Man, did he ever. “Yeah. What are you doing up so early?”
“Nobody sleeps in around this place.” She yawned again. “How I wish they would. I saw you writing. Get some work done?”
“Uh-huh.” He studied Fiona, dressed in jeans and bright blue kuspuk, a native Athabascan top, loose, comfortable fabric decorated along the edges with colorful threads. Her long dark hair, shot through with silver, was pulled back into a long braid. “Why do you do it?”
She glanced at him, confused.
“Wake up so early every morning? Take in guests?” Work so hard at an age when she should be taking it easy or someone should be taking care of her.
“Someone needs to keep the place running. I was hoping Raven wanted the lodge, but she’s into her art. Tern has the shop, and Chatanika isn’t for her. That one has restless feet and a wandering spirit.”
“What about Lynx?” Aidan took a seat at the table, his heart warmed watching Fiona prepare breakfast.
“The Arctic Refuge is his life. I never could keep that one indoors. I have hopes for Chickadee or Fox wanting to run the lodge after they’ve seasoned a bit.” She poured batter onto a hot griddle.
“Does Fox always run around with so much independence?”
“Ah, that boy has an old spirit. Wise way beyond his years.” She gave a far off look. “He’s always been that way, even as a toddler. He’s never one to leap. He studies, calculates, then pounces.” She smiled with pride.
“Was it rough for Raven? Being such a young mother?” And alone. Emotion squeezed his throat at the thought of a young, frightened Raven pregnant and alone.
Fiona picked up a spatula, turned up the edge of the pancake before flipping it over, and then looked at Aidan. “She didn’t talk much during that time. She was…sad. Very sad.” Fiona gave a heartfelt sigh. “We all were after losing Fox senior. But I know it was more than that.” She looked at Aidan. “I always thought it was because she missed you.”
Aidan sucked in a breath. Had Raven missed him like he’d missed her? He couldn’t believe that, couldn’t let his heart wish it were true.
Raven stepped into the kitchen, bringing a burst of cold air with her. She froze when she saw Aidan. “How’d you get here?”
“Drove.”
She frowned. “With your leg?” She slowly unwrapped the fuzzy purple and orange scarf from around her neck. “What happened at Earl’s?”
“I decided when there was no chopped wood that I didn’t want to freeze. So I braved driving.”
She looked at the boot.
“I took it off.”
“Do you think that was a good idea?” She cocked a brow as she unzipped her coat.
“Beat the hell out of freezing to death.”
Raven dismissed him and glanced at Fiona. “Have you seen Fox?”
“He’s in the other room,” Aidan answered, not ready to be dismissed so easily.
Raven frowned again. He was sure getting tired of that frown.
“He was after leftovers for the dogs,” she said.
“I know, he caught me in the other room and offered to do me a favor.”
“What kind of favor?” Her eyes narrowed like he had somehow disrupted her day.
“He’s looking over some ideas for me.”
“Why would you ask him to do that? And what kind of ideas?”
“Plotting suggestions, okay. He isn’t doing anything suspicious or dangerous. Relax. Have some pancakes.”
Fiona set a stack of plates down on the table as though emphasizing his words. “Take off your jacket, Raven,” she said, returning to the griddle. “Breakfast will be ready in a jiffy. And don’t tell me you don’t have time,” she added when Raven opened her mouth to object.
Wisely, Raven did as she was told. But Aidan could tell she wanted to stomp into the other room and see what Fox was up to. Aidan picked up a plate and passed one to Raven. Fiona set a platter full of steaming pancakes in front of them. Stacking his plate high, he slathered the fluffy goodness in butter and drowned them with birch syrup. The tastes blended and soothed.
“Hmm.” He made an appreciative sound around a mouthful. “You are the best, Fiona.” He would have been stuck with a frozen granola bar for breakfast if he had made it through the night at Earl’s place.
“You’re a joy to cook for, Aidan.” Fiona set a cup of coffee in front of him, laying her hand briefly on his shoulder.
Raven frowned at him again as she forked a pancake onto her plate.
Fox rushed into the room. “No way. You brought Senyea back! That is so cool.”
