by Lily Thomas
“The human woman escaped me.” Rokki still had to beat back his dire wolf. The beast wanted to go back and howl at the moon in misery, but he knew better. If his mate was a witch, then he needed to make sure she would be safe in his pack before he found her again. She’d disappeared right in front of him. It had to be magic… which made her a witch. It had to mean his mate was a witch, which meant the prophecy of the brothers was coming true.
Ruub’s eyebrows rose high on his forehead in disbelief at Rokki’s words.
“She didn’t out run me.” Rokki clarified. “She disappeared.” He figured it wouldn’t matter if he told his men about her… as long as he didn’t say mate out loud. With all the scents around them, he knew it would be hard for them to recognize her smell if he found her and brought her back later… so for now, this could be a random witch with no consequences for their clan.
“Disappeared?”
“It must have been magic, but I did catch and kill the other Neanderthal.” Rokki switched the subject. Even if he wasn’t worried about his men recognizing her scent, he didn’t need them remembering this event and putting things together when he did bring his mate back to the pack, because he would find her. There was no doubt in his mind. “Now, we know they are in our territory hunting and willing to take a female from our territory.”
“She was human from what I could smell,” Ruub said. “What do we care if they take a human? She wasn’t a member of the pack.”
Rokki shook his head. “She may have been human,” And his mate, but he wasn’t about to say that out loud any time soon, “but this shows the Neanderthals feel confident on our land. The human female could have been one of our females out hunting alone or a pack female on a moonlit run. The Neanderthals had no way to know the human wasn’t a part of our pack and mated to one of our males.”
Ruub nodded his head. “I see what you mean. The human could have been mated to one of our men.”
“Darc isn’t going to like hearing about the Neanderthals invading our territory,” Rokki mentioned his older brother with a grimace. Darc and Rokki disagreed on most things, but they did agree on sending a strong and loud message to the Neanderthals.
“Your uncle won’t be happy to hear of it either.”
No one in the clan would be thrilled with this news. Rokki wasn’t sure why the Neanderthals were invading their territory, but they were here, whether the dire wolves liked it or not. Now they just had to focus on protecting their clan.
“Was anyone injured?” Rokki asked a little louder so his voice would reach the other men who were shifting from their dire wolf forms and into their human ones.
“Just a few scrapes and scratches,” Grok responded from where he searched the corpse of a Neanderthal for anything useful.
Naab walked over. His hands were full of weapons. “I’ve searched my Neanderthal. Their weapons are well built.” The man commented as he studied one of the stone blades he’d taken from the body. “Better built than I thought they could make.”
“We can tell you collected everything,” Ruub commented with a glance at Naab’s hands. “How do we plan on getting these weapons back to the village?”
“We will stash them and come back for them later,” Rokki said.
“I wish we could get the Neanderthals to stop crossing into our territory,” Ruub said. As a beta wolf, he was always ready to back up his alpha but also wouldn’t mind finding a common ground between people. He was a peacemaker, and if he could think of a way to bring peace between their people, Rokki would listen. He always listened to his people.
“Brelk already tried to send a group to discuss terms with the Neanderthals,” Rokki said. His uncle, Brelk, and the temporary alpha of the pack, had done his best with the Neanderthal threat, but the Neanderthals had simply sent them the heads of the wolves his uncle sent to negotiate. Ever since then, they’d killed any and all Neanderthals that’d come into their territory. It was war.
“I still don’t understand how the human escaped you.” Ruub suddenly jumped back to the human woman.
Rokki waved a hand in the air ready to get the topic back under control. He didn’t want his pack members thinking about the woman again. “Perhaps she used a nearby stream to hide her scent. Either way, it doesn’t matter. A human woman running around our territory isn’t as much of a problem as the Neanderthals.”
“If we keep a couple of men in human form, we can take the supplies off the Neanderthals and not have to come back tomorrow.” Ruub threw out helping Rokki to switch the conversation.
