Cold Mercy (Northern Wolves)

by Sadie Hart

  He found the curve of her neck with his mouth and laid a kiss there, but it wasn’t enough. His teeth gave a soft scrape against the skin, and for one terrifying moment, Bay thought he might lose it. That his teeth might grow and the pointed canines might tear through the thin skin of her neck. But his wolf crowded up inside his brain and with the animal came certainty. She was theirs to protect. Not harm. He nipped again, swirling his tongue over her skin. The scent of jasmine filled his nose and he pulled away, sane again. At least for now.

  “Go,” Bay said.

  Eden reached for the door again, but before she stepped outside, she looked back at him. “Be careful,” she whispered to him.

  He watched her go, stepping out onto the porch and into the whipping night wind, so that he could watch her and make sure she made it to her truck. She backed down the lane, her headlights cutting through the darkness, and then Bay let the wolf out. Clothing shredded with the change as his body gained in bulk and mass. But despite Morrigan’s wicked pull from the forest as she tried to wheedle her way back into his mind, Bay turned and ran towards the road.

  He refused to yield to the darkness in his soul. Instead, his wolf carried him after the white truck as they followed Eden home. He melded into the shadows and watched until she was safely inside. Her dogs yipped nervously in his presence, but Bay sank into the snow drifts to wait for morning. He wouldn’t leave her. Not after last night, not after this morning with the troll.

  Only once did the others stray near and Bay lifted his head and snarled into the trees. The glinting eyes receded into the background, and once again, he was left alone to stand guard.

  Chapter Eleven

  Groggy, Eden rolled out of bed and blinked. Sunlight drifted in through the window and she sighed. Technically she’d overslept, but she’d canceled her tours for the next week. Well, Rowan had. Claiming she’d need the time to heal after being a troll’s ping-pong ball yesterday, but now, Eden could see the point.

  Her body throbbed with pain and she grumbled her way towards the medicine cabinet. Painkillers would be nice. Bracing her hip against the sink, she waited for the ibuprofen to kick in, hoping like hell it happened soon. Her hand drifted to her neck and the place Bay had kissed her over and over again yesterday. He’d nipped her there in bed and again before she’d left. She could still feel the warm, moist heat of his mouth there.

  A tremor danced through her as her fingers touched the sensitive skin. She’d wanted him yesterday, still wanted him today. He was unlike any man she’d ever met before. A wry smile touched her lips. Yeah, this one turns into a wolf. But it wasn’t just that. He understood her, could make her laugh, and hell, could make her weak in the knees with a look. Didn’t hurt that he was gorgeous to boot.

  Her fingers traced a circle over the spot and her eyes closed. Heat filled the space beside her and she could almost feel the hard, hot press of his body against hers. His muscled thighs against hers, the solid expanse of his chest. Her free hand curled into a fist at the memory, the feeling of his shirt in her hand almost real.

  Blowing out a breath, she looked in the mirror. Her cheeks were flushed, her pupils dilated. Damn girl, you have it bad. Her work had been her passion for so long she’d never bothered to really go looking for a man. She smiled a little, remembering not too long ago that she’d been thinking that this winter was stomping on her passion in life. Looked like she’d been wrong.

  Eden shook her head. Not that she was going to spend the day wallowing in pain and debating her wanna-have sex life. Wincing as she walked, she strode back to the bed and plucked her phone off the nightstand. She dialed Rowan first.

  “Hello?” The other woman sounded way too cheerful to be awake this early in the morning, though it was probably close to eight. Then again, Rowan would be basking in the scents of freshly baking doughnuts and muffins at the diner.

  “How’s Dorie?” she asked, instantly feeling crappy for not asking sooner.

  “Like I told you last night, she’s good. A little strange lately, but physically, she seems as fit as horse. Said she must have caught some bug or something that day.”

  Good. “You free for breakfast if I can get Dee?”

  “And here I thought for sure you’d be over at Mr. Sexy’s house. What’d you do, chicken out?”

