Once Upon a Caveman

by Cassandra Gannon

  Rhawn slowly turned to look Warren. “What?” Even in his distracted state, he processed enough of that gibberish to understand that his woman --the most special being in the world and the possible Savior of his people-- wanted to free a man-eating predator from a lake of tar. “No. She would not go near a trapped long-tooth.” He said, because he wanted to believe it. “Even she would accept that that it’s too reckless to attempt such a thing.”

  “Too reckless?” Warren arched a brow. “Dude, have you met Lucy?”

  Yes. Yes, he had.

  Shit.

  Rhawn took off towards the pits at a dead run.

  Chapter Ten

  Her hand tangles in his hair, as his mouth slides down the column of her throat. She tilts her head to give him better access to her neck. It’s a sign of feminine surrender. Not the kind a male needs to force, but a deeper, more primitive instinct. An unconscious signal that her body is yielding to his, recognizing his claim.

  His mate.

  Rhawn scrapes his teeth against her throat like an animal. He feels like an animal. Wild, Raw. A low sound escapes him, almost a snarl. She answers with a small whimper, accepting his dominance, and he barely holds onto reason. If he cannot have her soon, he will explode.

  “Vando.” He can barely get the word out.

  “I don’t know what that means,” she pants, “but right now it sounds fucking amazing.”

  Rhawn and Lucy’s Dream- Six Years Ago

  Since the island was about to be blown to tiny charred bits, it seemed pretty pointless to worry about the sabretooth. Unless they wanted to try some kind of Life of Pi thing, it would stay stuck on this rock even if they got it unstuck from the tar. When the volcano erupted, the poor cat would be incinerated along with the rest of this tropical hellhole, so why not just leave him be?

  Because, Lucianne Meadowcroft never just let things be.

  Being unreasonable didn’t exactly win her any popularity contests, but it did get things done. However long the cat had left, she didn’t want him suffering a slow death by starvation. He was such an amazing, majestic creature. He deserved to run free. And she was going to make it happen. It had taken her a few days to find a rope, but now she was ready to act. She might be losing a mammoth tomorrow, but she was damn well saving the cat.

  …Even though Rhawn was going to be pissed when he found out.

  Which was why Lucy hadn’t told him, in the first place. Rhawn was smart enough to know this plan was stupid and she didn’t want him talking her out of it. He was way too logical, sometimes.

  Lucy felt a little bit guilty about excluding him, though. Rhawn was her partner. She’d never had a partner before and she liked the sensation of having someone by her side. The two of them complimented each other. Understood each other. Lucy could look over at Rhawn, and he’d arch a brow, and they’d both know just what the other one was thinking.

  All their strengths and weakness found a balance when they were together. Lucy was pushy and he was calm. She saw the big picture and Rhawn focused on the details. She was an antisocial control freak and he was… kinda perfect.

  Lucy felt a deeper connection to him than to anyone else she’d ever met.

  That worried her. A lot.

  Lucy had pretty much come to the conclusion that she wasn’t getting back to New York. She had no idea how she’d arrived on the island, so backtracking her steps was impossible. She couldn’t very well recreate whatever worm-holey, string-theory-ish, Interception-esque quirk of physics that had brought her here. For better or worse, she was stuck in this place for the foreseeable future.

  Obviously, that wasn’t great news. She was going to miss electric blankets and sesame bagels and The New York Times Book Review. Lucy wasn’t about to kill herself over losing them, though. Not even the bagels. She didn’t even have a cute little dog that she needed to get home to, so she could survive here. Thanks to her master’s degree, she mostly knew what to expect from this faux Ice Age, so she was even enjoying herself sometimes. When the volcano wasn’t trying to kill her, anyway.

  She would be okay.

  The much bigger problem was Rhawn. The gorgeous guy who she was sort of almost living with. …And who just happened to think she was a goddess. Deep down, she knew Rhawn was the reason she was so okay with maybe staying marooned in this world. Just so she was marooned with the caveman, Lucy could deal with anything. Did she even want to go back to a world where she only dreamed of him once a year?

  Hell no.

