Chapter 10
GUNNAR
In the dark, backed by snow-covered mountains, the lightless hotel's windows shimmered like eyes in the headlights. It reminded me of The Overlook. I'd promised to give the place a chance, so I ignored the dread in my gut.
After pulling up to the largest building, Hans, our driver, popped the trunk and ran ahead to the security keypad on a side door.
"They don't treat you like royalty here," I said once my lungs adjusted to the shock of cold after the warm car.
"Nobody treats me like royalty," he countered as he opened the trunk. "When have I ever—"
"Paskal Industries." I reached for the heavy plastic sacks I'd been responsible for since we left the airplane.
"They treat my dad like a king," he admitted as he looped his bags over his arm and closed the trunk lid. "Few give me the same courtesy. I'm more of a scapegoat."
I didn't want to argue with him. We'd been arguing nonstop since we met. When Sebastian said he liked me, a puzzle piece clicked into place. He liked me because I called him on his bullshit. When I wasn't openly mean to him, he listened to what I had to say. I hadn't expected that.
Despite what I'd thought before the launch, he didn't use his dad's name for personal gain. He disliked the yes men who followed him around as much as I did.
Meeting Sebastian's friends had added another piece to the puzzle. They didn't cater to him, either. Lonnie, Amber, and Loftus all gave him as much shit as I did, and he loved it. Insults were the man's love language. I'd never met anyone like him.
He deserved some of my ire, but the more I learned about his strained relationship with his father, the less I saw the elder Paska as pedestal-worthy. I wasn't ready to consider he was as bad a person as Sebastian insinuated, but he wasn't an altruistic servant of the people, either.
Sebastian was far from perfect, but he'd never pretended to be. He took responsibility for his actions, especially with the cruise line. The money made it easier, I was certain, but I had no complaints about the way he treated his underlings, including Hans.
When we reached the hotel's front double doors, Hans held the door open for us, but I assumed he would have done the same for anyone. He disappeared down a dark hallway, and the hair on my arms bristled. I extended as much grace as I could, but the resort lodge gave me the creeps.
Sebastian led me in the opposite direction. He slipped a metal key into the first door's lock, and it opened into a clean room with two beds.
I flipped the light switch. Nothing. Moonlight through the open curtains illuminated a fireplace with wood in the grate beside it.
I didn't know the first thing about starting a fire. I was an urban foster kid. From a young age, the system taught us playing with fire would get us kicked to the curb faster than pulling a weapon.
While I contemplated the freezing room temperature, where our makeshift flashlights caught puffs of mist after each breath, a horrible shriek echoed through the vents. The light I'd turned on flickered and then stayed lit.
"Hans started the generator," Sebastian said.
"No shit." I couldn't resist one more jab at his Captain Obvious routine.
We returned to the lobby, where the Swiss driver waited for us. "Bettina arrives tomorrow," he said to Sebastian.
"Thank you," he replied. "We can handle ourselves for a night."
Hans gave a quick nod of his head, and then he marched out the main door with soldierlike efficiency. Headlights glared our direction a moment later, and then he backed around the circle drive and returned the way we'd come.
A sense of uneasiness came over me. I was now alone in an abandoned ski lodge with a guy I barely knew and didn't like that much.
The feeling melted away when silky fur rubbed against my knees. Sebastian's wolf stared up at me. "Woof." He'd left his clothes in a pile by the desk.
Sebastian the man frustrated me. Sebastian the wolf was adorable.
"It doesn't take much to get you naked." I unzipped my coat, pulled my sweater and undershirt over my head, and kicked out of my shoes, socks, and pants. With a sigh, I also shucked off my underwear. I couldn't keep splitting them up the back each time my tail ripped through the fabric.
Sebastian's tongue lolled out of his mouth as he continued to stare at me. I couldn't hear his thoughts, but I felt the appreciation in his gaze.
"Bad dog."
He made a chuffing sound in his throat. Even as a wolf, he laughed at me. The more he did, the less it chafed my dignity. I didn't mind his wolf checking me out, either.
I closed my eyes and willed the change to come over me, same as I had after we'd landed the shuttle. With each shift, the transition became easier. My wolf's thoughts were so much simpler than my human ones. All he wanted to do was play in the snow with his mate.
I pawed at the door and whined. Sebastian chuffed again, and tapped the wheelchair accessibility button with his paw. The door inched open. We bounded outside as soon as we could fit through the opening.
Human me would have worried about getting lost, but my wolf knew he could find his way back. All he wanted was to explore. He sniffed the air for the first sign of mischief, and then we were off, tracking a hare.
Sebastian followed on my heels, his nose too close to my backside. He sniffed me more than he did the wind. I could smell him, too, but my wolf wasn't as preoccupied with mating and claiming while we had open air and a chase before us.
My wolf's love for the outdoors and nature was foreign to me, but I welcomed it. The first time I had shifted in space had felt all kinds of wrong, except for Sebastian. Here in the untouched snow, I felt at home for the first time in my life.
After a few minutes of circling, we bounded on top of the hare, startling it as it drank from the trickle of rushing water through a mostly frozen creek.
