27
Hannah
Three weeks later
When the helicopter legs hit the beach, I unbuckle my seatbelt and launch from the seat.
The pilot’s scolding falls on closed ears as I anticipate my reunion with Gleb.
I’m disappointed Gleb isn’t waiting for me, but he could be hiding in the surrounding trees or huddled by the door of his home underground.
We can’t risk Grant, the pilot, catching a glimpse of a Chuchunya. The fantasy of the clan greeting me isn’t practical. Kaitlyn’s vehicle at the tree line is all I need to know I’m welcome.
I explode out of the Agusta A09E chopper.
It was easier to listen to Grant brag about his bird than to chat about my future plans.
I paid him under the table to leave me on the beach—not allowing him to unload the back or escort me anywhere.
If Kaitlyn didn’t park on the beach, I’d be toast. Grant was skeptical until I showed him her text message. Dropping a woman on a secluded beach in the Arctic Circle sounds like the beginning of a horror movie, but it’s my story. I can’t wait to begin the rest of my life. I happily sprint across the beach and fling myself onto Kaitlyn’s frame.
“Let’s get rid of the pilot first,”
she whispers in my ears.
“Do you have a wagon or dolly to cart your shit, or can I pull up to it without chopping off his rotors?”
“Pair of wagons,”
I reply with a smirk.
She’s not as gushy and affectionate as I would like, but I suspect that’s just Kaitlyn.
I ignore her sour mood and lead her to the hatch door.
Twin towers of boxes flank the two collapsible wagons. I followed Kaitlyn’s four-page instructions to the letter when I was away. She specified the wagon model and provided links to what works best on all terrains. Despite her grouchy attitude, I’m lucky to have someone detail-oriented in my circle. “I set up the remote post office box in Yellowknife with a virtual return address, forwarded my mail, and broke my apartment lease too.”
“What about your job? You left your resignation.
You didn’t disappear on them, did you? ”
“Well, I—”
“Figures,”
she snaps as she pulls a wagon from the helicopter and snaps it open.
“Disappearing from their jobs seems like a mate thing.
So rude—”
“I run my own business,”
I snipe back as I snap open my wagon.
“I plan to continue from the Arctic.”
“Wait until Timor hears about that,”
she says with a laugh.
“He’ll shut you down faster than a cockroach in a restaurant.
What the hell did you pack in these? I didn’t expect your clothes to weigh a ton.”
“That’s paint,”
I reply with a beaming smile.
“I want to fill Gleb’s home with constellations—you don’t have to laugh at me.
I know astrology isn’t for everyone.”
The more she holds her belly to laugh at me, the lower I feel.
Why can’t I find acceptance for my chosen occupation?
“It’s not the stars in the sky but the stars you have in place of brains,”
she says when she calms enough to speak.
“You plan to paint a poorly ventilated space a few miles underground.
How long will it take for the fumes to dissipate? Don’t you think you will suffocate?”
“Gleb never objected!”
I drop my box of cooking utensils—everything Kaitlyn recommended—to slam my fists against my hips.
Kaitlyn drops her box into her wagon to twist her back to the helicopter.
“Gleb doesn’t know what paint is,”
she whispers through clenched teeth.
She slides the next box off the tower, jerking backward when it’s not as heavy as she expected.
“I thought dushevnayasvyaz paired couples would complement one another.”
“Look,”
I say dropping my box into my wagon with a crash.
“What’s your problem? If you thought Gleb and I weren’t meant to be, why are you helping me?”
“Number one,”
she snaps, turning to me to count on her fingers in my face.
“I never said you weren’t Gleb’s match.
He’s crazy about you.
Number two, one of you needs two brain cells to rub together to survive. Serik is unhinged, but I ground him. He’s rugged and feral, but I’m organized and domestic. You two are Tweedle dumb and Tweedle dumber. Number three, I’m helping you because I was you. I’m not a survival chick who hunts down wild game, skins it with her bare hands, and eats animals raw. I see a woman leaping into a world she doesn’t understand for the male she loves—I see me.”
