by C. D. Gorri
We anticipate filling up soon and having to turn folks away—of course they can shelter in the lobby till the roads are improved, but I would love to offer you a free suite while it’s still available!”
Cadie sniffed.
“I’ll be fine,” she told him, “so sorry to take up your time Mr. Winterborn, and I guess I’ll be on my way!”
“Well, if you insist,” Echo said, shaking his head slightly, “I’ll have the desk carry your bags back to your vehicle.
Nice ride by the way! I know the Sorento is great on snow, so you might have a chance there, Ma’am!”
He came out from behind the huge mahogany desk and offered his hand to her. Cadie took it and the moment his skin touched hers he felt something odd…
Not electricity exactly. More like a coursing warmth that seemed to radiate throughout his body in all directions at once. Most importantly, he could sense that his wolf was aroused.
The magnetism was undeniable. But also confusing. Echo was a widower. He had lost his mate Delphine, also a wolfshifter, in childbirth. In all the years following her death he had thrown himself into leading his Timberwolf pack as the Alpha and running operations at the Winterborn Cascades as the executive manager and CEO.
He was close enough to catch her scent—her REAL scent the unmistakable musk that filled his nostrils and emanated from the enticing secret female place underneath her short leather skirt and between her thighs. He knew two things instantly, both of them surprising.
She was a regular human, not a Timberwolf or any other kind of shifter. Up here in the mountainous regions he and his shifter buddies and other pack members called them “Otiosis” or “Otis” for short, from the Latin for “Shiftless Ones”.
The second thing he wasn’t as sure about—but he felt an urgency to explore his suspicions.
He could feel his inner wolf becoming aroused, and as he forced its retreat by reluctantly letting go of her small white hand, he felt more determined than ever to convince her to stay.
“Look,” he said, “I’m offering you the finest accommodations and I am sure that you can spare a couple of days—we should still have the Wi-Fi up for the next few hours, and I would love to take you to dinner …”
“Thank you but no thank you,” Cadie told him. Looking up into his eyes, so dark they reminded her of a starless night, she felt her heart give an unexpected little leap. Echo Winterborn was certainly the most gorgeous man she had ever laid eyes on, but business was business and the idea that she, of all people, had been taken by a real estate scam was unbearable.
It was her first big “deal” since her father’s passing, and not only hadn’t she made him proud, but she had sent the $100,000 earnest payment ahead. If she acted quickly, she might be able to get it back since it had to go through the Federal Reserve, she might have time to stop it, since they generally held it for 3 days at a minimum.
“Again, I appreciate the offer, but I have to get going. First, I need to use your office if you don’t mind. I need to abort the transfer of the monies I was wiring…
In the meantime, could you please have one of your employees take my bags to my car?”
Cadie offered him her keys, which he reluctantly took from her.
“Sure will. And if you ever pass this way again, Ms. Pines, the offer is still good. I would love to show you around the place, even if it isn’t for sale!”
Chapter Two: Flat
Cadie cranked up the CD player (she liked all music, but she had a secret penchant for heavy metal) and drove along singing with Disturbed. The snow was steady but light, her trusty Kia SUV clung to the curves of the highway that cut through the many hills surrounding the Winterborn.
She had successfully reversed the wire, reported the deceptive real estate fraudsters every place she could think of reporting them to, and she was feeling triumphant. Even though it might take her up to a week for her money to land back into her business account, she was infused with a great sense of relief.
Later she had realized that in her state of winner’s euphoria she was going too fast to navigate a particularly tight turn. On either side of the roadway there was only an insignificant few feet of road. Not enough to comprise an emergency lane, to pull over on, and beyond that a steep drop into deeply sloped terrain on either side.
If there had been another car coming around the curve at that exact moment, she would have most certainly crashed into it. As it was, she slid sideways, first to her left, then overcorrected and slid again to the right.
She felt something hit her front right tire before she gained control again, gently guiding the now slowed down Sorento to a stop.
She left it running as her heart pounded in her ears, jumping out to survey the damage. This was not an auspicious beginning to her return trip, she decided.
She had hit something that looked like a stump that had been hastily cut back but still had enough jagged protrusions so that she had punctured her tire.
“Great,” she muttered to herself. It was fixable only because her dad had taught her how to change a tire. She noticed that less than 20 feet ahead there seemed to be a decently wide spot to pull over in so that she wouldn’t be blocking any traveling lane. It was wider because of a natural berm on that side going down to what appeared to be a creek.
It was late enough in the afternoon that daylight was waning, and the shorter days guaranteed that by the time she fixed the flat she would be traveling not only in the snow, but also in the dark.
For a fleeting moment she wondered if she shouldn’t have taken Echo Winterborn up on his suggestion to stay there until the storm had ended. But then she remembered how good it felt to politely decline his offer. It wasn’t anything that he had said, or done, but somehow his presence made her feel off balance.
There was something strange about him…creepy even. She decided that she had made the right call. His brother freaked her out a bit also, and she’d noticed a few other employees of the lodge that might have been relatives—they were also males with the dark hair with a shock of pure white in their forelocks, massive and shredded bodies, and that she found odd as well.
