Tallius (Spoils of War Book 2)

by Susan Bliler

  Frowning at him, she motioned to her car.

  “Ooooh”—he tilted his head back—“I get it.” Turning to look at her ride, he canted his head and squinted his eyes. “Olivia cuz she looks like an olive, right?”

  “She does not!” Mira snapped, looking from him to her car. “That’s army green!” she jammed her finger toward her ride. “And I call her Olivia because I like the name. Was saving it for my daughter, but since that ain’t happening . . .” The fire left her as she stalled on her explanation. TMI.

  “Alright!” Tallius threw his hands up and muttered quietly, “Fuck, woman. Alright!” She stared at him, and after a moment’s silence, he asked her, “Why does everything have to be a fight with you?”

  “It doesn’t.”

  “Yeah”—he plowed a hand through his hair—“it does. From the second you pulled up in your army-green sports car”—lifting his hands he made air quotes around the words army green—“you’ve been nothing but a challenge.” Whipping his head around he narrowed his eyes on the car as his face lit at something. “Wait! Is that why you drive a Challenger?”

  “Jesus!” Mira rolled her eyes and turned back for the cabin. “You’re impossible!”

  “Mira! Hold up!”

  But she didn’t want to hold up. Nope, she wanted to change out of her winter weather gear, get into some traveling clothes, load up her suitcase, and try like hell to get down off this mountain. At this point, she wasn’t even averse to skipping her two weeks at the ski resort and heading straight back to Fury territory.

  “Why you dressed like that?” Tallius asked from behind her. “Wait! Were you . . . were you coming to look for me? Were you worried about me?”

  His teasing tone pissed her off mostly because she had been worried. She didn’t tell him that though. She didn’t tell him anything. Nope, she just stomped her way ungracefully back to the cabin as her boots slipped on the snow and ice.

  Halfway to the cabin, the silence of the mountain was interrupted by a great rumbling noise. At first, she thought it was Tallius grumbling behind her, but the sound was heavier . . . bigger. Stilling, Mira’s head lifted as she strained to listen. Behind her, Tallius’s feet fell silent too.

  Mira heard the noise again, and it had an eerie feeling pressing up against her skin. All the fine hairs on her body stood on end as she tried to place the rumbling.

  “What the fuck is that?” she snapped as the sound grew louder. It sounded like an army was pounding down the mountain toward them. Head whipping around, Mira pinned Tallius with hard eyes. “Is this a fucking ambush? You set me up!”

  Tallius was frowning at up the mountain too. “Please!” he snorted by way of denial, but his eyes suddenly shot to the front of the cabin. The porch swing started rocking, and then the earth started trembling, and the whole cabin started to shake. “What the fuck!”

  The windows were rattling so hard that Mira thought they’d shatter, and the ground beneath her feet vibrated so intensely that she had to throw out her arms to steady herself. It’d take one serious fucking army to garner that type of reaction from the mountain. Instantly, Mira’s thoughts went to an earthquake, but then something slammed into the cabin and spewed white over the top with all the force of a freight train.

  Avalanche! It’s a fucking aval . . .

  It was too late to do anything but throw up a hand to protect herself. Tallius tackled her from behind, but even his strength was no match for the maelstrom of freezing violence that ripped them both off their feet an instant before everything went black.

  Chapter 7

  Cold. Cold. Cold!

  Tallius came to freezing his balls off and hurting everywhere. Ribs aching the most, he drew in a ragged breath and realized it hurt to breathe. Unsure if the pain was from the cold or the fact that he’d had the fucking wind knocked out of him, he took a mental assessment of the rest of him. Aside from the ache in his ribs, he was mostly just cold.

  Groaning, he tried to move, but something pressed heavily against his chest. He blinked into the dark, and his breath was chugging out of him in cloudy puffs that blasted against something and came right back at him. Struggling to focus, he knew something was mere inches from his face. He had to squint and blink over and over until his vision cleared enough for him to realize what it was. Snow! The avalanche had buried him!

  “Fuck!”

