7
Gleb
Does my mate sleep too much or has the endless sunshine fooled my mind into thinking this is one long day? Am I the one whose body is lying to them as I power through exhaustion? Surely, my mate won’t mind if I rest.
I found Kaitlyn’s vehicle tracks long ago.
They switched to sleigh lines with reindeer hoofprints when we entered the safer central grounds.
While wolves still creep in the shadows, the polar bears are kilometers north, enjoying the thinner ice over a feast of spawning fish.
Nestling against a grassy knoll, coated with a thin layer of frost, I can blend in with the surroundings.
If Kaitlyn can drive her vehicle through here, so can any human.
Hopefully, the tree branch hanging low with heavy, melting snow will further hide my resting place.
I can let my guard down and admire the gift in my arms instead of scouting for dangers.
My mate’s eyebrows and eyelashes are gold against her cheeks instead of the severe brown or black of other humans.
It’s like her beloved stars kissed her brow before sending her to me.
She has the little brown stars on her cheeks like Sydney, but faint.
Everything about Hannah is lighter, brighter, and more ethereal than the other humans. My eyes drift closed as I savor the beauty of my mate, her weight in my lap, and the tiny noises she makes as she sleeps.
Hannah
I should be sore and stiff from sleeping in Gleb’s arms, but I’m stretched out on a bed of soft pine.
My head rests on our furry bags of supplies.
Over me is a heavy pine branch, blocking the sun with its bounty of slush.
It drips over the end of the apex needles, less than a foot from my boots. At my back is a hill of mud, so nobody could sneak up on me without spraying me with water.
But why am I sleeping out in the open and alone? Where’s Gleb?
I flatten myself on the ground to peer beneath the slushy branch.
The world looks grey… We must have traveled far enough south to gain a few hours of darkness, which I slept through.
No wonder my body is refreshed and rested.
Why didn’t Gleb take advantage of the sliver of night? Do I dare crawl out of my hidey hole to gaze at the stars? Stargazing without light pollution was what I looked forward to most when I applied for this adventure—without researching the daylight patterns of the Arctic. Sounds stupid in hindsight, but how was I to know?
Ouch, great.
My monthly cramps roar to life where my legs join my abdomen.
Next, they will spread to my back as if I’m wearing an invisible harness.
I’ve packed nothing for menstrual cramps or the upcoming flow. I’m a heavy bleeder. Blood attracts predators…
Can they smell the thickening of my uterine lining, or does it have to flow out?
There’s no way I can return to sleep, knowing that I’m alone.
What if a wolf, bear, or aggressive moose smell me? Another peek under the branch reveals a ton of hoofprints.
Do reindeer attack humans? If so, could I outrun them? Is the tree above me climbable? Is climbable a word?
Stop panicking.
Three big dragon breaths.
Breathe in the dragon power.
Exhale out the wimpy panic.
In. Out. Inhale. Exhale. Panic isn’t productive—that’s what Dad always said. My teenage self would yell, “I don’t want to be productive all the time. When do you rest?”
There.
Recalling my last years with my parents where we fought twenty-four-seven fires me up like nothing else.
I will survive out here—for spite if nothing else.
What do I need? Information.
My eyes see hoofprints, a cozy spot—was Gleb killed in an epic battle that I slept through? No, dummy, there’s no blood.
No Gleb corpse, as gruesome as that thought is.
I smell…reindeer funk…gross…fire? Could Gleb be waiting for me to wake beside a warm fire? I’m scrambling to my feet in an instant…and shower needles and slush over my head when I bump into the hanging branch. Not even a freezing shower can dampen my spirits. What if he’s roasting breakfast/dinner/whatever meal? Yum, I can’t remember the last time I ate.
Endless sunlight creates a time warp that my body can’t tolerate.
Check in with your senses to return to the present.
Information.
Calm, cool, collected Hannah.
Not panicked, completely dependent on Gleb, who she met less than a week ago, out-of-control Hannah…although with this endless light thing, we could have been walking for months or hours. I feel the bitter cold now that the idea of a roaring campfire implanted in my brain. I hear…voices. Plural?