“Thank you,”
I whisper, setting the next box in my wagon.
The anger drains from my bones.
I’m sensitive because the clan’s acceptance of our coupling hangs in the balance.
Without a chase and a show of support from other couples, we could be rejected. I need Kaitlyn’s support as well as her help—not just because I don’t have a vehicle to collect the future supplies in my postage box. “Did you call us dumb?”
“At least you wore sensible running shoes, but yes.
Dumber than a box of paint cans,”
she says with a chuckle that doesn’t infuriate me.
The paint is a blunder.
I can’t even dispose of the paint to use the containers.
It will pollute the water and leave evidence of us. They’re as useful as rocks when I had to leave many personal items behind.
“I have a few pairs of boots.
I was going to change in the car—”
“No need,”
Kaitlyn says, slamming the hatch shut on the helicopter.
She cocks her neck to indicate we should move to her cat, so the chopper can take off.
“Gleb’s waiting in his home? I didn’t want to ask and get my hopes dashed—”
“He’s at an undisclosed location,”
Kaitlyn says, opening the trunk of her cat.
“Delivering you to the mating chase is how I get back into Sergei’s good graces—not that Serik and I ever were.
Helping you grab your shit put us in hot water with the blowhard.
This rights the wrong according to him and gets us into the fold.”
“I’m sorry I caused you trouble.
I was stuck.
If I didn’t leave with you, Timor would never let me go.
When I did leave, it was sudden and hurt Gleb. I know it. However, with the secret migration, I had to go right then. I was trapped.”
“Being kept out of the secret migration hurt more than Sergei’s slap on the wrist.
Truth be told, I don’t know if I would be here if you didn’t disappear.
Do you know how frightening it is to be left out of the clan’s future when you’re in the Arctic? It would destroy Serik to be shut out completely.”
“Timor shunned us, remember?”
“Then, do me a favor,”
she says, slamming the trunk shut on my belongings.
“Make an effort at the mating chase.
It’s primal, it’s exhausting, but it’s what Gleb needs to find his place.
Serik and I will support you. I think Artyom and Vera will too, but with Sydney suspicious of you, you are in for an uphill battle to impress Sergei.”
“Got it,”
I reply as she slides into the car.
I was nervous before.
Now, I’m scared shitless.
I thought I’d spend the day decorating a nursery in a cavern—maybe catch some fish to roast for dinner and star-gazing with my lover.
Nope, the Arctic isn’t the setting for a rom-com or happily ever after, is it? There’s always surviving the elements looming in the background. Between Kaitlyn’s snippy comments, I learned Timor’s favor and Sergei’s favor are different but necessary to stay within the clan’s safety. The good news is all I have to do is run and allow Gleb to catch me. I can do that .
I’ve waited months to be in his embrace…running away from him will be the hard part.
Gleb
I can’t take my eyes off her.
She’s cut her hair, so it swings under her chin as she giggles at something Kaitlyn says.
Our eyes meet and my fur stands on end as if I’ve been struck by lightning.
Sergei’s directives hold me within the pit of males when every fiber in my body screams for me to grab her and haul her into my lair. How she nibbles her nails reminds me of those little, blunt teeth sinking into my shoulder. Her attempts to be fierce in bed against a Chuchunya set me ablaze with need.
“Hey, Sergei, when was Gleb born? Like what time of year?”
She asks to test our compatibility.
I burn to throw her to the ground and show her just how compatible we are—star’s consent or not!
“Gleb didn’t tell you? Well, he was too young to remember,”
Sergei answers with a laugh.
He doesn’t approach her and casts a smile my way.
He knows I’m a hair’s width away from losing control.
“Gleb’s birth was on the central grounds. His parents packed to migrate north in a sleigh. His father took his brother to collect reindeer to pull it and she gave birth while they were gone. They came home to a squealing newborn.”
