“You?” I ask her, wanting her to be forty as well, but knowing she’s much younger.
“I’m twenty.” She says, looking bashful again.
“Does it matter how old I am?” I ask her, and feel relief when she shakes her head, letting me get close enough to kiss her again.
The hike back to her cabin is quicker in daylight, and it looks smaller too, there’s wolf tracks everywhere, and some blood too, but from deer I explain to Haylie, who looks worried for a moment.
“I let them have meat, remember? So they wouldn’t eat you.”
She smiles and I do too, knowing that she got eaten anyway, but in a better way by me. And the thought of it, the memory of her, knowing she’s here with me now, it makes me want her again, but I remind myself of her wanting to wait.
“Are you done waiting yet?” I ask.
“I want to mount you, I want to do it to you all day…” I tell her honestly, and notice it’s her turn to look weak like she can hardly stand any more.
I rush over to her, “You alright?”
The look in her eyes tells me she’s fine, and the pressure of her hands on me again tells me she wants it alright, but she’s always doing this, like animals do, they play. Teasing their mate.
I want you, yes. Yes!
No, I don’t want to now, come back in five minutes and ask again.
I have to go along with Haylie, but if nothing happens soon, I feel like something’s going to coming out of me all on its own The leaking from my manhood, the stiffness and pressure, it’s starting to ache so much it almost hurts just to look at her and not be able to put myself inside her sweet hole, to cover her body with mine.
“Well, here we are,” she says, talking to herself. I put the packs by the door, and she opens the cabin. It’s stale inside, like an old cave. And smells bad too, smells like man and their junk.
“I will get wood for fire,” I tell her, making sure I can see her the whole time as I wander off into the trees, sniffing for the dry wood I know is nearby.
“And do not wander off!” I call out to her, not wanting her to go chasing wolves again.
The air is clear this morning, and there’s a stillness, nobody but us around, nothing to bother us and definitely no wolves.
And no meat.
I remind myself. The wolves will have frightened off all the deer. I had a good herd here near the valley until yesterday, but that’s how it goes sometimes. Lots of meat one week, and then none for the next. Coming back with armfuls of wood, I stack it by the door, with some stacked inside, noticing Haylie unpacking her equipment and bringing some other things back from the surrounding woods.
“What is that?” I ask her, she has an armful of small black boxes.
“Black boxes,” she says casually and I roll my eyes.
I had to ask.
“I’ve never noticed them before, were they in the trees?”
She laughs lightly, “That’s great! It means they’re doing their job, you or anyone else, especially a Yeti, isn’t supposed to know that they’re there.”
I grunt.
A Yeti would know, just because I didn’t see them, doesn’t mean a Yeti wouldn’t.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Haylie
“The boxes have a camera inside, with batteries. I’m changing the batteries. The pictures get sent to a satellite, which gets sent to the college, where the Professor and his team work.”
Nikki nods, but I can tell he thinks I’m nuts. He’s torn between building a fire inside, cleaning out the cabin and watching me. I refuse all his help with the monitoring gear. Not because he couldn’t help, but by the time I explain to anyone what needs doing, it’s just as easy to do it all myself. Plus, only I know where the monitors are.
One’s missing, but that happens sometimes. Wildlife gets curious or just plain destructive, and I notice a couple of the cameras are simply not working, as per the transmission notes, which matches up with what I’m seeing on the ground. The main Wi-Fi receiver and digital transmitter are intact, so the main hardware check is complete and before I know it, I’m done.
Hours have passed, but having Nikki around, it feels like no time and he doesn’t interrupt what I’m doing, not once. Only I mind, as I triple check everything is correct because I feel so damned distracted by having his scent wafting around me in the breeze.
By the middle of the day, the sky darkens and it looks like we’re in for a storm.
Nikki growls, telling me we should’ve stayed at his cabin, but I’m okay with being here if I have more work to do, which I kinda do.
“It’s going to come in big…a snowstorm,” he informs me, looking at me like I should be worried. But I’m not.
“I can go inside if it snows, if it gets so I can’t work.” I tell him patiently, trying to check some instruments with him standing over me, in my light.
I’m really glad to have met him out here, but the more time I spend doing what needs to be done, the more time I realize I don’t have to fool around.
Maybe he can just come back with me, or I can come back once I return the data to the college…no biggie.
But there’s something behind Nikki’s brawn, his intensity that makes me think it’s not going to be as easy as all that.
“We need to go. Now.” He finally says gruffly. He’s been pacing for a while, in and out of the cabin, looking at me, sighing and then looking up at the sky, even sniffing the air.
“Haylie!” he says suddenly, catching my attention with his seriousness, bordering on anger. “I need you to go with me now.”
I have a soft side, the side he ignited when I first smelled him, and definitely last night in the cabin. But try and come between Haylie and her work? Then yelling at me about it? Nuh-uh. Not fucking happening.
I stand up, brushing loose snow and dirt from my hands, which I put on my hips. Nikki starts to look away, but it’s my turn to do some shouting.
