Cam didn’t bother with a reply. She had courage for speaking to him the way she did. She’d need that courage in the upcoming days. He stood off several paces to where she rested on the ground, and folded his arms across his chest. He stared up at the stars. Small clouds drifted across the night sky at a lazy pace, obstructing the light from the half moon.
The sounds of the night – crickets and small animals rustling in the underbrush – soothed his tension. The crisp air made the scents of the forest more pronounced, but the one scent that overrode all others was the sweet smell on the woman’s clothes, skin, and hair. When her breathing became even and rhythmic, he turned and knelt beside her. He touched the back of his hand to her cheek. She didn’t move.
Cam adjusted the buffalo hide around her, then scooped her into his arms. She moaned softly in her sleep, but exhaustion had finally won out.
“Put me down,” she mumbled weakly, but her body remained limp in his arms.
"Shhh," he whispered against her cheek and inhaled another quick breath of the intoxicating scent of her hair.
His reaction to her was the same as before, and he cursed again. Cam straightened, and settled her against his chest, then set out to meet up with Mat. Gray mist swirled in front of him, and the black night sky slowly changed color by the time he strode through the trees to his camp.
Mat instantly leaped to his feet from a sleeping position, his bow drawn, but he lowered it just as quickly. His faint outline was visible through the fog, as was the soft orange glow of embers in the fire.
“I see you kept your scalp,” Mat greeted him, then fell silent.
Cam lowered the woman to the ground near the coals. She stirred but remained asleep. Cam draped the buffalo hide over her and straightened. He rubbed his sore arms and shoulders from carrying her all night. Only then did he raise his eyes to where Mat stood. Although his friend's features were faint in the pre-dawn light, there was no doubt he was looking at the woman on the ground.
“You brought a gift, I see, from your meeting with the Bakianee,” he said after a moment of silence.
Cam scoffed. He walked a short distance away. Mat followed.
“Not so much a gift, but a burden.” He strained his eyes to look at Mat’s face. “I almost had the vessel,” he said quietly.
“What?” Mat’s body tensed, and he stepped a little closer.
Cam let his words sink in before he answered. “This woman and her companion came from the future.”
Mat glanced at the sleeping woman by the fire. “Where is her companion?”
Cam laughed. “He returned to his time . . . with the vessel.” He proceeded to explain what little he’d learned, and concluded with the question that had nagged him all night. “Why would the Sky People send them here? This woman will be dead within a week.”
“Not if you keep her safe,” Mat said quickly. “You bartered for her. She’s yours.”
Cam paced in front of his friend. "I don't need to be burdened with a woman. Besides, women aren't bartered like this in the future." Despite his foul mood, he added lightly, "Not even during the primitive time in the future you came from." He stopped pacing and looked to his friend. "What would you do with her?"
Mat shrugged. “Take her to Pikowan.”
Cam shook his head. “I need to speak to the Sky People first.”
Mat leaned toward him. “You’re going to seek out Naatoyita? The last time you spoke to him, you parted ways in anger. You said you’d never speak to him again.”
Cam worked his jaw muscles, gnashing his teeth at the same time. It had been many years since he’d even seen one of the Sky People. “I have no choice this time. I will bring him the woman. He has to send her back. She will die here.”
Mat smirked. “You already have a soft spot in your heart for her, if you care whether she lives or dies.”
Cam scowled. “I am tired of being a pawn in the Sky People’s games. They’ve told us nothing but lies.”
Mat placed a hand on Cam’s shoulder. “According to Pikowan. What if they’ve told us the truth?”
Cam pulled away. They’d had this argument many times before. “They haven’t told us anything,” he hissed in a low tone under his breath. “They speak in riddles, and only say what they want us to know, but never the truth.” His anger rose. “Why did they bring me here? Why did they bring you here? They say we will know in time, but when will that be?”
“You enjoy your life here, don’t you, Cam? The freedom the mountains bring you?” Mat retorted quietly. “Do you really think you would have been happier living with your family in the future?”
