8
Hannah
The dark, evil energy rolling off the fursona Gleb spills his guts to is incredible.
It coats my skin like oil and sticks in my nose and mouth.
If I had met this friend before Gleb, I would’ve run.
Why would he choose to pour his heart out to this man? Part of me wants to protect Gleb from the furry who isn’t listening to his cries for help. The other part of me wants nothing to do with the whole group. What if they’re all like this one instead of sweet like Gleb?
At least I thought Gleb was sweet…then I heard his tale of how we met.
Stalking? Waiting for the bus to sink? How do I know he didn’t sink it? Jack and I spent every minute together once the tour ca mped at the seaside, so Gleb must have watched me with him.
Shiver.
What did Gleb watch me do with Jack? We weren’t exactly discrete… How many times did I cave into Jack’s demands and blow him while hiding in the brush? How many times did Gleb watch us?
Creeped out doesn’t begin to describe it.
Gleb’s explanations always start at the iceberg, and now I know why.
He’s the creeper they warn girls about in high school health class.
What I can’t wrap my head around is how he never pressured me physically—not even a kiss.
Why would someone stalk a woman, kidnap her, and then treat her like a queen? I was never an honor student, but I know I have to run while there are witnesses. The old furry joining them is my best bet for compassion and, ultimately, freedom. Which sucks because I like being Gleb’s friend. The allure of an isolated life in the Arctic could have swayed me.
But not with an eccentric stalker whose religion convinced him to kidnap me.
Claiming fated mates is for fairytales and cults, and I’m not participating in either.
“Want to go home? You can’t go back to Gleb’s northern home.
They aren’t safe this time of year.
We can’t risk losing a breeding pair in another cave-in,”
barks the elder furry.
“Timor, be reasonable,”
Gleb pleas.
“Hannah hasn’t met the others.
She hasn’t seen us work together to appreciate all I can offer her.”
His eyes burn holes in the side of my face, but I can’t look at him.
If he gives me puppy-eyes, I’ll cave in faster than his house.
“I want to go back to California.
Jack must be worried sick about me.
I bet my face is on a milk carton by now.”
I plant my feet shoulder-width apart, grind my fists into my hips, and raise my chin to the elder, who I guess is Timor…not Sergei.
“Jack? Who is Jack?”
Timor walks between Gleb and me as if an intermediary.
Gleb shrinks before my eyes.
How could a man so small be big and strong enough to carry me across the Tundra? Stalking, kidnapping…maybe Gleb isn’t evil—I mean his aura colors were fine—but he lacks the confidence to follow societal norms.
What if he’s socially stunted and needs someone—
Nope! Hannah, stop it! We’ve done this I-can-save-him thing before!
“Jack is my boyfriend—”
“She had a pleasure mate when I found her,”
Gleb interrupts.
I bat his arm away when he reaches for me.
Of course, my swat doesn’t connect because I’m not looking at him.
I can’t. The tears in his voice are enough to crumble my resolve, but I can’t allow myself to be captive to a madman. “Jack’s gone. Manya knows I found Hannah. We can be together. ”
“Tell me, child, is your relationship dushevnayasvyaz ?”
Timor wraps his arm around my shoulder and leads me toward his reindeer.
I pretend to fear tripping over my feet, so I don’t have to look at Gleb.
Letting others down—even when it’s what I want—is never easy, but I hate it more than snakes, spiders, and flying bugs.
“Yes, she is! I smell like a hazelnut pastry and my skin is hotter than the fires of hell!”
Gleb’s shouting is whiny like a toddler who’s about to go down for a nap.
“I didn’t ask you!”
Timor thunders over my head.
“I don’t know what that is,”
I whisper to the grandfatherly Timor.
“How am I supposed to develop that for a man I met a few days ago? I don’t know his family, friends, or favorite things.
I don’t even know his sign because he’s cagey about his birthdate.”
“Oh dear, Gleb has no family.
They’re dead.
He turned his back on his friends for you.
As for his birth, the ones who witnessed it are all dead—”
“Did he kill them?”
I cup my hands around my mouth to block the sound from Gleb’s ears.
While I don’t believe he’s capable of murder, I don’t want to piss off the guy who may be capable of murder.
“They died when he was kit.