  He made to move again but realized the heaviness pressing against his chest wasn’t just snow. He struggled to wiggle his head enough to look down, and his heart thudded to a halt.

  Mira!

  Jerking frantically to free his arms from the compacted snow, he had to struggle to pull them into his body before he started clearing the snow away from Mira’s face. She was unconscious, and he had to force himself to still long enough to listen for her breathing. It was there, but it was faint.

  Tucking a finger between her lips, he forced her mouth open to make sure she wasn’t suffocating on snow and that her airway was clear. It was.

  Fuck, fuck, fuck!

  He didn’t know where they were or how deeply they were buried, but fear for Mira had him paddling with one arm as he tried to dig enough snow to see light. Stopping, he realized he didn’t even know if he was digging up or digging down. Swallowing hard, he flattened a hand over Mira’s face to shield her before he gathered saliva in his mouth and then spit it out. Good thing he did because it fell straight down and landed on the back of his hand. He was upside down, which meant he’d been digging the wrong way, and, worse, he was probably crushing Mira. Adjusting to maneuver up by his head, he started pulling snow down onto them, but even trying to tuck Mira’s face into his neck didn’t keep the snow from landing on her eyes and mouth. It wasn’t going to work.

  Push. I could push!

  Setting Mira’s head back on the ground, he braced both hands on either side of her head and drew in a deep breath that felt much too thin and had his ribs whining in disapproval. Ignoring the ache, he used all of his strength to push.

  At first nothing happened. There was no movement, no shift at all except for his hands and knees sinking deeper into the snow around Mira’s body.

  “Come ooooooon!” he yelled and kept right on pushing.

  Finally, above him, there was a slight give. Stopping to catch his breath, Tallius grew hopeful that they weren’t so deep that he couldn’t dig them out. Clearing some of the fallen snow from Mira’s face, with a little space between them now, he could see her more clearly. She had a deep gash at her hairline, and there was blood coating her forehead. He used his worry for her as an incentive. She could be hurt, really fucking hurt, and the air in their little cocoon was getting thinner and thinner, making it harder and harder to breathe. The threat of running out of oxygen was real and so was hypothermia because unconscious like she was, Mira couldn’t call on her wolf to keep her warm, and who knew how long they’d already been buried.

  Sucking in another breath, Tallius arched his back and used all his strength to straighten his arms. Once his arms were as straight as they’d go, he started work on lifting up his ass by straightening and pushing with his legs. Snow was pouring in through the spaces he was making with his body, and he had to stop twice to dig Mira’s upper body out and pull her up with him. When he was finally able to get his legs completely straight so he was basically doing some dumb yoga move over Mira, he felt it.

  A cold breeze seared his exposed lower back where his jacket and shirt had ridden up. The arctic blast on his already cold but now sweaty skin was bracing, but he had bigger problems. If he stood, he could get his head out of the snow, but it’d leave Mira exposed, and he knew she’d get buried. He had little choice though. They were running out of time. He knew they were because black dots were exploding in his vision from lack of oxygen. Still, leaving Mira felt wrong, but, fuck!

  Blinking down at her, making a mental note of exactly where she was in relation to his legs, Tallius surged upward and broke free of the snow with an agonized gasp. An
d that’s all it was. He took in one giant gulp of air before he dove back in and started digging like the devil demanded it. His fingers were so cold that it felt like the snow was made of a thousand little knives, but he didn’t slow. When he knew he was close, he slowed and was careful not to claw Mira. Reaching into the snow, put his hands on either side of where he knew her head was. When he found her, he scooped great armsful of snow off her until he could see her pale face. Her lips were turning blue and made him work faster, but, fuck, it was cold. Halfway through digging out her body, his fingers froze straight and refused to listen to his brain as his teeth chattered. He let his wolf rip out of his skin, and instantly he felt better, warmer. His wolf dug Mira out at a pace that was double what the man in him could do.

  When Mira’s torso was exposed, Tallius quickly shifted back to his human skin. A slow ripple replaced his cold, wet clothing, but he didn’t care. He was too worried about Mira.

  Cupping her face, he lowered his ear to her lips and listened. Relief ripped through him when her breath fanned his ear.

