Two more wolves emerged into the clearing, flanking me on either side. One was snowy-white, the other russet-brown. Their snarls joined with the first wolf, creating a vicious, hair-raising harmony.
“You will come to me, Grace,” Alex's voice echoed in my mind, and then with impossible speed, the shadow vanished into the trees.
The wolves chuffed and whined, circling restlessly around me, eyes scanning the darkness of the forest. The big silver one nudged his head against my hip, gently at first, and then more insistently.
“Ah,” I realized. “You want me to go back to The Spruce.” My voice sounded flat and far away, like I was listening to somebody else speak in another room. Numbly, I turned and began walking.
I hadn’t realized how far I’d walked from The Spruce. Journeying into the woods under Alex's command had felt strangely timeless, dreamlike. On the walk back, I was acutely aware of every plodding step through thigh-deep snow, ducking beneath scratching pine boughs, stumbling in the dark over snow-covered rocks and stumps. When I finally broke free of the cover of the forest, I was sweating and breathing raggedly. The three wolves circled me restlessly, herding me forward.
When I reached the back door, the silver wolf followed me inside, and it seemed oddly natural.
And then suddenly, there was no wolf. Caleb’s hands were on me, gripping my shoulders like he wanted to shake the life out of me. His eyes were frantic, his face a mask of terror.
“Why?” he demanded angrily. “I told you to stay inside. Why would you—” Words failed him, and with a hoarse exclamation, he hauled me against him, his arms wrapped around me in a crushing embrace.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I had to.” I wrapped my arms around his torso, meaning to comfort him, and found myself touching his bare skin. The searing heat of his skin bloomed against my palms, snaked slowly up my arms, and spread through my entire body with a comforting radiance. “Caleb?”
“Hm?”
“You’re naked.”
“Am I?” He bent and scooped me into his arms, carrying me towards the stairs. I held onto him as he maneuvered up the narrow staircase, his bare feet ghostly silent upon the treads.
He brought me to his room and laid me on his bed. He pulled off my boots and helped me out of my jacket. But he didn’t join me on the bed. He sank into the chair beside his dresser with a complete lack of self-consciousness for his nudity. Despite all the events of the last several hours, I was apparently still capable of being flustered. I blushed and turned away from him, examining the spines of the books lined up on his window ledge. Behind me, Caleb let out a heavy breath. I risked looking at him to find that he’d dropped his head into his hands. Every line of his body sagged with weariness.
“Why did you leave The Spruce, Grace?” He lifted his head, pinning me with his gaze. His eyes burned with emotion, gleaming amber bright in the dimness of his room. “He nearly had you! He could’ve—”
“It was Alex. He’s the…” I couldn’t say it out loud. “He’s here because of me.”
Caleb lapsed into silence, watching me with an inscrutable look.
“He gave me my grandmother’s wedding ring back.” I held up my hand, the bloodied ring still on my finger. “He left it on Elena’s finger. He knew I’d get the message.” The cold inside of me deepened into a knife-sharp ache. I curled in on myself, making a futile effort to warm myself.
Caleb made an inarticulate sound, and then the mattress depressed beneath his weight. He slid beneath the blankets and pulled me into his arms. The warmth of him seeped into me, leeching away the cold. I sighed, closing my eyes and leaning against him.
“What do you know about him, Grace?”
“I didn’t know what he is. Not until today.” I still couldn’t say it out loud, but the word echoed in my mind.
Vampire.
I shivered and Caleb’s arms tightened around me.
“I’ve been having dreams about him, ever since I got here. He was looking for me, telling me to come to him. I thought they were just dreams, but…”
A low growl reverberated in Caleb’s chest. “That’s something they can do,” he said darkly. “I should’ve put it together—you were sleepwalking, saying his name. It’s why your scent was so confusing when you first got here.”
“My scent?”
“I’ll tell you later.” He nuzzled his face against my neck and inhaled deeply. Pleasant shivers radiated up and down my body, but the fear was stronger. I couldn’t relax, couldn’t enjoy Caleb’s touch.
