Vivian Arend - Granite Lake Wolves 2 (10 page)

slowing, not through meditation, but because he was in danger. Ahead by the ski

of the plane, there was a snow-covered mound. She raced up to discover him

crumpled face down on the ground. She threw back her head and howled, a long

high cry of command, before she stuck her muzzle to the side of his face and

sniffed.

The initial hit of his scent raced through her with the impact of shooting a mickey

of tequila. Her head spun, her mouth watered and the sexual tension throughout

her body flared again just being in his presence. But she also felt the danger. Tad

was burning up. His body shook with fever, and even if she woke him, she’d never

be able to carry him. She cried out again, louder this time, more demanding.

Missy used her paws and her teeth to drag Tad closer to the plane and the slight

protection of the hillside before she curled around his head, her warm breath on

his face. She watched for any sign of movement, in Tad or in the whitened air

beyond them.

“Missy?” Tad’s voice was a soft rasp.

She licked his neck.

“I’m sorry, Missy. I’m so sorry.”

Missy’s head flicked to attention.

They came. The natural wolves crept up to where Tad lay, the leader’s eyes on

Missy. She stared him down, not moving from her protective position around Tad.

Slowly the timber wolf approached and lowered himself to the ground by her

paws. He lapped at her mouth for a moment and she gave him a nudge with her

head.

They would be all right.

A few minutes later Missy double-checked the pile of furry bodies that covered

Tad to keep him warm until she returned with help. She nudged the leader of the

group in farewell then turned away.

***

Pain stroked the back of his neck, wrapped gently around his forehead and then

socked him between the eyes. Tad would have groaned but that required too

much energy. Panting seemed the limit of his ability to complain at the moment.

“So, zombie boy. You gonna get your ass out of bed sometime this week or

what?” His partner’s loud voice echoed like he was using a megaphone.

“You think he’s going to remember anything this time, Shaun?”

“Don’t know, TJ. I think it’s pretty amusing myself. How about we tell him he’s

been booked to fly the Queen on her next royal tour?”

They were talking nearby but Tad couldn’t see them. “Hey, guys. Shut up for a

minute. Which one of you dropped the anvil on my head?”

“Hmm, good sign. He’s being an asshole,” Shaun said.

“Why can’t I see you?” Tad thought his eyes were open but it was so dark in the

room he couldn’t be sure.

A faint shimmer of light came through as Shaun cracked open the curtains. “It’s

nighttime and we’ve got your summer light-blocking curtains closed. The pack

doctor said with the fever you needed it as dark as possible to avoid

complications.” He paced over and sat, the most concerned look on his face Tad

had ever seen. “How do you feel?”

Tad tried a slow stretch. He had aches on tops of aches, his head pounded and

there was something he needed to remember. “Did I catch the flu or something?”

Tad watched TJ and Shaun exchange glances. “Yeah, or something. Remember

that guy you flew around for hours? He came down with a bad case of the nasties,

and since you had the pleasure of his company in close quarters, you were a nice

little time bomb waiting to happen,” Shaun explained.

TJ snorted. “Of course racing into a freaking blizzard didn’t help matters. The only

reason you survived is—”

“TJ, go make some coffee. Thanks.” Shaun turned his back on TJ in dismissal.

Tad attempted a laugh as TJ left the room. “How did you do that? I thought no

one could get TJ to shut up when he gets started.”

Shaun reached for Tad’s forehead. “It’s a wolf thing. I rank higher and I only use

the authority when it’s needed.” In slow motion Shaun touched his skin.

Giant invisible ice picks appeared and starting jabbing him everywhere. He jerked

away from Shaun’s hand, swearing under his breath. His head spun and his skin

crawled. “What the hell is that about?”

“You really want to know?”

Tad threw a pillow at Shaun. “What kind of stupid-ass remark is that? Of course I

want to know. My head is throbbing and I feel like I’ve been tied to an ant hill

after being dipped in honey.”

“Ooooh. Nice analogy, flyboy. You remember where you got the honey from?”

