Chapter 9 Drenched #2
Felix bent down and examined the fallen tree, then ran a hand through his hair in obvious frustration. WIth a muffled curse, he returned and joined me in the truck once more.
“Damn lucky,” he said as he wiped the rain from his forehead. “If the lightning had hit that tree just a few seconds later, the tree might have fallen on us. And if the lightning had been any closer, it could have hit us.”
“Oh,” I whispered, still reeling from the chaos of what had just happened.
Felix gave me another sharp look. If I weren’t so drained and overwhelmed, then I might have shuddered beneath his intense gaze, but I just looked back and waited for him to take command like he always did.
“The road back to the pack house is blocked,” he said eventually, still staring at me intently.
“Oh. I see,” I said with a vague nod. “So we have to take another route?”
Felix pinched the bridge of his nose and shut his eyes, the picture of vexed exhaustion. “No, there isn’t another route directly back. We would have to go a long way around.”
I looked out the window, waiting for his words to slowly sink in. My mind was moving sluggishly. Between the headache and the fever crawling under my skin I was still struggling to recover from the shock of the near miss, but even so, I could understand some of what he was saying.
“Do we have to go back on foot then?” I asked, eyeing the rain doubtfully. It looked downright dangerous. How could we know there wouldn’t be another lightning strike?
Felix was silent for a while. I sensed that he too was staring out the window, but while I was wallowing in hopelessness, he was probably trying to force the rain to stop through sheer willpower. What a stubborn husband I had. At least I was beginning to find it endearing.
Finally, he sighed.
“No. We will have to take shelter for a few hours and wait for the storm to clear up. We need to get somewhere that will be safe from mudslides and any more falling trees.”
Nothing was visible in any direction but trees, rain, and darkness. I hadn’t spent all that much time out on these roads, but I was becoming a little familiar with them, and was quite sure I hadn’t seen any buildings in this particular part of the territory.
“I didn’t know anyone lived out this way,” I ventured cautiously. “I thought there wasn’t much of anything between the pack house and the nursery.”
“There isn’t,” Felix growled.
I waited in vain for him to elaborate. Without saying anything further, Felix put the truck in reverse and executed a deft turn on the cramped forest road, then took us back the way we came.
We didn’t go far before he was turning us onto a rough trail, so rough that it barely qualified as one.
If I were driving, we would have crept along at a snail’s pace, but Felix had us rolling along at a brisk clip.
It was probably barely faster than a jog, but under the circumstances, it felt like we might suddenly hit a ditch or slide down a sudden drop at any moment.
I gripped the armrest with white knuckles.
If Felix noticed, he gave no sign of it.
After what felt like an eternity, we rounded a copse of particularly dense trees and found ourselves dipping down into a small valley.
As we left the cover of the forest, our headlights illuminated a secluded little cottage surrounded on all sides by neatly trimmed grass.
Ordinarily, I would have been enchanted by the quaintness of it all, but at the moment, I was just relieved that there weren’t any trees near enough to crush it in the case of another lightning strike.
“It’s lovely,” I said. “Does no one live here?”
“No,” Felix said as he parked the truck as close to the front door as was possible. Judging by how hard the rain was gushing down, he made the right call.
The moment we stopped, Felix stepped out and ran to open the front door.
I wasn’t too eager to get out of the truck, but as soon as the first raindrop hit me, my lethargy vanished in an instant.
All that mattered now was getting inside, where it might not be warm, but it couldn’t be colder or more miserable than this.
“Goddess, I hope we can make a fire,” I forced through chattering teeth as I followed after Felix.
After a few moments of cursing and fumbling, he finally managed to open the cottage door. Felix slipped inside, and I followed, water dripping into puddles from our hair and clothes.
Wrapping my arms around myself for what little warmth they offered, I peered into the gloom while Felix felt his way through the dark.
The interior was still nearly pitch black, but I could vaguely make out the dimensions.
It was smaller than I expected, and much more cramped.
I couldn’t tell if there was furniture scattered about, so I didn’t move until Felix found some sort of light.
“Son of a—” Felix snarled.
A few scrapes and clicks later, he managed to ignite a small lantern, and quite suddenly, the entire room was cast into a contrast of warm light and dancing shadows.
