“You don’t have to try.”
I rolled my eyes, and his grin widened as though he realized how corny his line sounded.
“Do you want the couch or not?” I asked. I knew his being on the couch meant I couldn’t make another break for it tonight, but I probably couldn’t anyway. It was late and I was tired, and Daniel was way too vigilant.
“Okay, sure,” he said.
I glanced back toward the trees. Why did I have this creepy sense of being watched? And not by Daniel.
I hurried up the stairs and inserted the key into the lock. I opened the door and Daniel followed me inside.
“Nice,” he said.
The living room was large with a fireplace and a flat-screen TV. A couch was nestled between two end tables in the sitting area in front of the fireplace.
“I’ll get you some blankets,” I said, and went to a hallway closet. I stretched up to grab the blankets and became intensely aware of Daniel reaching over me, his chest brushing against my back.
“I’ve got it,” he said.
I slipped under his arm and watched as he grabbed the blankets and a pillow.
“I really appreciate this,” he said. “I hadn’t considered that all the hotels and bed-and-breakfasts would be full. Not that I mind sleeping in a tent, but a couch is better.”
Dark Guardians spend their summers leading campers through the national forest. They were into the outdoors in a big way. I knew Daniel had probably traveled on all fours, but once he got here, he would have purchased any supplies that he needed. It was easy enough to carry some cash in a collar.
“I guess you traveled on all fours,” I said, wanting to confirm my suspicions.
“As much as possible, yeah. But we’ll use the snowmobile to get back to Wolford.”
“So if you traveled in wolf form, where did you get the clothes?” I asked.
“Did a little breaking and entering when I got here this morning. Don’t worry. I left money on the counter.”
“I wasn’t worried. Just curious. Make yourself at home.”
He headed for the couch and I headed upstairs. Then I heard the front door open. I darted back down, just as Lisa was coming into the entryway.
“Hey,” I whispered. “I’m letting Daniel use the couch.”
“The couch?” she repeated as she joined me on the stairs. “He’s definitely bed worthy. Looks like he knows his way around a good cuddle.”
“We’re not even friends,” I muttered as we ascended the stairs. To change the subject I asked, “How were things with Eric?”
Shrugging, she stepped onto the landing. “He was okay, but we didn’t hook up. Afraid seeing you with Daniel has me wanting more.”
“What do you mean?”
We’d reached our bedrooms. She leaned against her doorjamb.
“There is obviously a real connection between you two. Like soul mates or something.”
If that was true, wouldn’t I feel it? And wouldn’t that make it even harder to lose him to the harvester? “He’s just a guy.”
“You’re either fooling me, or fooling yourself. I want to know what you have going on with the hot guy.”
“I don’t have anything.”
“I think you do. You just don’t know it yet. Good night,” she said.
She slipped into her room and I went into mine. I got ready for bed. I lay there for a long time unable to sleep. Daniel wasn’t just a guy. I wasn’t convinced he was just a Shifter.
Then what was he?
FIVE
The next morning I woke up exhausted. Everything was unusually quiet, and when I checked my clock, I saw that I’d overslept. Everyone else was probably already at the shop.
I showered and dressed in jeans and a hunter-green sweater. Pulling my hair back, I studied my reflection in the mirror. My eyes were striking, caramel-shaded, just like the guy had mentioned yesterday. I wondered what Daniel thought of them, then chastised myself. What did I care what he thought?
Grabbing my jacket, I headed down the stairs and crept into the living room. He was still asleep, stretched out on the couch. Lying there, he looked like any normal teenage guy. He appeared completely human.
I wondered if in his dreams he saw himself in wolf form or human form. Did we dream when we slept in wolf form? As my time approached, the silliest questions were arising.
As quietly as possible, I made my way to the kitchen, took a bowl down from the cabinet, and poured bran flakes into it. I set it on the table and placed a banana beside it, along with a note: Milk in the fridge. Enjoy your breakfast.