Aidan’s heart tripped. With Raven entering the kitchen, his anxiety over Fox reading his pages had lessened. Now it bloomed like a forest fire.
“Mom, you gotta read these.” Fox held the pages out to Raven.
Aidan snatched them out of his hand. “No.”
“Uh…sorry,” Fox said, his expression falling. “I thought she should see—”
“You can’t give anything away.” Aidan stared Fox in the eye. “Promise me that you will not tell anyone, and I mean anyone what you have read.”
“But—”
“Anyone, Fox. Word gets out and the next volume gets scrapped. The publishing world is an unforgiving one, and with the Internet, I can’t be too careful. Can I trust you?”
“Yes.” Fox straightened and squared his shoulders. “I won’t tell a soul. Not even my dogs.”
Aidan cracked a smile. If the boy wouldn’t tell his dogs, then his secrets were safe.
“But…can I talk to you about them?”
Aidan gave a full grin at that. “I would love your input.”
“Did you hear that, Mom? Aidan Harte would love my input.”
“I heard.” And by her tone, she obviously wasn’t pleased. “Get some breakfast, Fox, and then you better feed your dogs.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Fox grabbed a full plate Fiona had just filled and sat between Aidan and Raven. He lathered his pancakes with butter and birch syrup and dug in like he hadn’t eaten in weeks.
“Aidan, can I talk to you?” Raven asked, though the question wasn’t really a question.
Aidan stood, rolled up his pages and stuck them in his back pocket, then took his plate, over to the sink. Raven bypassed the living room and headed toward his bedroom. He had a feeling he wasn’t going to enjoy this ‘talk.’ She turned to face him as he entered behind her, shutting the door.
“I want you to stay away from Fox,” Raven said.
“Why?” He frowned.
“I don’t want him getting attached to you. Soon you will be leaving, and I don’t want him hurt.”
“Like you were when I left?”
She tightened her mouth and glanced to the side. When she looked at him again, her gaze had hardened. “No. This has nothing to do with me. Fox is an impressionable boy. He’s coming very close to hero worshipping you. I don’t want him disappointed.”
He took the arrow to the heart without a flinch. After all he was nobody’s hero. He might write about them. Think of himself as Lucien, his wolf totem’s character. But he would never be hero material. “Fine.” He folded his arms across his chest.
“Good.” Raven walked around him.
“Raven?” he said, keeping his back to her. “Are you going to tell Fox to stay away from me?”
“I think it’s for the best.” She left, quietly shutting the door behind her.
Aidan sank onto the edge of the bed. He really needed to get out of here. He’d over-stayed his welcome.
Who was he kidding? There’d been no welcome.
He sighed. What had he expected? What had he hoped for? Family? What an idiot. He rubbed the back of his neck. Enough of wishing, time for doing, and the first thing he needed to do was clear out of the lodge. He wasn’t about to fight Raven. She didn’t want him around her son, and he totally understood. Part of him agreed, even though he enjoyed the hell out of the kid.
Aidan gathered up his meager belongings. Ther
e wasn’t much. He’d stop at the lodge’s little store and buy a few bundles of chopped wood. That would warm up Earl’s cabin until he could chop some himself.
He straightened up the room, gathered his stuff and with one backward glance, shut the door.
Fox was waiting for him in the front room.
“Hey, Aidan,” Fox said with a wide smile, a dimple peeking from his left cheek. “You said you wanted to go for a ride with me and my dogs, remember? Today is Saturday.”
Aidan’s stomach clenched. He did not want to disappoint this boy. He’d been disappointed all his life. He didn’t want to treat the kid this way. “Sorry. But I need to head to Earl’s.”
Fox’s face fell and Aidan felt like the worst kind of bastard. “Sorry, kid. I have to get out of the godforsaken place before I go crazy.” That was said in truth. Damn, he really wanted to go for a sled ride with Fox. It had been decades since he had flown over the snow pulled by a team of well-trained dogs.
Why couldn’t Fox have been his son? He resembled him. But he was probably seeing what he wanted to see.
