Wilder (The Wild Ones Book 3)

by C. M. Owens

  Tears start leaking from my eyes as my laughter gets painful. He starts laughing next to me as he crashes to my side, our thirty seconds of film time complete.

  His laughter cuts out abruptly, and I glance over as his dino head swings up.

  “Oh shit,” he says under his breath. “Hunter, don’t! That’s too close—”

  A loud boom cracks the air with a sizzle and pop so loudly that it makes my ears ring and the ice feel like it’s vibrating. There’s a distinct sound of a tree cracking that follows. I’ve already latched on to Kai, whirling my head around as a fierce, “Whoo!!” gets shouted by some of the Wilders.

  Kai laughs under his breath…until that tree suddenly collapses onto the ice, shattering a big chunk of it and sending pieces hurling into the air.

  What the hell?!

  “Too far, Wilders! Too damn far!” someone shouts, but one of the skating dinos crashes into the tree.

  The undetermined Wild One Dino is forced into a falling flip, and smashes the ice on the other side.

  A loud groan echoes through the air in the wake of what sounded sort of like an explosion, but not really.

  “What was that?” I ask on a shaky breath.

  “Tannerite,” Kai states without any farther explanation as he shoves to his feet and skates toward the others, bitching about his plan not involving getting so close or something.

  Just as I manage to make it to my feet for the first time all by myself, I hear a loud growl. My head whirls around, and I spot Cougar staring at me, lips curled back and teeth bared.

  “No! It’s me, Cougar! It’s me! I’m not really another animal in your territory! I promise!” I shout as she launches herself at me.

  Reese screams. I scream. Cougar bites onto my tail, and I run in place, trying my damnedest to get away from her as she tries to wrangle me into submission.

  “Help!” I screech at the top of my lungs.

  “Cougar! Stop it!”

  As if Kai’s voice is all it takes to calm her, she releases me, but my feet are still running in place. The second she lets go, I slip forward, crashing hard to the ice, this time on my stomach. I slide for what seems like forever until I slowly come to a stop in front of Reese’s feet.

  “Best. Day. Ever,” she states aloud while I try to swallow my heart back into place.

  My entire body goes limp.

  In the short time we’ve been doing this, I’ve laughed so much my ribs hurt, been attacked by a wild animal, and saw an explosion of some kind.

  The whole week has been pretty much like this.

  Kai hurries over, and Reese helps me free my head from the dino suit just as he gets his peeled down.

  He gives me a lopsided grin when I smile up at him to let him know I’m okay, and he bends swiftly, working damn hard to get our bodies close enough to give me a quick kiss on top of the head.

  We haven’t had a whole lot of passionate contact since that one day that one time. The promised encore never happened, because we fell asleep shortly after.

  Weirdly enough, he hasn’t spent the night since. Maybe because I’m falling asleep on him all the time. That probably gets annoying, and I hate that I do it, but I’m not used to so much physical exertion on a daily basis.

  He slips when Cougar chooses that moment to rush by, bumping into him as she slides on the ice, and my eyes widen as he crashes atop me once more. The breath almost gets knocked out of me, and he groans as he buries his face against my neck.

  I can only imagine how ridiculous we look.

  “This is why I can’t bring my cat out in public,” he grumbles against my neck.

  If I had arms, I’d wrap them around him. My suit is a T-Rex. The arms don’t wrap around.

  He lifts his head, eyes finding mine, and there’s a moment where I think he’s going to kiss me. His gaze rakes over my face, settling on my lips.

  My stomach clenches and my heart starts pounding like it’s dying from suspense.

  “Kai! We’re going to need you!” Shade calls.

  As if cold water has been thrown on the moment, he shuts his eyes and lifts off of me. It apparently doesn’t take much to make my heartbeat kick harder, and I don’t know why I didn’t just go for it, regardless of how unsexy I feel in this dino suit.

  As he skates back off with half his costume dangling at his waist, shouting at his brothers, I inwardly groan at the missed opportunity.