  Eden laughed. Yeah right. She’d been willing yesterday, real willing. “Would you believe me if I said he did?” A sharp blast of air sounded over the phone, most likely Rowan trying not to laugh and Eden sighed. “I’ll explain over doughnuts.”

  “Actually,” Rowan whispered. “I have something kind of freaky to show you guys. But I can’t meet until Friday morning. We have a huge catering job and well, we’re swamped and short staffed.”

  “Freaky?”

  “You’ll have to wait.”

  Eden huffed. “Fine. It’ll give me time to give Dee a heads up then. I’ll see you then.”

  “And you’re going to spill all, girl.”

  Yeah, she probably was. Eden shook her head and hung up. A few minutes later, she’d finished up with Kennedy and the three of them would meet Friday at their normal time, in their special booth. Four days away, but just talking to her friends had given her time to relax and the medicine had kicked in. Eden flung the phone back onto her bed and looked around. She had a week off but she couldn’t bring herself to laze about in bed. She had things to do.

  And in the meantime, she still had dogs to feed.

  ***

  Bay stared at the finished sled, his back slick with sweat. It looked as good as new in his opinion. He ran a towel over his face. He’d spent all morning hustling from project to project, the wood stove in the shop blazing hot enough to burn away the demons—if any still lingered in his soul. His wolf slumbered peacefully inside him, content to let him work. He let out a sharp breath. He’d wanted it done just so he could take it to her.

  Two days, and he couldn’t get her out of his mind. At night he camped outside her house, sleeping in the snow, but keeping his ears trained on the forest. Morrigan’s call still sounded, it still reached inside him and tried to drag him to her, but even while Bay slept, his wolf held strong. They’d bonded, animal and man becoming one. He hadn’t thought he’d ever grow comfortable enough to take shifts with his wolf, letting the animal have charge while he slept, but he did.

  Now, with the sled finished, he finally had the excuse he’d been waiting for. About damn time, too. Tossing aside the towel, he stalked back to the house. He showered, dressed in clothes that weren’t stained in sawdust, and headed back out to load up the sled. Anticipation shivered through him. He wanted to see her. Taste her again. More than anything, he wanted to hear her laugh again. Nothing made him feel more like a man than to hear her rich, throaty chuckle as she devoured whatever joke he fed her.

  And now he was acting like a damned schoolboy. Smitten.

  Bay hopped in the car and felt his wolf rise sleepily, excited enough to perk up despite having been awake all night. By the time Smuggler’s Cove came into view he was as hard as a spike and trying not to curse every patch of ice in the damned road. No one salted these things. Parking the truck, he hopped out and headed towards her back door, only to see her moving through the doghouses, a stack of silver bowls in hand. She was picking them up, stacking one inside the other.

  The dogs were barking, bouncing, greeting her with wagging tails. Bay watched as a black and white husky jammed his nose under her chin and squirmed around her as she reached down to fetch his bowl. The wolf grumbled, a growl leaking out, deadly and quiet. Suddenly, the dogs jolted to attention. Their barks turned nervous. A few disappeared into their houses.

  Only Smuggler bounced at the end of his chain in Bay’s direction, his whole body wagging right along with his tail. Eden turned and saw him and smiled. With one turn of her lips, she could set his heart on fast forward. One of the dogs bumped into her as she headed his way and the wolf leapt inside him. Only Bay’s steady control kept his fur from coming
out. She didn’t belong with that pack. Not according to his wolf. Smuggler, Eden, and Bay. That was it.

  Knock it off, Bay thought and felt his wolf draw back. Unhappy, but relenting. They’re all pack, he told the beast.

  “Didn’t expect you today.”

  He tilted his head towards his truck. His hands were fisted at his sides to keep from grabbing her. “I brought you a gift.”

  “Oh really?” She set the bowls on a stump and then headed towards his truck. Bay caught her waist then, unable to stop himself. He expected her to stiffen, but instead, Eden laughed and leaned into him. “Good. I was tired of waiting for you to have control.”

