“Wow,” he said. “You’re incredible.”
Hannah giggled. “So are you.”
“I try,” Alan teased, and then kissed her again before making a dramatic show of rolling off of her and onto his back next to her. He rolled a little too hard and his arms slammed into the rock wall next to them, and he yelped at the force of the impact.
The next thing Hannah knew, the room filled with what sounded like glass shattering. A thousand tiny cracks appeared in the wall next to Alan, spreading like a viral web until the whole height of the wall was covered and it started to buckle under the pressure of the cracks. Hannah screamed and covered her face as a thousand tiny, glittering shards started raining down on them. For what felt like an eternity, the noise continued. When it finally stopped, Hannah cautiously sat up, pushing off the little broken pieces that covered her like a blanket.
“It’s ice,” Alan said, his voice filled with wonder. Hannah ran her fingers through the thick layer of ice shards. She looked at where the wall had been, and saw the mouth of a very large tunnel. The air coming from the tunnel was still cool, but it was much warmer than the air in their current room.
“Oh my god,” Hannah said. “It’s a Black Ice wall.”
“A what?”
“A Black Ice wall. I overheard the Blizzards talking about them one day. One of the reasons the cave is such a maze is that many of the main, connecting pathways were supposedly covered with ice walls in a flash flood that occurred down here years ago. The walls were just thick enough, and the temperatures always cold enough, that they never melted. But you can’t really see them, because they take on the color of the rocks behind them.”
Alan looked at Hannah with a hopeful expression on his face. “This tunnel is much bigger than the other tunnels we’ve seen. Maybe it leads to a way out.”
Hannah nodded, and smiled. “Let’s go exploring.”
Alan hesitated. “Are you sure you’re up to it? You don’t want to try to rest a little more first?”
Hannah grinned. “Trust me, the possibility of actually getting out of this cave has reenergized me. Let’s go.”
Chapter Seven
Alan and Hannah gathered up their supplies and set off down the large tunnel. Despite the hunger gnawing at his stomach and the exhaustion nipping at his heels, Alan felt lighter than air. The events of the last day seemed surreal. After sleeping with Hannah, he had no doubt that they were meant to be life mates. No one would ever replace Tessa, but Alan finally felt he had found someone who could help him move past the tragedy of his past.
Hannah’s spirit sparkled. Despite the tough circumstances they were enduring, she didn’t complain. She soldiered on, often with a smile on her face. She was stubborn, but tough. His admiration for her grew with every additional moment they spent together.
Alan desperately hoped that this new tunnel would lead them out of here. He couldn’t bear the thought of finally finding love again, only to lose it to the unforgiving maze of Black Ice Caverns. The further they walked, the more promising things seemed to be. The temperature was slowly increasing, which he hoped meant they were getting closer to the surface. He knew that the temperature above ground had been several degrees warmer than the temperature down here.
Alan glanced at his watch. In the darkness of the cave, he had completely lost track of time. His watch read 3:30 in the afternoon. Alan’s exhaustion had overtaken him so much that it felt more like 3:30 in the morning, but the “P.M.” notation was clearly displayed next to the time, indicating it was afternoon. Alan wanted to stop and sleep, but the promise of escape seemed so close.
As they continued walking, Alan’s joy at the rising temperature turned to concern. The temperature had continued to go up. It was too high. He was starting to feel like he was experiencing a warm day in July, even thought it was actually the latter part of September. Hannah seemed to have noticed the change, too. She looked over at him with a questioning look in her eyes.
“That’s weird, huh?” she said. It was more of a statement then a question. Alan just nodded without any further comment.
As they rounded a series of sharp corners in the tunnel, light flooded their eyes and the source of the heat suddenly came into view. In front of them was a huge, open space in the cavern. The ceiling of it looked like clear glass, and it was covered with only a light dusting of snow, allowing brilliant sunlight to shine down on Alan and Hannah. After days of only a dim flashlight, Alan found himself squinting at the bright light. The warm temperatures seemed to be supporting a large variety of plant life in the cavern. There were haphazard rows of berry vines spread all over the place. A vegetable garden had been planted against the far left corner, and the plants were covered with a colorful bounty. Lush green vines grew on all of the walls, covering the great heights with their flowery, leafy beauty.