You just didn’t come upon so many perfect looking men in one place, at least she never had. She couldn’t help but get the sense that there was something unspoken going on at the Winterborn Lodge. For all she knew they could be some sort of cult or sex traffickers or something.
Or cannibals—she could have sworn that at one point, gazing down at her, Echo Winterborn had licked his lips. An unconscious gesture, to be sure—but what kind of fucking body language was THAT?
She busied herself with changing the flat. It was a special tire and she could have driven more miles on it but the remaining daylight was an issue and it was only getting colder.
It was a struggle, and she was glad that she had been involved in core weight training with an instructor at her neighborhood gym the previous summer. The tire was ungodly heavy, and she had trouble getting it on at first, taking up more of her valuable time and the daylight.
She was cursing the entire time as she worked. It was an indulgence she reserved for times when she was alone and it was okay to let off steam. She had had a great role model in her dad, who had a champion level swear word vocabulary.
Neither of them had ever sworn in front of her mother though. She had been gently born and raised in the south and certainly wouldn’t have stood for it!
Cadie was finishing up with the tire, making sure the nuts were tight, when she became aware of a discordant note in the quiet of the natural setting around her. At first, she thought she must be imagining it—a low, sinister guttural noise that vibrated in her ears that she could discern over the sweeping sound of the wind as the heavens continued to send down snow like confetti.
“What the hell is—” she started to say, turning around. The answer was immediately apparent.
Less than five feet behind her was one of the largest wolves she had ever seen.
She recogn
ized immediately that it was a Timberwolf, with a jagged visible scar across its maw that made it look even MORE menacing than she would have expected. It continued its menacing growl, its fangs in full view and saliva dripping from its mouth.
Her mind instantly went into emergency mode—she still had the lug wrench in her hand, the lugs were tightened, the jack released. If it attacked her, she decided to strike it across the eyes (if that were even possible) and make a run for her SUV.
Time seemed to speed up and slow down at the same time. She saw the huge Timberwolf coil back on its haunches in preparation of launching itself at her. She raised her only weapon, the lug wrench, while at the same time sending up a silent prayer to God that she could summon enough strength to bury it in the predator’s skull.
And then as it was airborne and her eyes met those of the wolf and she threw her hand that grasped the iron bar forward, the unexpected happened. A huge dark shape came from out of nowhere, cutting off her view of the attacking Timberwolf and knocking her backward before she had a chance to strike.
The lug wrench fell from her hand as she landed squarely on her butt, hard, on the snow-covered asphalt. In front of her she saw that there were now two wolves, growling and entangled, each snapping at the other’s throat.
Again, and again, they parted, then leapt up to engage again, meeting first in midair and then rolling on the ground in a death match.
Cadie willed herself to get up, but it was as if she were frozen in place. The wolf that had warded off the attack was every bit as huge as the attacking wolf. She didn’t know much about wolves, and the thought crossed her mind that maybe they were just fighting over her, and the winner might attack her after killing or chasing off its competitor.
After what seemed to Cadie to be an interminable amount of time, the wolf that had attacked her gave a strangled yelp and ran off down the steep incline. The other wolf, giving chase.
Suddenly Cadie seemed to unfreeze. Jumping up she ran to the driver’s side of her SUV and cranked it up. She was aware that she was leaving tools behind, but she didn’t give a rat’s ass—every instinct she possessed was screaming at her to get going.
But—get going where?
She hated returning to the Winterborn Lodge, but she had lost time and her nerves were shaking her hands so damn badly that she desperately wanted a drink to calm them. Her rational mind was reeling from her experience with the wolves, and she wondered if anyone would believe her if she told them about it.
Sighing, and with her fingers still trembling uncharacteristically she started to pull off and turn the Sorento around, back in the direction of the Winterborn Lodge, when she was startled by a rap at her driver’s side window that caused her to jump out of her seat.
Turning her head, she met the eyes of Echo Winterborn.
“SO, you’re what? Stalking me?” Were the first words out of her mouth after she lowered the window, even though she instantly regretted snapping at the ridiculously gorgeous young man with the white forelock.
“Well, you missed the fireworks Mister Winterborn! I was attacked by a WOLF! I mean almost attacked! If another wolf hadn’t gone after it, it might have…might have…”
To her embarrassment she felt tears starting at the corners of her wide violet eyes. It seemed the aftershocks had worn off and now it was time to have a little ‘boo-hoo’ as her father would have called it.
But NOT in front of a stranger. She stopped speaking for a moment in order to better compose herself.
“I’m sorry to bother you,” he told her looking concerned, “but from the looks of it you’ve already encountered some trouble on the road…
He bent down and retrieved both the jack and the tire iron from the snowy road, handing them to her through the window.
“With your luck you might want to hang onto these,” he said mildly, in a humorous tone “were you planning to keep going or—and I would highly recommend this second option—are you planning to accompany me back to the lodge and get warm?
You’re actually shaking, Ms. Pines,” he finished, looking sympathetic.
“I guess I’ll go back to the lodge,” she replied reluctantly, “at this point I’m so rattled I don’t know how it would affect my driving anyway.”
