by E A Price
Ariel decided that they needed a little fresh air. It would do them all good. Both Burke and Teena were a bit flustered, making Ariel wonder just what had happened in their vehicle, but Mal was also a little frustrated. Perhaps the last hour of listening to them singing about how many bottles of pop were on a wall had pushed even his patient limits.
“Okay guys,” she called out, “let’s all drop our bags in the cabin, and then we’ll go on a hike to find supplies for our Thanksgiving centerpieces. Does that sound like fun?”
“Yeah!” called the kids with varying degrees of enthusiasm.
“Don’t forget to bring your notebooks so we can keep track of what wildlife we see. Also, anyone that needs the bathroom should go before we leave.”
She’d prefer they didn’t go when they were on the hike.
Mal carried her bag into the cabin for her. All the kids, and Burke and Teena, just dropped them in the middle of the floor and set about all trying to get into the bathroom at once.
“It’s all one cabin,” said Mal, frowning slightly.
“Yep, just one big cabin.”
Apart from the separate bathroom, it was one large cabin with a row of bunk beds. They wouldn’t be spending that much time sleeping, and the kids were so young, making it co-ed was hardly a big deal. Though, Ariel was already blushing at the thought of sharing a bedroom with Mal – even if it had ten other occupants.
“Probably best if Teena and Burke sleep at opposite ends of the cabin,” said Mal as he caught Ariel’s eye. “Wouldn’t want him to get any ideas.”
Ariel swallowed as her reindeer trembled. “Good thinking, wouldn’t want that.”
Was it her imagination or was Mal giving her a smoldering look? It had to be her imagination, right? Right?!
Chapter Fourteen
“Okay, guys, who’s hungry?” called Ariel excitedly.
All the kids bounced up and down, shouting out that they were.
“Okay, then everyone into the cabin and grab the coolers – let’s have a floor picnic, and we can start making our centerpieces!”
The kids squealed in excitement. Like Ariel, their enthusiasm never seemed to wane. They also didn’t seem ever to get tired. The hike had been lengthy, but none of them seemed even a little fatigued.
Ariel smiled at Mal and followed the kids into the cabin. Mal leaned against the porch steps.
Ariel had led them on a long walk, pointing out various flowers and wildlife as they went. She seemed to have an endless well of knowledge about flora and fauna, and the kids were all suitably impressed and keen to hear what she had to say. Mal had to admit he had been interested too. The whole science and nature thing had never really appealed to him. He’d barely spent any time at school growing up, and when he was a hunter, he hardly had any time to slow down and appreciate his surroundings. But yeah, this was nice. Didn’t hurt that it was a lovely day and Ariel was wearing shorts either. The surroundings were beautiful, but Ariel actually managed to improve them. Yeah, he knew he was a pervert, and he was starting not to care.
Though… he couldn’t deny he felt a sliver of unease. His reindeer, while enjoying himself, was watchful, and slightly on edge. Why he wasn’t sure, it was just an idea that something was wrong. But he couldn’t sense anyone nearby. Still, he kept a close watch on Ariel and the kids and a very close eye on Ariel.
“Ugh,” groaned Burke, as he limped into view, supported by a grinning Teena.
Mal bit back a laugh. Burke had bragged about how he went on hikes all the time, how he could out-hike all of them, and how none of them could keep up with him. He badly twisted his ankle halfway through the hike when a squirrel ran onto the path and startled him. Teena had virtually been carrying him ever since. Mal offered, but Teena assured him she could manage. He suspected Teena rather enjoyed having Burke’s arm around her.
Teena deposited him on the steps and stretched her arms over her head. Burke’s eyes traveled up and down her body, and Mal wondered just how bad his ankle really was. After he hurt his ankle, he certainly started making a lot more noise after Teena took charge of him.
“Think you’ll live?” asked Mal wryly.
“I might need a massage or two,” replied Burke, flashing a hopeful look in Teena’s direction.
Teena smirked at Mal, who considered that he’d probably never met two people who were so well matched.
