They also never asked why they hadn’t seen him shift since the study. He’d tried shifting once. He wouldn’t do it again. Not willingly, because his wolf wouldn’t give him the body back. And no matter how bad the wolf injured him, Asa refused to shift into his wolf to heal. Probably what the wolf was trying to do, as well. The wolf seemed to have two agendas which would serve him. Either kill Asa or injure him so very badly that he was forced to shift in order to live, and then the wolf would never give him the body back.
Damned beast was wily, that was for sure.
In the cockpit of the plane, he glanced at Autumn, sitting next to him, taking in the wild beauty that was Alaska. The snow on the mountain tops. The green of the trees. The white caps in the indigo ocean. The valleys, the peaks. The rivers, more than 12,000 of them. Many unnamed. The clear sky and unpolluted land.
An hour later, she was still in her sunglasses—he’d donned his own, the sun having decided to come out full-force and blinding against the snow. She’d taken the hat off and shaken reddish-blonde locks out, hanging in waves down to the middle of her back. Her face was like a child’s, mouth occasionally dropping in amazement as she stared at the scenery.
Asa knew exactly what she was feeling. He’d gone through the exact same range of emotions when he’d first come to the region. Seeing her reaction only served to heighten his awareness of how lucky he was that he and his brothers had chosen Alaska as their home. Sure, the cold was a bitch at times, but when they were holed up in their underground bunker, where they had all the amenities one could possibly want, the cold didn’t seem to matter much. Not to mention, their wolves loved exploring the wild when the men gave in to the shift and turned lupine.
Of course, that had been before his wolf had gone psycho on him. Now, he didn’t dare shift into the beast. His brothers went without him.
He brought the plane to the ground, helped Autumn out, then reached for her oversize traveling bag. It was too weighty to only have clothes, making him wonder yet again what she was about. Who was Autumn Emerson? Why did she hide her face so diligently in Anchorage? What was in her bag that made it so heavy?
“If you’ll wait in the vehicle, I’ll put the plane away and join you. Do you have an agenda for where you’d like to go and when?”
He had no idea whether she was sightseeing, here to do some type of ecology research, looking for land to buy, or going to visit family somewhere off-the-grid. He found himself, not for the first time, cursing out Davin in his mind. He’d set this gig up. He’d taken virtually no information down but had been quick to grab the funds. After seeing the down payment, Asa couldn’t have blamed Davin for signing her on. Their friend Vince’s little girl still had some out-of-this-world medical bills, and the Wulfsen brothers wanted to help with that. But damn, couldn’t Davin have gotten more information about the job?
“I’m hoping not to be here long enough to worry about long-term sleeping arrangements.”
“Ohh-kay.” That was it? That was all she had? He helped her into the Hummer.
“Nice,” she commented, checking out the interior while he closed the door and returned to the plane. They had their own hanger where they kept several vehicles, the plane being one of them.
Four hours later, he was still driving the Hummer and she was scanning the countryside.
He sighed his frustration, not caring if it irritated her. His wolf was wreaking havoc on him, had been for the last two hours. It took all of Asa’s concentration to keep the wolf from taking over and sending him out into the woods to self-harm. Oddly enough, the wolf didn’t seem to be interested in having him ram the Hummer into a mountainside. Asa had spent the better part of an hour trying to figure out why. Every time he indicated to the wolf that he was pushing him toward the kind of madness that would have him driving the Hummer into the mountainside or off a steep cliff, the wolf would back off.
It’s the woman, Asa surmised. The wolf didn’t want to see the woman harmed. Nice to know your weakness, you motherfucker.
Asa didn’t think this thought where his wolf would hear it. Nope. He kept this tidbit of knowledge all to himself. But he had the bastard’s number. Now the question was, did the wolf care for her, or would it do the same, regardless of who was with him? The beast had never pushed Asa to hurt himself in such a way that would hurt his brothers, too. So, huh, a mystery. Did the wolf feel that way for all other people? He’d have to be around more people in order to find out, and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to risk it. He behaved too erratically when the wolf battled him for control. What if he lost his shit and hurt a stranger? What if the wolf’s protectiveness only extended to his brothers? And now to this woman. But why her? He couldn’t ask the wolf. The damned beast would never be truthful with him. The beast had proven this already.
A low rumbling sound caught his attention. “You’re hungry.”
“A little,” she admitted.
“The cabin’s stocked. We can drop off your bag, and you can grab a bite. We’ve got cold cuts and bread there. Then we can come back and finish your…” What was he to call it? This seemed like a search, but a search for what? “We can come back and you can resume your hunt. I can help you if you tell me what you’re looking for.”
“I’m searching for a person. Where’s the cabin?”
His head felt like it was spinning, between her and his wolf not answering a simple question forthrightly. “It’s less than five minutes away. What person? You are aware we’re not exactly in the city, where you can go to someone’s neighborhood and find them, right? This isn’t so easy. These are the woods. There’s no city map, no addresses like that. There’s no google. Not like you’re used to, I’m sure.”
“I am hungry.” She turned her face away, and her reflection in the window was resolute, her jaw set, and her eyes unreadable behind those oversize mirrored sunglasses of hers.
“No problem.” He couldn’t wait to get rid of her, at least for a bit, while he dealt with his wolf. Hopefully, he could somehow put his wolf on hold; otherwise, she’d be stuck at the cabin with no ride for a few days while he recuperated from whatever his wolf did to him. Sure, she had some food, but she seemed headstrong enough to decide to head out. On foot. And they were expecting weather. He wouldn’t have advised her to drive around during a storm, but being on foot would be suicide.
Moments later, they were at the cabin. Might not be what she was accustomed to, he figured, since she seemed like a city gal, but it had an upgraded kitchen with running water, new cabinets and countertops, a shower closet, and a woodstove. The bedroom was in the upstairs loft, large enough for a bed and space for a dresser, with built-in lit bookshelves and custom storage cubbies.
Sequestered out of sight, the 900 square-foot cabin and its natural lakeside surroundings were bound to charm. Even had a firepit to gather around and listen to the loons calling on a nearby lake.
To Asa, the cabin was like a mansion, with its well-crafted interior—customized by the Wulfsen brothers—its countertops, burlwood adornments, and cozy wood stove. Not to mention when she stepped out the back door, she’d find a nice-sized deck.
Yeah, Davin seemed to have given her Asa’s favorite cabin. They had a half-dozen of them scattered about the property, so it wasn’t like Asa couldn’t find a new favorite if he felt like roughing it while she was in town. Not to mention, this Autumn woman probably wasn’t planning to stick around long. She’d probably miss her city living and her lattes.