Gleb is many things, but a killer isn’t one of them,”
Timor whispers to me while looking at Gleb over my head.
Timor’s answer matches what Gleb told me, but it didn’t sink in until now.
The circumstances are different, but the outcome is the same.
Gleb grew up without his parents’ involvement and missed out on the childhood family experience —just like me. We’re a product of a lonely childhood, forced to grow up too fast.
Gleb is my twin flame, sent to my life path to teach me the value of boundaries.
“He’s been very kind to me but—”
“Serik? Timor! Timor! Serik? Did Timor ride this way?”
Shouts pull Timor’s head up.
His neck twists to find their source.
He sniffs the air as if trying to identify them by scent like a hound.
The gesture sends a shiver to my boots. These people skirt the line of human and animal—by design. I doubt he can smell anything but does it to play the part of the pack alpha.
I’m done playing.
This isn’t for me.
I want to go home.
“My Tatiana, Kiril, I’m over here with young Gleb,”
he calls over my head.
Gleb lunges for us, but Timor swings me to his other side.
Does Gleb just want to get his hands on me to keep me from leaving or something more sinister? What’s so bad about me meeting more of the gang? Do they know Gleb’s secrets? I must give him the benefit of the doubt since he’s never been mean or shown an evil aura…like his friend who disappeared under the Earth.
While I must be polite to our host, I’m glad I never met him face-to-face.
“Timor, Sir, have you seen Sveta?”
A male furry, a little larger than Gleb but not quite the size of Timor stops his reindeer a few feet in front of us.
He’s a darker grey with a young face and green aura.
Oooh, this furry is an envious upstart., but of whom? Does he want to snatch me, too? Does he want to be a leader instead of Timor? Does he want the home of the evil one?
Fascinating…it’s so hard not to care.
What’s also fascinating is how he rides a caribou like a horse, followed by a giant woman also riding a caribou.
Could she be one of the doctorates who hid them? I’ve never been so close to a reindeer.
My fingers itch to touch them.
Are their antlers as soft as they look? Will they bite me?
“Dad,”
the woman says as she dismounts the reindeer like she rides one every day.
Wow, she must be over six feet tall.
“I lost Sveta at the chase.
Nobody knows where she is.”
“I will not rest until I find her, but Tatiana insisted on informing you first,”
says the male as he dismounts.
“I mean, I agreed it was best to inform our leader, so he can form a search plan…which we will follow…”
There goes my witness protection hypothesis.
Tatiana isn’t a furry—or isn’t a furry at the moment.
I wasn’t supposed to be here—apparently—so she had no reason to hide.
It also rules out wearing suits for warmth because her cheeks are flushed, despite her thin animal leather jacket and pants. Come to think of it, she dresses like a First Nations woman. I wonder if she’s a local connection for them. If the doctorates smuggled them in…maybe she’s the liaison to the locals…but her name is Russian.
“I told you girls to stick together,”
Timor thunders.
He lets go of me to advance to Tatiana with his finger waving between them.
Her almond-shaped eyes widen and fill with tears.
“Your mother and I agreed not to pressure you into choosing a mate as long as you stayed together at the chase. Nobody in my clan wanders the forest alone! Especially you girls! What if she met with wolves, a bear, or worse?”
“It’s not my fault! We were together until the males started to run.
She must have doubled back.
I have no idea why she would head back to them when we had a hiding spot picked out,”
Tatiana wails.
She sobs behind her mittens.
Timor takes her into his arms and smooths the thick hair that flows down her back.
She comes up to Timor’s shoulder when she embraces him.
They’re taller than Gleb and the male who rode in with her. I’m the shortest of the bunch by at least a foot. If they won’t release me and I must run for it, I’ll have to find a hiding place until they tire. There’s no way I can outrun or fight any of them.
“Timor, Sir, who is that human—”
“Not now, Kiril.
I need a moment to think,”
Timor barks.
He holds the sobbing woman against his shoulder, glaring at everyone over the top of her head.
Kiril opens his hands and bows slightly in submission.
“If you need to take care of your family, I have this under control.
Hannah and I will join the next mating chase—”
“I said enough!”
Timor thunders loud enough to scare the birds from the surrounding trees.
The reindeer kick up their front legs and Kiril runs to subdue them.