Rokki wanted nothing more than to shut down the idea, because he wanted nothing more than to come back and search for his human, but he also didn’t want to attract too much attention. “We will do that.”
“Who will remain in human form?” Ruub asked, ready to deliver his alpha’s orders to the rest of the men.
Rokki’s uncle may be temporary alpha of the pack, but Rokki had already chosen his men for the day he became alpha… as long as his brother, Darc, didn’t become alpha over him, since they were both alpha wolves.
“Have Dholk and Grok carry the supplies back to the village. The rest of us will remain in dire wolf form.” Rokki said.
When the men were ready, Dholk and Grok stayed in their human forms, while the rest of them shifted into their dire wolf forms.
Rokki loved being in his wolf form. His senses were much better, and for some strange reason, it felt like the form he should always be in. As they set off through the woods, he made sure to brush up against several trees and bushes so he could easily find his way back to this area. If his witch came back, he would be sure to capture her before she could flee from him again.
Chapter 5
After another long day of digging in the dirt under the hot sun, Andrea was happy to drive back into town to meet Emma at a local Chinese spot. All that digging and brushing dirt off bones and artifacts had worked up her appetite.
As she walked into the restaurant, the man at the front greeted her with a wide smile as he slightly inclined his head, “Good evening, Andrea. Another to-go order?”
Andrea shook her head as she realized that not only did the man recognize her, but she also knew his name. It showed that she’d been eating out way too much while on this dig. Her hotel had a kitchenette. She should make a stop by the grocery tomorrow and grab some fresh fruits and vegetables. Her heart would thank her when she was in her seventies or eighties.
“Good evening, Jin. I’m actually here to meet a friend.” Andrea said, feeling happy she could tell him that she wasn’t a lonely person who didn’t know how to cook.
“A friend?” Jin asked dubiously like she had to be a recluse or something.
“I have friends.” Andrea folded her arms in front of her chest as she became a bit offended at his doubt.
“I thought you were here on business.”
“I am, but she’s my colleague.” Andrea tried to explain.
“Ah,” he held up a finger as if he’d just figured out what she meant, “a business dinner then.”
“Um, sure.” Andrea just wanted to sit and have some orange sesame chicken with a side of crunchy noodles and brown rice. Jin could call her dinner whatever he wanted. “I think she might already be here. Her name is Emma Wilkins.”
Jin’s head glanced down at the paper on his hostess stand. He pulled some glasses onto his nose, which were attached to a black strap around his neck so he couldn’t misplace them. “Ah, here it is. Come with me.” He waved for her to follow him.
Jin led her to the back of the restaurant, where a pretty blonde waited on one side of the booth. “Your waiter will be with you soon.”
Andrea sent him a smile and a nod. “Sounds good.” Then she slid across the faux leather red bench seat with a couple of disturbing squeaking noises. “Am I late?”
“No, I was early.” Emma placed the menu down on the table and sent her a smile. “I haven’t eaten here yet, so I wanted to make sure I had time to figure out wh
at would fit into my calorie counting diet.”
Andrea grimaced inwardly. She would hate to know how many calories she devoured a day since she’d been ordering from this Chinese restaurant almost every day since she came to this dig site.
“As long as you haven’t been waiting for me, too long.”
“Not at all.”
“Hello.” A cheery voice greeted them from beside their table, and they both glanced up at the young waiter. Then his eyes fell on Andrea’s face. “Oh, hi, Andrea! Glad to see you’ve decided to eat in the restaurant rather than just get take out.”
Andrea’s face heated as she blurted out her order, and Emma followed suit.
The moment the waiter was gone, Emma asked, “You come here often?”
Andrea shrugged as her cheeks heated even more. “It’s on my way back to my hotel, so I usually stop by for dinner. It’s quick and easy.”
“How often?” Emma raised her ice water to her lips and took a sip as her blue eyes studied Andrea over the rim of the glass.
