describe my aversion to cooking; however, I believe that you know all too well that is not the type of assistance to which I was referring.”
“Rod told you,” she sighed. “I specifically asked him to keep it to himself.”
“In his defense, I am quite a competent psychiatrist. I noticed something amiss once he rejoined the games, and I grilled him about it until he had no recourse but to confess.”
“I’m sure it’s nothing…”
“But you feel something has happened?”
Turning towards Jeanluc, the frustration in her eyes obvious, Sunnie shrugged helplessly.
“I’ve only had this…this…I can’t even begin to describe it, but I’ve only felt it twice in my life and both times Dawn was in trouble…serious trouble…”
“And you fear she is in serious trouble now?”
“Yes,” Sunnie whispered facing the stove once more and staring blindly at the bubbling pot.
Jeanluc took her hand and gently coaxed her around to meet his eyes.
“Tell me about your relationship with Dawn.”
“But you…I thought you said you didn’t want to know…that it would be better for all concerned if…”
“Sunnie,” Jeanluc smiled reassuringly into her eyes, “even though you were able to discern my…er…attraction to your twin sister, that was five years ago and has no bearing on the matter. I do not dwell on such things and neither should you.”
“You need a mate, Jeanluc. You have been alone far too long.”
“I have a mate.”
“Rod said that she died decades ago…before he was even born…”
“Regardless of how long ago she died, Jordan was my mate…I expect no other.”
“But you’re only thirty-seven,” Sunnie protested. “At least, in human years…and you’re so wonderful and kind and one of the best looking men I’ve ever seen…”
“I fear Rod would take exception to that,” Jeanluc pointed out in amusement.
“I’m just saying…”
“I appreciate your concern for my well-being, Sunnie, but I assure you that I am fine. You, on the other hand, are anything but fine,” Jeanluc reminded her. “Do you have anything specific you could tell me? Or is it just a general feeling that something is wrong?”
“It’s more of a general feeling…like the kind you have when you’re at a doctor’s office after the tests and examinations are over, and you’re waiting for him to come in and tell you the bad news…does that make any sense?”
“It makes a great deal of sense,” he reassured her. “When did you first notice it?”
“7:12,” she answered promptly. “I know, because I’d set the timer on the rolls to go off at 7:10. I’d just pulled them out of the oven and put them on the counter when all the sudden I felt something like a panic attack and then I thought I might faint so I had to sit down.”
“That would certainly explain Rod’s abrupt departure from our rousing game of Duck-Duck-Goose,” Jeanluc nodded thoughtfully. “He sensed your distress.”
“I’m sure it’s nothing,” Sunnie said doubtfully.
“Humor me…tell me about Cecil and Dawn.”
“If you’re sure…”
“I am.”
“You know that Cecil is a doctor and Dawn is a nurse, right?”
“Yes, go on…”
“They work at a hospital in Fairbanks, but they take turns with other doctors and nurses making runs out to some remote places in Alaska that have no medical facilities. Cecil and Dawn both got their pilot’s license so they wouldn’t have to rely on a third person to fly them.”
“Admirable.”
“And dangerous…so I convinced Dawn to let me take Emily whenever it’s their turn to make the rounds. Rod flies up to Fairbanks and brings Emily here to stay for about a week while they’re gone. Cecil and Dawn have been doing the runs for a few years now, although Dawn took a break when Emily was born, and everything’s been great. I don’t know why this one has me so spooked.”
“What was the schedule for the current run?”
“It’s always fairly flexible, but Dawn thought they’d be home by tonight or tomorrow.”
“And you haven’t heard from her…?”
“No—that’s not unusual—but now I have this…this…horrid feeling that’s something’s gone wrong…”
“Hey, is it time to eat yet?” Rod broke in on them with Emily piggybacking and each of the twins riding on a foot. “I’m in major need of sustenance. These monkeys have totally worn me out.”
The children giggled as Jeanluc reached over and plucked Emily off Rod’s back, tickling her in the process.
“Yes, I believe the spaghetti is ready,” Sunnie said with a smile. “Go wash up.”
The boys yelled and scrambled to their feet chattering like monkeys and scratching their underarms as they bolted for the stairs. Meanwhile, Jeanluc took Emily to the kitchen sink and helped her wash her hands.
“So…anything new?” Rod asked anxiously glancing from one to the other.
“Just spaghetti,” Sunnie said brightly. “Let’s eat.”
The boys had barely returned from the bathroom when the phone rang. While Sunnie reluctantly moved to answer it, Rod filled the kids’ plates, only half paying attention to what he was doing.
Most of it ended up on their plates…
By the time Sunnie hung up, both men knew something was wrong.
“What is it, Sunnie?” Rod asked.
Sunnie turned frightened, tear-filled eyes towards him.
