Alaska Heart

by Christine DePetrillo

  As Brian was guided out of the cave, he cleared his throat and spit on Dale. In one lightning-fast motion, Brian broke free of the officers, retrieved the dropped knife, and hurled himself at Dale.

  “No!” I screamed. I tried to run to Dale, but he moved so fast I didn’t make it in time.

  As the blade headed for its target, Dale arced his cast up to block the attack. The knife sank into the cast and, during Brian’s momentary confusion, Dale sent his other fist into Brian’s jaw. Brian reeled back, and Dale rushed him to the cave wall. With his cast across Brian’s neck, Dale pinned him in place.

  “You tossed her aside,” Brian rasped as the officers regained control of him and Dale stepped back. “I was just taking what you didn’t want.”

  The police cuffed Brian and dragged him from the cave before Dale could say anything back.

  “Alanna?” Dale pulled the knife from his cast and a thin line of blood trickled out with it. “Shit.” He grimaced and dropped the knife.

  “Dale.” His name was a prayer on my lips. A miracle.

  His hands were on me, assessing my injuries. “How badly did he hurt you?”

  “I’ll be fine. But Jake...and you.”

  “I’m just nicked.” Dale pulled Jake’s hands away from the wound. I uncoiled the rest of my scarf, and Dale balled it up, pressing it to Jake’s stomach. Jake’s whole body tensed as he sucked in a strained breath.

  “You’re going to be fine,” Dale said. “We’ll get you all patched up.”

  After popping open his cell phone with one hand, Dale called for a medic. He focused on my forehead and throat. “You’re bleeding.”

  “Ankle’s twisted too.”

  Dale took my ankle into his hands. He pressed in a few spots until I jumped in pain. “Bingo. That’s the spot.”

  “Probably a sprain. What happened to your head?” Gypsy and Achilles padded over to me as I told Dale what had happened. Gypsy sat beside me and then gently pawed my hand until I reached over and gave her a good scratching.

  “Thanks.” I threw my arms around Gypsy and squeezed. “You saved me.” I looked to the other dog and Dale. “You all saved me.” In too many ways to count.

  Dale wrapped his arms around me and just held on for awhile. I didn’t want to think about anything but being close to him. I refused to be guided out of the cave by the medics. None of my pains were as bad as the thought of not touching Dale. He pressed his hand into mine and helped me to my feet as the medics carried Jake out of the cave. Dale squeezed me, and I let myself get lost in his embrace. When his lips found mine, neither of us held back.

  A fire blazed to life inside me, and I didn’t want it to go out.

  Not ever.

  Dale ran his hand over my cheek, and my legs buckled beneath me. He caught me in his arms and guided me out of the cave behind the medics.

  “How did you find me?” I couldn’t keep my hands off Dale.

  “Jake’s good at his job.” Dale shot a grateful glance to his brother-in-law lying on a gurney.

  “I can’t take all the credit, Dale,” Jake said as the medics slid him into a waiting ambulance. “I wouldn’t have found Alanna without you and the dogs.”

  “The dogs?” My affection for Gyspy and the pack grew exponentially.

  “Yeah.” Dale paused as a medic helped me into the same ambulance. He climbed in behind me. “A gal Jake interviewed while investigating the last murders got a good look at a man and woman exiting a restaurant near the Chena River. The couple was fighting. The man was getting a little rough. The witness happened to be an artist, and she drew a detailed picture of the couple. The woman in the picture matched one of the bodies they’d found exactly, so Jake figured her depiction of the man was right on as well. Jake got the local networks to plaster the sketch of the man all over the news.”

  Dale interlaced his fingers with mine as he sat next to me. He pulled my hand into his lap, and I had a hard time not putting the rest of myself there.

  “I was moping at home as only a man who thinks he’s lost a woman like you can mope.” He peeked at me through his long lashes. It took all my resolve not to grab a fistful of his jacket and pull him to me.

  “As soon as the sketch came up on the TV, Zynk went wild even with his hurt leg. He rushed the TV and growled like I’ve never heard him do before. When the picture was gone, he paced back and forth across the living room like a caged beast. Zynk finally came over to me and yanked on the end of my jeans.”