Even I take an involuntary step backward…
Right into Gleb.
Okay, a big, furry body but somehow, I know it’s Gleb without looking.
If I were playing their furry larping game, I’d say I smelled him, but I’m just Hannah.
I’m a plain, ordinary girl who wants to return to her plain, ordinary apartment on her plain, ordinary street, where adventure is the farthest thing from her mind.
“Kiril, I trust you to take Tatiana safely to her mother.”
“Dad—”
“Don’t you dare argue with me! I can’t lose both of you.
You did the one thing your mother promised you wouldn’t.
Don’t make me regret not matching you years ago!”
Tatiana bursts into sobs again.
Geez, no wonder Gleb all but called them crybabies.
“It’s my honor to escort Tatiana home, but then can I help look for Sveta?”
“Don’t test me—”
“Oh no, I am at your service.
It’s just that I have an interest in Sveta.
I don’t wish to see her harmed in any way…”
Kiril looks to his feet and shuffles in the nervous way I’ve seen Gleb shuffle.
They must be related somehow, but not close since Gleb said he has no siblings—corrected by Timor.
Gleb has no living siblings.
Kiril and Timor continue to discuss something I can’t hear over Tatiana’s wails and bellows.
I freeze when Gleb’s arm comes into my vision.
He cups my elbow to wrap me in his embrace and love-starved me, lets him.
It’s casual…right? It doesn’t feel like the heavy arm of ownership if I lie to myself. It’s also a lie that I don’t enjoy the thrill of a male staking a claim when in a circle of other men. When was the last time Jack held me without asking for sex—even a platonic arm over my shoulder?
“We can slip away and head to Sergei’s or inside Serik’s.
I think we’re out of their sight line.”
“I don’t want to go into Serik’s home.
Please don’t ask me why.
I just don’t.
I wasn’t kidding when I said I wanted to go home.”
He jerks his arm away as if I’m on fire, but I grab his wrist.
I tuck myself into his embrace tighter than before.
Gleb is my best option.
These dynamics frighten me. At least with Gleb, I know where I stand and believe he will take me where I ask to go.
“You’re breaking my heart,”
he whispers so softly I doubt he realizes I can hear him.
“I promised I would take you south.
We are south in the boreal shield, but if you want to continue south, I’ll take you.”
“And you!”
Timor spins to face us with his eyes bulging with fury.
“You are hereby shunned!”
“Wait, Timor—”
Gleb’s protest rings with genuine fear, which raises the hairs on my arms in alarm.
“Shunned! Keep the girl.
Kill the girl.
If you think she’s your dushevnayasvyaz , take care of her.”
“But what about what I want? I want to go home!”
I wail as immaturely as Tatiana in hopes that I get the fatherly Timor and not this raging beast of a man.
“You lost the ability to go home when you laid eyes on us.
Gleb knows this.
Lay your hurt, blame, and tears at his feet.
He deserves it,”
he sneers.
I gasp at the callousness of his words.
Gleb’s arm tightens as if he’s a heartbeat from swinging me behind him.
“Shunned, Gleb,”
Timor announces as he mounts his reindeer.
Kiril and Tatiana mount theirs, the latter with a pitiful sniffle.
“I don’t want to see your face or hear of you lurking around the southern grounds.
The clan no longer knows you, and you don’t deserve to be known until you fix your dushevnayasvyaz .”
“Rude,”
I snark as they ride away.
My fists grind into my hips with anger.
How dare he order my execution like some medieval king? “Don’t deserve to be known until you shut up the little missus, huh? What a loser! There’s a big world out there that would call his declaration harassment.”
Gleb’s arm trembles.
He doesn’t answer me.
I look up to see the bottom of his chin.
He watches them leave in shaky silence. His breath quivers as if he’s holding back tears.
“Gleb? Gleb? He didn’t cut you off, you know.
He’s not the ruler of Canada and can’t tell you who can be your friend and who can’t.”
“Yes, he can,”
Gleb croaks.
“He’s the clan leader.
To the Chuchunya, his word is law.”
“What will you do?”
“First, I must take you south,”
he says, giving me a fake smile below his glassy eyes.
“Then I must figure out what supplies are easiest to procure this niibin , so I can gather enough to survive a zima season on my own.
I’ve never done that before.”