Chapter 26
TWENTY-SIX
LANIE
Waterfalls, Vales, and Dire Wolf Tails
“Shift. You’re heading for that top corner of the rock. There.” Cord points out the route he wants me to take. “Nice and slow, but at a steady speed. The truck is going to walk over it one wheel at a time.”
I eyeball the granite boulder, sucking my bottom lip between my teeth. The events of the morning still swirl in my brain, obliterating his instructions. Cord leans across to press a tender kiss on my cheek, wiping my mind of any lingering remnants.
“Okay, so what do I do?” I ask, dazed.
Cord laughs, talking me through the whole process again. Thankfully he has endless patience, despite this being his idea. I put the truck into gear and go. Our progress is based on technology, his prodding, and no small degree of faith.
The six-wheeler wanders over the rock just like he says and drops gently onto the other side.
Cord grunts, gripping the door handle fiercely. I find flat ground and pull up.
“Oh, God. Cord, did I hurt you? I am so sorry. I have no idea what I’m doing.”
He holds up a hand, wheezing, though he still grips his side. “You did amazing, babe. I’m not sure I could have done that well.”
“But I still hurt you,” I worry, tugging at his wrist.
“Stop,” he murmurs, using my distraction to kiss me again until I do stop and kiss him back. “Now, out.”
Cord grabs the drones from the back of the truck. I had an inkling of what he was up to when we left, but I’m still not sure of his end goal as he sets up the picnic blanket and collection of bags, refusing my help.
“Send it out that way,” he directs, flapping out our reliable, if slightly tattered, cardboard landing pad. “And over, one more ridge…”
“Is that—” I stare at the screen, my mouth hanging open.
Wolf-shaped heat signatures mill around a hollow. Several more sit at the top of a ridge. I count them. Correction: I try to count them, but they keep moving. And there’s a lot. More than I ever hoped to find in one location.
“My pack,” Cord says, his voice filled with pride. “Twenty-three, all accounted for. And I think they might have selected a site for a den.”
I gape at him. “How did you know they were there?”
“West came out on his own. He took this remote and I had a second screen on my lap while you were asleep. I made him scour the mountains for my wolves. I believe Winnie even came out to check he didn’t screw up.” Cord smirks, apparently impressed with his covert, nighttime matchmaking activities.
“I owe West so much.” I try to count the favors I owe Cord’s foreman and best friend, and I run out of fingers.
“Don’t let him hear you say that. And what about me?” He nudges my shoulder.
“Thank you,” I whisper, studying the wolves a little longer.
The older wolves circle the site, nudging at last year’s juveniles.
One elder even attempts to pick a juvenile up by the scruff of its neck to relocate it toward the rendezvous site where some of the others gather.
I nearly drop the binoculars in a dual shot of panic/excitement.
“They’re mirroring the behaviors of the Alexander Archipelago wolves,” I breathe.
“Really?” Cord doesn’t so much as move beside me.
I raise my head after studying the new pack for a long moment as a thought hits me. A Cordell Rand–level thought. “Cord, did you um, relocate my wolves for me, by any chance? Because, as handy as that would be, it would kind of, you know, um—”
“Ruin your research?” Cord raises an eyebrow and reaches out to stroke my cheek with knuckles that are more scarred now than ever after his most recent accident.
“I get that, Lanie. And sure, I thought about it. Because I’d do anything to bring you back here, to Coyote land.
To me,” he says simply, while my heart pauses in my chest, torn between loving him too hard and delving deep into panic.
“But I won’t mess with your research. West found real Coyote Falls wolves for you.
If these ones do anything wacky, then they just happen to match the rancher who sleeps out here on occasion. And his foreman,” he adds.
“All right,” I whisper, choosing to believe him. The wolves will keep. I let out a shuddering breath, knowing there is more. “What else is bugging you?”
“I can’t keep secrets from you,” he grumbles, scraping a hand over his hair that’s started to grow out a little longer on the top since his last operation.
He’s more handsome than ever with everything slightly out of place, a little extra out of his control. And Cord relaxes a fraction more each day.
“Probably not,” I agree.
He lands the drone after a minute and turns me to face him, his face serious. “I spoke to your grant people. They won’t offer you funding again this period, but they will offer you the facilities to complete your research.”
