“No. Well, a little.” She allowed him to help her into the passenger seat and fasten her belt. “Thank you.” Nobody ever did that for her before, at least not since she was a little girl.
“Can’t have you getting hurt while we head up the hill. We’re above the resort, on a smaller road, and it gets icy even in spring. And this storm doesn’t help. Hope you don’t mind.” He closed her door and moved around the front of the vehicle to take the driver’s seat again while Ty stowed her bags in the back and settled behind her. “Let’s go!”
Clark handled the SUV like a race-car driver, working around slower moving vehicles as if they were standing still while seeming to have no trouble controlling the car on roads even she, with her L.A. driving skills, could tell were slick.
“So, how was the flight up?” Ty’s head appeared between the seats. Apparently, he didn’t feel the need to wear a seat belt. But that was none of her business. The heat blasted away, and she snuggled back in the seat that was also warm. Her eyelids grew heavy.
Wait, he’d asked something. The flight. “Oh, it was fine. Except for one guy who spent the entire trip bragging about his skiing expertise. The flight attendant said he does it every weekend.”
“We were worried with the storm coming in that you might not make it,” Clark said, signaling for a left turn just as they got into the picturesque town. “
“Speaking of which,” Ty added, “if you need anything, we should stop now.”
“No, as long as the lodge is stocked with food and drink, I should be fine. I’m a very efficient packer.
“Okay. Even the plowing service we pay can’t get in once the snow starts until it lets up.”
“You pay someone who covers your driveway exit?” Odd.
Clark snorted and stopped at a red light. Two cars slid past him into the—luckily deserted—intersection. “He’s pa—a friend of my family’s. You know how that goes.”
“Sure.” Except, she didn’t. Jenni had spent most of her childhood in foster homes where the people were sometimes okay, sometimes not, but she’d never built a family bond of any kind until she arrived at the model house and met Matilda and Gina and all the other girls. Until recently, they’d gotten together often, but as each one settled down, fewer were able to get away for reunions with old friends. “Family. Sure.”
Clark cast her a sideways glance as he started across the now empty intersection. “Not close to your family, huh?”
She shrugged, uncomfortable under their scrutiny. “I-I don’t have family. But I have friends.” How pathetic did that protest sound?”
Ty laid an arm over her shoulder and gave her a friendly squeeze. “Friends are important. After all, you get to choose them. If you hired a snow plow operator and they did what Scott did, you’d be able to fire them.”
What a great way to look at it. “True.” A smile stretched her lips, the self-pity she so rarely let out disappearing in the warmth of his hug. “And I have great friends. One of them set this date up with…which one of you is my date, anyway?”
Silence met her words.
“Guys? Is something wrong?” Maybe neither was her date. They could be the lodge shuttle service, although wouldn’t that just be one person? As neither replied, words rang in her head. Our Jenni. Oh god, no. She didn’t want to die anymore. She wanted to kill Matilda. But she had to be mistaken. “Please tell me you both aren’t my dates.”
Chapter Two
Ty
Ty’s heart sank. Of anything the beautiful Jenni could say, Please tell me you both aren’t my dates had to be the worst. When he and Clark turned to Gerri at the Paranormal Dating Agency for help in finding their mate, they’d made it quite clear they would be sharing. They’d shared everything since their first two-pack of cupcakes day one of preschool. Their bond, although hard for some humans to understand, was quite common among their pack. And once they reached adulthood, it gained new aspects.
He sank back into his seat and watched the snowy landscape fly by for a while, trying to figure out what to do. Maybe they should take her down the hill and check her into a hotel for the night. She could fly out tomorrow and—
“We’re your dates.” Clark flashed her the grin that had females tumbling into their bed since they’d been old enough to want one. “Don’t you like us?”
Ty settled in to listen. Wasn’t that always the way? While he struggled for words, his partner in crime and life always had them at the ready.
“Well…I don’t know you enough to like you or dislike you,” she stammered. “That’s not the problem.”
“What a relief, isn’t it, Ty?” Clark winked into the rearview mirror. “Because isn’t that what a date is all about? Getting to know each other?” He reached for her hand and gave it a squeeze before releasing it. “So, we have a while longer before we get to the lodge. Tell me all about you.”
Ty shook his head slowly. If he’d ever counted on Clark to save the day, this was the time. The other women who’d shared their bed for a few nights had been passing fancies. They’d never pretended anything more, and none of the ladies left unsatisfied. This was the big one. If they hadn’t sensed it themselves, the pack healer’s words at the last full moon had cemented it.
“It’s time. You must find your mate before the last snow melts or risk never finding her at all.” The wizened bear with patchy white fur nodded so long, he thought she’d fallen asleep, but then her head jerked up. “Hurry. Your own bond is at stake.”
Jenni licked her lips, her cheeks rounded in profile, dark lashes fringing sea-green eyes. Her hair fell in soft blonde waves around her face.
The healer had no more advice than that, but after years of playing the field, they had no objections to settling down, making a home worthy of a female. They talked of the pleasure of cubs rolling around on the rug in front of the hearth. They also had no potential mates in their sights.
