by Skye Jones
I called Gemma first; she’d always been a bit easier to persuade than Laura.
“Hey, chicken, how’s the face?” Her happy voice made me smile.
“Getting better by the day. Still hurts but nothing as bad as at first. I want to ask you a massive favor.”
“Okay.”
I took a deep breath. I didn’t usually lie, but no way did I want to admit how stalkerish I’d become. “I want to go camping.”
“What?” Her surprise resonated down the phone line. “But…you hate camping. Almost as much as Laura and I. You don’t like the spiders and the bugs and the cold. Neither do I.”
“I know, but it’s something I’ve wanted to do for a while. Sort of a bucket list type thing.” I crossed my fingers.
“A bucket list of things you don’t enjoy?”
Crap. I sighed and tried again. “I don’t know for sure I won’t enjoy it. It’s been an age since I went camping. I want to see if I like it more now. Everyone’s doing it—camping is the in thing. And it will be a laugh, the three of us. I’ve found this gorgeous place, and we can have some alone time. Catch up. We’ve not seen much of each other these last few months.”
“I don’t know, chicken. Can’t we go to a spa or something?”
“This will be better. It’s nearly summer, and the forecast is great for next weekend. Just you, me, Laura, and the stars.” I played my trump card. “I’ll let you guys choose the holiday this year. No ancient Tuscan villages for you. Ibiza and hot boys, here we come!”
The long silence stretched my last nerve. “This means a lot to you, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah. I can’t explain it. I know it’s weird and not something I’d normally go for…but I want to give it a try.”
“Okay.”
“Okay?”
“Yeah. Okay. But Laura isn’t going to be so easy to persuade.”
Didn’t I know it? I thanked Gemma again and hung up. Half an hour later, I danced around my kitchen, wooden spoon in hand, as Darcy watched me with disdainful eyes.
Laura said yes. Unlike Gemma, who’d agreed because it meant something to me, Laura said yes but made it clear the holiday swap wasn’t up for renegotiation. This summer we were heading somewhere hectic, noisy, and full of boys. I didn’t care. I’d secured a chance to try to find Jake and get the answers I needed.
“This seriously sucks!” Laura pouted like a child and stomped her foot. I bit back a smile at her mini-tantrum.
“It’s not so bad.” Gemma, always the peacemaker, put in. “We’ve managed to get the tent up, we have shelter.”
“Yes, and we need it. Come camping, she says.” Laura pointed at me. “It will be a laugh. The weather’s going to be great. Ha-ha-bloody-ha!”
“It’s not my fault the weather people clearly haven’t got their finger on the pulse of the British weather.” I frowned at the gray, overcast sky as another rush of wind whipped my hair around my face. If things didn’t improve, we’d have to leave.
“It does look pretty threatening over there.” Gemma bit her cheek and pointed at the horizon.
We’d pitched our tent in a clearing perched atop a bluff with a view out over the Highlands beyond the ridge. The dramatic landscape looked foreboding as hell with the black clouds gathered on the horizon. Behind us, dense woods crowded in, and my claustrophobia made itself known. I didn’t like woods. Why I’d believed I could do this proved beyond me at the moment.
“I hope it doesn’t thunder.” Gemma shivered.
“If it thunders, we’ll leave.” I didn’t want to stay in a tent during a storm, Jake-hunting or not.
“Oh, yeah?” Laura fixed me with a shrewd look. “You better start taking the tent back down, then. Because we’ve got to hike the mile and a half back up the trail to my car, and if you think I’m doing so with a storm raging, you’ve lost your mind.”
Shit! I stared at the horizon and then back at the tent. The wind howled through the trees. Things were deteriorating fast. All thoughts of Jake fled, and instead, I experienced horrible twinges of panic.
“Do you think we should take the tent down and leg it?” I asked.
“You tell us, oh mighty expedition leader. This is your baby.” Laura jabbed her finger at me.
I flinched. Laura could be a bitch, but I’d rarely found myself on the receiving end of her temper.