Tad got ready to yell at Shaun to tell him to start making sense and then… “Oh

shit, is Missy all right?”

Shaun clapped his hands together with exaggerated enthusiasm. “Finally, the

right question. You
are
on the cutting edge of sanity this time. Yes, Missy is as

good as can be expected.”

“What’s that mean? And why are you acting so weird?” Tad threw back the

covers and swung his legs to the floor, intending to get dressed. The room had

other ideas as it spun in a one-eighty, and the roof flipped to the floor. Tad found

himself flat on his back, this time on the carpet.

“Let’s try this again. How are you feeling, Tad?”

Nothing was working right and his brain felt like it was iced up. “Good grief,

what’s wrong with me?”

Shaun’s voice grew quiet with an annoying “I’m being patient” undertone.

“You’ve been sick, Tad. You caught the flu from the guy you flew around—”

Fuck that.
“Yeah, you told me.” Tad held a hand out to Shaun to get a pull upright.

Shaun hid his arms behind him and Tad cursed. He rolled to his belly and gave a

painful push onto his knees.

“Not that I don’t want to help but listening to you scream in pain every time

someone touches you lost its appeal after the first dozen times.” Shaun sat on the

chair next to the bed.

Tad crawled back onto the mattress and covered himself. The pressure of the

quilt on his skin hurt less than the cold seeping into his bones. His mind cleared a

little, enough to grow concerned. “Am I going crazy?”

Shaun shook his head. “Sorry if I seem a little short but I’ve explained what’s

wrong five times already. I’m not sure you’re going to remember whatever I say

so it’s difficult to get excited about sharing this again. But in the hopes six is the

charm, here goes. It’s Thursday. You were—”

“What?” Tad exclaimed. “Missy and I did the set-up on Monday before we got

stuck in the cabin.”

Shaun raised a brow. “Well done. First time you’ve been able to remember that

without prompting. You remember anything else you did with Missy?” Tad swore

and Shaun pumped his arm into the air. “All right, it seems we are getting

somewhere. I know it drives your poor little human sensitivities wild, but I’m

going to speak plain wolf for a bit. You began FirstMate with her and for some

stupid, idiotic reason you stopped. You can’t stop a trigger in mid-pull, Tad. All

you’ve managed to do is get the bullet in motion and you’ve hit a time warp. Until

you finish what you started, neither you nor Missy will be able to touch another

person without pain. That’s number one. Number two is none of us knew Missy is

an Omega wolf and—”

“A what?” The pain in his body faded slightly as he remembered being in the

cabin with Missy. How he’d almost decided to trap her forever.

“Omega. Instead of dealing with the authority and leadership of the pack like the

Alpha and Beta, she helps set the emotional track. She knows what needs to

happen by instinct. Packs without an Omega often have wolves go feral or head

into the illegal side of things. You don’t even know they are there if they do their

job right.”

Tad scrubbed his hand over his face. “Is Missy okay? Where is she?”

Shaun held up a hand. “In a minute. First I need to tell you something else.”

“Damn it, Shaun, you’ve already told me I’m not only an ass for fooling around

with Missy, I’m also responsible for messing up the pack. What other bomb do

you feel the need to drop?”

His friend leaned forward in his chair, eyes serious, lips pressed together. “You

haven’t messed up our pack. Missy is visiting and I haven’t been able to convince

her to tell me where she’s from.”

Tad shook his head in confusion. “She told me.”

“Well, she must have trusted you more than you realized. Keil couldn’t even get

it out of her and that tells me she’s either damn strong or damn scared about

something. I also never called you an ass for fooling around with Missy but for

stopping. Big difference, bucko. I need to ask you something. If Missy wasn’t a

wolf would you have liked to make love with her?”

What was Shaun up to?
“Of course. You know I’ve liked her since high school and

I didn’t know she was a wolf. I had even decided that—”

Shaun held up his hand and jumped in. “Right. Let me get this straight. You would

go out with Missy, even sleep with her as a human. What if she fell in love with

you? Do you think you could have fallen in love with her?”