“My god, it’s like a giant greenhouse with a roof of ice. It’s beautiful. Stunning, really,” Hannah said, her face filled with awe at the sight before them.
“It is beautiful,” Alan said. “And I guarantee you the Blizzards know it’s here. This is likely one of their main patrol routes. Let’s load up my backpack with as much food as we can and get out of here.”
Alan’s comments seemed to snap Hannah back to reality, and she started heading for the vegetable garden. Alan followed her, slipping his large backpack off of his back and setting it on the ground with the zipper wide open. They loaded the pack with zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, bell peppers, green beans, and carrots. He knew that the produce would spoil quickly, but he loaded up as much as he could fit, anyways. Maybe the cooler temperatures in other parts of the cave would help it stay fresh longer. He didn’t bother to pack any berries, but he did hungrily stuff them in his mouth by the handful. He ate blueberries, strawberries and blackberries in copious amounts. Their sweet flavors burst on his tongue, and he slowly felt his hunger subsiding as he greedily filled his stomach. Hannah followed suit, downing berries as fast as she could. When they had both eaten their fill, Alan nodded, and shrugged his backpack back over his shoulders.
Several tunnel openings dotted the giant greenhouse room, and Alan chose one across the room from where they started.
“That was incredible,” Hannah said. “Do you think they built that room, or did it occur naturally?”
“I’m not sure. My guess is it’s a natural occurrence. That seems like it would be really hard to manufacture artificially. Although if anyone could manage it, the Blizzards would be the ones I’d place my money on. They’re cunning like that.”
The further away they got from the large room, the colder the cave became again. Several smaller tunnels and rooms branched out from the main tunnel, but Alan thought sticking to the main path gave them the best odds of finding a potential escape route. He also realized it gave them the best odds of running across a Blizzard, and he stayed vigilant about sniffing the air and listening for unusual sounds. After a few hours of walking, they came to what appeared to be a dead end. Alan walked around the end of the cave, slamming his palms against the walls as hard as he could to make sure there weren’t any more secret pathways hidden by black ice. Everything here appeared to be solid rock, however.
Alan rubbed his forehead against his brow, trying to decide what to do. A glance at his watch told him that it was now 6 p.m. They had been walking for just over two hours.
“Let’s go back to the greenhouse room,” he said.
“But you said yourself that the greenhouse will be heavily patrolled by Blizzards.”
“It will be patrolled, yes. But we’re not going to stay in the greenhouse itself. We’ll choose one of the smaller offshoot tunnels and find an out of the way room where we can spend the night. The warmer it is, the better. We’ll be more comfortable, and the Blizzards won’t want to hang around a warmer area too long. It will bother their heat-sensitive side too much. I’m afraid that if we hang around in the colder areas of the cave, we’re going to eventually run into more of them.”
Hannah nodded, and started following Alan back in the direction they had come from.
“What do we do from here?” Hannah asked. “I mean, as long as we fly under the radar enough that the Blizzards don’t figure out that we’re here, we’ll be okay. There’s plenty of food and warmth near the greenhouse. Not dying of starvation is an improvement, but I’d still like to escape from here, if possible.”
Alan laughed. “Oh, don’t worry. Getting out of here is my top priority. For one thing, it’s not safe as long as Blizzards are roaming around. And, for another thing, I’m still worried about my clan member, Ryker, and his soon-coming cub. I need to get back to help protect them.” Then Alan lowered his voice and gave Hannah a sultry look. “Besides, I’d like the chance to give you a proper fuck, without freezing temperatures, sharp rocks, and roaming Blizzards getting in the way.”
