Force of the Dark Wolf (Force of Nature Series) (17 page)

The first turn opened into another small cave of sorts.
There were lights coming from above and he thought he could make out a few bats hanging in the smallish alcove.
He tried to ignore them
,
but there was just something very eerie about bats in a cave.
He moved to the next opening and saw that if he went right again
he’d be hitting a dead end.
He started to turn around and go back
,
but remember
ed
she’s told him to go right.
He moved closer to the large wall and couldn’t find anything.

Gordon was cold, wet
,
and tired.
He’d had the shit beaten out of him by his brothers and his mom was pissed at him.
CJ threatened to castrate him and Austin told him if he didn’t fix this with both Alexis and Phil he’d have him thrown from the pack.
And he was beginning to realize that he could care less about any of that because
,
in the end
,
he’d hurt two people that were very important to him.
He turned to go back out when he saw the opening.

It was to the right of the way he’d come through.
Not only was it well hidden
,
but the way it was situated made him think that he’d only seen it because he’d been about to slip against the wall.
Had he not
seen
the small crease in the other stone
he
would have completely gone by
it
and that would have made him lose his way.
Clever, he thought
.
Smiling
,
he moved toward the opening and down a small set of stairs.
When he got to the bottom
,
there stood Alexis.
He stopped a few feet from her.

“I thought you’d changed your mind,” she told him softly
,
and she bunched a towel in her arms.
“I was just about to lock up when I heard you.
Aren’t you supposed to be very quiet when moving?”

“If I know I have to be.”
He took a few steps toward her
,
took the towel
,
and wrapped it around his waist.
He knotted it at his hip as he continued.
“Why did you have this built?
Are you expecting trouble?”

“Always.
I learned that I should always have another avenue of escape.”
She moved back when he was close and for now
,
he let her.
“I’m still not very happy with you.
Any of you
,
for that matter.”

“You
should
be mad at me.
I am an idiot and a fool.”
He ran his fingers down her cheek.
“You saved my life and I let you down. Again.
I’m sorry.”

She looked away and he moved closer.
When she moved back again he simply lifted her chin and kissed her gently on the mouth before moving in
to
the room.
And Christ
,
what a room it was.

He’d been in here before, but he’d been seeing her for the first time in that white towel.
Now he could see what Phil had said about the room was true.
It was a work of art.

The windows that he’d been talking to her though were huge and showed so much of the outdoors.
The only lights were from the moon reflecting off the water and the dewy grass.
He heard her shut the doorway between where he’d been and the room
,
but was so focused on what beauty lay before him that he didn’t turn.
A half dozen deer walked into view as he watched.

“They come every night about this time.
I think that the big boy, the buck
,
thinks I’m caged up or something and trusts I won’t hurt his little family.”
She moved to his side as she spoke
,
but far enough away that he couldn’t touch her.
“Sometimes there are more
,
but always these few.”

“They’re hungry this time of year.
It’s too early in the spring for them to have enough food. But they look healthy and strong.
They’ll be fo
a
ling soon enough and you’ll have more than you’re little grove can handle
,
I think.”
He looked over at her as he finished.
“You could move a few of the pairs over to my brother’s land.
They have several hundred acres there that they maintain.”

She nodded and he turned to watch her look out the window.
He looked around the room, wondering what other surprises she had down here.
He smiled when he saw that she’d not only made the outdoors come into her room from the glass
,
but she’d brought a great deal of the forest in here too.

Her bed was made of fallen timber.
He could see that someone had preserved the natural wood and had done so without losing the beauty of it.
The four large logs looked to be from a variety of trees that held a mattress that had to of been specially made to accommodate it. The walls were made of barn siding and looked to be an old oak.
When she started to move away he reached for her and pulled her into his arms with her back to him.

“I’m sorry, Alexis. What I did, what I said to you
,
was horribly wrong and mean.
I was afraid, terrified actually. Not at you
,
but…well
,
at me.”

“I wouldn’t have hurt you.”
He heard the past tense of the sentence and felt his heart skip several beats.
“You should probably go. I have to look over this file that Phil gave me. He and I have an appointment in the morning.”

“I want to help you sort it out.
I need to.
I won’t sleep with you.”
He grinned at the expression on her face.
“Unless you want me to.
I’m not saying I don’t want to, because I very much do
,
but you have to trust me and I know you don’t.”

She looked over at a small table tucked in the corner and he could see the file there. There was also a large wall unit that was closed up and he’d bet that it held a computer and anything else she’d need for an office.

“I don’t want you here.
You’re messing with…”
She walked toward the door that he hadn’t noticed before.
“No one has ever been down here before except for the builders.
You’re messing up my karma
,
or vibes
,
or something.
I’d really like for you to—
”

“My wolf wants to touch you, smell you,” he told her quickly.
He didn’t want her to send him away.
“He’s beautiful.
And he’d very much like to meet you and not rush out the door like he did before.
He snarls at me every
time I can scent you.”

She looked at him
,
but didn’t tell him to leave. Yet.
“You say that like he’s a different person or something. Isn’t he just something inside of you that you let out sometimes?”

“Yes and no. He’s there inside of me
,
but he is a different being.
He’s the part of me that is beast.
As for letting him out, I do when he wants. Sometimes for him and sometimes for me.
He wants to meet you.
He would never harm you
. Y
ou don’t have to be afraid of him.”

“I’m not afraid of either of you,” she snapped.
He hid his grin by looking out the window again.
He heard her move to the center of the room
,
but didn’t look at her yet. When she spoke again
,
he turned slowly.
“I can change too. Myself
,
I mean.
I can change into anything I want
,
but I’m partial to an eagle.”

He moved back slowly
,
trying to gauge when he was near enough to something to sit down or at the very least
,
lean against.
Gordon felt something hit the back of his legs and reached behind him to grab on.
He was grateful when he realized it was a chair and that he was in the correct position to sit in it.

“How long…” He cleared his throat twice before continuing.
“How long have you been able to do that?”
Thousands of questions popped into his mind while that many more tried to come to the front of the line.
How? When? Why? Were only a few that he could get a fix on.
He realized that she was looking at him and he tried to regain control of himself.

“You’re mad again.
Whatever.”
She moved to her bed and sat down.
“I first changed into the eagle by accident.
I’d been watching one in the backyard for a few days and wondered what it would be like. The next thing I know
,
I’m soaring through the sky with him.
The next time
,
I really thought it out and felt it roll over me. The change
,
I mean.
After that
…
”
S
he shrugged
.
“I did it whenever I wanted to get away.”

He nodded.
He could understand wanting to get away
,
but that still didn’t
—
“How old were you the first time?
I mean, you make it sound as if you’ve been doing it for some time.”

“I was six.
It was right after my parents married.”
She stood up and started pacing as she told him more.
“I didn’t know why I could do it. And I’d always known that I was…
M
om never lied to me about being adopted…well
,
she lied
,
but I hadn’t realized she was lying.
Anyway, so I didn’t go to her about it. First of all
,
I was really afraid that she’d not want me anymore and then later I didn’t because it was something I had of my own.”