Mal looked up a moment before Ariel came out of the cabin, leading a small, snuffling wolf shifter by the hand. Hoot!
“Ow!” complained Burke as Mal stepped on him to get to Ariel.
“What’s wrong?” he demanded.
Ariel glanced down at the young girl with a compassionate look – a look that Mal knew all too well. “Sophie lost her necklace on the hike – it was a gift from her grandma.”
Sophie sniffed and nodded in agreement; her bottom lip wobbled, threatening to break out into a full-blown sob.
“I’m going to go look for it,” said Ariel.
“No,” rumbled Mal, “I’ll send… ah…”
Mal looked down at Burke who was rubbing his ankle. Yeah, usually he had half a dozen enforcers to hand. Now, he had Burke who was pouting at Teena for attention. Ugh.
“Probably best if I go,” murmured Ariel.
She had a point. If he did force Burke out there, the buffoon would probably twist his other ankle, and get poison oak, and would probably eat poison berries. Burke wasn’t blessed with common sense.
“I’ll go too,” said Mal.
“That’s not necessary,” she protested.
Mal ignored her. There was no way he was letting her go anywhere alone. He nodded at Teena, and she understood. She hopped up the steps, ably climbing over Burke who was much more open to being stepped on by Teena than Mal. Then again, Teena was much more careful to avoid his boy parts than Mal.
Teena took Sophie’s hand. “C’mon sweetie, let’s go make a Thanksgiving centerpiece. Mine’s going to have a Die Hard theme.”
Sophie wiped her nose. “What’s Die Hard?”
Teena’s eyes lit up. “Ooh, it’s a fairytale about a man called John McClane and…” Her voice trailed off as she led Sophie into the cabin.
“What about me?” called Burke forlornly.
Ariel cast an anxious look at the cabin. “I hope she doesn’t go into too much detail about Die Hard.”
Mal grunted. “Let’s go.”
“Ow!”
He clambered over Burke and held out his hand to Ariel. She only hesitated slightly before taking it and allowing Mal to help her over Burke.
“Ow!”
“We need to get moving; it’s getting dark,” he rumbled as he led her away.
If the fact that he was holding her hand was bothering her, she didn’t say anything. She just let him do it. Didn’t even wriggle to get away from him. Maybe she was enjoying it as much as him.
*
They had been retracing their steps in silence for a while. It was dark, but Ariel was determined to find the necklace. So far all they had seen was a can, a cigarette case and something silver-colored… that was ribbed… and was meant for adults… and made of rubber, and which she was eternally grateful that the kids had not spotted earlier. Mal had kicked it away while Ariel pretended like she wasn’t melting in embarrassment.
She was pleased that Mal didn’t suggest turning back. He wasn’t actually saying anything. She could feel questions bubbling inside her. There were so many things she wanted to say to him, and yet she didn’t say them, just let the tension between them fizz and splutter.
He was glad she asked him to stay. But why? Why would he be pleased about that? Was he just happy to know that someone was going to miss him when he left? Or was he glad to know that Ariel cared about him? Could Carrie have been right about his feelings?
Ariel spied a glint of metal and dropped Mal’s hand – which her reindeer had gleefully been gloating about holding since they left the cabin.
“Here it is!” she cried, gra
bbing it and waving it triumphantly. It was a locket and very dear to Sophie, and Ariel was glad it was found and wouldn’t ruin the trip for her.
Mal nodded. His expression was his usual blank stare. Whether he was happy or sad at that moment was, as usual, a complete mystery to her.
Ariel sighed, her reindeer mewled, and she put it in her pocket.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, frowning slightly.
“Nothing,” she denied automatically.
Mal continued to stare that indomitable stare that surely had killers and thieves confessing in seconds. Indeed, she couldn’t hold out for very long in the face of that look.
Ariel shuffled her feet uneasily. “Just, you know, it’s not easy to,” she swallowed, “guess what you’re thinking.”
He regarded her steadily for a few moments, and she squirmed. Lord, where was a sinkhole when you needed one?!