Hannah bit her bottom lip, and Alan leaned over to plant a kiss on her forehead. The sparks of chemistry when their skin met could have literally ignited a fire. Alan let his hand slide to Hannah’s lower back and gave her a gently push forward.
“Let’s go, gorgeous,” he said. “I’ll explain my plan while we walk.” Hannah nodded and started walking, and Alan began outlining his idea.
“As you saw, there are several main tunnels branching off from the main room. We just determined that there’s no escape route in this one, as far as we can tell. But one of more of those main tunnels must have a path to the surface. The Blizzards obviously must live near that entrance. It puts them reasonably close to both the outside world and a huge food source. We’ll explore a different tunnel every day until we find one with an exit. In the meantime, we’ll have food and warmth. Simple.”
Hannah rolled her eyes at him. “Yes, simple. What could possibly go wrong, other than the entire Blizzard clan figuring out where we are and chewing us to pieces down here.”
Alan shrugged. “Details, details. Besides, do you have a better idea for a plan?”
Hannah sheepishly shook her head no, and Alan smirked at her as they continued walking. They kept making their way back through the tunnel, until they estimated they were about a fifteen minute walk from the main greenhouse room. Taking a random side tunnel, they followed it until it predictably dead ended into a small, rocky room.
They set up camp for the night, laying out the extra clothes to make a bed. They feasted on raw vegetables, which felt decadent after nearly starving on meager portions of protein bars. As soon as they were done eating, they lay down on the makeshift bed. Although the rocky floor still offered little in the way of comfort, at least they weren’t nearly freezing to death anymore.
As they lay down together, Hannah snuggled up against Alan’s chest and he put her arms around her.
“How are you feeling?” he whispered to her in the darkness, brushing strands of hair behind her ears.
“Much better today. I think I’m on the mend,” she whispered back.
“I’m so glad to hear it,” he replied, then wrapped his arms tighter around her. He couldn’t stop the passion flowing through his body from causing an erection, but he didn’t make a move to undress her. There would be time for that later. Right now she needed her rest. They actually had a realistic chance of making it out of here, but they needed to be ready for whatever obstacles they might still face.
Chapter Eight
Alan and Hannah spent the next several days exploring the nearby tunnels, only to be faced with dead end after dead end. Hannah had started to despair again, but Alan remained confident that they would find a way. They snuck into the greenhouse every evening, grabbing fresh vegetables and berries, and replenishing their water supplies from the stream that ran through the area. They chose a different room to sleep in every night, and did their best to minimize their scent and any evidence of their presence. If it hadn’t been for the constant threat of a Blizzard attack, exploring the cave like this might have been fun and almost romantic. Although an escape route eluded them, they made a new, interesting discovery nearly every day.
One day, the tunnel they were exploring dead ended into a room of sparkling purple and green stones. As Alan shone his flashlight around the room, the beam reflected back at them with colorful, tinted hues. Another day, the tunnel they explored ended in an underground waterfall. Hannah couldn’t believe that the water hadn’t frozen, since the room felt to her like it was about a million degrees below zero. But Alan explained that it wasn’t actually that cold in the room, and that the force of the running water was enough to keep it from turning into ice.
The most interesting discovery, however, was the room they dubbed “the meat locker.” One day while they were in a particularly cold branch of a tunnel, they came across a large room where numerous blocks of ice had been stacked into makeshift shelves. On the shelves were piles and piles of frozen meat. Hannah sniffed at it.
“Seal,” she said. “With a little bit of whale here and there.”
Suddenly, everything seemed to click for Alan.
“This all makes sense now,” Alan said.
“What does?” Hannah asked, as she ran her fingers across one of the piles of seal meat and tried to think of a way they could build a fire down here in the cave and roast some meet. Her mouth watered at the thought. But she forced herself to dismiss the idea. Even if they could figure out a way to make fire, the smell of smoke and roasting meat would quickly alert any passing Blizzards to their presence. As appealing as a meat dinner sounded, it was far too risky.