  But, when he finally figured out the truth, Rhawn was going to hate her. He wouldn’t want to stay with someone who’d lied to him. Lucy did not want to lose Rhawn. She’d spent years imagining him and now he was real and right in front of her. She wasn’t going to let anything screw that up. Especially not her own lies. Before they went any farther, she needed to figure out how to tell him the truth. It was the only way he’d ever be able to trust her, again.

  But it was seriously, seriously going to suck.

  All her life, people had assumed that Lucy was going to do something special. All her life, she’d failed to meet expectations. Sure, she’d done well in school. And as an adult, she paid her taxes and could rattle off the names of all the presidents. But, she’d never quite lived up to the hype and changed the world. In her heart, she knew she never would.

  Lucy could live with disappointing her teachers, her hometown, and even herself.

  Disappointing Rhawn would gut her, though.

  He really thought she was special. A goddess. It was going to kill him when she explained she was just Lucy Meadowcroft, from Clovis. He was never going to look at her the same way again. That was the main reason why she wouldn’t sleep with him. It wouldn’t be fair to him, unless he knew who she really was.

  And he was a damn hard guy not to sleep with, so she totally deserved some credit for her thoughtfulness,

  Lucy managed to loop one end of the sinew rope around the sabretooth’s neck through sheer effort of will. The four other Clan members standing around watched her like she was out of her mind, but they didn’t try to run when she pantomimed for them to start heaving. Inspiring fearful obedience was one of the perks of being an evil goddess.

  At first, the cat thrashed and fought. Afraid that he was going to snap the ropes, Lucy started talking to him. Actually, she started singing. Her musical virtuosity could clear a karaoke bar in ten seconds flat, but the cat seemed bizarrely fascinated with the off key serenade. Who knew sabretooths were such Nirvana fans?

  Midway through the second chorus of Smells Like Teen Spirit, Lucy realized that the cat had stopped fighting and that they were making some progress in freeing it. He edged closer to solid ground, inch by painful inch. This was going to work!

  Lucy met the creature’s yellow eyes, still wondering over his existence. If she was being really honest, most of the reason she’d majored in paleontology was the dreams. When your head was filled with a certain gorgeous caveman, it kind of sparked your interest in the past. But, above and beyond her obsession with Rhawn, she’d fallen in love with sabretooth cats. They were her unicorns. Magical, perfect beings that she’d spent all of grad school fantasizing about. They fascinated her.

  To see one alive… it was more than she’d ever imagined.

  The cat stared at her, like he understood that she was trying to help. Maybe he did. They were social animals. She was sure of that. In fact, it had been the entire premise of her thesis.

  Fossils showed some cats had survived with crushed bones and crippling injuries. It would have required months to heal many of their wounds, months where they couldn’t have hunted on their own. But somehow the cats recovered and lived for many more years. Lucy believed that it would only have been possible if other cats nursed them back to health. Like modern lions, they probably lived in prides.

  This sabretooth was used to having someone care if he was in trouble. Used to giving and receiving assistance. It was so clear to her. If only she had more time, she could
’ve proven her thesis was right.

  Hopefully if any of his feline buddies were watching from the forest, though, they would also understand that she was just lending a hand, because those teeth weren’t just for decoration. They were for ripping out the insides of anyone who got in their way.

  Lucy jolted at the sound of leaves rustling. She looked around, her heart pounding.

  Other kinds of man-eaters were probably out there, too. Animals stuck in the tar always drew the attention of carnivores. Then the predators often got stuck themselves, trying to devour some incapacitated creature. The La Brea tar pits back in LA had hundreds and hundreds of fossils, almost all of them from carnivores looking for an easy meal. If she recalled correctly, dire wolves were the most plentiful specimens on display. They hunted around the edges of the pits, looking to strike. Lucy had a soft spot for sabretooths, but studying those gigantic wolves freaked her out.

  Crap, it was freaking her out just thinking about them.

  The cat’s golden gaze locked on hers like he knew she was worried. Like he wanted to reassure her. Lucy found herself relaxing, hypnotized by the intelligence and beauty of this animal. For an endless moment, they stared straight into each other’s souls. It was magical.

