Forgiving My Chuchunya (Snuggling under Snowdrifts #5)

1

Gleb

No, no, no. With each stroke of my arms through the icy ocean, my brain yells no or not yet. I just found her. She doesn’t know my name, the sound of my voice, or how long I’ve waited to meet her. Numbness strikes my feet and threatens to slow my legs before I reach the ice sheet where my dushevnayasvyaz floats out to sea. I scan the black water for sharks, predatory whales, and aggressive seals, but it’s too dark. The fires raging on the coast aren’t bright enough to penetrate the murky water.

A few more meters and I will reach the four humans stranded on the chunk of ice. Why they went toward the water when their bus started to sink is beyond me. If your goal is not to fall into the frigid ocean, wouldn’t you back away from the cracking ice and move inland? The male leading them must have a head full of reindeer dung. My beautiful mate clings to him with a kit in her arms while an older female cowers behind them.

How are they related? Does the kit belong to her ?

“Thank goodness the swimming Mounties are here,” remarks the male when I reach the ice. Spray weighs down his black hair, so it flows down his face like oil. “Pretty badass to swim out here without life preservers. Do I grab onto you, or will you spot me as we swim back?”

“The kit goes to safety first,” I bark. The svoloch sits on the ice and dangles his legs off the side, jostling the females.

My growl rings over the group, freezing the male where he sits.

“The kit won’t make the cold swim. She’s a goner. Whoever holds her will drown too. Take me first. I’m strong and healthy.”

“Please,” my mate whispers. Bright red hair, the color of a campfire, clings to her pink face and cascades over her arms. Against the black water and stark white iceberg, she brightens the darkness. She presses the kit to her slender frame as if she has the bulk to keep the little one warm. Her tiny, square teeth chatter with cold. They won’t last long without fur suits. “Help us.”

Her dark eyes flash golden flecks when she moves, but her pupils are too big. Bat eyes are a sign of stress-related madness. I can’t count the number of Chuchunya males I’ve seen with bat eyes when they emerge from underground at the end of a zima season. The darkness, cold, and loneliness bite their minds until little is left. When my mate is tucked away safely, she will crash and, hopefully, sleep this madness away.

“I swear on my soul, svet kamina , you will make it to land alive—”

“After I go first,” the male interrupts. He pushes my mate’s legs to keep her from the edge. I see red when she stumbles and the ice sheet rocks. The older female clings to her and I fear the trio will fall head over foot into the water. “Come on, fur man, tug me to shore. Then you can come back for the slower swimmers.”

“Jack! We don’t often see eye to eye, but we should agree that he carries Baby Madison to shore first. She has the most life to live!” Shouts the older woman.

“Not if she freezes solid!” His crass outburst steals a gasp from my mate. “There’s no way I will spend an extra second in the water because you can’t keep up. By your logic, you should be rescued last. Maybe you should save us the trouble and—”

“Enough Jack!” My mate’s shouts frighten Madison, who wails in discontent. “We all go, or nobody goes. Right?”

She could ask me for the world, and I would break my back trying to deliver it to her feet. If it were up to me, I’d steal her away and—to hell with the other adults. Until I know their relationship, I can’t risk her losing a brother or mother because of my eagerness to bring her to my furs.

“I’ve had enough. You’re here to rescue us, so start rescuing,” he orders as he slides into the water. The temptation to use my legs to hold him under is too great. Instead, I steady myself as he climbs up the back of my body. There’s not an inch to my backside the male hasn’t touched. “Alright, let’s swim.”

“How am I supposed to swim when you pin my arms to my sides? Must you hang off my shoulders like a cape?”

“You won’t leave us,” my mate half pleas, half asks.

I fight the male’s hold to lift my arms. He’s too weak to pin me—even as I tread water and hold us afloat. The little grin my mate wears as I offer my hand is one that I will treasure. I bob in choppy seas with who-knows-what lurking beneath me, slowly freezing to my death, but I’d endure it for eternity if she smiled at me as I suffered. She links arms with the matronly woman, shifts the crying kit in her grasp, and takes my hand.

She shouldn’t be this cold. Humans don’t have fur to insulate them, but her fingers are ice. Her pupils are twice the size of the brown rings around them.

“Tell me what to do,” she says, sitting where the stupid male sat. The older woman struggles to a seated position beside her. The idiot on my back kicks me with each toss of the waves, and it takes all my focus not to kick him back.

“Hang onto me,” I reply, as if I would ever let her go. My belly coils tightly as she slides into the water, clumsily due to the woman hanging on her like a branch bent with hazelnuts. Her legs are thinner than a newborn reindeer, but they wrap around my waist without hesitation. I hold her elbows with the kit wedged between us. Tiny purple fists wave from the bundle of blankets. The kit’s hairless face is red with rage but tinted blue on the edges of her lips and the tip of her nose.

Worry for the kit’s survival moves my arms and feet against the tide and my heavy load. I’m not a meter from their abandoned ice sheet when the male complains. I’m too slow. The water’s too cold .