  Dale stretched out his leg to display the shredded denim around his ankle. “I thought the sketch looked like Turner, though I’d only met him once on the snowmobile. Then I remembered you saying that Zynk had acted weird at the market. Turner must have been following you, snooping around too. Then I realized he was with you, flying over McKinley. Besides, I figured I’d better do something before Zynk chewed my skin down to the bone.”

  “That’s when Dale called me.” Jake shifted and groaned on the gurney. “We found the Super Cub and the small camp Turner had made.” He coughed as a medic took his vitals. “Once we saw the cut ropes, we hoped you’d gotten away.”

  “I did, but Brian found me this morning. I’d run out of strategies.” I shuddered, and Dale pulled me closer to him.

  I leaned my head on Dale’s shoulder, and he caressed my hair, dropping light kisses on my forehead and cheek. “If he had…God, Alanna…”

  His face contorted in grief. I cupped his whiskered chin in my palm.

  “He didn’t. Thanks to you guys, he didn’t.” I took Jake’s hand and squeezed it.

  “And he won’t get anyone else either,” Jake said.

  The officers escorted Brian past the still open doors of the ambulance and into the squad car. Gypsy and Achilles bared their teeth again, and a line of fur rose along their spines as they prepared to lunge.

  “They look like wolves,” I said, marveling over their strength and instincts.

  “And they’ll defend their pack.” Dale traced his finger along my cheek. “Even the human members.”

  “It’s time to patch up these members.” The medic pointed to Jake and my swollen ankle. “Those dogs can’t come in here.”

  “But they’re heroes,” I said.

  “Sorry. They’re dogs.” The medic shook his head.

  “Go,” I said to Dale as he looked back at Jake and me and then to his dogs. “I’ll stay with Jake. Get Selia and meet us at the hospital. Your arm needs to be looked at too.”

  Following a fiery kiss, one I wanted to box and save, Dale hopped out of the ambulance. Gypsy and Achilles followed him, and I had to keep myself from doing the same.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  “I can use the crutches, Dale,” I protested as he carried me through the door into his kitchen.

  “I know, but carrying you is fun.” He nuzzled my neck with his nose, letting his lips skim along my skin.

  “Guess I can’t argue with that.” I nibbled on his bottom lip as he lowered both of us to his couch. He broke away for a heartbeat to prop my wrapped ankle onto a pillow and then was right back beside me, taking off my jacket. After teasing my lips more, he wriggled out of his own jacket and tossed it to the recliner.

  “Are you comfortable?” He stroked my thigh with his capable hand.

  “Mmm-hmm.” I pulled him down to me and ran my fingers through his hair. Dale closed his eyes and rested his head on my chest as he wrapped his arms around my waist. The cast on his wrist was a new one with a small section cut out where Brian’s knife had left a deep enough slice in Dale’s arm that stitches were needed. The cast was hard beneath me, but I wasn’t about to complain. In the woods with Brian, I’d been afraid I wouldn’t ever find myself in this position again. The sound of Dale’s breathing against me was the sweetest melody. I could listen to it forever.

  “I’m glad Jake’s going to be okay.” I twirled my fingers around in Dale’s hair.

  “Yeah. He’s a tough guy. A knife to the gut is a mere inconvenience to him.�
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  “Selia said it wasn’t the first time he’s been hurt on the job.”

  “Jake does whatever it takes. Doesn’t think twice about it.”

  We snuggled for several long moments, enjoying the feel of one another again.

  “I’m so sorry,” Dale finally said. His voice was barely a whisper into my sweatshirt.

  I nudged his chin until he raised his head to look at my face.

  “I acted like a jerk the day we went snowmobiling,” he said.

  The pained look in his eyes stabbed at my heart. “I was a gigantic jerk too, Dale.”

  He shook his head and propped himself on his elbow. “No. I had no right to accuse you of playing games with me. I do know you better than that. That’s not what you’re about. I was all pissy about you having to go back to New York. What kind of a bastard expects another person to drop everything she’s worked for to freeze her ass off in Alaska with a bunch of dogs?”

  “You’re not a bastard.” I ran my index finger along Dale’s jaw. “Why don’t you…why don’t you come to New York with me?”