Cam shook his head. “I don’t know. I just don’t like being told I was chosen for something, but not knowing what that is.”
“You know my feelings. I prefer my life here. Whatever my path is, I know it’s not in the future.”
It was understandable that Mat would be happier here than the life he’d left behind in the future. Mat had told him that his father had been a drunk and both his parents had been users of drugs. When the Sky People had come for him, he’d been glad to be taken away.
“You would choose to stay here if I brought you the vessel that could return you to the future?” Cam had asked the question before, but this time, he’d almost had the vessel in his hands, rather than just contemplating “what ifs”.
Mat nodded. “You know I like my life here, and I know you like your life here, too, even if you’re angry and say you’re unhappy. I chose to go with you when you left the Tukudeka because I think of you as my brother, but if you could go back, I’m not sure I’d follow you to the future.”
Cam stopped pacing. He stared off into the distance. Why was he so angry? When the ancient one, Naatoyita, had come for him in his bedroom all those years ago, it had sounded like an exciting adventure to a twelve-year-old boy. He’d learned to live in this primitive world. He’d excelled at survival in the harshest of conditions, yet something was missing, and he hadn’t figured out what it was.
When Naatoyita had refused to tell him why he’d been brought to the past, and told him to be patient, Cam had rebelled. Even as a young boy, his teachers and parents had called him a hothead. He’d learned, over the years, to control his emotions, and channel his energy by honing his survival skills.
Just as he’d often wanted to run away from his family in the future because he’d felt like he didn’t fit in, he’d finally run away from the Tukudeka family that had taken him in when he’d arrived in this time. It had been Naatoyita’s wish that they raise him and teach him the ways of the Sheepeaters.
When he'd come across Pikowan, the only other white man in these mountains, he'd found an adult he could talk to and trust. Pikowan had been honest with him from the beginning and hadn't kept secrets. He, too, had been abandoned by the Sky People, and he’d lived many years alone in the wilderness with no hope of returning to his former life.
“Go back to Pikowan,” Cam finally said. “Bring him the meat, but say nothing of this woman.”
“He will want to know about her, and talk to her.” The dawning sky had lightened enough that Mat’s smile was unmistakable.
“This woman didn’t know anything about the vessel.” Cam shot his friend a meaningful stare.
Mat's teeth were visible in the graying light. He laughed and gave Cam a brotherly slap on the arm. "It is as I've said. You have a soft spot in your heart for this woman."
Cam glared at his friend in the same way he would stare at an enemy warrior. “If you go now, you can be home before the day is over,” he grumbled.
“As you wish, my friend.” He shook his head, still chuckling.
Mat gathered his weapons and slung several pouches containing meat from the butchered deer over his shoulder.
"I will leave some of the deer with you. I will tell Pikowan that you have gone on a spirit journey and don't know when you will return." He shot a meaningful look at the woman sleeping on the ground. His lips still twitched in a grin.
Cam pulled his gaze from his friend when Mat disappeared through the trees. He knelt to stoke the coals to life in the fire pit, then his eyes drifted to the sleeping woman. Yellow hair poked out from under the dark hide of the buffalo robe. Cam shook his head, and his eyes narrowed. Who had sent her, and why?
Chapter Six
Riley lay under the smelly fur robe, her eyes wide open. It was definitely no longer night. A tiny stream of gray light filtered under the gap between the dirt and the robe. The cold ground underneath her seeped straight into her bones, and she shivered.
Two men were talking nearby in hushed tones. She didn’t dare move. She strained her ears to listen, but it wouldn’t have mattered if she had heard them clearly. They didn’t speak English, and although it sounded Native American, it was distinctly different from the words spoken by those eight men who abducted her and Jeffrey. One of the voices definitely belonged to the guy who had taken her away from those others.
