Gabriel and Jonathan rode all day and all night to get to the ranch in time to prepare for the journey to Sanctuary. Jonathan was so tired he could barely keep himself in the saddle. Gabriel had to be just as tired as he was, if not more so. He’d made the trip from the ranch to the cave then turned around for the return trip without resting. But he never complained.
When they arrived at the ranch, no one was there. They took care of the horses then headed for the cleansing pool, where they found Reuben and Paul.
Reuben was submerged up to his neck in the steaming water. Paul was paddling around like a puppy with his neck stretched out and head tilted back.
Jonathan stepped on a twig, snapping it.
Reuben sat up and jerked his head around. He smiled and waved.
Paul scrambled out of the water and tackled Jonathan. He repeated Gabriel’s greeting. “I’m so glad you ain’t dead.”
Gabriel and Reuben both said, “Aren’t dead,” correcting his grammar.
Jonathan tousled Paul’s hair. “Hey kid, it looks like Gabriel wasn’t the only one to have a growth spurt while I was gone.”
Paul grinned up at him. “I got my own bow now and my own horse, too, but I gots to, I mean I have to wait until Stormy’s strong enough to carry my weight before I can ride her but I already got her halter broke.”
“That’s Sugar’s filly, right?”
“Yep. And she’s gonna be just as fast as her dam, maybe even her sire. She’ll for sure outrun Gabe’s horse.”
Gabriel rolled his eyes. “That filly’s never going to beat Lightning.”
“Gabe’s horse is a gelding so he won’t never sire a foal.”
Jonathan tried to keep from showing his surprise that Paul knew so much about reproduction.
“Pa cut his balls off.”
“Um…” Jonathan didn’t know what to say to that. Other than ouch.
“Fillies don’t have balls so Stormy can’t get hers cut off.”
“Okaaay.” Jonathan looked to Reuben for a little help, but he just shook his head and chuckled.
Gabriel grabbed Paul under the arms then tossed him back into the hot spring.
Paul surfaced, red faced and spluttering. “You’re gonna get it now.”
Gabriel ignored him and peeled out of his clothes. He lifted the lid of a wooden bench and placed his clothes inside then descended the carved stone stairs into the pool. Jonathan stripped then folded his clothes into a neat bundle, but when he moved towards the storage bench, Reuben shouted, “No!”
Jonathan froze. “What’s wrong?”
“We’ll need to smoke your clothes for at least a week to get River’s scent out. If you put them in the box with the rest of the clothes, it will contaminate them.”
Jonathan didn’t like Reuben’s remark that River’s scent was a contaminant, but he had a point.
“River’s scent is on Gabriel’s clothes.”
“Not like yours.”
Jonathan sniffed the bundle. He ignored the smell of his own and his horse’s sweat, the smoky aroma of several campfires and dust from the trail. River’s scent, sweet and slightly spicy like snow covered pine, rushed from his nose straight to his brain. It brought the recent memory of sleeping with her on their bed of pine boughs to the front of his mind. He inhaled deeply, closing his eyes. He could almost feel her naked body pressed against his, their arms and legs tangled together. Her hair fanned out on the buffalo hide. Her breath warm on his neck—
“Jonathan?” Reuben’s voice snapped him back to the present.
He jerked the bundle of clothes away from his suddenly hot face. “What do you want me to do with them?”
“Put them inside the steam cave.” Reuben chuckled then coughed, obviously trying to cover it up. He cleared his throat. “That’ll start the cleansing process. I’ll take your clothes to the smoke shed when we leave. You can’t touch them again until after they’ve been completely cleansed.”
Jonathan’s chest ached when he realized he wouldn’t smell River until he saw her again. And by then, her scent would be mixed with Eli’s. Jonathan struggled with the urge to growl at the thought. He really needed to get a handle on his knee-jerk reactions. He waded into the hot spring and sat on the submerged stone bench next to Reuben. He lowered his voice so Paul wouldn’t hear him. “I think I better skip the feast and just stay here.”
“Why?”
“I’m afraid of how I’ll react when I see, and smell, River and Eli together.”
“We’ll discuss it later.” Reuben gave Jonathan a pointed look then inclined his head in Paul’s direction. “He ignores me ninety percent of the time but has an uncanny talent for hearing and repeating things he shouldn’t.”
Jonathan nodded once then ducked below the surface. When he came up, he noticed that River’s scent had diminished. He continued to immerse himself, scrubbing his hair with his fingers until he could no longer smell her. He hadn’t realized just how much comfort her scent provided until it was gone.
Paul climbed all over Jonathan which made him more than a little uncomfortable since they were all naked. “Have you ever played Marco Polo?”
Paul cocked his head to the side. “What’s that?”
“A game, sort of like hide and seek only everyone has to stay in the water and the person that’s it has to keep his eyes closed.”
Paul frowned. “How do you catch anyone with your eyes closed?”