Andrea ducked her head as she pretended to skim over the menu in front of her. “Every night.”
“We could have eaten at another restaurant if you’d wanted. When I suggested this place, I didn’t know you’d already eaten here.”
“Nah,” Andrea waved a hand in the air, “it’s fine. I did agree to meet you here after all, and the food is really good.”
“I try not to eat out too often, so I’m glad it has your recommendation.” Emma leaned back in her seat with a sigh. Her blonde hair had been painstakingly curled into a perfect hair do, and she’d put on a full face of makeup, but not a gaudy amount, just enough to highlight her already perfect features. She looked like she should be a model, rather than an archeologist sweating and digging out under the sun, but looks could be deceiving.
Andrea raised a hand to her knotted auburn locks, trying in vain to dislodge some of those rats’ nests, as her mother had fondly called them throughout her childhood. At least she had the green eyes going for her. Men seemed to like the auburn air and green-eyed look.
The waiter returned to their table, took their orders, disappeared for a few more minutes, and then showed back up with steaming platefuls of food.
“Ooooo, it does smell good,” Emma said as she leaned over to sniff at the scents floating off her dish.
“It’ll taste even better,” Andrea promised as she looked down at her own dish, which glistened up at her from the plate. Unable to wait, she unwrapped her silverware and dug in.
The dinner was eaten in semi-silence as each woman focused on the food in front of them. After a day of digging under the sun, they’d each worked up an appetite to rival a football player.
When the fortune cookies were dropped off on the table, Andrea held out a hand, stopping Emma from breaking the plastic wrapper around the cookie. “Have you ever heard of the game of putting ‘in bed’ at the end of a fortune cookie fortune?”
Emma shook her head, her blonde curls swinging wildly around her face.
“So,” Andrea took her own cookie, “this was something my mother told me back when I was about twelve years old. Of course, she now claims she never told this to me, but I have a very clear memory of it.” Her mother loved to say she never told Andrea about it, but Andrea had a clear memory of going to that Chinese restaurant on her twelfth birthday. “Anyway, you open the fortune and read it, but you add ‘in bed’ to the end.”
“Sounds like fun!” Emma said as a smile crept across red-tinted lips. Her friend didn’t wait. With a pop of the plastic wrapper, she grabbed her cookie with two fingers, and with a snap, she pulled out the tiny white piece of paper. On one side, there was a word in Chinese, and on the other, there was the fortune. “Do not dwell on differences with a loved one – try to compromise… in bed.”
They both burst into laughter.
“Oh my goodness, this is fantastic!” Emma wiped a tear from the corner of her eye as they calmed back down. “I’m not sure I could compromise in bed! I know what I like and how I like it.”
“That was the perfect example of how fun this can be.” Andrea smiled, pleased that her game was off to such a great start and that she was making a better friend out of Emma. Traveling the world to find dig sites meant that she didn’t get many close friends, so she was eager for any chance that came her way.
“Open yours! Open yours!” Emma discarded her fortune as she munched on the crunchy cookie.
“Okay. Hold your horses.” Andrea popped her wrapper open, cracked the cookie, and drew out the fortune. “Someone is looking up to you. Don’t let that person down… in bed!”
They both cracked into a fit of laughter that drew curious gazes from other diners in the restaurant.
“Oh my goodness. Your mother sounds like a hoot!” Emma cried streaks forming in that perfect makeup mask.
“Sometimes, she came up with the best stuff.” Andrea agreed as she sucked in a greedy breath of air.
“Should I get you some more cookies?” The waiter materialized out of thin air by their booth. His amused face smiled down at them.
“I think we could use some more cookies.” Emma nodded her head enthusiastically.
The waiter strode away and came back with a couple of handfuls before leaving once more.
“Screw having a diet!” Emma announced. “I need to hear some more of these ‘in bed’ fortunes!”