Riley replayed the events that had taken place over the last twenty-four or so hours, starting with the box of artifacts in the lab at the university. She’d picked up that snakehead artifact and had held it in her hand, rotated it, and commented about the red stones that had been embedded in the sides to make it look as if it had eyes. She had touched those stones, just as Jeffrey took the object from her and dropped it in his pocket. Then all the craziness had started.
You’ve touched the lifeblood of the vessel . . . the red eyes.
Was it true, as inconceivable as it sounded, that she had time traveled? Was it merely coincidence that she had overheard two rangers talking about that very idea as if it had happened to them? She'd even joked with Dan Osborne that he'd made it sound as if he'd actually done some time traveling. What on earth was going on here?
Her mind shook vigorously with denial, fighting the very idea of such a thing. However, of all the irrational things that had happened that she couldn’t explain, time travel was actually the one thing that made perfect sense, if taken in context. The wild and untamed-looking landscape with not a hint of civilization anywhere, the men who dressed, behaved, and talked like Native Americans from the nineteenth century; had she really traveled back in time? Her heart rate increased, and breathing under the stuffy robe became more difficult.
The voices faded, and things were quiet except for the loud chirping of a few birds. Wood crackled as if it was burning, and the smell of smoke drifted under her little fur cave. Riley coughed, and pulled the fur down past her nose. Cold air blasted her, but it was better than suffocating from smoke-inhalation under the cover.
She stared up at tall trees surrounding her that rose like long columns into the sky amid a haze of early-morning fog. The sun's rays penetrated through the canopies, streaming down through the mist and creating golden swirls and ribbons in the air. Riley turned her head to the left, then the right. Less than ten feet from her was the campfire. She was alone.
Tentatively, she sat up and groaned at the stiffness in her back and legs. She'd never walked as far, all at once, as she'd done yesterday, and most of it had been barefoot and uphill. She glanced at her bruised and raw feet. Dan Osborne had been right again that she needed better shoes and clothes to go hiking. Yesterday's experience, although involuntary, might have turned her off to that activity indefinitely, if not forever.
Her glasses fell from her nose into her lap. Riley swiped at a few strands of hair that had come loose from her ponytail. Heck, most of it had come loose. She pulled the elastic band from her hair, gathered it all back together, and retied her ponytail. She glanced in all directions again. Had that guy who took her away from the other eight men abandoned her in the middle of nowhere?
Riley startled at a loud chattering noise behind her. She turned her head to see a little creature with a furry tail stare up at her. It stood on its hind legs as if it were begging. Riley shrieked in surprise, and scrambled to the side, away from the rodent.
“Shoo. Get away. I don’t have anything for you.” She waved her hand at the little thing, which had scurried off a short distance, and then stopped to look at her again.
From behind her, someone laughed loudly. Riley’s head snapped around. She struggled to stand, cringing at the pain in her raw feet. Her eyes widened, and she clamped her mouth closed, or she would have had to pick her jaw up off the ground.
Coming toward her through the trees was a man. He couldn't be real. She blinked. No one looked that rugged, and perfect. Her eyes roamed over his fringed leather leggings. He wore moccasins that were laced up his ankles and calves, and a loincloth also made of leather. That was the extent of his clothing. His torso was bare, displaying solid, sculpted abs, wide shoulders, and corded arms. His tanned skin glistened as the sun reflected off the water droplets that ran down his chest and arms from his wet hair. Riley's mouth went dry.
“Don’t let the squirrel bite you. It hurts,” he said, still laughing.
Riley stared. Despite the humor in his voice, there was a dark intensity to his eyes, and he was taking inventory of her from top to bottom just as she was doing to him. Her face flamed, and she folded her hands across her chest in a self-conscious gesture.
This was the guy whose hands and body had been all over her last night. It had been very clear to her, at the time, that he’d been solid, but she hadn’t been able to see him in the dark. He wasn’t bulky like the guys at the gym, just lean and solid in all the right places. His shoulder-length, dark-brown hair, that smile, and those intense eyes certainly completed the package.