  The moment I said it, I knew it wasn’t a possibility.

  “There,” I said. “Now we’re both bastards.”

  “I couldn’t leave the dogs, my family,” Dale said softly. He looked to Gypsy settling in beside an already resting Zynk.

  “Of course not.” I nodded. “I can’t even picture you in New York, Dale. You’d hate it.” I kissed his forehead. “But I have to go back. I’ve worked too hard not to. I didn’t get killed today. That has to mean I’m supposed to keep on living. My life is in New York, but I’ll be leaving my heart here in Alaska…with you.”

  Dale exhaled a long breath and nodded. “My heart will be with you, Alanna. And I can understand about working hard. I’ve worked hard too. You don’t get what you want out of life if you don’t work hard.”

  What if all I wanted out of life was to love him?

  After a few silent moments, I was in Dale’s arms again and traveling with him up the stairs to his bedroom.

  “I’ll be damned if we’re going to waste tonight,” he said.

  He set me down onto his bed as if I was something fragile and precious to him. Again, he elevated my ankle with pillows and moved carefully to tug off my sweatshirt, T-shirt, and jeans. A pained look flitted across his face as he thumbed the wolf ear on my thigh, but he didn’t say anything about it. Good man. I reached under his sweater and T-shirt and pressed my palms to his bare stomach. He shrugged out of both garments. I drew in a satisfied breath as my fingers skittered across the expanse of his chest. He shuddered beneath my touch, a low hum vibrating in his throat.

  “I don’t want to hurt you, so I’m going to try to be gentle here,” Dale said, his vibrant green eyes devouring me, “but I can’t make any promises.”

  “I’ll risk it.”

  I pulled him downward, and he rested his elbows on either side of me, hovering inches above my chest for a moment. When his skin finally met mine, a wildfire of need and arousal scorched through every part of me. I wrapped my arms around his back, kneaded the muscles beneath his shoulder blades, drew him as close as possible.

  Dale blazed a trail with his tongue down my throat, between my breasts, circling my nipples with his blazing desire. I spiraled into an all-consuming bliss. Everything I had endured in Denali with Brian was wiped away with Dale’s touch. There was only him. There would only ever be him.

  He slipped out of the rest of his clothes and slithered down the length of me, massaging muscles achy from my night in the cave. His hands canvassed my body, each graze of his fingertips sending electricity to all parts of me. Dale nipped at my skin, then kissed me hungrily as he slid back to my face. When his lips found mine, he feasted, teased my mouth with his own brand of magic.

  I arched into him, and though a dull pain hovered around my ankle when I did so, being this close to Dale was ridiculously wonderful. To know we were moments away from moving within one another was like stepping to the edge of a golden precipice and diving into heaven. I rubbed my uninjured leg along Dale’s side, enjoying the way his contours fit against me, filling my empty spaces.

  He shifted to look at me, the upturned corner of his lips igniting a million matches deep within me. As he entered my ready core, my heart thudded tribally in my ears. Or was it Dale’s heart? I couldn’t tell. He was so much a part of me now, we were like one creature, enjoying each rhythmic pulse of our entwined bodies.

  Dale erupted into me with a summer sun heat, and I groaned in pleasure, called his name, wanted more. We gave all we had, held nothing back as the night stretched on in unreal ecstasy. All my senses were alive. I experienced Dale with my entire being, every last atom.

  When he rolled to his side, slowly releasing his possession of me, I gasped in delight, and he draped his arm across my waist. He tucked me into his embrace and nibbled on my ear. “I love you, Gaia-girl. More than I’ve ever loved anyone, anywhere. An entire continent between us won’t change that.”

  He squeezed me and kissed my shoulder. Though my body felt completely content, a single tear rolled from my eye.

  ****

  Friday morning came faster than either of us wanted. The sunshine that spilled into the room was playful and bright, even though a dark hour waited for us. We stayed tangled around each other in bed until our stomachs rumbled with hunger.

  “What can I get you?” Dale teased my lips with his.

  “More of that would be perfect.” I cupped his face in my hands and brushed my lips against his with slow, easy strokes.

  “I’ve got an unlimited supply of this for you.” Dale moved on to my cheek and neck with his lips.