Jenni began to speak, in a soft voice. “I don’t know what to tell you. You already know about my family, or lack thereof. I was a model for a time. That’s where I met all my friends. When you’re starting out, the agency puts a bunch of the girls together in a model house or an apartment.” Her lips curved up in a small, sweet smile. “Coming out of the system, I needed a job and a place to live. This handled both issues for me.” She shrugged. “I got lucky.”
His blood chilled at the thought of her young and vulnerable, going from what was probably sketchy living at best to a situation where she could have ended up coming to harm.
“I was surprised to learn that full-figured models could make a good living,” she told them
Clark reached over and brushed a lock of hair from her face. “People like to see beauty. Are you still a model?”
“No.” She sat taller. “I got tired of the long hours and travel, so I opened a business where I set my own schedule. I own an online travel service.”
Ty leaned forward again. He drew in a breath of her scent, cedar and faint jasmine, heady and exotic. “What made you choose that if you didn’t want to travel anymore?”
She tipped her chin up. “When I was modeling, I took every opportunity to learn about the business, thinking I might like the management end of things better than being in front of the camera. I even spent some time behind it—which I loved, but I don’t think I have an eye for fashion photography.”
Clark turned off the main road onto a narrower one, one lane, no guardrails, and as they climbed, the view spread out all around them. They didn’t bring many people up here, and the few they did were often frightened by the sheer drop, and some were bothered by altitude in general, so Ty didn’t interrupt Jenni to point it out. Instead, he asked, “How did all that lead you into being a travel agent?”
Jenni drew a deep breath and continued. “No, I’m not a travel agent, exactly. What happened was, I kind of fell into making the arrangements for all the girls. I got good at finding deals like good hotels with great extras, flight upgrades, and I’m a little OCD about
details.”
He wished they’d found time to finish making their bachelor lodge more mate-friendly. “Umm, yeah, so…you started doing it for money.”
“That’s the abbreviated version, but yes. Word got around that I had a knack, other agencies asked me to set up trips for them…and it turned out I could make just as good a living without people caking makeup on my face all the time. I never liked that part.”
Clark slowed to round the last turn before their drive and Jenni gasped. “Stop, right here! Stop the car!”
Oh no. “What’s the matter,” he asked. “We’re perfectly safe with Clark behind the wheel.” Although anyone in their right mind would find this hairpin turn terrifying. Heck, he had driven and ridden it hundreds of times, and it made even his palms sweat a little.
“Just stop.” Her voice held such urgency, Clark put the car in park. “I have to get out.”
“That’s not a great idea,” he said.
“We’re almost there, can’t you hang on for just a second?” Clark echoed.
“And miss this shot?” She fumbled for her seatbelt buckle and opened the door. “Can you hand me my small bag? The camera is in it.”
The camera? He reached over the seat for her bag and handed it up to Clark who got out and came around to stand at her side.
She fished out her camera and cursed softly. “The tripod is in the other case, but it’s buried. I can’t take times shots. Look at that moon.”
Poised on the edge of a cliff that went straight down for hundreds, probably thousands of feet, their mate snapped shot after shot of the huge full moon rising over the next rise of mountains. She glowed with excitement, and he fell in love right then. “You like our mountains?”
“This is the most beautiful place I’ve ever been. I can’t wait to get my laptop out and see these.” Her voice trembled, and she went on tiptoe. They both grabbed for the back of her jacket before she could tumble off the edge. “Oops.”
“More than oops. Would it be all right if we got back in the car? It’s about ten degrees out here, and you’re shivering.”
She turned toward him, lower lip thrust out in a pout he wanted to suck into his mouth. “I’m sorry. We’re on a date, and I make you stop so I can play. Don’t hate me.”
Hate her? He met Clark’s gaze over the top of her windblown hair. “We don’t hate you.”
“No,” Clark chimed in as they bundled her into the car and started up the last few hundred yards to the cabin. “We don’t hate you at all.”
Clark
Hate her? How could they hate their ideal woman? If she hadn’t been sent by the Paranormal Dating Agency, he’d swear the gods themselves had designed her for them. Perhaps they had, in fact. Just looking at her standing on the edge of a cliff, taking pictures of the moon rising over the mountains, the breeze ruffling her hair, showing not an ounce of fear, and he knew for sure she was theirs.
But when he parked in the carport, and Ty helped her out while he grabbed her bags, he experienced a moment of worry. They’d had all winter to fix the place up. And they’d done a little. But winter was, of course, their busy season, both for work and play. They spent the months out on the slopes and the backcountry trails, only coming in to eat and sleep. And not always even for those things. Spring, summer…they’d have more time when they weren’t dealing with avalanches and pack members who frolicked too far in the snow.
Heavy clouds were boiling in from across the valley, and the first flakes fell. Spring was in no rush to arrive.
Still, as they helped her up the snow-covered steps and onto the porch, he wished they’d made time to pretty the place up. It wasn’t as if the healer hadn’t warned them. Clark held the door open and waved Jenni inside. “Welcome to our humble home.”
Ty grunted. “Emphasis on the humble part.”
“Aren’t we going to Polar Lodge?” She stood in the dark as the two of them scurried around lighting oil lamps and Ty stirred up the fire in the huge fireplace. “I hoped to get changed before dinner.”