“But—”
“See ya, kid.” Aidan turned and walked out of the lodge, feeling like an ass. Why hadn’t he figured out a way to let Fox down easy? Instead, he’d treated the situation the way Eva would’ve with her rip-off-the-Band-Aid method.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Aidan entered Earl’s, determined to finish what he’d come here to do. Hurt and anger fueled him on. He built a fire in the wood stove, and the small place heated up fast. His dad had been good at surviving in some of the worst places.
He tackled the job of cleaning up. Walking outside with Fox’s map, he methodically sprung every fucking booby-trap he could find. Anyone could step into one—an animal, lost hiker, hunter, or kid with a dog team out for a sled ride. Earl wasn’t going to hurt anyone else in this world.
Aidan took a break from tramping around in the cold and made himself a cup of coffee by melting snow with the dented tin percolator over the hot stove. He swallowed a few ibuprofens along with the bitter coffee. His medical boot was getting in the way. So he went into Earl’s bedroom and rummaged around until he found a pair of well-worn Timberland hunting boots. He pulled off the Velcro plastic boot the doctor had strapped him in, and changed the bandages. His dad’s old Timberland’s would do just as good of a job keeping his leg tight and would better protect him from the snow and cold.
When he was finished with the first aid, he went back outside with the ax. His leg was bearable as long as he kept the wounds cleaned and managed the pain with over the counter drugs. Besides what was a little physical pain when his emotional pain would have most putting a bullet in their head? He’d thought about ending it all. Had even tried pulling the trigger a few months back, but something had kept him from actually taking his own life. Probably the cowardice his dad had accused him of.
Chalk up another one for the bastard.
Aidan set up logs and began the backbreaking work of chopping wood. The day had turned sunny, deceiving since the temps were hovering around negative ten. The physical activity soon had him shedding his jacket. The last thing he wanted to do was sweat in conditions like this. Sweat would freeze and chill him to the bone as soon as he stopped working. Then it would take forever to get warm.
He heard a twig break and swung around, scanning the area. The black wolf stood thirty feet off. Watching.
What the hell?
Aidan lowered the ax and met the wolf’s eyes. Everything he’d read about wolves said meeting their gaze was a big no no. But the wolf took no offense. In fact, he yawned—the wolf actually yawned at him. Aidan looked at it closer, wondering if it wasn’t a full-blooded wolf. Maybe the animal was a half-breed. Part wolf, part husky or Malamute.
No. Aidan would bet his life he was looking at a full-blooded Alaskan timber wolf.
Why the hell was it watching him?
The wolf suddenly perked its ears and turned its head to the side. Then it was off like a shot as though spooked. Next, Aidan heard dogs. Fox glided his team into the driveway and dropped the steel brake, stepping on it to anchor the teeth into the snow. The dogs pranced, some turning circles until they found a spot to settle down. None seemed to have picked up the wolf’s scent.
Fox slowly walked toward Aidan, his eyes landing on the pile of traps, before seeking out Aidan’s. “Can we talk?”
What was this? First Raven and now Fox needing to have words with him. Aidan set the ax in the log. “All right. Let’s go in and get something warm to drink.” If Raven found out about this meeting, which she undoubtedly would, he’d be called to task. Screw it. He was through hurting the kid. “Are your dogs going to be okay?”
“Yeah.” Fox rubbed his hands together. “For a bit, they’ll be okay.”
“I saw a wolf just before you showed up.”
“If a wolf tried to mess with my dogs, Lucien would raise a ruckus.”
“Doesn’t your mother have a problem with you running your team when wild animals are around?” Aidan was beginning to have a problem with it himself.
“There are always wolves, bears, and moose around these parts. Uncle Lynx has kind of a pet moose—we call him BW—who’s caused some mischief. Don’t worry, I have a gun in the sled in case I need it. But I’ve never had a problem. Plus, what Mom doesn’t know, doesn’t hurt me, right?”
Aidan chuckled. Fox had gumption laced with good common sense. If Aidan had had a son who wanted to run all over the countryside, he didn’t know if he’d be as okay with it as Raven seemed to be. “Your mom doesn’t know you’re here, does she?”