Athletes aren’t your type, remember?
She raised her chin, and stood taller, mentally telling the voice in her head to shut up.
“Well, it startled me. I wasn’t expecting a squirrel so close behind me,” she retorted.
He grinned. “Next time, it might be something a little scarier, like a beaver, or maybe a raccoon. Even then, I don’t recommend that you scream.”
“Like you told me to do last night?” Riley’s cheeks flushed with heat. Why did words always come out of her mouth before thinking?
He came to a stop a few feet in front of her. Riley inhaled the clean scent of his skin and tilted her head to concentrate on his face rather than that chest, which was conveniently at eye level. His facial features were definitely Caucasian, not Native American, although his skin was tanned to a rich, even olive tone.
“Last night, I was trying to keep you alive.” His voice dropped to that same sultry tone he’d used then.
Riley lifted her glasses to her face. She needed something to do other than keeping her gaze from drifting lower to his naked torso, and if she continued to look him in the eyes, she’d drown in his intense stare. The sensation of melting had already taken a firm hold in her. Common sense told her she should be afraid of this guy, but she wasn’t.
She breathed a sigh of relief when he moved away first. He dropped to a kneeling position by the fire, piling more wood onto the flames. His pose gave her an enticing view of a firm upper thigh that his leggings and loincloth didn't cover. Riley clasped her burning cheeks between her cold hands. She needed a fire extinguisher right about now. She cleared her throat and looked past him into the trees, which were far less interesting.
"Yeah, about last night," she said and darted another glance at him.
He turned his head to her, his brows raised in a silent question. He waited. Riley took a step closer and sucked in a quick breath when pain shot through her soles. The guy's eyes dropped instantly to her feet, and he frowned.
“You said that Jeffrey and I time traveled,” she started, speaking slowly. She laughed quickly at her own words. Maybe he would finally tell her that it had all been a big joke.
“You did,” he said, his words clipped. He stood, then stared at her again. “You had no knowledge of the vessel?”
Riley shook her head. “A box with artifacts was dropped off at the university for me, and I was going through them. I picked up an object that looked like a snakehead with
red stones for eyes. I assume that’s what you’re calling the vessel?”
The guy nodded. His intense stare eased, and he looked rather puzzled, the way his forehead scrunched.
“I think I might have touched the red stones when Jeffrey took the artifact from me and dropped it in his coat.”
“He must have held you at the same time,” he guessed.
Riley’s cheeks flushed again. “He was holding my hand. I think he was about to ask me out. That’s why he took it away from me; so that I would give him my full attention.”
The guy’s face hardened. “He didn’t know anything about the vessel?”
Riley shook her head. She laughed. “Jeffrey would never have done something like this knowingly.”
“He’s a coward for leaving you behind.”
Riley took a step back at his angry outburst and the dark scowl on his face. She’d already thought the same thing, but for some reason, needed to defend Jeffrey.
"He must have overheard what you were telling me last night, and put two and two together. He could have easily reached for it in his coat, even with his hands tied. Maybe he wanted to give it to you so that you'd leave me alone." She raised her brows at him in a meaningful stare.
The guy looked at her as if considering what she said. His frown deepened. Riley's heart rate increased. If this was all true, was she stranded in another time? She couldn't stay here. For starters, she had no shoes, and definitely not the right clothes. If Jeffrey had accidentally gone back to the lab . . . to the future, he'd come back for her. He would have figured out how that artifact worked.
“Please tell me you have another one of those snake things to get me home.”
The guy continued to stare at her. Her heart sank into the hard earth. If he had another one of those vessels, he could have sent her back last night, if he truly meant what he said and had been trying to help her. His silence spoke volumes.
“You’re telling me I can’t get home?” She squeezed the words between the growing lump in her throat. Her eyes widened. For the first time this morning, ice-cold fear raced down her spine.
Yellowstone Origins: Yellowstone Romance Series, Book 6 Page 6