  The gunshot sounded like an explosion.

  Lucy jumped a foot in the air, a horrified cry leaving her throat as the sabretooth collapsed sideways in a lifeless heap. He had been shot in the head! Fucking shot! Blood poured from the wound, his magnificent body sinking deeper into the tar. Someone had just killed her unicorn.

  Her head slowly turned to gape at the murderer.

  Craig Turkana, Woodward High’s resident drug dealing scumbag, stood there with rubber flip-flops on his feet and a scary looking gun in his hand. The ominous black weapon stayed trained on the dead sabretooth.

  “What the hell have you been, Meadowcroft?” Craig demanded at a roar. “You think you could just leave me for fucking dead!?”

  “You son of a bitch.” Lucy advanced on him, even as the helper-cavemen went dashing off into the jungle. “How could you do that?!” She gave him a shove, too furious to even care about the gun. “Are you out of your mind? You just slaughtered that poor animal!”

  “So what?” He bellowed back. He was still wearing cargo shorts and that classy “Fuck the World” t-shirt, but he didn’t seem to notice the cold. Opiates must’ve kept him warm. “I’ve been lost in the goddamn rainforest for days. I’m hungry and tired and all my cigarettes were drowned at sea!” He pushed her back and Lucy nearly fell. “And instead of coming to rescue me, you’re wasting your time on some mangy lion?!”

  “It was a sabretooth cat, you asshole!”

  “I don’t give a rat’s ass if it was Tony the Tiger! I want off this rock and you’re the only one here smart enough to make it happen. So concentrate on Swiss Family Robinson-ing our way back to civilization or I will shoot you in the fucking brain!” He waved the gun in her direction, his eyes glazed with anger and fear and some kind of drug.

  Wait a minute…

  “You brought a revolver to the class reunion?” Lucy shouted, realization dawning on her. “Why? How did you even get it on the ship, you psycho?”

  “It’s a Glock, not a revolver.” He mocked. “And I bought it for protection, which I obviously needed since you’ve stuck me in that fucking Tom Hanks movie with the volley ball!”

  “You are seriously deranged. What did I do except warn your worthless ass to get up on deck?” She glowered up at him. “But --hey!—with 20/20 hindsight, I’d definitely leave you to sink, now.”

  “You snotty little bitch. You think I won’t kill you? Huh?”

  “I think you’ve sucked at everything you’ve tried, so the odds are certainly in my favor. You haven’t accomplished one damn thing in your whole damn life!”

  That just made him angrier. “Bullshit! I’m the only person in the whole class who ended up a success! I’m the biggest fucking dealer in Fort Wayne, Indiana! I’m Walter frigging White, meets Gordon goddamn Gekko! I’m a business man, bitch!” He smirked. “Not too bad for someone who got expelled two weeks before graduation, thanks to you.”

  “Thanks to me?”

  “Yeah, it’s your fault I got kicked out! You were the one who ratted me out for the library fire, senior year. Then you called me a loser, as the principal dragged me away.”

  “You are a loser!”

  “Shut up!” He jabbed the gun at her. “You tried to wreck my life. You think any colleges were going to let me in with arson on my permanent record? I wanted to be a photographer, but you screwed up everything for me!”

  “If you want to be a photographer, you’d buy a camera not meth.”

  He ignored that inconvenient use of logic. “Do you have any idea what it’s like to get turned down by fifty-six different art schools? Fifty-six! I was supposed to be nailing models, and taking pictures on the covers of magazines, and saying something that people would listen to!”

  “Maybe they would listen better if you weren’t pointing guns at them.”

  He shook his head. “You are the reason my life ran off the rails. Sure, I’ve fucked up since then. Got stupid and got arrested and, that one time, I sold my kidney to that rich guy in Toledo.”

  “Eww.”

  He kept ranting, ignoring her appalled face. “But, I don’t deserve to get eaten by velociraptors. No way! I don’t deserve that!”

  “Dinosaurs didn’t live in the Ice Age, genius.” Why was she the only one who knew that? Did everyone else sleep through science class?