“You really want to know what I’m thinking?” he said finally.
“Yes,” she hissed, annoyed at him for putting her on the spot, and for always being so remote.
Mal rolled his shoulders and carefully folded his arms, presenting a defiant stance. “I was thinking how good your legs look in those shorts.”
Ariel blinked at him for a few moments while her reindeer’s jaw dropped. Did he really just say that?! Of all the things she could have imagined that was very low down the list. Actually, it didn’t even make the list.
“You’re kidding, right?”
Mal’s nostrils flared, and he jutted his chin. “You wanted to know.”
Ariel watched him, waiting for some flicker, some indication that he was making a joke, but if he was, he gave nothing away.
Ariel snorted. “You were not thinking that.”
“I was,” he said patiently, “and it’s not the first time I’ve thought it today.”
Carrie’s words flitted through her mind – about Mal’s alleged crush. “Are you actually saying you find me attractive?”
“Is it that hard to believe?”
“Well, yes!” she damn near exploded. “I mean, I get it that you kissed me years ago because you were grieving – I get it that it only happened because you were upset. But I just don’t get why ‘you’ would find ‘me’ attractive. I mean, c’mon!”
“It’s really not that surprising,” he said stiffly, a rare flash of anger showing on his face. “I may only be a hunter but…”
“What on earth are you talking about?” she grumbled as her beast stomped the ground. “I mean, why would ‘you’ an unbelievably sexy and smart hunter, who could have nearly any female in the herd, even spend a moment thinking about nerdy, little me?”
Mal looked baffled. “You actually think I’m too good for you? Me?”
“I know what you think of me.”
Mal chuckled lowly. “Clearly, you don’t.”
“Like everyone else, you think I’m Saint Ariel – the most boring busybody in the whole herd.”
Her cheeks heated in embarrassment. She had never openly admitted that she knew what everyone called or thought of her. Her mom and brothers surely knew but never told her lest they hurt her, but wagging tongues could not be stopped.
“I don’t think you’re boring, Ariel.” He dropped his arms to his sides and took a step closer to her; her body trembled at his nearness. “And I didn’t kiss you back then because I was grieving, I kissed you because you were a beautiful girl, pressing herself against me and I was attracted to you, and that’s why I’m going to kiss you now.”
“Wha…”
Her words were swallowed as he covered her mouth with his. He dragged her into his arms, crushing her against him. Ariel moaned at the exquisiteness of his taste, his feel and his scent. Oh, she almost thought she had built it up to be something it wasn’t in her mind, but no, it was even better than she remembered. She wrapped her arms around his neck, fearful of him ending it again too quickly. She wanted this moment to go on and on. Alas, it was not to be…
Mal stiffened at the sound of a loud bang, and he dropped to the ground, pulling Ariel down with him, but sadly releasing her lips.
“What was that?” she mumbled, languishing on his chest.
“Gun.”
“What?!”
“Shhh.”
“What?!” she repeated in a whisper.
A gunshot? The park and wildlife were supposed to be off-limits for any hunting. It was supposed to be the perfect place to bring kids. Oh no! The kids!
“Come on,” he whispered, taking her hand. “Let’s get back to the cabin. Stay low.”
Ariel nodded and allowed herself to be dragged back, the afterglow of their wonderful kiss fully extinguished.
Chapter Fifteen
“Maybe it was just a hunter who lost their way?” suggested Burke.
“They’d have to be seriously out of their way because hunting isn’t even allowed in this county,” replied Ariel as she gave the kids another worried glance.
Mal grunted and peered through a sliver in the curtains. His reindeer was pacing furiously. Altogether, he heard four shots. None of them hit either him or Ariel, but they had been close - so close he felt one of the bullets whoosh past his neck.
They had made it back to the cabin unscathed and found that all the kids, Teena and Burke were fine and happy and utterly oblivious to any potential danger. Mal quickly filled Teena and Burke in, and he was considering their options.
Teena shrugged. “Maybe it was just teenagers having fun.”
