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Gwynn lifted the edge of the snow-encrusted blanket. She and her enormous new friend peered out at a heavy, leaden sky.
“Snow’s stopped. I need to get going, pal.” Thanks to the dog, her blanket cave had become a warm sanctuary she didn’t want to leave, but it was time. The dog stood up and stretched.
“You’re pretty smart, aren’t you, dog?” His jaw dropped open in a canine grin, and she swore he winked before he trotted away into the forest leaving her alone.
The wind blew an icy blast where his warm body had lain next to hers all night, and she shivered.
“Wait! Come, back! Come here, boy. Come!” She whistled into the cold but the dog didn’t come back.
Everything was too quiet, just the shush of the wind blowing through the branches of the pines and empty winter-bare bushes. No one was here. No one would come. Not even her temporary canine companion.
She was alone.
“Come back,” she whispered into the silence.
She wrapped her over-large coat around her. Not even the dog would stand by her. Her zeal to keep going dwindled down to almost nothing. A dark cloud of depression settled around her heart. Then the bushes began to shake. But it wasn’t the dog that emerged.
Aaron stepped out, completely nude, his bare feet shuffling a path through the snow.
“You’re not alone.” His liquid silver eyes gleamed and her heart seized.
He’d found her.
Her whole body shook, adrenaline pumping through her veins. Was this anger? Fear? Excitement? How was she supposed to feel facing the man who was her rescuer, her jailer, and the man who’d brought her to orgasm again and again.
She’d trusted him.
Suddenly, she knew exactly how she felt. Angry. Very angry.
“What the hell are you doing here, Aaron? And where are your clothes?”
“I didn’t think to bring clothes.” He stepped closer and reached for her pack. “You didn’t happen to leave my extra clothes in there, did you?”
She snatched the pack back. “Extra clothes?” She glanced around, hoping to spot the dog. She could use the backup right now.
“No problem. I’ll run back as a wolf.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Maybe she was dreaming. Maybe she’d frozen in the snow. She’d heard when you froze to death, you fell asleep. Maybe you had bizarre conversations with people after you died too. But shouldn’t it be with dead people?
“Look, we need to talk, and even I get cold standing naked in the snow.” He took another step closer and she shrank back. “Can I crawl under there and stay warm, just while we talk?”
The image of Aaron’s naked body crawling into her makeshift tent and pressing close to her brought an instantaneous rush of moisture between her thighs. She fought the rush of arousal, instead focusing on the steady beat of anger in her blood.
“Screw you!” He’d betrayed her. She shouldn’t let him in. She should let him freeze.
“Gwynn, I’m sorry.” He bowed his head. “If you’ll just let me explain.”
He did look sorry. And pathetic, standing out in the cold. Even Aaron’s Johnson couldn’t withstand these kind of freezing temperatures. Her mouth quirked up into a smile.
His return smile was tentative, and it reminded her how tenderly he’d taken care of her back at the cabin—even if it had been for the wrong reasons.
No, she shouldn’t give in. The old, naïve Gwynn would see that smile and take pity on the poor man. But she had to be stronger.
“You stay out there. I’ll see if I have your clothes.” She dug deep in the pack and came up with an extra pair of jeans she hadn’t seen in her hurry to escape. “Here, you can have these.” She tossed them to him. “They’re too big for me anyway.”
“Thanks.” He pulled them on. A cool breeze sighed through the pines and he shivered, and wrapped his arms around his bare torso, moving from one foot to the other.
He would freeze to death and it would be her fault. She couldn’t do it, not even if he deserved it.
She blew out an irritated breath. “Fine, I’m not a monster. I can’t let even you freeze to death. Climb in.” She held out a corner of her blanket shelter. “But only for a few minutes.”
He scooted in to the spot the dog had warmed up and tried to nestle in and wrap his arms around her.
She steeled herself against the urge to slide down into his surprisingly warm embrace and moved away. “None of that. You owe me an explanation. Talk.”
“I’m not sure where to start.” He tilted his head back and stared at the late afternoon sky piled high with heavy clouds.
“How about you start with the truth? Who are you?”