“It’s Dawn…their plane went down somewhere in northern Alaska,” she whispered.
“Come here,” Rod immediately pulled her into his arms. “I’m so sorry.”
“You have to go find her, Rod.”
“I’m sure there are search and rescue teams already out…”
“No!” Sunnie grasped the front of his shirt. “You have to go find her. They lost contact with the plane before it went down. They’re saying that it veered so far from the flight-plan because of the weather that nobody’s sure exactly where to look. Please, Rod…you can find her before it’s too late…it’s not too late right now…she’s alive…I can feel it…but she’s…she’s…it’s bad, Rod…you have to go…please say you’ll go…”
“Rod will go, my dear,” Jeanluc said soothingly, “and I shall accompany him. Is that not so, Rod…?”
“Yeah, sure, we’ll both go,” Rod pulled her closer. “I can’t stand to see you like this
, Sunnie, you know that. We’ll find her…I promise.”
“Thank you,” she whispered gratefully, burying her face in his chest.
“I shall call Blake and make arrangements to utilize the jet,” Jeanluc offered quietly before exiting the room, discreetly leaving them to their shared grief and goodbyes.
Chapter 1
Northern Alaska
Dawn
At what exact point the realization hit me, I couldn’t say, but I knew death would soon arrive to claim me.
Not that I minded because, once the horribly excruciating pain finally dulled, I felt safe…warm…cocooned in an almost comfortable numbness.
A numbness, however, tinged slightly with regret…regret that I wouldn’t see my Emily one more time…would never again hold her or experience the sweetness of her hugs and kisses. But such was the cold, that even those regrets couldn’t totally penetrate the apathy and relief that preceded my inevitable departure from the world.
Although I’d fought it…fought death with everything I had…I had no more fight left in me.
My wonderful husband of five lovely years had already succumbed to the cold and I suspected he had—unbeknownst to me at the time—forgone his own rations, adding them to mine in order that I might survive until help arrived.
No help had arrived.
And so, with the last of my food gone, no strength left in my body to even attempt a melting of the ice and snow around me in order to slack my thirst, and very little body heat remaining, I knew the time had come to release my hold on life.
As thoughts of my eighteen-month-old daughter filled my mind, my frozen and cracked lips curved into a slight smile, and I found myself once more in the birthing room with my husband, Cecil…our newborn baby cradled lovingly in his arms.
I could almost feel his breath against my forehead as Cecil gently kissed my brow and murmured, “I am here now my sweet Dawn…I shall take care of you.”
But the words…the words sounded unfamiliar…as did the attractively accented voice uttering those words. Although there was something…something that struck a familiar chord somewhere…
For a moment, I attempted to focus on the present, but the effort defeated me and I allowed myself to sink back into the past and the pleasant numbness.
Then quite unexpectedly, the pain returned, even more excruciating than before and it encompassed almost every part of my body as I felt an ocean of waves wash over me in an attempt to dispel the cold steeped deeply into every one of my pores. The scream I felt hovering just below the surface…the scream that would bring relief…wouldn’t come, the rawness and swelling of my throat blocking it.
Desperately, I tried to return to the pleasantly numb state I’d enjoyed only moments earlier, but a pull—unlike any I’d ever felt before in my life—held me in its thrall and somehow I instinctively knew the pain would continue…that it had only just begun.
Chapter 2
Jeanluc
“Damn it, Doc, she’s my sister-in-law…you’ve got to do something.”
“I gave her a shot of morphine for the pain and soaked her limbs in the small amount of water you managed to heat thanks to your portable blowtorch, but she is so far gone that I am amazed we found her alive.”
“So she’ll die…”
“There is hope, slim though it may be. If she makes it through the night, she will have a fighting chance.”
“But you don’t think she will.”
“It would be a miracle,” I admitted, pain shooting through every part of my body at the thought. “Moving her at this point would be unwise, so I shall stay here with her tonight. You, however, should return to civilization and make arrangements for the retrieval of her husband’s body as well as the aircraft.”
“And very possibly her body,” Rod added bitterly. “Poor Sunnie…Dawn was the only family she had left.”
“Sunnie has you and the twins as well as little Emily,” I reminded him. “However, we should not give up hope. The young woman may yet surprise us all.”
“Even if she does make it…she’s in pretty bad shape, isn’t she?”
“The truth…?”
“Yeah, the truth…”
“Frostbite is a foregone conclusion and gangrene is highly probable,” I recited in a bleak tone. “I fear multiple amputations are unavoidable.”
“Don’t think you have to sugarcoat it for me, Doc,” Rod said mordantly.
“Sugarcoating will not alter the outcome, my friend.”
“Sorry,” Rod hung his head. “I just feel so damned helpless.”
“As do I…”
“I know you’ll do all you can.”