  “I’ve got an insatiable need.” My stomach growled, and Dale pressed his palm to my navel.

  “God, you’re always hungry.” He scooted to the edge of his bed. As soon as his feet hit the floor, the scritch-scratch of dog paws sounded on the stairs. “Get ready.”

  “Ready? For wh—”

  The bounding mass of fur that came sailing at me from the hallway cut off my words. Gypsy leaped onto the bed, and Zynk limped in behind her. Gypsy scrambled over and licked my entire face, while Zynk nosed at my foot hanging off the bed. He licked every toe, and I let out a squeal more from amusement than shock.

  “Hey!” Dale’s voice was commanding, and Gypsy calmed. She rested her head on her paws, and Zynk lay on the floor at my foot. “They didn’t hurt you, did they?”

  I shook my head. “No. Just soaked me. But in a good way.” I leaned forward and rubbed Gypsy’s head. Her eyes narrowed to slits as she enjoyed the attention. Zynk whimpered and edged closer to the bed. I leaned over the side and gave him a good scratching as well. I looked at both of them and took a mental picture I would carry with me always.

  “You’re in good hands with these two. I’ll go feed the others and get food for us.” Dale pushed off the bed and slipped into his discarded clothes from last night. He stooped down—allowing me to take in the incredible view—and neatly placed my clothes on the end of the bed where I could reach them.

  “I wouldn’t want you to be stranded here totally naked.” He lowered his brows for a moment, re-collected my clothes, and turned to leave the room. “On second thought…”

  “Dale Ramsden, Junior. You give me those clothes back right now.”

  Pouting slightly, he tossed them back on the bed.

  “Thanks.”

  He gave me a quick peck on the forehead before leaving the bedroom. I flopped back on the pillows, listening to his footsteps on the stairs and letting Gypsy wiggle her way back to my face. Zynk managed to get himself up on the bed as well. They each let me curl an arm around their necks, and I squeezed, holding on for as long as I could. I would probably have to get a dog when I got back home. My apartment would seem so quiet, so lonely without one. My landlord would flip, but he’d have to deal with it. If I couldn’t have Dale, I’d at least have a dog, dammit.

  I fumbled back into my clot
hes due more to the fact Gypsy and Zynk wouldn’t give me a whisper of space than to my sprained ankle. The dogs remained glued to my sides as I edged myself to the end of the bed. I sat there for a few moments, my bladder strongly hinting at a necessary trip. Dale hadn’t brought the crutches upstairs, and he’d already gone outside.

  “What do you think, Gyp?” I met Gypsy’s blue-eyed stare.

  She let out a faint bark and jumped off the bed. Crouching and balancing my weight on Gypsy, I hobbled, almost painlessly, to the bathroom. I carried out my business there and freshened up thanks to the dog’s unwavering dedication. By the time she escorted me back to the bedroom, Dale was cresting the top stair.

  “What’s going on here?” He took Gypsy’s place and settled in under my right arm.

  “I needed to use the facilities,” I explained. “It couldn’t wait.”

  Dale whisked me into his arms, making me feel as light as a feather. He carried me downstairs and deposited me on one of the island stools.

  “That okay?” he asked.

  “Uh-huh.”

  “What’ll it be? Pancakes? French toast? Eggs?”

  “Yes.”

  “Alanna.” He placed his hands on his hips and scowled, but the expression wasn’t ominous on his perfect face.

  “Okay, okay. Pancakes.”

  “Pancakes coming right up.”

  The phone rang, echoing loudly in the quiet of the house. Huffing out a breath, Dale scooted over toward the refrigerator to pick it up.

  “Hello…Hey, Dad…Yeah, she’s fine…I know I called the hospital…It is good news…Pancakes…Uhhh…Yeah, sure…Bye.”

  Dale hung up the phone and ran his hand through his tousled hair.

  “What’s the matter?”

  “Dad wants to come by and see you.” He held out his hands. “I couldn’t stop him.”

  “And what makes you think I’d want you to stop him,” I said.

  “Maybe I wanted to stop him. Maybe I want you all to myself on our las—” He stopped abruptly and shook his head. “Maybe I want you all to myself today.”