I blink at him, my vision tunneling down to his face. “Do you want me to—”
“Wait,” he cuts me off. “You won’t need the grant because I’ll fund the travel myself if you want to go. Make a scientific division of Rand Enterprises. I don’t want you stuck here with a man who barely functions because you feel you can’t step away, that you’re tied to me.”
“Cord, are you telling me to—”
He cuts me off a second time. I close my mouth, but I’m far from obedient.
From the glitter in his arctic gaze, Cord knows that and is prepared to weather my opinion on it in just a minute.
“Or I can set up your research here. Study this pack, my pack, and see if it yields the information you’re after.
Stay here, with me. But only if you want to.
I’ll fund your research either way. If you want to part ways at the end, then I’ll do whatever makes you happiest,” he concludes on a short breath.
“You’re not kicking me out or breaking up with me?
” I clarify. “If you are, be straight about it with me.” My world stops at the thought of leaving him, but I have to be sure I understand his intent.
My chest tightens as my heart starts a frantic gallop.
I squeeze my hands around the remote that creaks.
“Like right fucking now, Cord.” My plan to keep my mouth shut fails.
“I’m not asking you to leave and there’s no way I’m breaking up with you.” He leans forward, but he doesn’t touch me. “I want to give you options, options that you control. But I still want to give you what I think—what I hope—you want.”
“I want…” I answer, my voice less than a whisper. My heart stalls. It’s all I have right now.
“You want?” he asks in a guarded voice.
“I want to stay. Cord, I would have stayed with you without the wolves. This is a bonus. A very good, furry bonus.” I lean forward to meet his lips with mine.
“You’ll stay?” He curls his arms around my waist to slide me onto his lap.
“I’ll stay.” I wrap my arms around his shoulders, careful of jostling him, and trace the second scar on his neck.
“Even if it means giving up the nomadic lifestyle? I mean, I don’t crochet so well but I can buy you all the wolf blankets in the world.
Lanie… will you be happy here?” His eyes turn serious, his sapphire gaze delving deep inside me.
“Maybe collect your junk mail every now and then?” The corner of his mouth hints at a grin.
I groan, hiding beneath my hair. “I can’t believe Winnie told you about my parents’ place.” A sigh leaves me. “Yes, the nomad life is gone because, somehow, being with you doesn’t tie me to anything. I’m not boxed in here. But I can’t make promises about the junk mail.”
“And I have wolves.” Cord winds his arms around me, sliding his fingers through my hair to angle my head the way he wants before grazing his mouth over mine. I sink into his embrace, breathing him in as his fingers work the buttons of my shirt.
“Cord, is this too fast? I don’t want to—”
“But I do,” he interrupts firmly, sliding the rest of the buttons free. He palms my stomach, callused hands curving to fit around my waist. “I’m not agile, babe. Will you strip for me?”
I rise onto my knees, sliding my shirt free from my waistband.
Goose bumps rise on my skin, but Cord’s heated gaze more than warms me.
After flicking the button of my jeans open, I slide them down, letting my hair fall forward, partially obscuring his view.
I kick my shoes and socks off, then the jeans.
All of my clothes have been neatly collected and stowed with my shirt next to Cord’s bag.
Shaking my hair back, I stand, wearing only a white bra and matching thong.
Cord’s gaze darkens, traveling down my body and back. “Those, too. I want to remember everything about you.”
My attention never wavers from him as I reach back to unclasp my bra, leaning forward a little as it falls away.
Cord groans as I palm my breasts, letting my fingers slide over my nipples, teasing them into tight buds.
Pleasure shoots from the tips. I press my thighs together, my eyes drifting shut.
“Fuck, you’re gorgeous like that.” Cord’s voice breaks into my haze and I remember what I’m supposed to be doing.
I hook my thumbs into my thong, tracing around the lace trim with my fingertips. Cord’s attention follows every motion as I slide the soft scrap down my legs.
“Come here.” He leans back against our bags and crooks a finger.
My heart pounding, I place one foot on either side of his thighs, slowly descending to straddle his fully clothed body. His hands circle my waist, squeezing, and then he drags his fingers over my ass hard enough to leave marks.
A gasp leaves me at his rough treatment, but I love the way he handles me.
I nip his bottom lip, working through the remaining buttons of his shirt.
The tip of my tongue touches his in our next kiss, and a moan leaves my lips, hot and wanton.
This. I’ve missed this. His mouth grazes mine before he deepens the kiss, sliding his tongue inside in a dance that grows faster and faster until I can’t keep up with his pace.