The white animal with black tufts on the insides of its ears leaped for the bank, its large feet allowing it to bound on top of the powdery snow, while we sank in to our knees.
We relished the chase across slippery terrain, though it continued to gain ground.
Finally, it dove into a thick copse of thorn bushes. The tines stung my nose, and I yelped.
Sebastian dug under me with his front paws until he fit beneath me.
With one powerful thrust of his head, he lifted me onto his shoulders and dragged me backward into a small clearing.
Once I was free of the painful bush, he dropped a heavy paw on top of my head, forcing me to the ground.
Then, he licked my wounds until they healed, far faster in wolf form than as a human.
I hated the attention as much as I'd hated a foster parent washing my face. I could do it myself.
"We should go back." Sebastian's wolf voice filled my head. "Get warm and dry."
I nipped at his neck to show I understood, and he led me back the way we'd come. It was my turn to sniff his musky rear end. His tail fanned his delectable scent with each step. I opened my mouth, letting my tongue hang out to take in more of the flavor.
When Sebastian slipped on the circle drive's frost-covered pavement, he gave me an opening. I pounced, shoving him to the ground and rolling him into a snowbank.
He yipped and tossed me off him. I landed on my back in a foot of snow, paws in the air, flailing to find purchase. Before I could, Sebastian landed on top of me, paws on my chest, nose deep in my neck ruff. Instead of shielding my most vulnerable spot, I stretched.
"Mark me," my wolf said to him. "Claim me."
I didn't know what those words meant, but my body reacted. My cock, which had been tucked inside my body, kissed the cold air. My asshole clenched, and dripped something warm and wet.
I howled in alarm as the sudden changes came over my wolf. Anxiety forced me to shift. I huddled on the ground, shaking violently as cold snow bit into my human skin.
Sebastian hopped off me and ducked his shaggy head. "Grab on. I'll pull you out."
I sank my fingers into the thick fur at his ruff. He backed up until I pulled myself to stand in the snow. A few leaps over drifts, and I made it back to the frozen drive. Then, it was only a few more icy steps. I left patches of skin on the pavement.
Sebastian nudged the automatic door button with his flank, and I shivered as I waited for it to creak open. My feet burned from the cold, and my back ached from the constant muscle spasms.
Once inside, Sebastian shifted from beast to man before my eyes. "Are you all right?"
"I panicked." The oversimplification sounded like a lie to me, but my body no longer betrayed me. Thanks to the cold, my erection had retreated. My balls were tucked all the way up against my body to stay warm. My ass still felt cold and wet, which was strange.
"Switch back to your wolf and have a seat while I get the fire going."
I wrapped my arms over my chest and tried to keep my bones from shaking apart.
I stubbornly resisted the urge to shift.
What if the strange mating urges returned?
Sebastian and I barely knew each other. If he was as helpless to the demands of his wolf as I was, I didn't want to do something we would later regret.
"You'll be warmer," he reminded me.
Yes, I'd felt those desires, and I'd panicked, but I'd shifted back before either of us had acted on them. As long as one of us stayed in human form, our wolves wouldn't be tempted, or so I hoped.
The change was even easier this time. My wolf wanted to be warm.
I followed Sebastian to his pile of clothes and padded down the hallway behind him until we reached the same bedroom as before.
I climbed onto the settee by the fireplace and curled into a ball while Sebastian prepared the logs and started the kindling ablaze.
He changed back into his wolf, and I was too comfortable to care. When he hopped up onto the seat beside me, we curled together into a cozy wolf pile. I tucked my feet against his side, and he buried his nose in the fur at my neck. We lay like that until Sebastian hopped down, panting.
In a flash, he was human again. I watched him unpack our bags, wondering when he found time to build all those toned muscles, until my sense of duty called on me to help. It was either that or pounce on him.
Once I had thumbs, I sorted my bags into the dresser drawers. When I finished, I took the small bag of toiletries to the suite's bathroom and laid them out on the counter next to the sink. Then, I sneaked a pair of boxers and a t-shirt from my side of the dresser. "Do you mind if I shower first?"
"Go ahead." His gaze followed me as I ducked back into the bathroom and shut the door.
It had a working lock, but I didn't click it. I kept telling myself I didn't want Sebastian to open it, but a sinking sense of disappointment in my gut intensified the longer he waited to join me.
He wasn't coming. I sluiced the last of the suds from my body and turned off the water while it was still hot.
The room had a stack of thick towels, and I snagged one from the bottom shelf. Satisfied my clothes wouldn't stick to me, I pulled them on and returned to the bedroom.
We switched places without a word. Sebastian had already claimed the bed closest to the shower, so I took the one by the windows. I pulled the drapes shut and curled on my side, facing the warm fire between our beds.
While he showered, I tried to stay awake. I wanted to talk about his plans, but my eyes grew too heavy. Whether from the warmth of the fire or outright exhaustion, I couldn't keep my eyes open around Sebastian. The past few days had been nerve-wracking.
Nerves, that was all. It couldn't have been because I trusted him more than I'd trusted anyone else in my life.