“Hey! Mountain man! I’m doing my job and you’re starting to frighten me by acting like such a dick!”
His eyes narrow and he growls low, kicking the snow up with his feet, storming off three paces before he turns right around again.
“I need you to come with me now…” he snarls, grinding his jaw so hard I can see every muscle in his face.
“You’re mine now and you need to do as I say, come! There’s a big storm coming and it is not safe here.”
I sigh loudly and bitterly, picking up what’s in front of me and heading back into the cabin.
I’ll soon put an end to this…
Sniffing a storm is a lot different to actually forecasting one. I risk using the battery some, and fire up my GPS, which doubles as an emergency beacon, but also has a weather satellite link, so I can see what weather is coming, and exactly how bad.
While I’m waiting for it to boot up, I put it on the floor of the cabin in front of me, then figure I may as well grab something to eat while I’m in here.
Some real food.
I turn my back to go through my personal pack for some chow, when I hear the door creak, followed by the definite crunch of what sounds like a two hundred pound man standing on sensitive electrical equipment.
I spin around, willing it to be the sound of snow, or him breaking anything else…
I see him lifting his foot up off the GPS, making a face as if he’s stepped in turd.
All the air leaves me in one breath, and I want to laugh, scream, cry and panic all at once.
I stand there, shaking my head, it’s all I can do. Now I don’t know what day or time it is, where I am. And I definitely can’t send an emergency signal, which if bad weather like he just said is coming, is what I need to be doing, so I can be located as soon as possible.
But no.
Wonder boy here has gone and trodden on the only thing I really can’t afford to lose, except maybe my virginity, which at this very moment, I decide I like fine just the way it is.
“Now!” Nikki shouts at me, and I r
ealize he has no idea what he’s just done, but I’m too upset to even bother and try to explain it to him.
“Why don’t you just go back to your stupid cabin all by yourself!” I shout at him, reaching for the first thing that comes to hand and hurling it at him in a complete rage.
I watch the aluminum pot bounce off his head and hear it landing softly in the snow outside. A sudden gust of freezing wind blows the door, which hits Nikki as well a few seconds later as he stands there, dumbfounded, looking at me with concern more than anything.
“Ouch.” He says blankly, “That hurt, now will you please come? We don’t have much time if we have to-”
But I’m so mad. Dodging pot number two, Nikki ducks out the door, which I slam and bolt from the inside, getting the heavy wooden beam leaning against the wall and slotting it in place barricading myself in the cabin.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Nikolai
How can she not smell the storm coming? It’s as plain as anything. The morning, its dark in minutes, and the wind. I can smell the ferocity of the blizzard, and it’s heading straight for us.
Why is she acting so crazy?
Is this a mating game? No. It’s bad because it’s dangerous.
Dangerous for her.
The cabin she’s in is not strong enough, not warm enough. If a storm comes for three, four days which happens sometimes, she could die.
I don’t want to see her hurt, I want her to stay with me. I thought she liked me.
Why is she acting crazy now?
The wind is getting stronger, fast. I sense something very bad coming, worse than anything I’ve felt up here, ever.
I knock on the cabin door, trying to open it too, shouting for Haylie to open, but she won’t.
I know she’s mad, but why? I need her to go with me so we can get to my place, the only safe place I know in the whole forest. If she stays here… I don’t even want to think about it.
I get colder and colder, only keeping warm by pounding on the door, then jumping up and down in place, waiting for Haylie to open the door.
After a long time, I hear her shouting at me over the wind.
She’s still mad and she says some very hurtful things to me. Telling me to go away.
Maybe she’s sick?
I’m not sure what’s best. I can’t leave her here, but she won’t let me help her and I can’t make her do anything. That’s one thing I learned from nature. Bend the branch, try to make it round, it will break.
I can’t force anything, but this is my limit.
Soon, it’s so cold I know I have to head back, even just to stop myself from freezing. Haylie has no real skins in her cabin, and not a lot of wood either, she will not make it if she stays, but if I stay out here, waiting for her to not be so mad with me, I’ll die waiting.
I decide. I will go back to my cabin, get more furs and skins, and my sled. I have a sled to go over thick snow in a storm. I can go get that and when I return, she’ll have to come with me, maybe see the sense of it by then… If I have enough time, so I have to hurry.
I don’t say anything, don’t want to feel the pain in my chest when she yells bad things at me. It hurts inside, bad feelings instead of the good ones I know should be there when she’s with me.
I have a very bad feeling about everything, but I need to act, only doing not thinking now. It hurts to leave her there, but if I’m to save both of us, I need more gear. I’m not Yeti, I don’t have magic powers and fur, or the strength of a hundred wolves. I’m only a man, and I need to hurry.
I start to run through the snow which is building up, back towards the cabin. I can feel the ground under me starting to shake, the whole world is trembling like a leaf. I stop to feel it, turning my head to listen.
Nothing yet.
I run some more, not far from Haylie but nowhere near my own cabin.
The ground shakes all over again and I know in one second what to do.
I hear Haylie calling out from behind me, back at the cabin and I know she’s felt it too.