If there’s a group of people on the other side of this hill, I better change into my normal clothes.
Gleb was sweet to make me a furry suit for traveling, but I don’t want to give people the wrong impression.
I respect the furry lifestyle and the use of alternate identities, but I don’t use one.
If Gleb’s group mistook me for another furry, I would trip over my words and offend someone. I know it. It’s better to be honest and declare myself an ally, so I can use one of their phones.
But what if they aren’t part of Gleb’s furry clan? What if they’re criminals like polar bear poachers or wanted men on the run? My imagination flies away with Arctic serial killers straight out of a movie… I’ll never know unless I investigate…
Lifting the branch as I go, I crawl out of the hiding place.
I leave the bags behind.
If the voices belong to weirdos and I must retreat, it’ll be better not to carry anything.
If I find Gleb, we can get them together. I doubt I could lift both bags by myself. Maybe instead of walking over all the reindeer prints and possibly smacking into a herd of reindeer, I should creep around the muddy hill. Hiding in the thin stand of birch trees would make an easier retreat than standing out in the open…especially since I make footprints in the soft ground.
Gleb
Anxiety races up and down my spine.
Ever since I realized the mud hill I rested against camouflaged Serik’s central home, nervous energy runs around my body like mice.
If anyone is to understand why I kidnapped Hannah without her consent and blindly trusted dushevnayasvyaz , it’s Serik.
Unfortunately, he’s the most unsavory character in the clan. Few like him. Fewer trust him.
He’s all I got.
At his fireside, we cleanse the furs of his front room to please his mate.
Kaitlyn smelled Patricika in his dyla weturanya and went berserk.
It’s another way Serik and I are alike.
Hannah won’t be happy when she goes to my home on the central grounds and smells Manya, my pleasure mate of the last two years, or worse, discovers I sent Manya to live in my southern home while I nursed Hannah to health. Kaitlyn’s jealousy, betrayal, and anger float into the morning air with the swirling smoke. My last hope is Hannah will be sympathetic since she had a pleasure mate when I found her…until I drowned him.
I’m nauseous again.
No wonder I’m sitting with Serik.
Sergei always said our insides reflect the blessings we receive and the company we keep on the outside.
Everyone—even unscrupulous Serik—wants Wise Sergei to be our next clan leader with his clever mate and new kit at his side.
Where am I?
Groveling to Serik.
“My judgment clouded with the thrill of finding my mate.
I’m young.
I had a pleasure mate by my side when I first smelled Hannah.
After watching her for a few days, I knew Hannah was mine…and broke the news to Manya. Trying to do the right thing, while unprepared for the rush of emotional and body changes, tricked me into making a ton of mistakes. I need your help. How do I repair my relationship with Sergei without finding myself shunned?”
“Why should Sergei care?”
He says to the fire as he pokes a fur that slid too close to his boiling pot for tea.
“Are you listening to me? I refused to follow his orders in front of everyone.
I rejected him as our leader out loud—to his face!”
I grab his shoulders and shake him.
He hardly turns.
I hate being the smallest male Chuchunya…the same height as Kaitlyn.
Mortifying! No wonder Serik has trouble respecting me…or it could just be Serik’s self-centered nature.
“For what reason—”
“Smell me,”
I interrupt and stick my armpit in my face.
“ Dushevnayasvyaz ,”
he chokes, pushing me away.
My legs fly up as I rock off the log, but I recover before my ass hits the mud.
“Kaitlyn and I could smell it over the gas fumes of the bus.”
“If you could smell it, then Sergei could.
Why would he keep me from my mate? I know I haven’t endured as many lonely zima seasons as you.
Being younger shouldn’t mean I don’t deserve a mate.
How much suffering is fair?”
Hope blooms in my chest until Serik’s eye roll pops it like a soap bubble.
“It’s not about age,”
he lectures, dropping his stick to rub his eyes.
“It’s because she didn’t accept you.