“Be assured of that,” I grasped his shoulder. “Do you require assistance repacking your clothing before you leave?”
“Yeah, if you don’t mind doing that for me while I shift back…it’s stinkin’ cold and standing here stark naked stuffing my clothes into a bag doesn’t sound like much fun.”
“Provisions…?”
“Keep them for Dawn, just in case,” Rod said as he shed his down coat. “It won’t take me long to return to the nearest village and find help. If I get hungry along the way, I’ll nab a small animal.”
“Exercise great caution,” I warned. “The terrain is treacherous.”
“You just worry about your patient,” Rod smiled slightly. “I have the easy part…well…except for the whole painful shifting thing. You wouldn’t happen to have any extra morphine lying around, would ya…?”
My lips twisted in a wry smile as I shook my head, knowing just as he did that painkillers never worked for our kind…our overactive metabolisms rendering any type of narcotic totally useless.
As he divested himself of the last of his garments and began the painful transformation from human to wolf, I shoved the various pieces of clothing into his oversized backpack, futilely attempting to block out the disturbing yet distinctive sounds of bone breakage. No matter how many years passed…no matter how old I grew…that sound would always send shudders rippling through my entire body as I empathized with the pain.
Mere moments later, I stood at the door of the small and broken aircraft, watching my grey furry friend lope away, disappearing in the swirl of white, before turning back to my patient.
Although I’d downplayed it to Sunnie, I’d known since the first moment we had been introduced that the attraction Dawn held for me signified a potential mate. However, the fact that she had already married a human precluded her from recognizing that potential bond. Her blood would never acknowledge me as her future mate as long as she was committed to another…that was the way of it and I accepted the wisdom of that long ago decision even as I railed against it.
It maintained the balance of nature as well as ensured that Dawn had a choice, and that was as it should be.
If I had not been mated before, decades earlier, I might not have recognized the potential either—assuming it to be the simple attraction of a man for a beautiful woman—but I had enough experience of my own as well as the experiences others had shared with me as physician to the Pack to easily identify the signs.
I fervently wished I had been spared that bit of insight.
From that moment on, I had done all in my power to avert disaster by staying well away from Dawn and her husband. Reluctantly armed with the knowledge that, had the circumstances been different Dawn would have belonged to me, I recognized my volatility and for Cecil’s safety as well as my own sanity, I had meticulously avoided any possible meetings with the couple.
Sunnie, with her womanly intuition, had rumbled me early on and called me on my futile attempts at evasion—even though even she had no idea about the true nature of my feelings—but Rod remained clueless.
I preferred it that way. One witness to my discomfiture was quite enough.
“And now she lay at death’s door,” I murmured with undisguised bitterness.
Although Rod had secured tarps around the plane, effecti
vely blocking the frigid wind from seeping in through the cracks wrought by the emergency landing, and the kerosene lamps we’d brought emitted some heat, the temperature remained well below zero and would plummet even lower throughout the night. There was little warmth to be had.
Realizing I had no choice if I planned to keep Dawn warm, I slowly began to strip, folding my clothing neatly as I did so, wishing I had possessed the forethought to pack a bottle of scotch. Even though alcohol would have no more affect on the pain of my transformation than a narcotic, the taste as well as the burn as it worked its way down, tended to produce a soporific effect. All psychological of course, but still…it had merit.
Closing my eyes, I forced myself to relax as every bone in my body cracked and reshaped into canine form. I breathed a huge sigh of relief as the pain dissipated.
Padding softly on all fours, I moved over to the eerily still woman.
Nudging the coverings aside with my nose, I slid under and plopped down next to the barely breathing figure, carefully positioning my four legs under and over her unmoving form, snuggling as closely to her body as I dared.
As I lay there, listening to her breathing, I had no conscious thoughts, but my whole body responded to her nearness. Somehow, it simply felt…right.
Even though I had not planned to actually sleep…only rest and keep watch…traversing the rough terrain in freezing temperatures, along with the prior forty-eight sleepless hours of plane ride and tracking, had taken its toll and before too long, I had drifted into dreamland.
Chapter 3
Dawn
Weird dreams…disjointed images…of men…naked men…well-built naked men…and a fur coat…such a soft, warm, and cuddly fur coat.
Silently, I sighed as the fur coat surrounded me, bringing with it contentment as well as a sense of security.
Snuggling deeper into the coat, I buried my face into the very center of the warmth, surprised at the sound of a heartbeat…my imagination, no doubt.
Vaguely, I wondered where the coat had come from, and why I hadn’t found it sooner, but then the clinical part of my brain kicked in and I realized that the coat was nothing more than a hallucination.
The end must be very near.
The pain had once more dulled to a bearable extent and, as a nurse, I knew that boded ill for me.
Strangely enough, I had no problem with that.