I froze. What was I doing? Acting like we were a couple with little secrets and private jokes. I started to crumple up the note, then changed my mind. I didn’t know what I was going to do about Daniel, returning to Wolford, dealing with the harvester, or my life in general. What I did know was that I was late for work.
I headed out the front door. As I started to go down the steps, a chill swept through me. It was different from what I’d felt when Daniel had watched me the day before. This felt menacing, ominous. I glanced around. I didn’t see any—
Movement. I thought I saw movement in the trees. Something shimmered, something dark. Then it was gone.
“Don’t get paranoid,” I muttered.
When I got to the shop, I went in through the back door and hung my jacket and backpack on a peg. Then I went to the counter area, where everyone was busy setting up for the morning rush. Most of the orders would be to-go as people took their warm drinks with them and headed to the slopes.
“I can’t believe you let him sleep alone on the couch,” Lisa said as she reached past me for a packet of coffee.
“I told you. I barely know him.”
“That’s never stopped me.” She wiggled her eyebrows at me.
I laughed lightly. “It’s complicated.”
“So un-complicate it.”
Easier said than done. This was a conversation I really didn’t want to have so I turned my attention to filling the hot-water urn.
“You’re still in for Fantastic Friday, right?” she asked, obviously deciding to leave my love life for me to deal with.
I gave her a blank look.
“I’ve arranged for us to ride the ski lift to the top of the mountain at midnight.”
Everything at the slopes closed down at dusk. But Lisa had connections. “Oh yeah. Sure. I’ll be there.”
“With hottie?”
Who knew what opportunities for escape might await at the top of the mountain?
“Absolutely.”
But I didn’t have much opportunity to consider plans because Spike opened the front door and people crowded through it, anxious to get their hot beverages of choice. The morning was hectic as usual, and I had little time to wonder where Daniel might be. Although I was slightly disappointed not to see him among the sea of faces calling out orders. And that bothered me. That a part of me actually missed him, had been looking forward to seeing him. I didn’t want to accept him as part of my life and all the dangers that involved.
Maybe he’d wake up with a change of heart and go back to Wolford without me.
Yeah, right, Hayden. As long as you’re living in a fantasy world, you might as well believe that the full moon won’t come either.
By midmorning the rush was over. Spike kept only one of us on duty during the day—until the late-afternoon rush hit. Today, thankfully, wasn’t my day.
As I poured hot chocolate into my insulated mug, I considered trying to make another break for it, maybe convincing Spike to drive me to the next town, where I could catch a bus or something. Only I didn’t even know if the next town had public transportation. I’d been willing to chance it last night, but now I realized that, with Daniel’s determination, I needed a more concrete plan. Getting him off my trail wasn’t going to be easy. I needed to borrow Lisa’s laptop and research my options, maybe find a way to put him off my scent. Although considering how often he got close to me, my scent was p
robably ingrained now. I thought of him tasting my blood. I’d never known a wolf to care about blood scent. Daniel wasn’t like any Shifter I’d ever been around, but then my exposure to them had been pretty limited.
As I trudged back to the condo, fresh powder began to fall. The thick flakes stuck to my eyelashes then melted. Wolford would be covered in snow as well. The national forest was near the Canadian border. Cross-country skiing was a popular sport in the forest. We had a few mountains, too, where Shifters might ski, but they had never been opened to the public for skiing. That didn’t stop us from testing the powder or our own limits. It was the one time when I hadn’t minded being around other Shifters because the emotions reflected the thrill of adventure.
During the height of winter the forest was closed completely to the public. It was so beautiful and peaceful out in the wilderness then. I’d spent some time exploring the woods when the emotions at Wolford had become overwhelming. It was a good thing that I enjoyed my own company, because often it was all I had. I’d relished the solitude. As much as I didn’t want to go back to Wolford, I couldn’t deny that I missed it.