“Don’t be a cow.” Gemma shook her head at Laura. “Falling out isn’t going to help the situation. It’s truly not Cait’s fault the forecast is so wrong.”
Laura held her phone up to the sky. “Can’t get a signal. You guys try. You’re on a different network.”
We all stood, our phones held aloft, weapons against the oncoming storm. The bright lights of their screens somehow seemed reassuring amongst this wild nature. Gemma shook her head miserably, and my heart sank when my signal bars remained at zero.
“Did you check in to whether or not we’d have phone access?” Laura asked.
Miserable as hell now, I shook my head. Tears gathered, and I wiped them away.
Across from us, about a mile away, a large flash of lightning lit up the sky. Gemma squealed as a peal of thunder rumbled, loud and angry.
“Okay.” Laura grabbed both our arms. “In the tent, now.”
We all scrambled into the tent, and Laura pulled the zip shut. I immediately wanted it back open. My breathing grew shallower as the fabric walls closed in on me. I hated this and cursed myself for my stupidity. My actions made no sense. Why had I done this for some man, one whom I’d probably not see again? It wasn’t as if we were in love or had been together for a long time. We’d met, had some fun, and then he’d gone on his merry way. Nothing about the weird, burning ache I’d been carrying for him since then made one jot of sense.
Now my unhealthy, and frankly pathetic, obsession placed us all in danger.
“We’re safe in here, right?” Gemma’s eyes were wide, and her face paled.
“Yes.” I didn’t have a clue if we were safe or not, but we could hardly go running around outside, and Gemma looked about to freak out.
A louder rumble sounded, and the three of us all held one another’s hands. We sat in a circle, hands linked as if in prayer, and I experienced a horrible sense of dread.
Something more than the storm lurked out there. I sensed it so strongly it made me sick. I looked at the others.
“Do you feel it, too?”
“Feel what?” Gemma almost sobbed her answer.
“Nothing.” I gave a small shake of my head.
“No, tell me.” Gemma squeezed my hand.
“She doesn’t feel anything.” Laura’s curt tones seemed to snap Gemma out of her impending panic attack. “She’s letting all this get to her. As are you. I love you both, but right now, you need to woman up. The pair of you, before I kick you into next week,”
A startled laugh burst out of Gemma, and she leaned over and kissed Laura’s cheek. “I love you, crazy girl.”
“Love you too, doll.”
They looked to me. “We love you too, even if you did land us in the middle of nowhere during a bloody horrendous storm.” Laura smiled at me.
Any other time, I’d welcome her affection. Be relieved I’d not shot my most important friendships to bits on some stupid whim. But the sense of terror kept mounting, and my spine tingled as if something stared at me.
A low howl rent the air, and we all froze.
“What the fuck?” Laura whispered.
“Oh, God.” Gemma rocked back and forth gently, her arms wrapped tight around her middle.
“Did we hear a wolf?” I looked between them.
The noise came again, and it sounded much nearer this time.
Gemma whimpered, and Laura’s features twisted in fear. My heart hammered hard enough to be heard over the now howling wind. We were going to die. We were going to die here, in a tent in the middle of nowhere, and there’d be no one to blame but me.
Chapter Five
The wolf paused and
sniffed the air. The storm approached fast. The wolf needed to turn around and head back to the compound. Soon. For now, it needed to stay. Something demanded its presence. A call so strong, the wolf hadn’t been able to avoid it. Deep within, Jake tried to reassert control, but the wolf proved too strong.
A lonely howl carried across the windswept landscape. A rogue. Turn around, go back home. Jake tried to reason with his wolf, but it didn’t want to listen.
Not yet, it argued. Something called us here, we need to see what.
Death. Only death can come to us if we stay out here alone with rogues on the prowl.
It seemed his last thought finally got through to his wolf as the creature stopped dead in its tracks. Maybe now they could head on home and get warm and dry.
The wolf pivoted and stopped once more. It lifted its head and sniffed the air. Her!
Jake and the wolf snapped back into sync. The human and the animal working together as one once more.
Cait! He’d recognize her scent anywhere. It had been a hellish, lonely few weeks without her.