  Fortunately, the chaos on the ice is distracting and entertaining enough to ease the regret.

  “I can’t believe how much fun I’ve had since coming here. Especially since our visit didn’t start off too promising,” I tell Reese as I prop up a little better beside her, not attempting to move off the ice.

  “This is a vacation to us. This is a lifestyle for them,” Reese states with her own smile, as we both watch the Wild Ones laugh, act like fools, and enjoy the simple, fun moments.

  “Goal!” Someone shouts from inside their own costume as they start playing an impromptu game of hockey.

  Kai even gets back into costume to join in, and smashes into the first person he can reach, in order to allow one of his brothers to steal the puck.

  Liam drops down on the log beside Reese, his dino suit hanging around his waist as he wipes sweat off his brow.

  “Hale says you moved out here to chase Kylie,” Reese states with zero preamble.

  Fortunately, Liam just smiles as he stares out at the fray of madness, everyone fighting over the puck.

  “I moved out here to chase her, but I enjoy the hell out of these days. This is my first Wild Ones winter, same as Benson,” he confesses. “They’re reckless as hell and can take things too far, but I lived a very monotonous life before coming here. The Vincents used to be my neighbors before I realized I couldn’t live on their side of the lake and be with Kylie,” he adds.

  That last part confuses me.

  “Long story,” he says when he apparently notes the confusion on my face. “Anyway, it takes some adjusting to, but eventually, you get used to it. Unless they set off an avalanche just to scare the living shit out of you.”

  I don’t know what to say to that last part. Again, I’m confused.

  “Stick around, and you may find it harder than you realize to leave,” he says as he stands, smiling as Kylie waddles toward him.

  She struggles to get out of her suit, slipping on the ice several times, and barely manages to keep her balance.

  I look up at Reese, and she glances down at where I’m still sprawled on the ice. The cold is slowly working its way through the suit and starting to burn my ass, but I’m too tired to get up just yet.

  “I wish we’d visited Gran some. It might have changed our lives back when we were feeling our worst,” she says with a sad smile.

  I shrug a shoulder, eyes moving back over to the gathering. “Or we may have been douchebags who judged them instead of appreciating the different way they live life to their own fullest.”

  Hale crows as he scores a goal, and her smile spreads tenfold. When her smile starts to slip, I study her a little more carefully.

  “It’s going to be hard to return to the real world,” she confesses so quietly I almost don’t hear it.

  “But we do have to return,” I remind her, even though I don’t want to think about it.

  Without looking at me, she nods slowly. “Have you and Kai talked about that? Hale won’t let me bring it up.”

  “It’s not like he doesn’t know,” I tell her, unable to admit that I haven’t been able to talk about it.

  I don’t want to ruin the fun we’re having. I feel freer than I ever have, and I’ve laughed more this past week than I have in my entire life.

  He’s kept me too exhausted for us to even attempt having sex again. Instead, we’ve spent most of the week on one adventure after another…

  Great. I’m back to being more like a friend, even though we’ve had sex now.

  “I want to do something that’s going to make him remember me when t
he inevitable end of this trip comes about,” I tell her a little more somberly. “So far, he’s the one who is making this all extremely memorable for me. I’d like to return the favor.”

  She grins almost sadly. “I know the feeling. Sex just doesn’t feel like enough repayment, and eventually, sex won’t be enough of a memory to last.”

  “That’s not what I meant,” I dutifully point out.

  “The Wilders are going to buy the cabin,” she adds very abruptly. “Greta talked to me about it the other day when she ran into me and Hale at the diner.”

  I’m not sure why my stomach clenches, or why it suddenly seems real, when we really did come down here with the intentions of most likely selling the place. After those first few days, I didn’t expect to have any hesitation.

  “Even if we did hold onto it, it’d just sit empty. We wouldn’t have time to visit it very often, and eventually it’d fall apart. Like Hale said, homes need someone to live in them. She’s going to give it to Nila,” she explains.