“I have to go to him, Caleb. If I don’t, he’ll just keep hurting people until he gets to me.”
Caleb’s hold tightened to a nearly painful degree. “No.”
“I don’t think he wants to hurt me. He just wants to… have me.”
“Grace, no.” Caleb pulled away, turning me so that I faced him. “He’ll make you like him. You’ll never see daylight again, never feel warm again. You’ll become a killer. Like him.”
I stared at him. “Say it bluntly, Caleb. It doesn’t seem real when you keep tip-toeing around it.”
He sighed, head dropping. “We have laws. If I explain these things to you without pack approval…”
“Pack,” I repeated in a whisper. “What if I just figure it out on my own? Does that break your laws?”
Caleb lifted his head. “What have you figured out?”
“You’re a werewolf.”
“That’s not what we call ourselves.”
“Quiet, you law-breaker.” I laid my fingers over his lips. They curved in a smile against my touch. More warmth flooded me. “You can all shift into wolves. Or maybe just certain families can. I haven’t figured that out yet.”
“Hmmm,” Caleb murmured noncommittally. “Does that scare you?”
“It did at first.” I cupped his face, stroking my thumbs along the wind-burnt crests of his cheekbones. “But only because I thought I was going crazy.”
Caleb’s eyes shadowed with guilt. “What else have you figured out?” he asked grimly.
“Alex is a vampire. Isn’t he?”
“That’s not what we call them,” Caleb said, which was as good as a yes.
“Are they all evil?”
Caleb considered the question for a moment. “Is a grizzly evil for killing? They need to do it to survive. But if one came into your community, endangered your people, you’d destroy it in a heartbeat.” He lapsed into silence.
“He hurt Elena. Not to survive. Just to make a point.”
Caleb nodded. “I guess it’s not fair to compare them to grizzlies. Grizzlies were never human. They don’t have human notions of right or wrong. Either way, he’ll die. The minute he set a foot on Teekkonlit territory, he signed his own death warrant.”
Caleb’s surety eased my fear a little. I turned towards him so that I could wrap my arm around his waist, press my face into his chest. Holding onto all that strength gave me comfort. He was here with me. He would fight with me. I didn’t have to be alone.
“Is Elena going to be okay?”
“I don’t know,” he answered honestly.
Guilt tore at me. “Why aren’t you flying her to a hospital?”
“Injuries from his kind aren’t treatable with medicine. Not modern medicine.”
A convulsive shiver ran down my spine. “It’s my fault,” I said hoarsely. “I brought him here.”
Caleb’s arms tightened around me. “He brought himself here. He made his own choices. You’re not responsible for him.”
I wanted so badly to believe him.
He pressed his lips to the top of my head. “Sleep, Grace. You’re exhausted. Things will look better in the morning.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
I woke half-crushed beneath the warm weight of a male body. It was the second time I’d woken in Caleb’s arms, but this time, it felt right. His face was pressed against my neck, his breath gusting humidly against my skin. The last time I woke up like this, he tried to bite me. Would he do it
again?
Why did I want him to?
I shifted slightly, easing out from under his bulk so that I could breathe more easily. His arms tightened, trapping me against him.
“Where are you going?” he growled, lips moving against my neck, beard rasping my skin. A delicate, delicious tremor chased over me. Caleb sensed it, his lips curving into a smile. He nipped me—not a real bite—but enough to make me gasp. A self-satisfied laugh rumbled in his chest.
“Careful,” I told him, forcing myself to breathe evenly. “I bite back.”
“I wish you would.”
Held tightly against him, I couldn’t miss the rigid press of his arousal. I rolled my hips back, teasing that hard length. Caleb groaned, rocking against me.
“Grace, you witch.” His hands coasted down the front of my body, tracing my stomach to my hips and back up to cup my breasts. “I want to kiss you, but I can’t remember the last time I brushed my teeth.”
I arched into his caress. “Gross.”
He chuckled and smacked me on the ass like he was sending a horse off to the races, then pushed away from me. He got out of bed and whipped the blankets off.