Tad didn’t understand where this was going. “Yes.”

“Then you won’t be upset to find out she didn’t care if FirstMate triggered a false

mate because she’s always been a little in love with you and she figured it was far

better to love you even if you didn’t return her feelings.” Shaun dropped his

voice, shaking his head slightly. “She’s hurting bad right now, Tad. She’s in

physical pain because of the damn trigger thing, but emotional pain too because

you managed to turn her down.”

“Because I didn’t want to hurt her!”

Shaun pulled a face. “Well nice going on that one, Einstein. She saved your butt

and she needs you. Now you can get all human shy and shit on your own time,

but if you’re any kind of man you’re going to go and make things right with her

whether she’s your mate or not.”

A crash carried from the kitchen into the bedroom followed by loud cursing.

Shaun leapt to his feet and stomped to the door. “Bloody idiot, TJ, you burning

the house down or making coffee?” He looked back at Tad. “Well?”

He was glad his head wasn’t physically spinning anymore because it was doing

triple lutz trying to keep up with this conversation. “Well what?”

“Do I go get Missy or do you stay an asshole?”

He’s got to be kidding.
Tad gestured to the bed and his shaky body. “You want

me to seduce the woman when I’ve been sick in bed for three days?”

Shaun laugh was harsh and loud in the quiet room. “You were over the flu the

first day. The rest of it is a side effect from your own stupidity. As soon as I bring

Missy in here you’ll feel much better. Trust me.”

Did Missy really need him that much? If Tad were thinking more clearly in the

first place, he wouldn’t have caused this trouble. It came down to doing the right

thing.

Tad stared out the window. So much of the past couple of years for him had

revolved around the pack and learning about being a wolf. He’d become so

distracted by his need to become triggered, he’d left all his human goals behind.

That had been a mistake.

He thought about the way Missy had grinned at him the first day they’d met so

many years ago. The way her eyes lit with mischief when she’d teased him. The

sound of her laughter. The touch of her hand. He caught himself smiling as he

remembered how she made him feel about himself, like he was capable and

trustworthy.

Holy crap, he was in love with her.

Tad took a deep breath as he realized he not only knew the right thing to do but

that he wanted to do it. Longed for it. Even though Missy was getting a false-mate

sign, he would make sure she never felt unloved. Really, it was no different than

what his life plan had been before he’d found out he had wolf genes—meet a girl,

fall in love, get married.

He turned back to face Shaun. “Where is she?”

“She’s in Shaun’s bed,” TJ said as he stuck his head into the room and anger

streaked through Tad. Shaun caught a glimpse of it and shoved TJ into the wall.

“Smooth move, slick. Tad, it’s okay. I’ve been sleeping on your couch and one of

the girls from the pack has been taking care of Missy. I haven’t touched her.”

TJ chuckled. “Yeah, no one touches her because it’s freaky to hear the noises she

makes.”

“TJ!”

Tad made up his mind. “Shaun, I need to ask a big favour. Can I use your

apartment for…well, until we don’t need it anymore? I’ll go over there. That way

no one will have to touch Missy.”

Shaun let out a big breath. “Good decision, Tad. See, this is why I’m your friend.

Can I help you?”

Tad reached to pull on his jeans then changed his mind. He wasn’t planning on

being dressed for too long anyway. He gingerly slipped on the huge robe Robyn

had given him for Christmas with
Pilots Do It on the Fly
embroidered on the back,

and headed for the bathroom. “Give me a couple minutes to clean up. I can walk

but you’re going to have to drive. If I got pulled over I wouldn’t know how to

explain to the RCMP why I’m dressed like this in February.”

“Doesn’t anyone want a drink?” TJ asked as he held up the steaming pot of dark

liquid.

Tad sniffed the air. “TJ, where did you get the coffee grounds?”

TJ pointed to a container on the windowsill.

Shaun coughed. “I shouldn’t drink any of it. Right, Tad?”