  Pulling her lifeless form up out of the snow, he lifted her into the cradle of his arms and glanced around trying to get his bearings. All he could see was snow and the tops of trees. Looking up the mountain or down it didn’t matter. The view was the same. He didn’t have a place to take Mira because the cabin was buried, and she needed to get warm and get warm now!

  “Mira,” he looked at her and gave her a gentle shake. “Mira, wake up. Please, pretty wolf! Wake up! You need to fucking shift!”

  She didn’t even stir and Tallius felt an unfamiliar emotion swamp him. Helplessness.

  Up the mountain about a hundred and sixty yards, Tallius could see the chimney of the cabin poking out of the snow. Carrying Mira up the hill toward the cabin was difficult. The snow was deep and not very compacted, so he kept sinking to his hips and having to regroup, but adrenaline and shifter strength was on Tallius’s side. When he was nearly to the cabin, potent relief flooded him when he saw there was a slight snowless burrow all along the front eave of the roof.

  Yesssss! Fuck yes!

  Racing the last dozen yards, Tallius found a safe place to lay Mira before he went to the widest gap between the snow and the cabin. Another shift tore through him, and then his wolf was digging and digging. In a flash, he had a little tunnel dug down to the dining room window.

  Glancing at Mira, he crawled down the tunnel, shifted back to human form, kicked the window in, and then scrambled into the cabin. It wasn’t in bad shape for having just been blasted by a fucking freight train of snow, but he didn’t have any time to really inspect it now. Ripping the flannel blanket off the back of the couch, he also snagged the fire poker from beside the hearth and hurried back to the window. Angling his face away from the window, he used the poker to clear all the rest of the glass out of the frame before he threw the blanket over the bottom rail and covered as much of the broken glass as he could.

  As he crawled back up the tunnel, his mind was on Mira. Anything could have happened to her while he’d been inside the cabin. She could have been dragged off by wild animals, she could have stopped breathing, she could have woken alone and thought he’d abandoned her.

  Moving faster, his head poked out of the snow. Mira was still where he’d left her, and she was still unconscious.

  Getting her down the tunnel to the window wasn’t easy. He had to put her on his lap and inch down slowly until his boots hit the windowsill, then he rolled and left her to get himself inside before grabbing her ankles and pulling her carefully to him. Once he had her safely inside the cabin, he carried her to his room. Kicking the door in, he saw that the window had shattered. The bed was buried and the room was mostly filled with snow.

  Cursing, Tallius didn’t even bother checking the second room. It was on the same side of the cabin and had a window just like his, so he assumed it suffered the same fate.

  Carrying Mira back to the couch, he set her down and quickly started stripping her. Her boot laces were so snow packed that they’d frozen and he wasn’t able to untie them. Shifting partially, he used his wolfs claws to rip the front of her boots open. He did the same with her jeans because they were frozen solid too. Quickly pulling her boots off and then peeling her jeans down her legs, Tallius growled at the layers that met him. It was ridiculous how many layers of clothing he had to peel off Mira’s body. It had him feeling like he was opening one of those stupid Russian dolls. It’s like she’d dressed for the fucking snowpocalypse, and . . . His internal reprimands died off when he realized her numerous layers of clothing may have saved her life.

  When he had all of her layers of clothing off, he stalled at her panties and bra. Her skin was frigid, but he left her undergarments in place and rushed off in search of more blankets from a closet just off the living room.

  Yanking three blankets out, Tallius hurried back to Mira and wrapped her in one blanket before covering her with the other two. His head was throbbing, and absently he noticed that his knee hurt, but he ignored his own injuries as he ripped his jacket off and dropped in front of the hearth. His fingers shook as he stacked kindling for a fire. He had to get the cabin warmed, and fast, and he’d seen the top of the chimney poking out of the snow, so he didn’t have to worry about smoke being forced back into the house.

  Thank God for small miracles!