“Yeah, just swim,” Jack yells in my ear. “You can’t feel up my girl just because you’re military or whatever. Jesus, Hannah, are those your feet? Have you mounted him like a bitch in heat? What the hell is going on?”

“Can w-we g-get to sh-shore without arguing, Jack? Just let him tow us,” the older woman stammers as her teeth rattle around in her head. My eyes bug out. Can humans detach their teeth at will, or is this a power they acquire with age?

“Seriously, Hannah, let him go! I won’t be disrespected like this!” He kicks her until her legs loosen.

“We must stay together—” Waves smacking the older woman’s face silence her temporarily.

Why couldn’t that wave wipe this slimy male from my back? I’d swim faster than ever before to leave him behind.

“Fine,” he gripes instead of kicking, paddling, or doing anything to help me drag the females to safety. “Get off on each other while you can. Hannah, when we’re on land you will hear about this. This conversation isn’t over!”

By the time we reach the shore, I’m exhausted. The kit is curiously quiet, and I fear the worst. I check over my shoulder to verify the older woman is still with us. Her vacant stare chills my bones—more so than the breeze freezing salt water to the top of my head. Luckily, Serik and his new mate, Kaitlyn await us at the shore. Kaitlyn’s not known for her kindness, but she reaches for the kit like a mother.

“I’m taking the baby inside the bus,” she says as she inspects Madison for injuries.

“Grab the woman,” Sergei yells as he lifts himself from the water. He drags a corpse onto the rocky shore. Always the perfect leader, he’s managing the chaos on the beach while retrieving human remains from the deep. Someone must have driven their other bus inland because humans gather around it. Vera scurries about with steaming mugs to give them comfort.

Serik helps Kaitlyn to her feet before hauling the older woman from the water. She gasps at the gruff handling he gives her, but I’m thankful he stepped up to help. Serik is a shady Chuchunya who proved himself untrustworthy in every way. When Sergei approaches our group, Serik throws the woman at him. Quick on his feet, Sergei catches the woman and heads toward the bus. I breathe a sigh of relief to have some of the weight off my aching limbs.

Until Serik puts his filthy claws on my dushevnayasvyaz and tugs her from my grasp.

I give him my fiercest growl. So, help me, I’ll shake off this human male, leap from the ocean, and rip Serik’s eyes out before he—

“Gleb, I swear on my dushevnayasvyaz I only want to bring her to safety,” Serik says. He wears an expression of sincerity I’ve never seen on him. More fool me, but I want to believe him. My energy drains from my body by the second and I fear for my mate’s safety. “Rescue the male while we take her to a warm place.”

It takes every ounce of control that Sergei hammered into my head during my upbringing, to allow Serik to take my svet kamina away. He’s anxious to catch up with his mate, so he walks too quickly for my mate’s tiny legs. She stumbles and struggles against his hold.

“What’s wrong with them? I’m still here and nobody reaches for me! I could drown and they scamper to the party bus—all because the brat quit crying. Serves her mother right for carting her baby to the Arctic for some photos. That’s what AI is for! Tons of stock photos online. Splice, snip, and voila! Now I’m going to die hanging onto some dude in a fur suit because Hannah chose to work—”

“Shut up! Shut up! Shut your face before I smash it in!”

“You can’t talk to me that way,” he blusters, still clinging to my shoulders like a kit. “First you grope my woman—”

“Your what?”

“Yeah, the dumb redhead you had your paws all over is my future wife—”

“Dumb?”

“Especially for letting an animal like you touch her—”

I twist. My arms and legs coil around my body, so I sink like a stone. The human fights to return to the surface, but he’s no match for my strength when I wrap my arms around his ankles. My feet bounce off the rocky bottom. We’re surrounded by a swarm of bubbles as the male thrashes and struggles. I dig my claws into his clothes and wish it was his thin, tender skin. My foot plants into his belly and stomps into his fleshy middle. The momentum carries him downward as it thrusts me to the surface.

His ghostly white face and outstretched hands will haunt my nightmares for years. However, I can’t bring myself to retrieve him. Let the sharks nibble on his flesh. He would have allowed my dushevnayasvyaz and the kit she held to freeze to death to save his sorry ass. I’ll help my svet kamina mourn the death of her pleasure mate. She will want nothing at my side because I will provide everything before she asks. I don’t care if the kit is hers with him. The little one will know the love of two parents—now that I’m in the picture.

My sweet svet kamina doesn’t know my name or scent, but the way she reached for me—not for the human who was ready to sacrifice her—tells me she knows we’re fated mates on some level. Our lives will begin when she recovers from this accident. I lift myself from the ocean and shake off the excess salt water.

Sergei assembled all the Chuchunya in the shadows behind the humans’ remaining bus. I’ll retrieve my mate and be on my way. Huh, I’m no longer cold. The promise of true love warms me from within. Vera has taken the older woman and the kit inside the machine for warmth, so my mate doesn’t have to care for them anymore. We will live happily ever after…eventually.

All happiness drains from my body when I see my svet kamina faint in Serik’s arms.