Phantom Warriors: Arctos (2 page)

* * * * *

Caitlin awoke cocooned in warmth and gently rocking from side to side. She snuggled deeper and her nose came in contact with hard warm flesh. She sniffed, then sniffed again. A slightly musky, not entirely unpleasant aroma greeted her. Why did her whole body ache? She cracked one lid open just enough to peek at her surroundings and saw nothing but a wal of black material.

She frowned as she tried to recal where she was.

Steady breathing and the squeaky crunch of boots hitting packed snow reached her ears. Her eyes flew open, but al Caitlin could see was the wide back her face was smooshed against. She pushed away and the world tilted.

Her stomach lurched and she nearly threw up. Fortunately panic set in and saved her from embarrassment. She thrashed wildly, kicking with her feet and flailing her arms in an attempt to get away.

“Easy, you’ve been injured,” a deep male voice said, without breaking stride. “If you don’t stop struggling, you’re going to hurt yourself.” His grip on her firmed.

“Let go of me,” she demanded, straining to remember the details of the last few hours. Had it been hours or minutes? She couldn’t recal . Where was she? How did she get upside down? Her thoughts scrambled then reassembled themselves into working order.

There was a bear. A real y
big
bear. And another bear.

Then pain. Lots of pain. Fol owed by a tingling sensation like al her limbs had gone to sleep at once, then nothingness. Her heart began to thump wildly in her chest.

What had happened to the bears?

She craned her neck to look around, catching a sideways glimpse of the man carrying her. There was something
familiar
about him? Had they met? She couldn’t recal . Where had he come from? Better yet, how had she gotten away? It was al a blur of white fur, teeth, claws and blood. Caitlin began to shake uncontrol ably.

“Listen Caveman, I real y must insist that you put me down immediately,” she said through chattering teeth.

The man stopped, then shifted her until he could look into her face, but otherwise made no move to oblige her request.

A snowflake landed on her nose. Caitlin looked around, then glanced up at the sky. It was snowing. Hard.

The man didn’t seem fazed by the steadily fal ing powder. In fact, he wasn’t even breathing hard.

Caitlin stopped struggling and took a good look at her…
rescuer
. His face was harshly beautiful with tantalizing sharp cheekbones, a sensual mouth, and dark unfathomable eyes. Trapped by his gaze, she continued to stare. She’d never seen anyone quite like him.

Her attention shifted to his hair. At first she’d thought it was covered in snow, but now Caitlin realized it wasn’t snow at al . His hair was white, so white that it would probably glint like silver tinsel in sunlight. They definitely hadn’t met. He wasn’t the kind of guy that a girl forgot.

She licked her suddenly dry lips and asked, “Who are you?”

He continued to stare at her, until she felt unnerved by the rapt attention.

Caitlin cleared her throat. “I asked you a question.” His lips quirked and a dimple winked out from his cheek, softening his features. Such a simple movement, not even one of conscious thought, but it stil managed to do strange things to Caitlin’s insides. How could she have found him harsh-looking only moments ago? A woman would have to be blind not to realize the man was gorgeous.

It had to be the shock from the bear attack
, she thought. What else could it possibly be? Caitlin prided herself for having a level head. She wasn’t prone to bouts of lust. She’d never fal en for a pretty face. It just didn’t happen.

“My name is Arctos,” he said, staring at her like he’d never seen a woman before.

“Arctos.” She rol ed his name over her tongue, testing the sound of it. Caitlin looked at him again. Despite the oddity of it, the name did somehow fit him. He didn’t look like a John or a Steve with that strangely colored hair and those sharp assessing features. “How did I get here?

Actual y strike that last question. Where are we?”

“I found you. You were hurt.” He broke eye contact. “As to where we are, we are heading toward a denser population. Though the snow is making the journey…

difficult.”

Difficult? Try impossible.
Caitlin looked up at the sky.

It was stil daylight, but wouldn’t be for much longer. Soon the temperatures would start to drop, reaching dangerous levels. Already a chil rode the air, promising a quick death.

She stared at Arctos. The outfit he had on wasn’t thick enough to ward off the oncoming cold. Hers might, but not without shelter. She shivered as a breeze swept the fal ing snow into her face. “We need to get inside before nightfal .”

“Do not worry. I have excel ent night vision,” he said, puffing out his impressive chest. The man winced as he did, but his expression remained stoic.

Caitlin looked at the snow near his feet. Red spots dotted the ground. She reached out and touched his side.

Her white glove came away covered in blood. “You’re hurt,” she said, gently touching him again. “How bad is it?” He sucked in a breath as her padded fingers probed.

“It is nothing,” he said through gritted teeth.

She held her glove up to his face. “This doesn’t look like
nothing
to me,” she said, watching him closely. “You need a doctor. How far are we from town?”

“I believe the term is a mile. Perhaps five,” he said.

She glanced around at the fal ing snow. With the wind, the steady snowfal was drifting and morphing into a blizzard. “We might be able to make it,” she said, even as doubt set it. Without markers, it was so easy to get lost in a storm. Heck, even with markers an experienced hunter could get turned around. If that happened, a mile or two could be the difference between life and death. “Mind putting me down? We can make better time if you don’t carry me. It’l also take the strain off your injury.” Arctos looked like he was about to refuse her request, but at the last second, he acquiesced. “As you desire, but at the first sign of distress, you’re going back.” Distress? Was he serious? She wasn’t the one bleeding into the snow. Caitlin kept her thoughts to herself as he careful y put her down. The loss of warmth was instantaneous. She bounced from foot to foot to get the blood circulating and so he wouldn’t see her shiver. “You’re sure it’s a few miles to town.”

“Yes.” He paused and glanced up as if in thought.