“So, late fall, probably November,”
Vera translates into the human calendar.
“Gleb is a Scorpio,”
Hannah answers, jumping up and down while clapping her hands.
I don’t know what a Scorpio is or means, but if my being one makes her that happy, I want a double helping.
She beams my way with so much love in her eyes.
Her flush body, thickened by the beginnings of pregnancy, bounces enticingly.
My cock threatens to extrude through my lap’s fur. If this weren’t our first chase, I’d stroke it for her.
“Calm down,”
Artyom whispers.
“You’ve kicked me twice now.
She stinks of you despite being away.
Your kit rests in her belly. She can’t get more pregnant.”
“I haven’t touched my mate in two lunar cycles,”
I growl in response.
“She’s a few meters away and I still can’t touch her.”
“Touch her now and you break the chase rules.
You will piss off Sergei, who will assign her to someone else’s dyla weturanya , creating the longest zima season for yourself.
Waiting until the chase starts proves your loyalty to clan law and your desire to create your family within our group.
Don’t prove Sergei wrong when he stood for you and said you could resist her in the name of our laws,”
Artyom reminds me for the hundredth time.
“Or you could betray the smug svoloch who holds his newborn daughter in his arms,”
Serik adds with a snicker.
“He’ll forgive you again.”
“Shut your glotat , Serik,”
Artyom scolds.
“He can’t risk shunning when his child’s birth comes—”
“It will be the end of niibin —his stores will be fat.
What does he have to worry about?”
“If you think taking care of your female is just keeping your pantry full, you are blessed Kaitlyn’s body isn’t carrying a kit.
A female’s body is mystical—”
Artyom’s lecture is ended by Serik’s fist.
The males wrestle within the pit, causing Adam and I to retreat to the edges.
Thank goodness this isn’t the whole clan, or the younger ones would pile onto the mele.
“Oh, for the Fates!”
Sergei bellows.
“Couldn’t you keep it together for a few minutes? You’re worse than kits! Three, two, one, females—go! Save yourself from these idiots!”
“Serik, stop it! He’s not worth it! He goaded you on purpose!”
Kaitlyn shouts as she’s tugged into the birch trees by Hannah.
My love blows me a kiss and disappears in the stand of trees, making my belly do a little flip.
“Watch what you say, Sergei,”
Patricika yells.
“We may just pair up with ourselves and leave all these puny males to fend for themselves.”
“Oh, this puny male will make you scream his name as he seeds your womb—again!”
Patricika’s mate, Adam, yells back.
Her deep laughter follows the females into the birch trees.
Vera’s last to leave with a worried expression for Artyom, who still dodges Serik’s punches.
“If I didn’t have a fragile newborn in my arms and a sleeping mate in my dyla weturanya , I’d jump in that circle and beat the two of you senseless.
Stop it!”
Sergei’s roar freezes Serik and Artyom mid-punch.
They scramble to their knees.
“Stay where you are!”
“Gleb, Adam,”
Sergei yells, “go!”
He doesn’t have to tell me twice.
I sprint from the snow-cleared pit, leaving Adam in my wake.
Birch trees snap as I plow through them.
Sergei yells for Artyom and Serik to go, but their grumbling is too soft for me to hear. All my senses focus on the scent of my mate. She’s straight ahead and alone.
Sergei
I never thought I would be pleased again to stand on the sidelines of a mating chase.
After all the years of hiding at the starting line to save Sveta, Tatiana, Manya, and Patricka the chore of fighting me off, I never thought I would stay behind because my mate recovered from a rough night caring for our kit.
Even as little Jane snuggles in my embrace and pulls my fur as she sucks her thumb in her sleep, I can’t believe my little family is real.
I’m a father.
My fierce little Jane screams all night with what Sydney calls cholic .
It scared me to death until Sydney explained cholic is a common human ailment that will pass.