  Exhaling harshly, I ignore the pang in my chest. It’s stupid to have any reservations at all.

  I have a life.

  I have a home.

  I have responsibilities.

  I have an entirely different world I have to return to.

  “They belong here. We belong there,” I murmur to myself, almost as though I’m convincing myself of that fact.

  “It’d be stupid to even consider making a life decision because we met two hot guys who make us laugh,” she states like she’s piling on more reason and logic, playing down her own feelings.

  She’s been a goner for a while. She seems to forget she swore she wasn’t going to get too attached.

  Hale skids to a halt in front of us, and he wiggles out of his suit, smiling the whole time. Reese’s entire face lights up as she stares at him with her dopey grin.

  “I can edit the video for you,” she offers, shrugging a shoulder. “I have some new software I’ve been wanting to try out,” she adds, playing down her skills and experience.

  Reese usually takes every opportunity to brag about how good she is at that sort of stuff, so I find it cute how humble she’s being.

  “Really?” Hale asks with his grin only growing. “That’d be epic. I’m not all that good at it.”

  Watching how hard Reese has already fallen makes me take a bigger step back. Maybe it’s better that we’re not all over each other.

  Because I’m not as strong as Reese.

  My heart doesn’t open and shut as easily as hers does.

  Not everyone is cut out for casual sex.

  Wild Ones Tip #909

  Only some animals hibernate during the winter. That doesn’t include the Wild Ones.

  Chapter 15

  KAI

  *******

  Where the hell is she?

  She should have been here four hours ago.

  “Still no sign of them?” Hale asks on an impatient huff as he looks around.

  “No,” I tell him, pretending I’m not just as fucking eager to see Piper as he is to see Reese.

  He looks pathetic.

  I don’t want to look pathetic over a girl who isn’t going to be around much longer. I guess it doesn’t matter what I want, because I’m not far from looking as pathetic as him.

  Scrubbing a hand over my face, I look behind me again.

  “I don’t get how those two like you both enough to fly home for an emergency family thing and fly all the way back in two days, when they live all the way on the other side of the country,” Krysta points out with all seriousness, eyeing me in particular. “Surely Piper has seen the real you by now.”

  My eyes narrow.

  Ma dabs her eyes with a napkin, sniffling, and I lose interest in Krysta long enough to roll my eyes.

  “I’m never gonna get babies,” Ma says through another sniffle.

  “You were never going to get them from her, Ma. I told you that from the beginning. You’re mourning something that was never going to happen. She’s got a life somewhere else,” I grumble, annoyed that I check over my shoulder again.

  One time. I had her under me one damn time, and I immediately knew it’d be a bad idea to do that again. I talked a big game, but I enjoyed it too much to put myself through that again.

  It’s all I can do to keep the physical contact chaste now by wearing her out with tons of physical activity. Every single time I touch her, all I want to do is carry her off and keep her to myself.

  I really thought it wouldn’t be that big of a deal to have a casual fling with a fancy girl, who clearly doesn’t belong in Tomahawk or on my side of the lake. There’s no way she can belong here.

  She’s not like Liam or Benson or any of the other outsiders. They were sick of their lives. They were desperate for something new.

  She has family and a life that she’s planning to return to.

  “The two of you have your guards so high that neither of you see what beautiful babies you’re robbing the world of,” Ma prattles on.

  Pocketing my hands in my coat, I glance around once again. Even though my sister is in the finals of the axe-throwing showdown against Killian, my head can’t seem to get out of the fog. It’s the rematch we’ve all waited to see all year, but Hale and I are both spending more time looking behind us than in front of us.

  “Did you ever find out what the emergency was?” I ask him.

  “Something business related. Reese is deep in the family business,” he answers absently.

  “Why did Piper have to go too? She’s not all that involved in this vaguely described family business of theirs,” I gripe.