He didn’t normally miss any of the various females he’d bedded, afterward. But then, he’d known Cait was different the first moment he’d scented her. Once he’d tasted her, he’d been lost. It made no sense. Not wolfen, nor empathine, she shouldn’t have been more than a pleasant interlude. She’d become so much more. Then, when he’d felt himself bonding with her from just one taste, he’d panicked. Ran away with his tail between his legs.
The whole time he’d been back, he’d missed her. A deep, abiding need for her ached in his gut. So bad, he’d honestly feared going feral and heading inexorably down that horrifying, destructive path that turned a wolf rogue.
Now she was here.
He set off at a fast run, following her smell on the air. When he reached a clearing, the wolf came to a halt. A small tent stood near a big tree, the wind whipping the thin material into waves. He glanced at the horizon. Christ. Fifteen minutes from now and the storm would rip through this clearing, and Cait sat in a tent, under a tree. Could she pick anywhere less suitable? He ground his teeth in anger. What the fuck did he do now? Go in there in wolf form, and they’d freak out. Plus, he couldn’t communicate with them. Change, and he’d have to walk into her tent buck naked, which would be utterly humiliating. Maybe he should run back to the compound and fetch Drew and Louis?
Once more, the lonely, ragged howl drifted toward him, carried by the wind. No time. The rogue surely scented the females. Jake had discerned Gemma’s and Laura’s scents, too, once he’d recovered from the shock of finding Cait out here.
Maybe the rogue would leave them alone. They weren’t empathine, so they shouldn’t attract it. But then again, rogues who were too far gone had taken ordinary women before. With no real choice and no time left to prevaricate, he made his decision.
He cursed inwardly and closed his eyes, shedding his fur until he stood upright, strong legs braced against the bitter wind.
A shadow crossed the front of the tent, and I bit back a scream. Gemma and Laura didn’t see it as they faced the back of the tent, but I watched in horror as the shadow leaned close. The next moment, the zipper on the tent ripped open, and I let out a gasp.
Gemma turned around and screamed. A naked man, a huge, naked man, stood in the entrance to our shelter. Oh, fuck. We were going to die—or worse. Spots danced in front of my eyes, and white noise filled my ears.
Laura gave a squeal, and it barely penetrated my foggy senses. The next moment she jumped up and ran toward the huge figure. She flung her arms around him and shouted, “Thank God.”
She’d gone insane. I squeezed my eyes shut then opened them again, wanting the snowy effect gone from my vision.
“What the bloody heck are you doing here?” Laura’s voice reached me but as if in a dream. “And…ah, sorry, Jake, but why are you naked?”
Did she say Jake? Surely not.
“She’s going to faint. She’s always hated camping. God knows why she insisted on this trip.” Gemma babbled next to me, and her hand rubbed at mine as if trying to warm it.
“I’ve got her. Follow me, and be quick about it.”
Cold, so cold. Wind buffeted my face and made my still tender jaw ache. I didn’t like this one bit. But warm arms held me tight against a hard body, so I ducked my face down and took shelter in the crook of his warm neck.
Slowly, the fog receded, and I became aware of my surroundings. The rushing in my ears stopped, and my vision returned to normal. I looked up and cried out. It wasn’t a dream. Jake had come. And he held me now as he jogged through the woods, Laura and Gemma on either side of us. I looked down and gave another cry, this time of astonishment. The guy stood there buck naked!
“Erm, why aren’t you wearing clothes?”
“It’s…part of our, ah…celebrations to the gods of…fertility.” His breath came out in short huffs when he spoke.
“Okay.”
Gemma flashed him a dubious glance, but her eyes tracked lower and she giggled and bit her lip.
“What’s so funny?” Jake snarled.
“Your junk is flinging about all over the place as you run. Sorry. I didn’t mean to…it’s just funny.” She laughed again and then groaned and held her side.
“Laugh it up, lady. That stitch is the least you deserve. Save your breath and stop talking. Because in about ten minutes, you’ve got some serious explaining to do. All of you.”