“I didn’t lie to you, Gwynn. My name really is Aaron. Aaron Bardolf.”
“Oh yeah? I heard you talking to that man. You knew the phone worked. What do you call that if it isn’t lying?”
“I never lied, Gwynn. I just didn’t tell you everything I knew.”
“And you didn’t tell me you worked for that loan shark.” Her anger was back, making a nice hot ball of rage in the center of her chest. “I’m so stupid, I thought you were a nice guy. Now I find out you’re a criminal.”
“Hey, I’m only a temporary criminal.” He shifted his weight and his thigh pressed into hers.
She ignored the heat that flashed low in her belly.
“Sure. That’s what they all say.” Her dad included.
“Mike Leon stole a piece of land I was responsible for and I needed to get it back. Getting the job with him was the best way.”
“What are you talking about? What job?”
Suddenly, she could feel every foot of the high altitude as she sucked freezing cold air too fast into aching lungs.
This was all wrong.
He was supposed to tell her it was all a lie or a misunderstanding. But he wasn’t doing that. Which meant he’d known about her dad, known about the money—he’d known about her.
He hadn’t rescued her. He’d conned her.
“Look, it’s cold and you need warmer clothes. We should go back to the cabin and talk there.”
She was ready to go back. Anything to get out of this close intense proximity and away from him.
Trying to look anywhere but at his face, she stared at his bare feet and said the first thing that popped into her mind. “Are you going to be able to make it back with no shoes?”
Stupid Gwynn. If she’d been alone, she would have slapped her forehead. Who cared if he had shoes? He’d lied to her.
“You didn’t get it, did you? I’ll be fine. I’m a wolf.” At her puzzled stare, he ran a hand through his hair. “That dog you just met. That was me.”
He was officially crazy. “Umm, okay.” She eased another couple of inches away. If she ran, did she stand any chance of getting away? “Look, we’ll just go back to the cabin and—”
He took her arm. “Gwynn. I know it sounds insane, but...I’m a wolf shifter. I change from human to wolf. And back. “His face, his eyes, they all said one thing. He believed it.
The hair on the back of her neck rose and her heart sped in a frightening rhythm. She was snugged up next to a crazy of the most dangerous kind, the kind that believed his delusion.
She had to get away.
“Okay, you aren’t going to get it until I change in front of you.” He stood up and began taking off his jeans.
“You’re taking off your clothes?” She bolted up too. “No way are you getting naked again.”
He’d already stood gorgeous and nude in the snow. He might be crazy, might be a criminal, but he was still the hottest guy she’d ever been with. Finally, too late, she understood her girlfriends always going for the wrong guys—hot, sexy, and insane.
“Watch.” His eyes hazed over.
His skin rippled and shivered. Strange bumps and bulges appeared, there and then gone, like the backs of whales in the ocean. And then...she couldn’t look anymore. What happened to Aaron stretched the boundaries of her mind in a way no one should ever face.
And then it was over.
Instead of Aaron, the dog stood in his place. No, not a dog. The sheer size and mass should have told her earlier he wasn’t a dog, but she’d seen what she’d wanted to see. This was a wolf, large and powerful, and the intelligence shining in his silvery gray eyes was definitely more than animal.
He padded over to her and extended his nose. She flinched back. He whined, bowed his head, and backed away. He paused. Gwynn thought she saw pain and apology in those eyes, but before she could respond, the rippling started the process in reverse.
Wolf to human. Aaron was back.
Tiny infinitesimal shakes started in her center, working their way out until she thought she’d shatter from the inside out.
Aaron stretched out his hand. “Gwynn, I’m sorry. I should have told you earlier.”
She shook her head violently from side-to-side, as if she could shake out the memory of what she’d just seen. “Don’t touch me.” She backed away, the over-large boots she wore slipping in the snow, her voice rising higher and higher. “Don’t even come close. I don’t want you near me.”
Her mind was as empty and clean as a fresh layer of fluffy white snowflakes. She didn’t believe, couldn’t believe, what she’d just seen. But it didn’t matter whether or not she believed. It didn’t even matter if Aaron was a wolf or human, or from some other planet.