Oh, it was much cozier than I was expecting. There was barely enough space for the two of us in what must be some sort of living room. There was nothing here but a fireplace, some rugs, and a rocking chair.
Felix knelt down beside the fireplace, muttering under his breath as he checked to see if there was enough dry firewood stockpiled.
I didn’t mean to watch him so intently, but I found my gaze drawn to the broad slope of his shoulders and the way his wet clothes clung to his form.
Far from the smell of wet wolf I expected, it was like the very essence of the forest after a storm was wafting off of him.
My mind was instantly pulled back to the Night of the Bloody Moon, and I realized that I hadn’t smelled the Alpha this intensely since then.
Shaking my head to banish the thoughts, I only realized after the fact that I was flinging rain droplets all over him. Fortunately, Felix didn’t seem to be bothered. Trying to make up for yet another of my naive mistakes, I crouched down and looked for a way to help him start the fire.
Our shoulders pressed together, and Felix went stone-still. He didn’t turn to look at me, he only kept crouching and breathing heavily, his nostrils flaring with every deep inhale.
The chill down my spine tangled with the heat in my skin as I waited for one of his sharp retorts… or something.
But he didn’t say a word.
He went back to working the fire, but my eyes never left him.
They traced down his body, taking in how every muscle shifted and flexed.
My gaze rolled up to his face, watching the water drip steadily from his soaked hair, sliding down his cheekbones, catching on the edge of his jaw, hanging from the corner of his mouth.
My tongue swept over my lips. The feverish blood coursing through me rushed to my cock so fast I had to race to catch my breath. In the moment, I wasn’t sure what possessed me, but I watched my hand lift of its own accord and brush away a trail of water from his brow.
Felix growled and caught my hand. His grip was firm but not punishing. For a breath, he held me there, his silver eyes locking onto mine. Shivers skittered across my skin as he gently moved my hand aside.
“Sit,” he ordered, his tone carrying less menace than I expected. “I’ll handle the fire. Just sit there… and keep those hands to yourself.”
A nervous laugh slipped from my throat. “Oh, I—I… sorry.”
His expression softened, almost imperceptibly, before he turned back to the fire.
Thus chastened, I did as he asked and went to sit in the rocking chair, though I regretted it immediately. Without anything to do, the dampness was all-consuming. My teeth began to chatter again, and huddling into myself didn’t help much.
There, deep in a physical misery I’d scarcely imagined before, my thoughts drifted to places I had never dared to let them go. As I watched the Alpha stalk over to a small storeroom in search of logs, I wondered what it might be like to be truly married to him.
If he had been my betrothed, he would have shown me this little cottage long before today, maybe even brought me here for a private getaway.
I would have been the one to earn his smiles and feel the warmth of his affections, instead of bearing the weight of his scowl and grunts.
I would’ve known what it was like to stand at his side without fear, to reach for him and not be pushed away.
But I wasn’t his mate. We may be married by law, but I would never bear his mark. I was just a placeholder, meant to be cast aside the moment Hunter returned.
I didn’t want that. I didn’t want to be Hunter’s. Hell, I couldn’t care less if he never showed his slimy face here again.
Who I really wanted…
What I truly craved…
Was Felix.
As if summoned by my thoughts, he returned with an armful of logs and deposited them in the fireplace.
That scent wafted from his direction again, pine and rain-soaked earth, and something innately primal and wild flooded my nostrils.
I drew in a deep breath and my wolf drank greedily with me, a dizzy wave flooding me from the inside out.
Conscious thought slipped further and further away as the flames flaring beneath my skin were fanned higher with every breath, until my whole body was on fire.
My soaked clothes chafed against me, and despite the chill in the air, I wanted them off this instant. I clawed at the shirt plastered to my chest, yanking it over my head. It was a sweet relief when the air hit my bare skin, but it wasn’t enough.
When Felix turned to me, a triumphant grin on his face and a blazing fire before us, I didn’t say anything at all. I had no sound justification, or a perfectly logical explanation as to why I’d just removed my pants.
I simply looked my Alpha in the eye as I pulled my wet boxers down and stepped forward.
Naked as the day I was born.