You took her to your northern home without asking her if she wanted to leave.
She didn’t get the chance to say—”
To say…say what? I lean forward, hanging onto his last word.
He freezes, lowering the fists he was gr inding into his eye sockets.
I look left and right as he does.
Did he hear something? Fear throttles me as I strain to hear if something lurks where I left Hannah. I can’t risk her seeing more Chuchunya if I must return her to her world, so I stashed her in a safe place. A place I thought was safe until Serik started acting like a blizzard barreled toward us.
“Gleb? Gleb? Where is the girl now?”
I sputter as my brain fails to connect his thoughts.
He shuffles his feet to snuff out the fire, showering his furs with dirt.
The boiling water pot tips over and reduces the kindling to a puff of smoke.
The plume flies off the ground to strangle us, attacking our eyes, noses, and mouths. I jump to my feet and back away from the firepit.
Why does Serik panic? Does he really think I’m so stupid that I’d leave my mate alone in my northern home? He starved Kaitlyn in his home for days if the story Sergei told us is true…and I trust Sergei a hell of a lot more than Serik.
“If you stole her on the northern end of the Chuchunya grounds, and you sit with me on the southernmost tip of the central Chuchunya grounds.
Where did you leave the girl?”
“Hannah was too injured and sick—”
I go back to the beginning to explain to Serik why I didn’t have her consent at first, but he won’t hear any of it.
He’s pacing, tugging clumps of fur out from the sides of his head.
“Gleb, did you leave the girl alone in your northern home? Gleb! Answer me!”
The crazed beast jumps at me to scream in my face.
Veins pop out of his forehead in angry blue lines.
“He owes me answers too,”
Timor announces, dismounting from a reindeer.
Oh shit .
Serik’s fingers, poised to strangle me, clench into fists.
He drops his arms to his sides and gives me a hateful smile.
My fists itch to punch him in his gloating glotat .
The smug satisfaction of our leader, Timor, yelling at someone other than him, radiates from Serik. My jaw drops as the realization hits. He knew it was a matter of time before Sergei or Timor visited him to ask for a chase with his new mate. If he stalled me long enough, he wouldn’t have to involve himself in my mess.
He dropped me in a leader’s lap to avoid…taking sides? Helping someone without personal gain? Pushing responsibility onto a leader to steal more time with his mate?
Dammit, I’d do the same thing.
How many times did I tattle to Sergei on Serik in the past?
“What should I hear about first Gleb? Why you abandoned Manya and put her life at risk to watch humans? Why you weren’t at your place or Sergei’s when I looked for you?”
“With all due respect,”
Serik sneers, lowering his chin to Timor.
If our roles were reversed, he’d be spitting curses at our leader, but since I’m in hot water, he plays the meek servant.
Disgusting .
“I want to know where he left the girl.”
“Manya’s at my place,”
I announce to Timor.
“Not her,”
Serik replies with that sinister smile locked in place.
I’d punch him if he wasn’t bigger, more experienced in fighting, and stronger than me.
He slides a centimeter toward the opening of his dwelling, betraying his plan to leave me at Timor’s minuscule mercy.
So much for his help.
“What girl?”
Timor asks with his eyebrows flying to the top of his head.
“Me,”
squeaks a small voice.
My mate looks tinier than ever as she steps out of the trees on shaky legs.
My heart sinks.
Her arms hug her middle beneath a pink, sparkly coat. She’s dressed in her human clothes instead of the fur suit I made for her. I doubt she smells as strongly of my dushevnayasvyaz without it.
“I’m Hannah.
The game’s over.
You don’t have to remove your masks or take off your furry suits—just let me go.
My boyfriend, Jack, is surely looking for me by now. I want to go home. ”
My heart smashes into a million pieces.
Her phrases are short, to the point, and reveal the truth of our dushevnayasvyaz .
She prefers her pleasure mate and worse, she announced it to the Chuchunya capable of returning her…or destroying her to keep our existence a secret.
Did she ju st ask for the end of our relationship or the end of her life?