Andrea cracked open another cookie. “Your efforts have not gone unnoticed… in bed.”
They cackled like a couple of witches who’d cast a spell on an unsuspecting person and couldn’t wait to see the mess they’d created.
Not to be outdone, Emma cracked open another and announced louder than necessary, “Why not treat yourself to a good time instead of waiting for someone else to do it… in bed?!”
Scowls were cast their way as they bust a gut with their laughter. Andrea sank to the side, laying down on the faux leather cushion. Emma’s chest collapsed on top of the table as she buried her head in her arms.
“Guess… you should… whip out the… vibrator tonight.” Andrea gasped out between breathes of air as laughter continued to rock her body.
“Oh… my… god!” Emma clamped her teeth down on her hand to keep from bursting into an uncontrollable fit of laughter. “I didn’t even think about that, but you’re right! That’s how I could treat myself in bed.”
“Oh dear,” Andrea righted herself on the seat. “Maybe we should save the rest of these for another night so we don’t get kicked out before dessert.”
“True.” Emma smiled. “I wouldn’t mind something more interesting to eat than a plain fortune cookie.”
With that decided, they placed a couple of orders in for some red bean buns.
Once the buns arrived at the table, Andrea broached the subject she’d been waiting to talk with Emma about. “Since I told you about my last dream, I thought you might listen if I told you about another dream I had.”
“You’ve got me interested,” Emma said as she grabbed one of the decent sized red bean buns. “Was it anything like the last one?”
“It has some similarities.” Andrea nodded her head. “I woke up yet again in the nude in what appeared to be the ice age.”
Emma nodded her head enthusiastically as she ripped off junks of the red bean bun and popped them into her mouth.
Andrea then proceeded to tell Emma about the Neanderthals, which had her friend raising her delicately plucked eyebrows. Then when she got to the werewolf part, a smile spread across Emma’s face.
“Sounds to me like you’ve been reading too many paranormal romance novels, and your brain is just processing them while you sleep.”
Andrea took a bite of a red bean bun. She wanted to deny what Emma was saying, and tell her how real it had all felt, but she wasn’t sure Emma would believe her. It was even hard for Andrea to come to terms with what she was thinking, and she had experienced them first hand.
“Or maybe your unconscious is tellin
g you to get a boyfriend because there are some needs you need taken care of that you can’t quite itch by yourself.” Emma leaned back, having finished her red bean bun in record time.
Andrea stuck her hand in her pants pocket and fiddled with the bracelet. After her last dream, she’d told herself she would return it to the dig site and never give it another thought. Yet here she was with the bracelet in her pocket.
“It didn’t seem like a dream though,” Relief entered her chest as she admitted it to another person.
“Some dreams can seem like reality. Sometimes I think I’m remembering a memory, but it turns out it was just a dream that messed up that memory.” Emma added helpfully.
Andrea bit her tongue lest she tell Emma that she took an artifact from the dig site. She wanted nothing more than to tell Emma that the bracelet was sending her back into time. If only she could hand the bracelet to Emma and tell her to try it on for a night. Andrea was sure her friend would experience the same thing, and it would all become clear to Emma.
Darn.
She couldn’t do it.
If Emma reported her to Clyde, it would be bye-bye fun job and good luck finding another. Once it spread through the industry about what she’d done, no one would want to hire her. She’d stolen an artifact! This was a big no no in the archeology world. And she loved her job. If she was banned from holding another artifact, a piece of history, she would lose her mind and her purpose for breathing.
Touching history was life.
Removing her hand from her pocket, she left the bracelet where it was, and Andrea squashed the very idea of telling Emma.
For the rest of their dinner, they talked about dinner and how they managed to have a life outside of work with all their travel and months on dig sites. Neither of them had boyfriends, and they communicated to their families through letters or emails with the occasional phone call.
After dinner, they rose from their booth, embraced, and went on their separate ways for the rest of the night.