“Sounds like you made the right call!” Echo told her, “Need any help turning this rig around?”
“I can manage,” she told him in a sweet tone, though she felt a flicker of annoyance at his smug tone and obvious confidence he had that she would agree to return to the lodge. In spite of his good looks, there was definitely something about him that rubbed her the wrong way. He was almost TOO confident and self-possessed…
… ‘COCKY’ was the word she was looking for! He was WAY too pleased with himself! It wasn’t a quality she admired in men.
“GREAT!” He told her, “See you back at the lodge!”
She watched in her rearview as he turned and, with his hands in his pockets and his shoulders hunched against the cold, walked the few yards back to the snowmobile/ATV he had been riding on, starting it up.
She was cautious as she swung the SUV as widely to the edge of the drop off as she could and then finally, after checking to make sure no other vehicles were coming, swung it around so that she was finally traveling in the other direction.
After the double adrenalin-rush she had experienced, she realized that she was exhausted. Every muscle in her body felt like jelly.
The snowfall had picked up and the weather deteriorated to the point that she was grateful that Echo was riding in front of her, so that she could tell where the road was. In what seemed like no time they were turning into the long drive up to the majestic Winterborn.
By that time the last radiant pink, orange, and saffron fingers of a dying sunset provided a dramatic backdrop for the palatial lodge, and the Winterborn, all lit up with the golden glow from the windows and colonnade lights pouring out from the building made it seem more welcoming than ever.
For an instant she felt that she was home—why she would feel that way she had no clue. But it was at the very LEAST her “home away from home”.
…And she desperately needed that DRINK!”
Chapter Three: What Big Eyes
Finally back at the lodge, with two whiskeys “neat” down Cadie’s hatch, she was beginning to both unthaw and feel a bit better about her recent brush with death.
She was also finding herself increasingly charmed by Echo Winterborn, against her better judgment.
“You know it’s pretty rare for wolves to attack,” Echo was saying. They were sitting at the shiny wrap around brass bar inside the Winterborn Cascades, aptly referred to as the ‘Cascade Lounge’. The bar semicircular and long enough to accommodate multitudes of patrons. Not only that but the seats were padded and had high backs to them. As a result, they were much more comfortable. The décor included twinkling lights, a small stage on which a piano man was playing old favorites and light jazz tunes, and was decorated in colors that were drawn from the Rocky Mountains themselves: silver, black, white and purple.
“There are few attacks and most that have occurred in this century are still unexplained, although admittedly on the rise. An entire pack of Timberwolves attacked a student in Canada, for instance and there have been individual attacks, but it’s a fact that more humans are killed by mosquitoes, snakes and even dogs!”
“Dogs? Are you kidding me?” Cadie found herself saying with a shake of her head, “I can’t imagine my dogs attacking anyone! Foster is my husky and Daisy is my golden Labrador retriever.
Foster is a bit high strung, and very protective of me, but Daisy is as gentle as they come. She seems to love everyone and is especially good with my little cousins.”
He was looking at her with a slight smile playing around his lips, lips a bit too full for a man that she somehow found enticing.
She realized that between the alcohol she’d consumed without having eaten anything else and the fact that it had been an exhausting
day she was ready to climb into bed.
Besides, the drinks had made her horny. She felt like they had warmly traced a trail right down to her coochie. She blamed the booze for making Echo Winterborn seem so appealing.
Before she could excuse herself, she noticed two dark haired men coming their way. One she recognized as Echo’s brother Smoke that she’d been introduced to earlier. The other she was sure must also be a relation, since he shared the same muscular build and coloring as Echo…
Not to mention that telltale strand of white hair in the front.
“Hi, I’m Largo,” the newcomer said, offering his hand. When Arcadia took it, it was warm. Largo’s hair was slicked straight back from his forehead, but the white streak in the front was still apparent and he also had a curious streak of white midway through one of his dark eyebrows.
“I’m Arcadia Pines. ‘Cadie’ to most people I know,” she told him. Even as she spoke, she found herself getting lost in his eyes. They were larger than Echo’s or Smoke’s, and strangely mesmerizing.
“Nice to see you again Ms. Pine—Cadie I mean,” Smoke said nodding to her, “Are you enjoying the bar? Largo here was in charge of the renovation a year ago!”
“Well, you have excellent taste,” Cadie told him, meaning it as she gazed around her, “it’s beautiful, and even though it’s in a different style than the lobby the colors still remind me of where I am, in the mountains.
Somehow it all works!”
Largo’s face flushed slightly at the compliment and since he still had her hand in his he raised it gently to his lips to kiss it before reluctantly letting it go.
“Thank you so much,” he said, still staring at her.
Echo, cleared his throat impatiently to get Cadie’s attention, since his brothers were all but blocking his view of her.
“I’ll go get the keys to your suite if you like,” he told her, “or we can have dinner at the restaurant…”
“Oh, thank you,” Cadie told him, “can I have a rain check on dinner? I’m not very hungry, but if y’all have room service I think what I want most in the world right now is a hot shower and a bowl of soup in my room…