  “The business is currently just the platform for their dad’s political campaign and stuff. They had to make some sort of public appearance as a family somewhere or something. It sounded like some sort of scandal cover up.”

  He gets way more details than I do. I guess that’s what happens when you don’t spend all your time exhausting your girl so you can avoid getting another taste of what life could be like, just in time to have to give it up and watch her go.

  Groaning, I slouch in my chair, watching as my sister hurdles her axe for a direct hit in the center of the wooden target.

  Cheers ring out, because more people are pulling for Nila than Killian. Killian smirks as he readies his own axe, but I look behind me again instead of watching his throw.

  “What’s that look?” Ma asks me, grabbing my chin and thoroughly examining my face.

  Arching an eyebrow, I mutter, “Utter fucking confusion.”

  She nods as she releases my chin. “I don’t miss those days. These days I know exactly what I’m looking for. When you’re young, it’s all confusing, and you don’t realize what you even want.”

  When I glance back this time, a pressure lifts from my chest, and the knots in my stomach unfurl. I didn’t even realize how much it was worrying me that she wouldn’t come back until this second.

  I spot her bundled up in a lot of pale blues, as she and her sister shuffle their feet through the snow, hurrying toward us.

  I slap Hale on the arm, and he practically leaps straight up and takes off running toward them. He has Reese in his arms and swinging her around before I can even get halfway there.

  Piper smiles at me as she blows heat into her gloved hands, her matching pale blue knitted thing coming down almost to her eyes.

  I start to worry about them when they both seem to stagger…

  Why do their eyes look so glossy?

  “Sorry. We had a flat and there wasn’t any signal to ask Google how to change it or to contact roadside assistance,” Piper tells me, making very little sense. “And when we couldn’t change it, we were left with the dangerous task of flagging someone down. Fortunately, we caught a ride with Tate and Porter Nickels. Unfortunately, they made us drink some moonshine and sing karaoke as payment.”

  She hiccups, and my eyebrows bounce up to my hairline.

  Porter and Tate got them drunk?

&nb
sp; “I’m gonna skin a Nickel or two,” Hale states flatly.

  “I’ll get in on that action,” I tell him as Piper slips and stumbles into me.

  I catch her, putting my arms around her waist to steady her.

  “Remember what they said to tell them?” Reese asks, glancing over as Piper nuzzles her head against my chest.

  My body doesn’t seem to realize she’s drunk and vulnerable, because things stand at attention that shouldn’t be standing at attention right now.

  Reese starts laughing for no reason at all, and Piper suddenly starts laughing as well, as she struggles to stay upright in my arms.

  “They won the drinking contest, but we won the stripping contest!” Piper proudly shouts, pumping her fist in the air.

  My eyes widen, and I dart a look around, ready to murder some Nickels.

  “Whoo!” Reese shouts as she fist-pumps the air as well.

  “I’m going to fucking kill them,” I state very seriously.

  “Don’t!” Piper and Reese both shout, and then they point at each other and simultaneously yell, “Jinx!”

  They burst out laughing as though that’s the funniest shit in the world, and I groan as I bend to scoop Piper’s drunk ass up in my arms.

  “We didn’t really strip,” Reese says through her cackles as Hale lifts her and starts carrying her as well. “We’ve got knights, Piper!”

  “You didn’t really strip?” I ask, needing this to be resolved very quickly so I can decide if I’m going to simply punch someone or gouge out some eyeballs.

  “No,” Piper says through her laughter. “They just wanted us to tell you that we did. They thought it’d be funny. You should see your face,” she adds, poking my cheek with her finger. “You’re cute when you’re angry.”

  “How much moonshine did you drink?” I ask, glancing down as she beams up at me with a red nose and red cheeks.

  “This much,” she says as she pinches her fingers together, bites down on her tongue, and narrows her eyes as she examines the miniscule amount she’s demonstrating.

  “It was more like this much,” Reese argues, holding her hands up and very far apart to demonstrate a much larger quantity.