“Hey!” I objected, curling up against the sudden cold. Caleb stood over me, completely naked.
Oh. I took in the sight with wide eyes. Whoa ho ho. He was big and broad and hairy and I couldn’t look away. Woof.
Caleb gave me a smug look and wrapped the blanket around his hips. “Go on, pervert. Get cleaned up. We’ll go down for breakfast. Margaret will want to talk to you about what happened last night.”
Until then, I had forgotten about the rest of the world. Suddenly it all came crashing back down on me—Alex, and Elena, and the danger I’d brought to Longtooth. I sat up uneasily, suddenly filled with dread.
“Hey.” Caleb crouched in front of me. “It’s going to be alright. Elena’s still with us.”
“How do you know?”
Caleb hesitated.
“Oh—right. You don’t have to tell me. Sorry I asked.” I started to get up, but Caleb caught me by one ankle. I stumbled and sat back down on the bed.
“I trust you, Grace,” he said solemnly.
“It’s not a big deal, Caleb. At breakfast I’ll just—”
“The pack has a mental connection with each other.”
He was telling me things he shouldn’t be. “Caleb, you don’t have to—”
“It’s not like telepathy. We can’t speak to each other. But we have a general sense of the others—to an extent. When I fly out of the Valley, the rest of the pack loses that sense of me. They know I’m still alive—still in the pack—but they don’t know where I am.” He released my ankle and took my hands. “Elena’s still in the pack.”
“Oh.” I dropped my head, letting the relief of that wash over me. “Thank you for telling me.”
Caleb stood up. “Go on and get ready for breakfast. We’ll get the news downstairs.” He glanced out the window at the rising sun. “In case I forget to tell you, you’re safe in the daylight. So as long as you are back at The Spruce before sunset, we can keep you safe.”
That made sense. In the entirety of our relationship, I’d never seen Alex during the day.
I went to my room to shower and change into clean clothes. When I emerged, Caleb was waiting in the hall. I suddenly felt a bit bashful as we walked down to breakfast together. A nearly-forgotten memory flashed into my mind. Connor Ankkonisdoy telling me, You smell like him. I stuttered to a halt halfway down the stairs. Caleb looked back with a confused frown.
“They’re all going to know we slept together.”
His expression cleared, and he flashed me a feral smile. “Yeah.”
When I didn’t move, he leaned lazily against the wall, arms crossed against his chest.
“I hate to break it to you, Gracie, but you’ve had my scent for a while now—and I’ve had yours. The whole pack knows we’ve been circling each other for weeks.”
My ears went hot. “They do?”
“To be honest, most of them knew before I did.” He shrugged. “So, for them, the only change will be that we’re not ignoring each other anymore.” He walked back up the stairs, closing the distance between us, and pulled me into a heated kiss. When he broke away, it took me a second to get my bearings again. Caleb gave me that cocky, wolfish grin. There was something about it that filled me with delight, while simultaneously making me want to rip the rug right out from under him.
“Thank you for brushing your teeth,” I said, patting his cheek. I turned away and trotted down the stairs.
Caleb chuckled darkly behind me. “Witch.”
The mood in the dining room was subdued when we entered. But as people saw Caleb and I walk in together, knowing smiles were cast our way. My burning ears spread to burning cheeks, and I couldn’t make eye-contact with anybody.
“Gracie. Caleb.” Natasha appeared with mugs and a coffee pot. She smiled at the two of us like an angel observing a good deed. “Good morning.”
“Morning, Tasha.” Caleb watched her pour coffee. “How’s Elena?”
“She’s awake. She’s speaking.”
Some tension lifted from Caleb’s shoulders. “Has she… changed?” He said the word carefully enough for me to understand that he was trying to refer obliquely to something else. I could pretty easily guess what that something else might be.
Natasha glanced uncertainly at me. “Not yet,” she said, a question in her eyes as she looked back to Caleb. “Margaret wants to speak to you—both of you.”
“We’ll go see her after breakfast,” Caleb said.