“That’s what I kinda wanted to talk to you about.”
They entered the cabin.
“What happened?” Fox asked, looking around wide-eyed at the destruction.
And here, Aidan thought, he’d made good progress cleaning up some of the mess. “I take it the place didn’t look like this the last time you were in here?”
“No.” Fox walked around the area, staying to the path Aidan had cut. “Who would have done this? And why? Earl didn’t have anything worth—” A look crossed Fox’s face as he cut off what he had been about to say.
“Do you know something?”
“No.” Fox turned away.
The kid was lying. What did Fox know about Earl Harte that no one else did?
“How did they get past the booby-traps?” Fox asked.
“I don’t think they did. I found evidence of blood inside like someone had tried to doctor themselves up.”
“Mr. Harte was never one to mess with.”
Aidan put hot water on the stove to boil and prepared cups of hot chocolate. “So, if he wasn’t someone to mess with, like you said, what kind of relationship did you have with him?” Aidan had wanted the answer to that question from the moment he’d first met Fox.
“Another reason I wanted to talk to you.” Fox rubbed his hands together.
“Did your mother tell you to stay away from me?”
“Um…yeah.”
“I got the same lecture this morning.” Aidan smiled, hoping to relax the kid.
Anger flashed in Fox’s eyes. “It’s not fair that she would do that.”
“Don’t be mad at Raven. She’s trying to protect you.”
“But she doesn’t need to.”
“She sees things differently.” Always had. Aidan poured hot water into the mugs and stirred the lumpy powder. Then he handed Fox a cup and indicated he take a seat on the chairs Aidan had cleared off earlier. “So, what did you want to talk to me about?”
Fox flushed. He set his cup on the table and tore off his hat, unzipped his jacket.
Aidan took a sip of his hot chocolate and waited.
“When I was about, uhm, seven, I was out with my small sled and my first two dogs that I started with. Back then, Mom made me stay closer to town. I was also told never to head this direction.”
“So, of course you did?”
Fox glanced up at him and
gave a slight grin. “Yeah. I came across Mr. Harte. He was stuck. Truck off in the ditch and he’d hurt his arm. I helped him out.”
“Did he owe you his life too?”
Fox snorted and shook his head. “He scared the crap out of me. But when he found out who my mother was…he changed.” Fox paused looking around the cabin at everything but Aidan.
“Changed how?” Aidan frowned.
“I don’t know.” Fox shrugged. “Not happy, but kinda like he had one up on my family. It’s hard to explain.”
“No, I get it. He liked knowing things nobody else did so he could use it against them later.”
“Right, but he never did anything about me visiting him. I don’t think he ever told anyone either.” Fox glanced at the floor and then dragged in a deep breath.
“Just come out and say what’s bothering you. It’s the best way.”
Fox swung his gaze toward Aidan. “Are you sure?”
Aidan wanted to chuckle but kept the sound back. Fox seemed nervous enough. “Yeah.”
“Okay. Here it goes.” He rubbed his hands on his pants, looked Aidan in the eye, and then blurted out, “You’re my father.” He swallowed. “I’m your son.”
Time stopped. The sound of ringing rocked his ears. “W-what did you say?” He had to have heard Fox wrong.
“You said to let it out. Just say it.” Now Fox started to shake, his eyes wide, panicked.
“Hold on.” God, he needed to breathe. Hell, he needed space. No, damn it, he needed the truth. “Who told you I was your father?” Had Raven lied to him?
“Mr. Harte told me.”
Aidan fell back in his chair like he’d been hit. It was just the sort of thing his dad would do. “He was probably lying to you. Messing with your head.”
“No.” Fox swallowed hard. “He showed me a picture of you when you were my age. We looked the same. That’s how he figured it out.”
Aidan got to his feet. Even with the pain in his leg, he paced the small confines of the wrecked cabin. Questions came at him like knives, each cutting deeper to the bone. “Did you talk to your mom about this?”
“No. Mr. Harte told me that she would deny it. But I did talk to my grandma.”
SHIVER Page 15
