Chapter 12
“Q uestion.”
Bear turned to me after adding a couple of logs to the hearth.
“What was the satellite for?”
“Phone,” he signed. “Internet.”
Great. Love that for me.
“I’m going to get fired on my first day if I can’t tell them I can’t make it.”
Bear gave me an incredulous look before signing, “Their loss.”
“No, my loss. I need that job.”
He frowned but didn’t reply further as he replaced the metal grate in front of the fire. Bear tilted his head curiously. “Work here?”
“Bear, I’m not a stray you found in the woods. I can’t stay here.”
He stepped closer, the warmth of his presence enveloping me, and I had to fight the urge to lean into his hand when he cupped my cheek. My eyes closed as he leaned forward to whisper, “Why not?”
A shudder rolled through me, instinct butting up against my better judgment. Maybe I wasn’t too far off from a stray if all it took was a gentle pat to have me rolling over. I had just met them. Staying wasn’t an option. I had a plan. “Because.”
I swayed toward him when he stepped away. This was unfair. These men were the first alphas I’d ever felt truly comfortable around besides my one brother and his pack. Every other one I’d met seemed to go out of their way to give alphas a bad name.
“Because why?” The gravelly tone of his voice did funny things to my body.
“Because people don’t abandon their entire lives for someone they just met. We don’t know each other. For all you know, I’m annoying as fuck and you’d be ready to feed me to an actual bear after a week of living with me. I know what alphas think I’m good for, and I know I’m a disappointment when I don’t provide that. I’m a broken omega.”
Bear frowned and all my little hairs stood on end when he dipped down again, his warm breath ghosting over my ear. “I don’t know who told you all that bullshit, but if I find them, I’ll kill them.”
The others coming inside saved me from having to respond, and had Bear backing up quickly enough I was able to suppress the whine he’d been well on his way to triggering.
Kit and Ryder stacked wood in a pair of holders near the fireplace, and Maverick set a small basket of potatoes in the kitchen, returning again a moment later with another full of jars.
“Should I be doing something specific to help?” I asked.
“You’re supposed to be resting,” Kit reminded me.
“I did rest.”
“Rest more .” He nudged me toward the couch and pushed on my shoulders until I sat. His touch had heat rippling through me. “We can handle the work.”
It was going to be a long week if my body was going to react every time one of them was close to me. At least Ryder and Maverick didn’t have scents. I was already struggling with the delicious onslaught from Bear and Kit; I couldn’t imagine adding two more to the mix.
Brandon not being here was a good thing, above and beyond the fact that he had abandoned me. He’d probably be so pissed to see me reacting to other alphas when I had never done that for him. In fairness, I hadn’t even known that was something he wanted. Blissful denial had been a necessity when spending time with him. I couldn’t fall back on denial here.
I pulled Bear’s flannel tighter around myself. “I can’t sit on my ass for a whole week, or however long it’s going to take us to get out of here. Eventually you have to let me do something or I’m going to get cabin fever.”
“You have to rest for at least a full twenty-four hours,” Kit insisted. “After that, we can find you something to do if you really want to.”
“I don’t know how to relax. I’m pretty sure it’s not in my nature.”
“All the more reason to practice.” Kit’s easy smile and rush of sweet earthy scent had my toes curling as he sat next to me.
“But it’s boring.”
“Do you really think chopping firewood will alleviate your boredom?”
“I don’t know.” I shrugged. “Maybe.”
Ryder snorted. “Chores don’t exactly qualify as entertainment, but you’ll fit in well here if you think that’s the case.”
“I like to keep busy,” I said, instead of acknowledging that another one of them thought I might be staying.
I knew alphas and omegas the world over dreamed of finding their scent matches, and once they did, most of them immediately hitched their wagons to each other. That was such a foreign concept to me. Sure, growing up I’d fantasized about scent matches in the vain hope I would finally be around someone who might understand me, but that didn’t mean I was still attached to the idea as an adult. I had already given up on the idea of finding love with one person, let alone fated love with a whole pack.
Practicality was what had always gotten me through. Surrendering so easily to fate felt like the opposite of everything I had used to survive to this point.
“Can I please do something ?”
The alphas shared a look and Kit finally relented. “Maverick is off hard labor for a few days. Why don’t you be his sous chef?”
“Hell yes.” I hopped off the couch and scurried into the kitchen. “What are we making?”
“Bastardization of a family recipe since we only have trout and not salmon. Do you like fish?”
“Love it.”
He walked me through the steps of preparing what would traditionally be a Nordic salmon soup. They’d caught the trout themselves at a lake not too far from the lodge. I chopped ingredients and Maverick assembled, pouring jars of fish stock they’d made over the summer into the pot, and Ryder intervened to carry it all over to the iron stand in the fire.
“Why aren’t we using the stove?”
“Fire’s already going,” Maverick replied. “Seems silly to waste the fuel for the stove.”
“I’m cool with that. Campfire food tastes the best anyway.”
I settled in front of the flames with a cushion beneath my knees and a ladle as tall as my torso in my hands. While the concoction bubbled away, Maverick sat next to me and the others went back outside to clear some of the snow off the roofs of the outbuildings. Pumpkin lived her best life, racing around between piles of snow tumbling down around her, trying to bite it out of the air before it landed.
“What’s a regular day like here?”
“Depends on the season and whether we have guests or not,” Maverick replied. “We trade off on who goes hunting with groups so there’s always someone taking care of the lodge.”