The only place the newborn will sleep is in my arms, which suits her mother fine as she gets to rest.
I may never sleep again. My body sways in gentle motions I know Jane loves…or maybe I’m just dead on my feet and in danger of tipping over.
After the chase, I hope there’s a feast for Gleb and Hannah…because I haven’t the energy to hunt for my family.
I’ve been a father less than a lunar cycle and I feel the drain on my spirit.
The stress of worrying about their welfare and the need to provide for events I barely understand ages me, but not worse than the haggard figure riding over the ridge from the south.
It’s time to face Timor for my betrayal.
“Thank you for waiting until I started the chase,”
I call as Timor slows his reindeer and dismounts.
“Young Gleb’s like a son to me.
His mate has returned, carrying his kit.
I’d like to see them settled in for the zima season before the first snow.”
“Nothing is settled until I say it’s settled, Sergei.
Have you forgotten who you are and what clan you belong to?”
Timor’s shouts tumble from his lips so fast I can barely understand him.
He lumbers over the muddy, sticky ground, dragging his reindeer in a jagged path.
Puffs of his exhale hang before his nose as he hobbles the two meters between us.
I never realized how much smaller he is than me.
It was decades ago that I grew physically taller than him—and everyone else—but his presence made him so much larger.
I was still a juvenile when I became the biggest and strongest, but not when I became the fiercest.
That didn’t happen until I met my mate, and she believed in me. Towering over the feeble Chuchunya with my daughter pressed to my chest, the dread of this meeting that has plagued me for weeks melts off my heart like snowflakes.
“I am Sergei, mate to Sydney, father to Jane, brother and son to nobody.”
“Father?”
Timor whispers as I lean over to show Jane to him.
She whimpers in her sleep, so I quickly stand tall before she wakes with another screaming fit.
“Her cholic makes lying horizontally unbearable.
One of us must hold her or tie her to our chests at all times.
It will be easier when she can hold her head up for longer periods, but for now—”
“Savor this time.
For now, savor this,”
Timor says with glassy eyes.
He looks over his shoulder to verify the rest of the Chuchunya are lost in the birch trees or running the Tundra somewhere.
“In light of these events, I come to you not as clan leader to male, but as father to father.”
His request and his humble posture knock my emotions off balance.
This is the indestructible Timor.
When all the adults died in the cave-in, he became the father to every kit in the clan.
He fed, housed, and taught all of us. As we came of age, he set up our homes and taught us to fend for ourselves. By mating Polina—a human from a First Nations village—he showed us the way. Our clan grows with healthy hybrid kits because of the example he set.
“To be considered on the same level as you is an honor I don’t—”
“I didn’t say that.
Let’s not go that far.
What you did in leading your friends in an early migration was against clan law.
By all rights, your family should be shunned. Not only did you jeopardize the hazelnut harvest—”
“We harvested them on the central grounds as scheduled.
It was roasting and grinding them into paste that took place in our northern homes.
We have more harvest to share this zima than ever before…and it’s already transported.
We aren’t behind in our preparations. We’re ahead.”
“Having enough food doesn’t make it right,”
Timor thunders.
“Food is one part of survival.
You have no idea.
I’ve run this clan alone for decades. Every single one of you walks this Earth because of my decisions, my teaching, and my leadership.”
“Nobody questions all you’ve done for us—”
I bounce Jane in hopes that she stays asleep during our argument.
Last thing I need is for her to add to the yelling.
“Then why won’t you help me in return?”
The tears in his voice slice into my heart.
“You hold your daughter in your arms, but mine is too old for me to pick up and protect.
She grew into mating age a few sun cycles ago but hasn’t asked for independence.
Not once.
My heart broke for my girls—not finding dushevnayasvyaz in any of you. I’d hoped I could hand them from my care to yours. With Tatiana finding her chosen mate in Makwa, she will move from our clan to Polina’s former village. I fear Sveta didn’t take the news well…”
“You think she ran to the humans?”