What mattered was he’d lied to her. About everything.
Heat flashed through her frozen body, propelling her past the fear and pain straight into a chilly numbness where the only thing she felt was anger. “We’re going back to the cabin. And you’re going to help me get out of here. I’m going home.”
“Gwynn, wait—”
“No. I’m done listening.” She shook out and folded up the blanket. “I’m cold and tired and hungry. And I want to go home.” She pushed his jeans with one foot. “I guess you’re traveling without these?”
“Can you put them in the pack?” His voice held that cautious note that drove her crazy, the one that said: some woman is acting totally out of control and the men in her life had better watch out!
Well, she wasn’t the one at fault here. And she wasn’t crazy. At least she hoped not. Maybe she was crazy, but she couldn’t deal with it now. She had to get the hell off of this mountain. She had to deal with survival.
For the third time, her stomach twisted as she watched her lover shift his shape. Ex-lover. None of that mattered now, what mattered was getting home where she could try to put her shattered life back together and lick her wounds in peace.
The hike back was silent. Gwynn struggled on the steep path in the fresh snow, glad she had something to distract her from the ache inside that threatened to take her down. All she wanted to do was go home to her lonely apartment and cry. But fate seemed to be against her, and instead, she had to swallow her pain and deal.
She slipped, nearly going to her knees and the wolf moved next to her. Instinctively, she caught herself on his shoulder. “Thanks.” She levered back to standing, letting go and moving as far away as fast as she could.
She still couldn’t wrap her tired head around Aaron’s transformation. If it weren’t for the fact that she was physically almost at the end, she would think this was a dream. But dreams were never this cold, this tiring, or this real.
They were almost to the cabin when Aaron’s ears pricked forward. He darted in front of her, forcing her to halt.
“Hey!”
His ears flicked toward the cabin and she paused, listening. She could just catch the muted sound of voices. She bit her lip hard.
Possibly male. She couldn’t tell what they were saying or how many there were. The wolf nudged her backward into the brush. It was difficult to move, but she forced fear-frozen limbs to move and hide on the side of the trail. The wolf melted into the woods.
Gwynn waited in the cold, lonely silence.
It seemed like an hour, but it couldn’t have been more than a few minutes before the wolf came back and nudged her away from the cabin, back the way they’d come. Close to the Y, he shifted again. “There are two men. They’re here for you. And they’re pissed.”
“What’s going on. You never explained what’s going on!”
“Sh. Lower your voice.” Aaron’s face was hard. “We don’t have much time. We need to get back to the Jeep and get out of here.”
“Wait, you have a Jeep?” The now ever-present anger surged again. “You could have driven me back to town yesterday?”
“Keep your voice down.”
Gwynn counted to ten before whispering, “I’ll keep my voice down, but I need an explanation. Now.”
Aaron put his face right next to hers. He was close, too close. His mouth almost touched her ear and her traitor body reacted, sending exciting messages humming down her nerves. Damn, she was screwed up. How could it be that after all his betrayal she could still want him?
“My grandfather lost a piece of land that connects our property with the back range of the national forest. We need that land. Leon wanted to sell it to developers. Condos right next to us would be a disaster. He wouldn’t sell it back at first, but then the market dived, the economy sucks, and now he can’t get rid of it. But by then he knew it was important to me, and he’s been holding it over my head while he waits for the market to come back. Leon finally said he’d sell it to me when he asked me to watch you.”
“Go on.” She hadn’t thought her day could get any worse. She was wrong.
“I thought he would let you go. Your dad owes a lot of money and Leon wants to scare him. But your dad isn’t paying up, and this morning Leon changed his mind. Now Leon wants to hand you over to a friend of his, for the money.”
Her stomach twisted. “You’re a thug. A gangbanger.”
“Gwynn, you have to believe me. I’ve never done anything like this for Leon before. I only pick up money. My size and muscle are scary enough that everyone pays up.”
“You work for a loan shark.” Gwynn backed away, straight into a tree. She held tight to trunk, her nails digging into the bark. “I can’t believe I trusted you.”