  She slid her hand up his jaw and into his hair, cupping the back of his head, and she pulled his lips down against hers. Her kiss was hardly passive, though her lips yielded under his, she led him on a dance. Her tongue swirling with his, her body leaning into him until her breasts were pressed against his chest.

  She pulled away first and cocked her head, but there was no missing the merriment in her eyes. One corner of her mouth lifted in a half-smile before she shook her head and pulled away. “You make me happy, Bay Hollister. But I want to see my gift.” She lifted an eyebrow. “It damn well better be my sled. I’m tired of being cooped up here. As are my dogs.”

  She rounded his truck and let out a whoop. Her joy was infectious. He caught her around the waist and hefted her up, the familiar tug of desire spinning through him. Slowly, he lowered her back down the length of his body until her lips found his again. By the time her feet could touch the ground again, he’d moved to her jaw, trailing kisses under her ear, down her neck, until he found the one spot he’d marked already.

  His teeth nipped the sensitive spot between her neck and shoulder, tracing the bite with his tongue a second later. The fact that his scent had lingered on here sated the wolf. They’d marked her and their bond had held. She was theirs. A satisfied growl rumbled out of him, content. Bay breathed the scent of her down deep, reveling in the sweet tang of jasmine. Despite the longing curling through him, he leaned back and looked at her. Her face was flushed with excitement, her lips full from his kiss.

  She looked ready to go dancing across the snow. Arms spread wide in his mind, he could see her spinning, laughing. Eden was the type of woman who knew how to be free. He looked out at the forest, the barren trees haunting as he could still remember the first time they’d met—though neither of them had known it then.

  “I’d like to go for a spin someday.” His head tilted towards the woods and Eden laughed.

  “On the sled? You’re on. Give me ten.” She slapped his chest lightly. “Though you have to help me get it out of your truck.”

  Just like that? He glanced at the dogs, half still hiding from him, and Eden scrunched up her nose. “Okay. The dogs might take some convincing, especially considering I don’t want another repeat of the last time.”

  “Kind of defeats me fixing the sled.”

  One shoulder lifted in a shrug. “You could always fix it again. What do I owe you?”

  He didn’t buy her nonchalance for a second, nor would he charge her for the repairs. Bay shook his head. “I was the reason it was broken in the first place. If you insist on paying, consider a trail ride reward enough.”

  “Deal.” She looped an arm through his and dragged him towards the back of his truck. “Let’s get this thing down.”

  Between the two of them, they managed to get the sled out of the truck bed and into the snow. The moment the runners hit the frozen ground, several of her dogs started barking. Erratic, happy sounds as they lunged at the ends of their chains, Bay forgotten. He watched as a few more crawled out from their houses, their bodies held nervously low. They scanned the surroundings, but every time one of them caught sight of the sled confidence poured through them.

  His wolf grumbled inside his head, but this time, the beast didn’t make himself heard. Bay relaxed. If the wolf was willing to behave for a chance to see what it was like on the back of the sled, he had a feeling the dogs would forget the monster and do their job. “They love their job,” Bay said with a chuckle.

  “No job is worth doing if you don’t.”

  The rough feel of wood under his hands, the scent of sawdust, the hard labor of shaping his projects into what he imagined...he couldn’t imagine ever working at anything else in his life. “Fair enough.”

  Bay watched as Eden suited up the dogs, putting them all in line. She had him sit in the basket, while she stood behind him, and then with a word, the dogs were off. They bolted straight for the trail winding through the forest beyond her house—the same trail Morrigan’s wolves haunted each night. Each night the wolves skirted the edges but never came out into the open, not with Bay standing guard over her house.

  Wind whipped in his face, like icicles reaching out and scratching at his cheeks, but it made him feel more alive. Exhilarated. He sucked in a breath and let the blustery air burn down his throat. It raked a laugh out of him, a surprised boom that had Eden laughing behind him too. He listened as she cued the dogs right or left—gee or haw—and steered them up the winding trails of Mercy Pass. He stiffened as she called them left and up towards the river inlet.

  “Don’t,” he called out.