“The Blizzards have been here all summer, but no one knew how they were surviving the heat. But it’s been easy for them—they just hide out down here in the areas of the cave that are cold. They have plenty of water and vegetables, and they stocked up on frozen meat. What more could they ask for? There’s no need to go up to the surface, except to attack or torture bears from another clan. This place is like a fortress.”
“It’s definitely a fortress,” Hannah agreed. “I can’t believe we’ve been down so many tunnels and haven’t found a single exit.”
“I think they’ve blocked all the entrances and exits on this side of the greenhouse room. If there’s only one, it’s easily guarded.”
Hannah’s face fell as she considered this possibility. “Well, that would put a damper on our escape plan. For our own sakes, I hope you’re wrong about there only being one entrance.”
But Alan wasn’t wrong. The next day, they explored the next to last tunnel, and the further down the tunnel they went, the stronger the smell of Blizzard became.
“Alan,” Hannah whispered. “Do you think it’s a smart idea to get so close to them?”
Alan just shrugged. “I have to find out if there’s an entrance here, and, if so, whether there’s any feasible way of us sneaking past them to get out. Why don’t you go back where it’s safer and let me finish up the exploration of this tunnel by myself?”
Hannah shook her head, horrified. “No way am I leaving you alone here near their main hive. If you insist on exploring here, I insist on coming with you.”
Alan looked back at her and smiled. “You really are an obstinate one, aren’t you? I tell you what. Let’s go back and set up camp for the night. We’ll have dinner and rest up a bit. When it gets really late we’ll sneak back here for a night mission. We’re less likely to be discovered if it’s late and most of the Blizzards are sleeping. We’ll just have to be wary of using the flashlight.”
Hannah agreed. The idea of walking into the Blizzards’ lair still terrified her, but she didn’t have much choice other than to trust Alan. Letting him go by himself wasn’t an option for her. She would never forgive herself if he ran into trouble and had to face the Blizzards alone.
Which is why, late that evening, Hannah found herself tip-toeing along behind Alan as they headed back to the spot where they had left off earlier. As they continued past that spot, the scent of Blizzard only got stronger. When faint light started appearing in the long tunnel, Hannah almost turned around
and ran back. But Alan never wavered or slowed his pace. He just kept steadily moving forward. At one point, he pulled her quickly down a side tunnel and held her pinned against the wall. Breathing heavily, Hannah heard the voices of the two Blizzards Alan had been trying to avoid. She thought the Blizzards would smell them and attack for sure, but they kept walking by. From their loud, obnoxious laughter and slurred words, Hannah recognized that they were drunk. She breathed a sigh of relief at the near miss.
As they continued on, they reached a point where they could catch a glimpse of a large, arched entrance to what looked like another oversized cavern. Soft torchlight lit up the room and spilled into the hallway, silhouetting a large man pacing slowly back and forth under the arched entrance. He was the only guard at the entrance, as far as Hannah could see, although she had no doubt that others were stationed in the cavern and roaming the tunnel where she and Alan were exploring. Straight across the large room was another arch, this one with a proper door affixed to it. Another large guard leaned lazily against that door. Inside the cavern, dozens of Blizzards were lying around the room on cots, snoozing soundly. Alan had been right. This was their main hideout, and that door on the other side probably led out of the cave.
Alan poked Hannah’s arm gently, and made a motion that he wanted to head back in the direction they had come from. Hannah had never felt so relieved. Her heart had been pounding nonstop during this whole expedition, and she couldn’t wait to be back in the relative safety of their evening hideout spot.
When they got back to their base camp, Alan sighed loudly. “Well, it looks like we’re screwed,” he said.
Hannah made no comment for a moment. She wasn’t willing to come this far and then admit defeat. She had gone from being certain that she was going to die to hoping that her escape was imminent. She couldn’t let go of that hope yet.
Bearing the Black Ice (Ice Bear Shifters Book 4) Page 4