I turn again, running back to her, wishing I’d never left her not even for a moment.
The wind is so fierce, howling like screams in my ears and the frost it brings feels like broken glass on my skin. I can’t feel my body anymore, but I must get back to her, I have to.
I hear her cry again, relieved she’s closer. She’s out of the cabin, now I can see her, those red packs. She’s dragging them.
I sprint with everything I have to get to her. There’s a huge cracking sound, like the sky breaking in half, but the ground rumbles too and then a loud sound following it, the whole sky turning black across the horizon.
“Nikki! Help!” She screams, and my heart stretches out to her like a cord.
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry…” she’s crying now, and I wish I wasn’t so slow, wish again I never left her.
She should’ve come with me, done as she was told…
I know what it is. I haven’t seen one in thirty years, but know what they are.
Avalanche.
Running to her, it feels like she’s moving further away, with the wind and the snow tricking my eyes I think for a second she’s running the other way from me.
Finally, I get to her, she throws herself at me and I catch her, holding her so tight I’m scared I’ll hurt her.
“Sorry,” she chatters and I silence her with a warm kiss. Sending all the heat from my body into hers, everything I should’ve given her last night, but waited for.
“I’ll never leave you again,” I promise her, and scoop her and her packs up, I turn on my heels and run again as fast as I can, the deafening roar of the whole world collapsing behind us.
“Don’t look back!” I shout to her, hoping she can hear me over the noise.
I think it to myself as well, willing my legs to keep moving, to carry us past the danger I can feel behind us, dumping mountains down onto the valley.
I feel her, clutching me like nothing else now. The only thing I can feel is her body against mine. I want to drop her packs, to run faster, but I know they mean so much to her, and I swear again to myself never to make her angry, never to leave her alone and never to raise my voice at her again.
I’m sorry…
I love you Haylie…
The words in my mind. They’re like the ones from my dream. Another life. Another time I can’t remember.
But everything now is about staying alive.
Avoid the ice and snow behind us, get to the cabin.
Love her and never let her go.
Not ever.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Haylie
I must’ve taken a handful of crazy pills, or be due for my period soon, or maybe both. What came over me?
I just turned on Nikki like he was the devil, when all he was doing was trying to help me.
I thought the damned GPS was more reliable than his thirty years of living out here, knowing the land and the weather.
I locked myself inside the cabin mad at him, until I realize he isn't watching me anymore. Until I realize he’s left.
I feel such a horrible emptiness inside, it’s not something I ever want to feel again.
Once the whole cabin starts shaking and I hear the rumblings from the mountains beyond, I know instantly I acted like an ass, and I need to get myself back to Nikki as quickly as I can.
Once I step outside it’s almost a total white out, and I know I can’t leave the gear behind either, but it’s so heavy. Too heavy to carry all on my own.
I cry out for Nikki, so sorry for everything I said, so sad that I treated him so bad when all he’s been trying to do since I got here is look out for me.
I’m sorry Nikki…
I love you…
Just when I feel like I can’t go on, which isn’t far from the cabin. I can’t feel my legs and I call out to him again with my last breath and before I know it, I’m in his huge strong arms again. His body is so hard, so warm. He feels like superman, somethin
g straight out of a movie. A god on earth, my angel come to rescue me.
It’s so loud and the ground shakes so violently, I’m amazed he can even stand let alone run carrying me plus the two full packs of gear and other equipment.
He shouts at me not to look back and I squeeze my eyes shut, promising myself I’ll never disagree with anything he recommends again, especially when it’s in the nature department.
If we get through this, I’ll give myself to you Nikki, I’ll let you fuck me for a week solid and make you the happiest man alive forever, I promise…
The intensity of the wind keeps up, but the terrifying rumbling, the shaking ground, that simmers down after what feels like a few minutes but Nikki doesn’t slow his pace. I can feel his hard breath punching out with each of his strides, in and out, in and out as my body knocks against his.
Is this the wrong time to be getting hella turned on?
I don’t care, it could be the last time I’m with him. So I make every second of his body against mine count. Willing us to get through this, praying for him to get us safely back to his cabin.
Planning.
Priming myself for how wide I’ll need to stretch myself for him.
Begging him to claim me, to make me his.
To fuck me like I deserve, like an animal in heat.
Oh god, Nikki please! Hurry up…I don’t think I can wait a minute longer.
I’m not sure if I pass out from cold, fear or from being so turned on, but when I open my eyes again I can see the familiar looking forest from near Nikki’s cabin, just with a lot more snow around it.
“Are you alright?” I hear Nikki puffing.
“I’m alright.” I hear myself croaking, “I’m sorry, Nikki… I…”
“We’re not home yet.” he says, but I can see the hillside, the shrub screen and he lets me down so he can get us both inside.
“That storm, it’s still coming, quickly inside now,” he urges me, making sure not to raise his voice. Which makes my heart melt but also makes me feel worse than ever before, for being so horrible to him.
Russian Mountain Man: An Instalove Possessive Alpha Romance (A Man Who Knows What He Wants Book 156) Page 5