“I sensed I’d find you here.” I nuzzled deeper into his neck and breathed in his familiar aroma, my quest for answers forgotten in the overwhelming sensation of him holding me tight.
“What?” Jake sounded kind of freaked out.
“You dragged us out here to hunt down your one-week stand!” Laura practically shrieked.
“How did you know?” Jake asked, paying her no heed.
“It’s going to sound totally insane, but I started looking at articles about eco-villages and saw a blog piece about a particular village, and I somehow knew it linked to you. Like I’d gone psychic or some shit. Then when I read it, I saw a picture of you, so it seems I’d legit experienced a psychic moment. I get I’ve been a crazy stalker girl. I swear when we get to your village, the leader can tear a strip off us and I’ll be on my way. I won’t darken your door again. I simply wanted answers. I needed…” On the edge of something huge, something I’d normally shy away from, I paused. A lie tickled the tip of my tongue, but instead, I confessed my true feelings. “I missed you, too, Jake. Something awful. And I hate the way it ended.” I leaned in to his ear and whispered the next part. “It makes no sense, but I ached for you all the time.”
“Fuck.” He ground the word out, harsh and guttural.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“Don’t be. Not your fault.”
Through the gloom, high wooden walls appeared. Wow! The place rivaled Fort Knox. Strange for an eco-village. Nerves fizzed once more in my belly. At this rate, I’d need ulcer medication.
We reached the gates, and Jake put me down and entered a code into the keypad. The wood door swung wide open without a squeak. Inside, a variety of wooden homes dotted the landscape. The trees thinned out and patterned the hillside and valley with shots of green. We walked in a few feet and went past a seriously cute, round wooden house right on the edge of the settlement. Beyond, there ran a long garden and then nothing but fields. The door to the place opened, and a big guy stepped out. He made Jake look average sized. A wicked scar cut across his face and ran down his jaw and neck. I tightened my arms around Jake.
“What the hell?” The big fella walked toward us. “Who are the females, and why are you naked?”
“The celebration,” Gemma supplied helpfully.
“What celebr—”
“Not important right now, Louis.” Jake cut him off. “These women were camping in the woods, right under a tree. The storm is fierce and headed our way. These ladies were minutes away from possibly getting fried.”
“Good L
ord.” A striking blonde ran out of the door to stand by Louis’s side. She glanced at us three and then ran her eyes down Jake.
“Did you change out there?” she asked.
Change? Did she mean clothes?
“Not now, Izzy. These ladies were camping on the edge of the territory, and there’s a big storm coming.”
“Plus, we heard a wolf.” Laura shuddered.
Izzy raised her eyebrows, and Louis set his jaw tight.
“Yeah,” Jake said, as if the single word explained everything. “I need to get them somewhere to clean up, get warm. They will need to stay until the storm is done, then we can discuss taking them back to their tent.”
“They’ll need to leave. Not safe with wolves on the loose,” Louis said.
“Agreed. We can pack up their stuff and take them to their cars using the pickup truck.” Jake didn’t meet my eyes, and his words cut like a knife.
“Come with me.” Izzy laid her hand on my arm. “I’ll take you where you can dry off and get warm.”
It sounded crazy, but only at her words did I realize my clothes were soaking wet. I nodded mutely and followed her, not letting myself look back at Jake.
Once we were out of earshot of the men, Gemma turned to me. “Wow, Cait. No wonder you lost your head over him. His body is amazeballs.”
Izzy turned to me, her eyebrows raised, and I shot Gemma the dirtiest glare.
“You know Jake?”
Crap. I sighed and told the truth. “Yes. We sort of saw one another for a short while, when he stayed in the city.”
“So, you’re the reason he’s been so wild since he came home.”
Wild? I’d made him wild. Okay, so maybe he did care, a bit, at least.
“What do you mean wild?” Gemma asked.
“He’s been going out for long runs, acting like a bear with a sore head. He’s been in two fights, which is not like him. I figured something happened while he stayed in Edinburgh, but I didn’t guess it would be a woman. He’s not the kind to be short of female company…” She turned to me. “I’m sorry. Sometimes my big mouth runs away with me.”