“Okay, what’s it like with no guests? What do you do all day?”
He shrugged, hissing at the movement like he had forgotten he was injured. “I sleep until I wake up unless something important needs doing. A lot of projects and repairs in the summer we do as a group. We don’t have much of a garden with all the trees, but I swear half our time is spent out in the forest picking food. Our freezers are crammed full of berries and greens foraged over the spring, summer, and fall. Ryder’s a wizard with mushroom ID so we have a fuckload of dried ones.”
“Really? I’m always afraid I’m gonna accidentally poison myself so I’ve been too chicken to forage for mushrooms.”
“We haven’t died yet.” Maverick laughed.
“I always forage more than I can eat. I think half the fun is finding and picking stuff.”
“Saves us a lot of money to do it and the guests usually get a kick out of meals made from what we forage.” Maverick leaned back, watching me stir. “We turned a fair bit of the area around the lodge into a food forest. Kit and Bear planned it all. Everything is native to the region except what’s in the planter boxes. Big fan of planting stuff that doesn’t need to be babysat.”
“I said that all the time growing up. My mom had these fussy annuals that needed constant attention and the house was full of tropicals when I was little. I’m more of a mint-in-the-ground kind of girl.”
That got another laugh out of him. “Pretty sure that’s gardening hubris.”
“Oh, it is. She was pissed as hell, but I planted a whole bunch of other stuff that behaves the same way so they compete for space and keep each other under control.”
“Resourceful.”
“She passed years ago, and I had no idea how to care for her plants. They didn’t last a year when I was suddenly in charge of them at ten years old.”
“Shit. I’m so sorry. That’s rough.”
“It’s okay. The perennials we planted together are still going strong at least, and she wasn’t that mad about the mint, so I know she’d be happy it’s still alive.”
The soup smelled like heaven and we hadn’t even added the fish or herbs yet. For some reason, food cooked over a fire always tasted ten times better than any other method.
I stabbed one of the potato chunks with a knife and, deciding it was close enough to done, fetched the fish chunks thawing on the kitchen counter. I added them and a healthy sprinkle of dill. Right before it was finished, I would add the cream and then it would be ready to serve.
“What’s your ideal day?” Maverick asked.
“Hard to say when I’ve never gotten to live it before. I think if I can squeeze in time outside, hiking or doing my photography, and pair it with food cooked over the fire, a hot bath, and a good book, then it would be difficult to be any happier than that.”
“Well, we could accommodate most of that besides the hot bath right now. We do have hot springs not too far away if I could tempt you into a short hike?”
“How short?”
“Maybe ten minutes? Shorter if we can navigate the snowmobiles down the trail to pack down the snow. A couple of them are clinging to life, and I wouldn’t be concerned taking them that far since we can walk back easily if they give up the ghost entirely.”
“If I don’t have to march through the forest soaking wet after being in the water, then I could definitely be persuaded.”
I was reasonably certain Ryder would make good on his threat if anything happened to me, so I wasn’t as worried about going into the woods with Maverick as I probably should’ve been. I could only hope fate wouldn’t make me comfortable around Maverick just so he could be in a better position to hurt me because I really wanted to see those hot springs.
He inspected the soup, giving it a quick taste. “Go ahead and add the cream. I’ll get the others back inside.”
Left alone with my thoughts, I surveyed the common area of the lodge. It was eerily similar to how I had always imagined decorating my own little cabin in the forest that only existed in my head. They didn’t have any animals on the wall, a small blessing since they’d always wigged me out a bit, but they did have an impressive collection of antlers and impressions of paws and hooves beneath gorgeous photos.
The wood was glossy and beautifully maintained, the stone making up the fireplace lovingly crafted. Had they built this place by themselves?
Pumpkin was the first to greet me, racing in and throwing her damp body against me to lick all over my face.
Kit scooped her wriggling form off me. “Sorry about that. She gets way too excited.”
“That’s okay. Where are the towels?”
“Bunk room closet. First door on the right.”
I collected a small one to wipe myself down, and tossed a much larger one over Pumpkin to scrub down her wet fur while Kit prevented her from sprinting away.
“She’s so well behaved on hunts, but you’d never know that with the way she behaves at home.”
“She’s on duty when she’s hunting,” I pointed out. “When she’s not out in the bush, she gets to be a little chaos goblin. Don’t you, beautiful girl?”
Pumpkin lunged at me to give me more kisses and I cupped her face, pressing my own kiss to her head.
Bear let out a sharp whistle and Pumpkin rocket launched away from us to park her butt in front of him. I watched as he took her through a series of commands with simple hand gestures: sit, shake, and spin. Once she had performed to his satisfaction, he pulled a treat out of the jar on the counter and gave it to her. Her tail wagged up a storm as she came to lie down by the fire with her bounty.
“The food is ready,” I told Kit. “Hope you guys are hungry.”
There was something so wildly domestic about dishing up servings of steaming soup to these alphas before settling into my own. It was hot enough to scald, but I was so impatient to taste it. I scooped each bite and blew on it, shoving it prematurely into my mouth so I had to dragon breathe to cool it down.
The others were slightly more patient than I was, but not by much. By the time we were all satisfied, the pot was drained but my heart was fuller than I’d expected.
“When did you want to go to the hot springs?” Maverick asked.
“Maybe tomorrow if the wind calms down?”
“We’ll keep an eye on it,” he promised.
I grinned. “Perfect. Can’t wait.”