“Definitely more than three, but less than six.” Snow quickly fil ed his footprints. How had he covered fifteen miles? “You carried me the whole way?” He looked at her as if she’d suddenly sprouted snakes for hair. “Of course, you were injured.”

She glanced down at the front of her coat and saw a huge blood stain. The world tilted for a moment before righting itself. Caitlin unzipped her coat and yanked her shirt up. Four pink ribbed lines scored her abdomen.

“It must have missed,” she said, but the amount of blood told her otherwise. She forced her brain to focus on something else, anything else.

When she’d found the polar bears, Caitlin had been over twenty miles from town as the crow flies. She’d needed a snowmobile to reach the spot. She’d left it parked a half a mile away, afraid it would spook the bears.

How had Arctos moved so quickly without a vehicle or at least sled dogs? It just didn’t make sense. He was injured for Pete’s sake. Caitlin was about to ask, when a howl rose on the wind. The hair on her neck bristled.

“We’d better hurry,” she said. “Don’t want to get caught out in the open by the wolves. They probably smel our blood.”

Arctos’ eyes appeared to flash from brown to red and back again. “I won’t let anything harm you,” he said with such conviction that Caitlin actual y believed him.

The howl came again. This time it was the wind warning of the approaching storm. “We might be able to outrun the wolves, but we won’t outrun the storm. Not with injuries,” she said.

He arched a brow. “Your concern for my wel -being is…unnecessary.”

“Unnecessary?” She balked. “You saved me from being eaten by polar bears. I’d say that I owe you. And I always repay my debts.” Caitlin glanced around, scanning the horizon through the blowing snow for any manmade objects. “Look over there and tel me what you see.” She pointed at something a couple hundred yards away, hoping it wasn’t just a clump of trees.

Arctos looked. Blinked a few times, then said, “It’s a dwel ing of some sort.”

There weren’t any lights on, but that didn’t mean anything in Alaska. A few miles outside of a smal town meant no electricity. If someone was home, she didn’t think that they’d be turned away, but it paid to be cautious, since everyone in Alaska tended to be armed.

She shielded her eyes and looked again. “I can’t tel if the structure is sound from here, but at this point it’l have to do. We need to get out of this storm.”

* * * * *

Arctos stared at the smal shelter in the distance. He sent his senses out, searching the area for threats. The wolves were closing in from two sides, but they were stil a great distance and would pose no threat. They smel ed the blood on the wind, but what they hunted was bigger game like the caribou herd making their way across the tundra a half a mile from their location. Arctos sent out a warning, alerting the pack that there was a larger predator in the area. It would be enough to deter them from pursuing them.

That done, he turned his attention back to the cabin. It was empty and might serve as the perfect place to rest for the night. He chastised himself for not making better time.

He should’ve had her safely tucked back with her people by now.

He glanced at the woman. He’d been right. She barely reached the center of his chest. Nowhere near big enough to defend herself. He was amazed she’d managed to survive this long without protection. Was she who the Goddess had chosen for him? Bitterness rose. He’d never know for certain now that the first bond was in place.

“What is your name?” he asked, pushing aside the useless emotion. In his haste to get her to safety he’d al owed his manners to slip.

She blushed, her cheeks turning even pinker. “Caitlin.

Caitlin Kel y,” she said, before adding, “we’d better get moving.”

Caitlin. Her name tasted sweet on his lips and suited her smal stature. Arctos watched her march out into the snow toward the structure. Not only did she not look like the women he’d known on Zaron, she didn’t behave like them.

Her diminutive size belied her hidden strength. She was not a woman used to being coddled. That much was abundantly clear when she’d demanded to be put down.

Other than her initial panic from finding herself in a stranger’s arms, which was understandable, Caitlin didn’t appear fussed by their present situation. Her bravery was admirable. If anything, she’d responded practical y. First seek shelter, then tend to his wound. Arctos wasn’t quite sure what to make of her.

The women he’d known would’ve been screaming about the cold and demanding that he find them food and shelter immediately. Instead, Caitlin had been the one to spot a dwel ing and make the decision to spend the night.

How utterly…fascinating.

Arctos fol owed at a short distance—which was a mistake, because it gave him a clear view of her smal bottom as it swished from side to side with each step.

Caitlin didn’t seem to notice as she picked her way over the snow. Arctos could do nothing but pay attention. It was as if she’d strapped a hunk of raw meat on her luscious ass.

Mesmerized by the gentle swaying motion, his hungry gaze devoured every inch of her. Despite the pain in his side, his cock hardened, demanding release. He shouldn’t want this woman…but he did, and Arctos was beginning to think that it had nothing to do with the bond he’d forced upon her. He growled in frustration.

The deep rumbling sound traveled on the wind. Caitlin jumped and let out a little squeak, then picked up her pace.

Her focus became single-minded as she rushed toward shelter. Had Arctos not been watching, he wouldn’t have believed she could move so fast.

Don’t run!
The plea echoed in his mind.

Arctos wanted to scream the command as his body instinctively reacted. He took a step and froze, balanced on a blaster’s edge, as centuries of training and breeding spurred him to give chase. He shuddered as the bear roared inside his skul . Sweat broke out across his forehead a second before sharp incisors burst through his gums. His beast struggled for its freedom, no longer content to wait for its mate, determined to run her to ground.

Claws sprung from his fingertips as he fought the urge to hunt, to catch, to claim. The warrior in him knew Caitlin wasn’t running from him. She was scared and hurrying toward the structure. Arctos latched onto that thought and clung to it, even as his raw instincts demanded action.

He raised his head and inhaled. Her warm scent wafted past him before being carried away by the wind.

“Patience,” he growled, forcing his claws and teeth to recede. Far easier said, than done.