I went around to the back of the condo and stomped up the steps to the wooden deck. I dusted the snow off an Adirondack chair, sat down, pulled my knees to my chest, and sipped on my chocolate while enjoying what surely would be my last days of peace. I had a great view of the woods. Evergreens were sprinkled among the bare-branched trees. I watched as some deer walked through. And then, as though catching the scent of a predator, they bounded away.
I heard the sound of boots crunching on snow, getting louder as they came up the stairs. Even though I couldn’t detect his emotions, I knew who it was, knew his gaze was homed in on me, because the hairs on my neck prickled, but it wasn’t an entirely unpleasant sensation. It was more along the lines of anticipation—which irritated me. I didn’t want him around. I brought my steaming chocolate to my face, allowing the mist to tickle my nose, anything to distract me from this strange reaction to his arrival. I didn’t turn my head, just kept staring out through the wisp of steam.
I wondered when he’d left the condo, why our paths hadn’t crossed, if he’d been out spying on me.
“Didn’t trust me to come back?” I asked tartly.
“I’m not a fool, Hayden,” Daniel said, his voice laced with humor, as he sat down in a chair beside mine.
It annoyed me that I amused him. “I didn’t see you.”
“I was there…watching.”
“That’s really kinda creepy, you know. They arrest people for stalking.”
“I wouldn’t have to do it if you’d give me your word that you wouldn’t run off.”
I glanced over at him. He was wearing a maroon sweater today, and I realized that he had some clothes stashed somewhere. “You’d believe me if I gave you my word?”
“Not on your life. Did you bring me one?” He indicated my insulated mug.
“No. Wasn’t even sure you were still around.”
He chuckled. “Right.”
Then he took the cup from me and sipped on my chocolate. I wanted to lash out at him, but for some reason my vocal cords knotted up, maybe because my throat and chest had tightened. Watching him, the intimacy of our sharing a drink, was unsettling. He seemed so at home with me, totally relaxed, and yet there was still that alertness to him as his gaze wandered over the landscape in front of us. I could sense him listening intently, as if not quite believing the peacefulness surrounding us.
“Expecting trouble?” I asked as I reached over and regained possession of my cup. I almost turned it so I wouldn’t touch where his lips had touched, but I could sense the dare in his gaze, so I sipped from the same spot he had.
“I always expect it. That’s part of being a Dark Guardian.”
I wrapped my gloved hands around my cup and felt the warmth seeping through. “I don’t know how to make you understand how badly I don’t want to go back,” I told him.
“I don’t know how to make you understand how imperative it is that you do.” With a deep sigh he leaned forward, planting his elbows on his thighs and staring into the trees before us as though he had the ability to see clear through them. “Last night you asked me what I knew about you. What do you know about me?”
Not much, I realized.
“I know you came from Seattle.”
“Not Seattle exactly but the area around there.” He bowed his head, studied his clasped hands.
I eased up in my chair, trying to get a better read on Daniel and what he was going through. He was as still as a statue, as though he thought if he moved, he might crack or crumble. “Did something happen?” I asked quietly.
“My family—my parents, my older brother—were killed.”
Empathy swamped me and brought tears to my eyes. It was so strong, so powerful. I’d lost my own parents in a car accident. Shifters had this amazing ability to heal quickly—but only in wolf form. And when an eighteen-wheeler slams into you…
It was death on impact. No time to shift, no time to heal. The authorities said my parents wouldn’t have even known what hit them.
I’d never willingly reached out to touch another Shifter. Even though I now knew that I wouldn’t be slammed by Daniel’s emotions, old habits are hard to break; long-held aversions are difficult to overcome. Still I forced myself to remove my glove. Taking a deep breath, I laid my trembling bare fingers over his hands. They were clasped so tightly that they felt like a solid rock. “I’m sorry. I lost my parents when I was a child. I know how difficult it is to lose your family.”