Aaron’s voice rose. “No. That’s not me!” He took a deep breath, dropping his voice again. “My grandfather was devastated. He was desperate, and so was I.”
Nausea swamped her.
Aaron was the muscle for someone who planned to sell her for her father’s debts. How could she have fallen for him? How could she not have known at some level he was rotten?
“Look,” he said, “let’s get to the Jeep and somewhere we can talk. And I’ll explain.”
“All right.” She didn’t have any choice. She would go to the Jeep but the second they were away from the criminals—that was the second she’d be gone.
***
AARON WISHED GWYNN had stolen his shoes when she’d fled. His feet were tough, and his high metabolism kept away the frostbite, but the continuous cold was an added misery to his guilty conscience and bruised heart.
He broke a path through the deep snowdrifts, working his way through the trees and around the edge of the property until they were within twenty feet of the road. A black SUV blocked the drive to the cabin, standing between them and the shed. But that wasn’t Aaron’s real problem. His real problem lay in convincing Gwynn he wasn’t a criminal and that he’d never meant to harm her.
It hurt. Man, it hurt. Her lack of belief, her lack of understanding of his motivations and actions hurt like a car wreck. The ache almost pushed him to violence.
He felt betrayed. Just like when he’d decided to go after the land and the pack had kicked him out. After it had been swindled out from under his grandfather by Leon, and the law had let them down, he’d seen no choice but to join the organization and wait for an opportunity to get the ranch back. But the pack didn’t see it as a viable option, so he’d gone rogue.
The misery of separation from his pack was like a muscle ache he’d gotten used to. Not this thing with Gwynn. The anger and pain she wore like armor deflected every effort he made to talk to her, and it was driving him crazy. His wolf hummed under his surface, driving him to keep trying.
He needed her to talk to him. He needed to make her understand. He needed to claim her.
The Fever coursed under his skin like an extra pulse in his blood. He’d almost lost control when he’d leaned in close to her, whispered his confession in her ear, smelled her scent. He wanted to throw her down in the snow and plunge into her and sink his teeth in her neck. Take his mate.
But she was still in danger.
And she didn’t want him.
The awareness of the threat to Gwynn held the claiming fever at bay. For now. But he had no idea when it would burst forth from its dam and rush over, engulfing both him and Gwynn in its heat.
Rehashing the situation wasn’t helping. If he wasn’t careful, he’d be so absorbed in Gwynn, he’d make a mistake. He couldn’t risk that. He’d caused Gwynn enough trouble.
He focused on the cold, on his feet, on the danger, anything to get his mind off of the alluring scent coming from his woman.
“Okay, on my mark we’ll sneak down to the shed. I’ll work the padlock, and you keep a lookout. Once I’m in, don’t wait. Get into the Jeep as soon as you can.” From their vantage point behind the trees, he could see a short way up the drive where it curved to the cabin. There was no sign of Leon’s men.
“You have the key for the Jeep?”
“There’s an extra set hidden in the shed.” He wanted to hug her tight, reassure himself she wasn’t going to disappear, but he knew she wouldn’t bear his touch. He growled under his breath with frustration. He couldn’t lose her now. Not when he finally had his property back. Not when he could finally get back into the pack.
Everything he’d ever wanted was just within his reach. He couldn’t stop now.
He eased out from behind the tree. Once out in the open, he moved fast to the shed and twirled the lock. Forty-five, twenty-two, six. He tugged. It didn’t open.
Damn. Nick should have replaced the rusty thing. He should have replaced it, but he was saving every penny to pay off the land. He started again. Forty-five, twenty-two, six. He’d reached the last number when he heard something. His ears strained to catch the voices on the wind. Leon’s guys were on the move.
He jerked the lock. Damn, damn, damn. He spun it again. Third time better be the fucking charm. Forty-five, twenty-two. The men’s voices grew louder as they came down the drive. Aaron’s muscles bunched with tension.
Six and click. The lock opened. He ripped it off, jerking the door nearly off its hinges in his desperation to get it open. Gwynn ran into the open just as Leon’s men came around the corner and Aaron’s heart dropped.