The mellow glow lit the center of the room but left the corners shadowy. Just as well, since they were probably full of cobwebs and dust bunnies. “This is Polar Lodge,” he said, watching her face. The lamplight made her look even softer and more appealing, but her narrowed eyes didn’t convey happiness at what he’d revealed.
“Oh. Your house? I’m staying at your house?”
Ut oh. “Yeah. I thought you knew.” Had he really thought that? He tried to remember the Skyped conversation he’d had with Gerri, he and Ty. They’d just returned from days in the far backcountry dealing with an avalanche situation in another pack’s territory when she called. Exhausted and hungry, they’d have agreed to anything she said, just happy to have their mate on the way. Not that Gerri promised a mate… But they knew she’d be special.
And she was.
“Ummm…” Jenni turned in a slow circle, taking in a cabin that looked even worse in comparison with her beauty. Would she demand to be taken down the mountain to a real hotel? If they even could, with the snow falling heavier by the minute and the wind kicking up. “What’s the spider situation here? I might have a little fear of the beasties.” Her self-deprecating smile sent his heart soaring.
“Spiders? Well, it’s winter, and the cabin gets pretty cold when we’re out on the trails so I don’t think there are any right now.” He wanted to cheer. “That’s your only comment? I know the place isn’t what you’re used to.” Hell, it wasn’t what anyone in the twenty-first century was used to.
“Well…” She bit her lip then released it. “You have this big gorgeous fireplace, and I noticed the porch stacked with wood, so we won’t freeze. Provided you have food and haven’t kidnapped me, I think we can enjoy our date. I gather dinner is here, not in some restaurant, right?”
What a trouper. “Right.”
But Ty couldn’t let well enough alone. As usual. He moved closer to her and murmured, “What makes you think we haven’t kidnapped you?”
She lifted her face to him, the firelight reflecting off the two of them, leaving Clark content for the moment just to see them together, talking about what they would have for dinner and other small things. He’d be content to make this his world forever, but would she?
Gerri had warned them that their date was not a shifter and indeed had no knowledge of their world. Her friend Matilda, a wolf shifter, had hired the agency for her. Few in their pack had ever gotten involved with ordinary humans, but there was little ordinary about this woman.
How many women who got off that plane from Los Angeles would have taken the accommodations in stride. She, however, deserved better. Striding toward the kitchen area, he determined to do what he could to make it so. At the very least, he’d sweep out any spiders that had managed to survive through the winter. Despite their assurances, the cobwebs told another story.
Chapter Three
Jenni
Jenni felt as if she’d stepped into another century. The cabin was huge, two stories with a pitched roof, The great room ceiling soared at least twenty feet high, supported by timbers so huge, she couldn’t imagine the trees they’d come from. Oil lamps flickered on the trestle table flanked by long benches. Hand hewn, clearly. Not that she was an expert on wood furniture, but the axe marks indicated something even to her. Small occasional tables around the room were also antiques. But the neglect. The wood cried out for mineral oil and beeswax.
Clark emerged from a closet by the stove holding a broom and dustpan, and she wondered…would they be offended if…
“Can I help?” The words emerged almost without her will, but she could see the beauty under the dust and dirt. People would pay a fortune for a cabin like this, furnished with authentic antiques. The owner of one of the agencies she booked for had a real thing for historical homes when traveling and had gladly paid eight thousand dollars a night for a place not nearly this nice…or as nice as this could be, with a little care. “I’d love to see how these pieces shin
e with a little…do you have beeswax and a few cloths lying around?”
Clark waved at the closet. “Whatever we have is in there. We bought a bunch of stuff in the fall intending to work on the place before we met our ma—before we brought a date here.”
She cast him a glance. What had he cut off? But it didn’t matter. The closet was a treasure trove of things to use to spiff the place up. She even found a bandana in the basket of soft cleaning cloths and she pinner her hair up and covered it to keep the dust and spider webs away. There was no apron, but she pinned a piece of toweling to her dress with clothespins and gathered her supplies. A quick stop at her luggage for a change of shoes—comfy Pumas—and she started with that big old table. Years of dust and dirt had obscured the grain, but as she used the soft cloths and mixed up some of her favorite cleaning products out of things they actually had like vinegar and baking soda, eschewing the harsh chemicals, the beauty emerged.
She’d intended to clean all the furniture, but by the time she finished the table and benches and looked up, she realized her dates had also been busy. All the cobwebs and dust bunnies were gone, and while the other wood wasn’t completely clean, at least the obvious dirt was gone.
“Wow. It looks great in here.” She stumbled over to the sofa and plopped down, raising a little cloud of dust. “Well, pretty good.” Honestly, she didn’t care. “But I’m beat.”
Clark chuckled. “I should think so. That table hasn’t looked so good since Mom lived here.”
“I’m not sure even she managed to make it that pretty. Can we keep you?” Ty sank down beside her. “Then, when she and Dad come to visit, we won’t have to endure lectures.”
Paranormal Dating Agency: Claimed by Her Polar Bears (Kindle Worlds Novella) (Claimed Mates Book 4) Page 2