  “In the end, I made something out of myself.” Craig continued. “I got into fencing gems. Got into selling dope. Got into the bigtime. That’s why I showed up at this dumbfuck reunion. To tell you were wrong about me, Meadowcroft.” He spread his arm out “ta-da” style. “I’m not a loser, after all.”

  For a girl who spent four years being the weird loner in the back of the cafeteria, she sure was the epicenter of a lot of idiots’ high school memories. Why did everyone always think she was so damn special? Lucy totally didn’t understand it, but it pissed her off. “Of course you’re a loser!” She bellowed. “You sell your kidneys for drug money! How is that being a successful human being?”

  That was not what Craig wanted to hear. “I had two of them, didn’t I?!” He took a menacing step forward. “Besides, it’s your fault that…”

  “Lucy!” Rhawn raced into the clearing. “Are you alright?” He didn’t wait for her to answer that. Brown eyes went from the dead cat, to Lucy’s enraged face, to Craig’s gun, quickly piecing events together. The caveman wasn’t Mary Ann or Ginger. He was the damn Professor. She saw him calculating odds and angles.

  Amazingly, that made her feel better. With Rhawn there, she knew she was safe. Nobody was as smart as Rhawn. He was going to get them out of this mess. Lucy took an unconscious step towards him. Rhawn reached over, grabbing hold of her arm and tugging her closer.

  “Who the hell is this?” Craig demanded.

  Rhawn must have recognized the Glock as a weapon, because he very deliberately placed himself between the muzzle and Lucy. His gaze stayed on Craig. “I am Rhawn, Lucy’s mate. Who are you?”

  “He’s Craig Turkana.” She told him, ignoring the “mate” part. Over the last couple of days she’d stopped correcting him on that. Not that she was accepting it exactly, but it didn’t sound quite so weird anymore. “He’s from my world and he’s a murdering dickhead.”

  “Eat me.” Craig told her. He looked Rhawn up and down. “What does this guy mean, he’s your mate? You fucking these cavemen guys? Getting on their good side?” He snorted. “Shit, I didn’t think you had it in you, Meadowcroft. I should’ve known the smartest kid in school would do what she needed to do in order to survive.”

  Rhawn’s jaw ticked.

  “You know she’s a bitch, right?” Craig glanced over at Rhawn. “I mean, you must have noticed that she thinks she’s better than everybody else.”

  “She is
better.” Rhawn said softly.

  Lucy winced at bit. That “goddess” lie weighed heavier all the time. “Rhawn, I’m really not…”

  Craig talked right over her. “I know she’s better. But she doesn’t have to act so stuck up about it. And she didn’t have to call me a loser, man! That fucking hurt. And she got me kicked out of school and…”

  “Nobody cares, Craig!” Lucy interrupted. “Jesus, I’m sorry I called you a loser fifteen years ago, okay? Get over. I’m sick of hearing how high school is still ruling everyone’s life. We have bigger problems. If any of us are going to survive, we need to get off this island.”

  “How? I saw the end of fucking Lost, man. I didn’t understand it, but I saw it. I think we’re all --like-- dead or some shit.”

  “We have boats. Put the gun down and we’ll let you on one of them.”

  He squinted. “You’ve got the Neanderthals building boats?”

  “We don’t have much of a choice. This is an island and that volcano is going to explode. I don’t want to be here when that happens. Do you?”

  “I don’t want to be here, at all. I want to get back to fucking America.”

  “Well that’s obviously not going to happen if we stay put. Movement is life.” She either heard that in self-defense seminar or a Brad Pitt movie. She couldn’t remember which. “We’re building boats for everyone to evacuate and we’ll make sure you have a seat, if you give me the gun. Do we have a deal?”

  Rhawn didn’t look happy about that idea. “This man will not come with us, Lucy. We clearly cannot trust him.”

  “Do you have a better idea?”

  “Yes.” His tone left her in no doubt that his idea involved Craig’s body disappearing into the tar pits.

  “We can’t kill Craig!” She hissed back.

  “Why not?”