I half ask, half summarize.
“Kaitlyn inquired when she dropped off Gleb’s blasted mate in the big human settlement.
Sveta isn’t as human-looking as her sister and would have caused a panic.
Kaitlyn would have heard about a Chuchunya discovery.”
“Do you think Tatiana hides her in Polina’s tribe?”
“The tribe is partially Polina’s blood relatives,”
Timor says with a shrug.
“My mate trusts they would pull her aside and tell her.
I must believe in my mate….”
“But your little girl is out there.”
I finish his sentence as Timor’s misery lands on me like an avalanche.
What would I do if Jane were lost? How would I cope with Sydney’s misery? Already my females bonded tighter than a cluster of snowberries.
After years of enjoying them together, how could Sydney handle being apart—especially not knowing if Jane was okay?
“You put your family’s needs first,”
Timor says when I can’t form words to apologize.
“If I had the luxury of wearing the title clansmen instead of leader, I would make the same decision.
However, you tried to wear both hats with one head.
Leading Artyom and Vera—our two most knowledgeable trackers—north for your child’s birth took away my biggest hope for finding Sveta. How could you?”
“I didn’t think of it like—”
“Exactly, you didn’t think about everyone like a leader does.
You thought of your family’s welfare like a worthy male, a worthy father, but not a leader worth following.”
“What would you have me do? How can I fix this?”
My brain whirls with his accusations.
I’m not trying to lead the clan…am I? The others follow my leadership because I have the most skills and knowledge, due to my time alone.
I must admit, I liked leading the caravan with Sydney, Gleb, Artyom, Adam, Patricika, and Vera.
The migration was easy because we’re all friends.
They fell in line behind me—well, except Artyom and Vera,who ran ahead as they scouted the route at my request.
We agreed on the safest, yet fastest route with the fewest rest stops for the welfare of Gustav and unborn Jane. The journey was pleasant without Timor’s orders, his daughters’ whining, or the rest of the young males jockeying for his favor. However, none of those things were due to my leadership, right?
“Come back with me to the central grounds to find Sveta.
Leave the humans behind—Patricika too, if you must—but bring Artyom, Serik, and Gleb to the clan.”
“What about Gustav, Jane, and Gleb’s unborn kit? We can’t leave them here without hunters or defense?”
“You don’t want to leave your daughter in her zima home with her mother and friends, and I don’t want to leave my daughter completely alone in the woods.
We are not the same.”
“No, you’re not,”
my mate’s terse whisper might as well be the roar of a mountain lioness.
Jane stirs in my embrace.
“Because you’re a bully.
This is the last time you make Sergei feel small. He did what was right, so his clansmen followed him. Had more clansmen known about our migration, you would have been deserted. It’s only because of his compassion for you that we left with so few members as we did…and now you want more?”
“I waited to confront you until after I knew your daughter was born!”
“Or did you fume on the southern grounds until you wrote your speech to ensure his compliance?”
Sydney counters.
“ Zvezuittuq , please take Jane inside.
She’s not content in the middle of this,”
I say to my mate.
Luckily, she nods and takes a fuzzy Jane from my arms and heads inside without complaint.
I’m sure I will get an earful later, but the purple tint to Timor’s ears tells me he’s finished listening and is about to explode with anger.
We’re quiet until the females climb into my sleigh and disappear over the dune.
“I’ll return to the central grounds with you until Sveta is found.
If you want more help, you must ask them yourself.
If I’m not a leader, then you shouldn’t need me to convince them.”
Sydney’s words about how Timor practiced until he knew how to make me feel small rattle around in my head.
Has he controlled me my whole life? Did he wait to confront me until after Jane was born because he knew I’d be vulnerable as a new father?
Something’s not right.
Before I leave, I must learn my mate’s theory.
That way I can test it on the central grounds.
Next niibin …we may have a new leader…