Ariel scrunched her nose, and he was so tightly wound he couldn’t even enjoy the way her nose wiggled whenever she did that.
“Would teenagers really sneak out to the woods in the middle of the night to fire off guns?” asked Ariel, entirely at a loss to understand how that could be fun.
“Well, maybe they were just doing target practice with cans or bottles or something,” said Teena in such a falsely innocent way that anyone listening couldn’t fail to realize that she had undoubtedly been that kind of teenager.
“It sounded like a sniper rifle. I doubt it was teenagers,” rumbled Mal, “but I need to look at the bullet holes.”
Ariel’s eyes widened. “You’re not seriously suggesting going back out there?”
“We need to know what’s happening. We need to make sure the kids are okay.”
She gave him a wary look. “We could just contact one of the park rangers and ask them to sort it out. I know we don’t have cell phone reception out here, but I brought a walkie-talkie.”
“Yeah,” said Teena slowly. “While you were gone we decided to have a dance party…”
“And,” said Burke, picking up the thread, “the batteries in the CD player were dead, so…”
“We took them out of the walkie-talkie, and it uses batteries up really fast, and we were having a good time so…”
“We used all the spares you brought, too.”
The two of them gave Ariel matching chagrined expressions.
Mal grunted. It didn’t really matter. He wasn’t planning on calling the rangers anyway – he wasn’t about to send a park ranger out there when a potential sniper was lurking around.
“I won’t be gone long. Keep the kids indoors.”
He strode to the door and Ariel scampered after him, tugging on his arm.
“Can’t this wait until tomorrow when it’s light?”
“I won’t be long,” he murmured softly, but in a firm enough tone to let her know he wasn’t going to back down.
Ariel’s face creased in worry. “You think someone was shooting at us deliberately.”
“It’s a possibility,” he admitted grudgingly.
He didn’t want to alarm Ariel, but it wouldn’t be the first time someone had come after him in retaliation for hunting down or putting down a shifter, and apparently, the crow’s family had increased their threats since it was decided that Mal could be a hunter again. What if they had decided to take their revenge on him and now Ariel, Teena and a bunch of innocent kids
were going to get in the way? Plus, Burke was also there.
He couldn’t allow anything to happen to Ariel or the kids… or Teena for that matter. Burke too, he supposed.
“But who would do that?” Something must have flashed over his face. “Oh, you think this is related to you being a hunter?”
“Maybe.”
Her brow furrowed and she squeezed his arm. “Please be careful.”
He nodded and tried not to groan as her warm hand slipped away. He suspected the crow shifters were out there, but he wasn’t sure, and he needed proof. Whoever they were, they had the worst fricking timing imaginable. He could still taste Ariel on his lips, so now he was horny and pissed and determined that someone was going to pay.
*
Ariel tapped her foot impatiently. How long did it take to run a mile and look at some bullet holes? The kids had done as much as they could with their centerpieces – they needed to collect more materials, so Ariel now had them making place settings and Happy Thanksgiving greeting cards. Basically, anything crafty to keep them occupied.
Her reindeer whined. Oh boy, she shouldn’t have let him leave. But how on earth could she have stopped him? Jumped on his back and refused to let him go? That sounded like fun, but it would hardly have slowed him down.
It was probably nothing she kept telling herself. Why would someone target Mal now? He hadn’t been a hunter in a year – why wait that long to come after him? Probably just some silly teenagers, but she still worried.
“Teena, what are you doing?” scolded Ariel.
Teena had just walked in through the cabin door. Ariel hadn’t even noticed her leave, too worried about Mal.
Teena looked down at the wood in her arms. “Getting wood for the fire.”
“Mal said not to leave the cabin,” said Ariel piously, and as someone who rarely – if ever – didn’t do as she was told.
“No, he said to make sure the kids didn’t leave, and we needed wood – it’s getting chilly. Besides, I’ve been out there like five times to get things from the SUVs.”
“You have?” Boy, Ariel must be more distracted than she thought. “We need to be careful.”