  Slowly, a fire popped and crackled to life. Tallius left it to grow while he dug under the sink for the tools he knew were stored there. Finding an old coffee can filled with various screws and nails and an old worn hammer, he grabbed the blanket he’d used to cover the glass of the window and shook it out before nailing it over the hole to the tunnel. His hope was to keep as much heat as he could from escaping.

  Going back to check on Mira, he was shocked to see that her lips were turning a deeper shade of blue. Rubbing his hands together to warm them up, he reached down and touched her face. Stone cold.

  Son of a . . .

  He stacked more logs on the now roaring fire and peeled the blankets off Mira. Like a perv he reached down and laid his hands on top of her breasts and then felt her panties. Her undergarments were soaking wet, so like the gentleman he was, he carefully peeled them off her body before he stripped too. Naked, he laid one of the blankets on the floor right next to the fire and lifted Mira to gently place her on the blanket before crawling down beside her and using the other two blankets to cover them both. Because of all the exertion, he was hot as hell, but the second her body came in contact with his, he sucked in a sharp breath. Cold! She was just so damn cold!

  Tallius was worried. Pulling Mira into his body, he rubbed her arms and back as he silently prayed.

  Fuck, it’d look bad for War’s Beta to go to a mutual meet with the Beta of the Fury only to have her die. Christ, War had only just settled his pack and was finally starting to enjoy life with his Alpha she, Mira, and this could jeopardize it all. If Mira died, the Fury would declare war, and they’d all be back in hell again.

  Rubbing her arms more vigorously, Tallius pulled her on top of him and spread his legs to wrap his calves around the back of hers. His dick was settled between Mira’s thighs, and he knew how bad it’d look if she woke right now, but he didn't care. He had to get her heated up, and fast, and he couldn’t really be blamed if his dick was at half-mast; after all, she was beautiful as fuck and beneath the acrid scent of blood on her forehead, she smelled delicious. Angling his head, he glanced at her wound. He should have cleaned it up and washed some of the blood off her, but priorities and shit!

  Staring at her sooty lashes and full lips, his dick got even harder and he had to concentrate super hard to keep from moving. That would be bad. War would tell him that dry humping the Fury Beta would be bad.

  Wait! Would it be dry humping if they were both naked? Hell, it wouldn’t take much to slip in just the tip . . . Fuck! And now his cock was hard as iron and he was fixated on how tight her pussy would be.

  Stop thinking about it, stop thinking a
bout it! For Christ’s sake she’s practically dying and you’re thinking about slipping in your tip. Sick, twisted fuck!

  Tallius forced his body to stay as rigid as possible. It was the most excruciating experience of his life, but out of consideration for the situation and Mira’s feelings, he forced himself to think of all the things that were guaranteed to deflate his boner. Practically nothing worked except his worry for her, but once he concentrated on her temperature and the sound of her breathing, his libido cooled. The color in her lips was turning normal again and her head wound wasn’t bleeding anymore, but it still worried him that she hadn’t stirred yet. Shifters were tough as shit, Betas and Alphas more so than others. Mira still being out meant she took a serious knock. Beneath the blanket, Tallius skimmed his hands along her arms, neck, and back to make sure he hadn’t missed anything. Finding nothing, he held Mira to him a little longer until her body had warmed enough that he felt comfortable rolling her off him.

  Settling Mira on her back, he pushed up to an elbow to study her. Her cheeks were flushed now and there were little dots of sweat beading on her nose and forehead. It was a good sign. Her warmth was coming back.

  Leaning down, he inspected her head wound. It was a long gash, but not too deep. Lifting a hand, he stroked a finger down her cheek. “Mira?”

  She didn’t stir.

  Shoving the blankets off them, he sat up and got to his knees. Straddling Mira’s legs, he studied her body. There was some bruising forming, but other than that, there were no other visible signs of injury. Reaching down, he curled his hands around her ribs and felt for any broken bones. It was hard to concentrate though because his eyes kept gliding up to the peaked buds of her pretty pink nipples. With just one glance he was hard again, and it was frustrating. He’d never been so attracted to a female before, and of course he would have to have that reaction to this one! Mira hated him, and if she knew how much just the sight of her naked body affected him, she’d probably laugh in his face.