  “Whoa!” Instantly the dogs slowed to a stop, panting in the cool air so that their breaths curled out of their open jaws like smoke, their tongues lolled to the sides of their mouths.

  “What’s wrong?”

  He didn’t know if Morrigan and her trolls were awake in the day. She only ever called to him at night, relinquishing her grip in the early morning. But he wasn’t willing to take that chance. “Up there is where she calls me. The troll, the wolves, they all gather up there.”

  Not that he’d returned to her since the night he’d fled. He couldn’t. One step in her direction and she’d win. And Bay was no one’s toy, no one’s pawn. But he also hadn’t made a move to stop her. Something he would have to do. Soon. Right now, he needed more time to solidify his control of himself. Then he could start scouting for a plan.

  Bay glanced up at Eden and saw her considering the trail.

  “Eden.”

  “Oh, I know. I have no real desire to have a run-in again with that troll, let alone the bitch who made it.” She blew out a breath. “This path is usually a favorite in the summer and it’s one of my favorites to show in the winter. It’s gorgeous. You slip along the water’s edge and can see the beaches all frosted over, even if the lakes here are never completely freeze over.”

  She hopped off the sled and started moving up the line. Bay started to get out to follow her when she waved him off. “Stay. It’s too tight of a turn to let the dogs maneuver it on their own, but I’m okay.”

  Something in his stomach disagreed, an answering uneasiness flooded through him, and Bay found himself torn between the desire to trust her, and the desire to follow some unknown feeling nagging at him. His wolf whined and suddenly his body went on alert, every muscle going stiff, tense.

  He moved before the first growl sounded. A quiet, threatening sound that curled around the trees and moved through the shadows. Eden’s dogs jumped, shying away from the trail, and Bay watched as she clung to one of the lead dogs, trying to keep her grip. Shit. No. In one lunge he cleared the length of dogs and landed between her and the path to Morrigan’s. He couldn’t see the wolves, but he could feel them now.

  A snarl echoed in the woods around him, bouncing from tree to tree, and Bay found himself spinning, scanning the thick forest growth for danger. Eden’s dogs cried out, thrashing to get away. “Bay!”

  “Go.” He couldn’t leave, but he was also struggling to hold the wolf back. He knew if he shifted now her dogs would panic. She wouldn’t be able to hold them with the sight of his wolf standing in front of them. But if he hopped on that sled and let her carry him away...the wolves would follow. They’d hunt her down, spurring hysteria in her group, until the dogs ran them off some cliff.

  In the end
, this was how it had to happen. Bay standing on a trail defending her.

  “Bay,” Eden called again, her voice hard. Angry. “Come on.”

  He shook his head, and as much as he wanted to turn to her and explain, he didn’t dare. Instinct told him that it would be a fatal mistake. If he looked away now it would be a sign of a weakness. Of fear. And despite the pounding of his heart, Bay wasn’t scared.

  “Eden, take them home. Trust me.” The last two words came out a plea, begging her when he thought he’d never beg anyone in his life for anything. They should have sounded weak, pathetic even, but to his ears they didn’t sound weak at all. Strong, in fact. “Trust me.”

  “At least take the gun,” she said and he could hear her warring with herself, the anger in her voice, the uncertainty. She didn’t want to leave him, but she did trust him, and those were her dogs to protect. Her family. Her pack, his wolf relented. Their pack now.

  Bay shook his head.

  “I won’t need a gun.” And this time, his voice came out a growl, as dark and menacing as the ones still rumbling through the forest, if not darker. Unlike them, he had something to protect. Something sacred that he needed in his life. His wolf pressed up close under his skin, ready to break loose. “Go,” he repeated.

  Behind him, he heard her sharp command for her dogs to run, the whoosh of the sled over snow. Then the forest began to move in front of him, white appearing out of shadows, as if unveiled by magic. Bay looked at the wolves closing in around him and let his wolf rip free on a roar. Tattered frays of clothing fell to the ground at his feet. Angling himself so that he stood blocking the trail, he bared his teeth and waited.

  To follow Eden, they’d have to get through him first.