“The person that’s it, calls out ‘Marco,’ and everyone else has to answer ‘Polo.’ You find people by listening.”
Paul grinned at him. “Can I be it?”
“Sure.”
Jonathan wasn’t surprised when Paul cheated by squinting instead of fully closing his eyes. But he was shocked when Reuben joined in the game.
He and Gabe refused to let Paul catch them. Jonathan could tell the boy was getting frustrated so he slowed down just enough to get tagged. Paul squealed with delight. “Gotcha!”
Jonathan had to pretend he didn’t know exactly where everyone was. Closing his eyes didn’t hinder him. His wolf-enhanced sense of smell more than compensated for the lack of vision. It didn’t matter since Paul kept shouting, “Get me, get me.” It was obvious he wanted to be the hunter instead of the hunted.
This time, Reuben let Paul catch him, which delighted the boy.
Reuben closed his eyes and counted to ten while the rest of them moved around the small pool. But instead of calling out, ‘Marco,’ to begin the chase, he inhaled deeply through his nose then lunged at Gabriel.
Gabe dodged him, missing Reuben’s outstretched hand by mere inches, then ducked under water.
Reuben sniffed as he turned his head, obviously searching for Gabriel’s scent. He spun around and lunged at Gabe again when he came up for a quick gulp of air. But once again, narrowly missed him.
When Gabe broke the surface the fifth time, he was too close to Reuben.
“Gotcha.” Reuben laughed then tousled Gabe’s hair.
“About time.” Gabe pushed his dripping hair off his forehead. “I thought was I going to drown before you caught me.”
Gabriel didn’t mess around. He nailed Paul the second after he counted to ten.
“You didn’t say Marco.”
Gabriel smirked at him. “Didn’t need to.”
Paul snorted. “Don’t pretend you can smell us like Pa can. You ain’t merged yet.”
“I don’t need to smell you. You make more noise in the water than a drowning chicken.”
Paul stuck his tongue out at him. “Do not.”
Gabriel rolled his eyes.
Reuben frowned at Jonathan. “Come here.”
“What’s wrong?” Jonathan swam across the pool.
Reuben pressed a fingertip against Jonathan’s shoulder.
He flinched away from the stinging sensation. The white powder Gabriel had scraped off the bark of an aspen tree was a good sunscreen but it wasn’t waterproof.
Reuben winced. “We need to get you out of the sun.”
Jonathan sat in the shade while Reuben applied a mudpack to his scorched skin. Paul and Gabriel stayed in the water, playing Marco Polo.
Reuben was gentle, but each swipe of his muddy fingers stung like hell. “I’d like to take this opportunity to apologize for Shula’s mistake.”
“That was no mistake. She tried to kill me.”
“She claims it was an accident.”
“She apologized to me as I was dying. She said, and this is a direct quote, ‘I won’t let another woman’s son steal Eli’s place in history.’”
Reuben shook his head. “She said she was only trying to knock you out so Eli could take you home. I don’t doubt that she was motivated by her desire to promote Eli, but that’s a far cry from attempted murder.”
Jonathan knew he wasn’t going to change Reuben’s mind. The only person that could do that was Eli. And he’d never confess his mother’s crimes to Reuben, or anyone else with the authority to punish her.
“How important is it that I go to the feast?”
“It’s crucial.”
“Why?”
“It will be the last chance I have to formally claim you as my recruit before Sanctuary closes.”
“Why not wait until it reopens next summer?”
“I don’t want to leave you vulnerable for the entire winter.”
“What do you mean?”
“Until someone claims you, you’re nothing but a trespasser, an outsider. How long do you think you’ll survive before some civic-minded citizen puts an arrow through your heart?”
“You mean Shula?”
“I mean anyone. Jesse has three novices eager to earn their enforcer’s marks. Exterminating an outsider would do that and more.”
“I can dodge enforcers. I lived with you as River’s recruit for months and never saw a soul.”
“Shula quarantined my family to make that happen. I doubt she’d do it again. Besides, the ranch is the secret headquarters for the revolution. People come and go unannounced and uninvited all the time. You need my mark and you need it soon.”
“Why didn’t I get River’s mark when I was her recruit?”
“Women don’t have marks, other than the ones they make with their teeth. If you had been here when the mountain opened, I would have taken you and River to Sanctuary and petitioned the council to let her claim you as her recruit under my authority. You would have received my mark at that time.”
“Well, then, do it now. Before the feast.”
“I can’t. As Zebulon’s son, everything I do has to be in full accordance with the law.”
“I don’t want to put River, or Eli, or anyone else at risk because I can’t control my temper.”
“Then keep that thought above all else in your mind at all times.”
Jonathan nodded.
“And don’t let your guard down around Paul. He can’t know that you’re a shifter. No one can.”
“What happens when the moon is full?”
“I’ll think of something.”