Caleb and I met Margaret in an empty short-stay room, next-door to where Elena was resting. Stomach churning, back sweating, I explained everything to her—how I’d met Alex in Chicago, how he’d stalked me after the breakup, and how I’d continued to see him in my dreams in Longtooth, how I’d realized he’d followed me when I found my grandmother’s wedding ring on Elena’s finger.
“I’m so sorry for everything. I had no idea what he was,” I finished hoarsely.
“How could you have known?” Margaret asked. I had to force myself not to cringe away from the anger in her voice. But when I managed to lift my gaze to hers, I realized her anger wasn’t directed at me. She was angry at herself. “You haven’t been told anything that might have helped you. At worst, you’ve been actively lied to.” Her gaze went to Caleb. “You’re exempted from the law of Silence. Tell her everything. But get her out of here.”
My heart dropped into my stomach. She wasn’t blaming me for what had happened, but she wanted me gone all the same.
“There are too many vulnerabilities at The Spruce. Too many occupants, too many entrances. Take her to the old ranger station. There’s only one door, and it’ll just be the two of you.”
I frowned, confused. “Just the—what?”
“I’m sorry, Grace,” Margaret said with a sigh. “Your students are going to have to do without you until we hunt this thing down.”
“You don’t want me to leave the Valley?”
Margaret’s eyebrows flew up. “Why would I want that?”
I looked askance at her and Caleb. “Oh, I don’t know, maybe because I brought a vampire into your home?”
“We don’t call them that,” Margaret said. “And you didn’t bring anything. You were followed by something that’s old enough to know better than to enter wolf territory.”
“Wolf,” I repeated faintly.
Margaret gave me an apologetic smile. “Caleb will explain everything. You need to pack your things. Give me whatever lesson plans you have. We’ll see if Julie Angwin can take your classes until this is settled.” Margaret got up from her spot on the edge of the bed, looking decisive.
“I don’t understand.” I stood as Caleb did. “Why do I have to leave? Why can’t I keep teaching? The days are long enough now that I can get to and from school during the daylight.”
“During the daylight, huh?” Margaret slid a sour look at Cale
b. “Been getting a jump on that Silence exemption, pup?”
Caleb tried, and failed, to look innocent.
Margaret sighed. “You can’t go to school, Grace, because it’s too much of a security risk. There are too many doors, too many people who don’t know what to look out for. It only takes one person to unknowingly give him an invitation inside. Absent-mindedly holding a door open for him is enough of an invitation.”
“That might have already happened,” I said in a small voice. “He left something in one of my desk drawers.”
Margaret sighed, rubbing at her temple. “We’ll have to put signs on every door revoking his invitation.”
“Are you going to tell the others?” Caleb asked, and I realized he meant the other outsiders.
Margaret spread her hands helplessly. “We have to tell them something. How much of this mess could have been prevented if we’d told Grace everything from the start?” Margaret dropped her hands and let out a frustrated huff. “Anyways, you might as well know, Gracie… we’re using you as bait.”
Both Caleb and Margaret regarded me grimly. The heavy silence that followed her declaration seemed to hum in my ears.
“That’s why we need to get you away from Longtooth,” Margaret said. “We need to draw your old friend out where there are fewer people for him to hurt, and fewer places to hide. As long as you stay in the station—and don’t invite him in—he can’t get you.”
“Won’t stop him from trying, though,” Caleb said, a low growl in his voice.
“Which is why Caleb will be with you,” Margaret said. “So get upstairs and pack what you’ll need for a week. Hopefully it won’t take that long, but it doesn’t hurt to be prepared.”
Strangely, I wasn’t as terrified of being used as vampire bait as I was of spending a week alone with Caleb. Just the two of us.
I looked up at him. He met my gaze, and his dark eyes shone with the faintest gleam of amber.
Chapter Twenty-Four
The Ranger Station was an old cabin in the mountains overlooking the meandering flow of the same tributary river that ran through Longtooth. Caleb brought me inside and then left me there while he scouted the surroundings.
Cold Hearted: An Alaskan Werewolf Romance Page 20