He unclenched his hands, turned one over, and threaded his fingers through mine, studying the intertwining as if it was the most fascinating thing he’d ever seen. “Did you feel their emotions?”
My throat constricting, I nodded. “I shouldn’t have. They were so far away. They’d left me at Wolford because they were going to celebrate their anniversary. Their tenth, I think. I don’t know. I just know I was mad they’d decided to leave me. Then I felt them die. The elders said it was because of the blood connection that distance didn’t matter. I woke up screaming. The fear was so intense but brief. Mercifully brief for me and for them.”
He squeezed my fingers. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to dredge up old memories.”
“What happened with your family?”
He shook his head. “At the time I wasn’t exactly sure. They were dead when I got there. We…our clan…it’s not like yours. You’re all a tight pack. We’re more scattered. I thought if I came to Wolford I might find some answers.”
“Did you?”
“The night Justin died. Like him, my family didn’t shift back.”
“Oh my God. You think it was a harvester?”
“I don’t know for sure. Maybe. Like I said, they were dead when I got there. And they didn’t shift back to human form.”
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Is that why you’re so intent on taking me back to Wolford?”
“One of the reasons. Maybe I feel like I have amends to make. I couldn’t do anything to help my family. Maybe I can help you.” He brought my hand up, kissed my fingertips. Warmth sluiced through me.
“What are you doing?” My voice sounded like air leaking from a balloon.
He glanced over his shoulder at me and gave me a crooked grin. “Changing the subject.”
Irritated that he wasn’t willing to share more, I worked my hand free of his and settled back in my chair. “So what are you going to do for the rest of the day?”
“Depends what you do.”
“I plan to just sit here and enjoy the peace. Until about midafternoon, when I’ll head to the shop to prepare for the late-afternoon/early-evening crowd.”
“Sounds exciting. I’ll probably join you for that.”
Because he didn’t trust me not to skip out on him. I was still planning to find a way.
“And what sort of description does Lisa give Friday night?” he asked. “Because I can think of a couple of words t
hat start with F.”
His eyes were twinkling. I thought if it weren’t for the whole harvester situation and my approaching full moon, I might actually enjoy hanging around with Daniel.
“Fantastic Friday,” I told him. “We’re going to the slopes tonight.”
“To do what?”
I shrugged. “Maybe ski. Sit on top of a mountain. Whatever. Lisa has connections.”
“I’ll definitely be joining you for that.”
“Who said you were invited?”
He didn’t respond with words. He simply gave me a feral smile, and I realized he’d never let me escape him. But if I wanted to survive, I would have to find a way to.
When the hot chocolate was gone and the cold air had chilled our bones, we went inside. One of the channels was having a big bug marathon, so Daniel settled in front of the TV and watched as ants, then grasshoppers, then ants again terrorized the countryside. I curled up in a chair with a novel. Although mostly I found myself studying him instead of reading about uppity New York socialites at the end of the nineteenth century.
I couldn’t deny that Daniel was sexy, strong, and seemingly unafraid of anything—including the havoc that a harvester might cause. I didn’t want to be morbid, but my own life expectancy was likely to fall way below the national average. If I went through my first full moon alone, I could die. If I managed to survive, the harvester could be waiting for me—and I’d die. I increased my chances of surviving if I had a mate, but then he risked death if we weren’t able to avoid the harvester.
Basically I was feeling screwed, confused, and wishing there was a simple answer.
I had a crazy idea: Why not spend what little time I might have left enjoying life to the fullest, preferably with a guy? And here I had one sitting on the couch, not more than five feet from me.
I was still bothered by the fact that I couldn’t feel his emotions. It also bothered me that he had been out on patrol the night Justin died. I was taking Daniel’s word that the elders had sent him. What if he was an emissary for the harvester?
My stomach dropped as though I’d just reached the apex of a roller coaster and was careening down at the speed of light. I didn’t think I’d be safe at Wolford. But I wasn’t certain I was safe here anymore either.
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