Tagging Her Lynx (Alaska Lynx Clan) Page 4

  Chloe remained silent but let Gretchen lead her into the bedroom. She sat on the bed and gazed at the woman. She certainly seemed to know her way around Granger's closet. Chloe's eyes narrowed. A flare of jealousy rose within. Could she trust this woman?

  "How long have you known Granger?" Her hands balled the hem of her shirt.

  The other woman turned, her arms laden with clothes. "Forever. His parents and mine played a big part in finding this area for us."

  She tossed the clothes on the bed and turned back to dig through the shoes. "We'll have to stuff some socks in the toes of his boots, but I think you'll manage to walk okay in them."

  Gretchen returned and sat on the edge of the bed. "Anyway, our parents are all gone now. They fought the good fight, created a safe haven for the Lynx, and now Granger is the alpha." She smiled, leaned over, and bumped shoulders with Chloe. "Along with you, my alpha friend."

  "How do you know that?" She snorted. "Is it kind of like having loser painted on my forehead?"

  Gretchen laughed. "No, it's instinct. You feel it too. You just don't recognize the signs. That's why you're fighting with wanting to talk to me and pulling my hair out one at a time for daring to speak about Granger."

  It didn't take long for her new friend to bundle her up and push her outside. Lifting one heavy boot at a time, she trudged along behind Gretchen. Her breath billowed puffs of white mist in front of her face. By the time they'd finish walking around, she'd be ten pounds lighter and dead to the world.

  "That's my cabin over there." Gretchen stopped.

  Chloe halted, lifted her head, and gazed in the direction she pointed toward. "I bet it's beautiful in the summertime with all the birch trees scattered around the cabins."

  Gretchen nodded. "Here come Johnny and Darren."

  Chloe backed up the closer the men came. "I…I don't—"

  Her gaze locked on the darker-haired man. She shook her head in denial. Her body hummed from recognition, and the need to shift pricked at the back of her spine.

  In her haste to kick off Granger's oversize boots, she tumbled in the snow and scrambled to rise. She ran back in the direction they had walked from. Her need to escape from the dark-haired man was much stronger than her desire to shift somewhere in private.

  "Chloe!"

  She continued to run, ignoring the way her stockinged feet picked up clumps of snow and slowed her down. Intent on finding somewhere to hide, she fell against the door of Granger's house and struggled to turn the knob with Granger's mittens still on her hands.

  "Come on, come on." She glanced over her shoulder.

  All three shifters headed toward the cabin. She opened the door, closed and locked it, and hurried to open a window at the back of the house. Throwing off the many layers of clothes, she barely removed her shirt as her body morphed into her lynx.

  Bang!

  Bang!

  Bang!

  She whipped her head toward the door, bared her teeth, and snarled.

  "Chloe! Open up!"

  In one leap, she bound through the window and into the woods, her paws finding traction over the snow and taking her farther away from the danger than she'd ever achieve in her human body.

  "What's wrong?"

  She slowed down, stopped, and turned around. The others hadn't caught up with her yet. She had to keep going.

  "Chloe. Answer me." Granger's voice grew deeper in her head. "Are you in trouble?"

  A low mew came from her throat, and she realized her ability to speak aloud was gone. She concentrated.

  "Granger?" She hunkered down in the snow. "Don't go back to your house."

  "What's happening? I can sense your fear."

  Spotting a fallen log that stuck out from the snow, she crawled over and squeezed below it. "One of your people is the lynx that bit me."

  "That's not possible."

  "I don't lie!" Chloe left the confines of the log. "I won't wait around for that thing to hurt me worse."

  "Chloe!"

  Snowflakes fell the farther Chloe traveled away from the area Granger called home. Her tail twitched, and the pace she set for herself dropped. Nerves along her fur-covered back quivered. She searched for somewhere to hide. Nothing but the flat lands of Alaska where the trees grew scarce met her gaze, and her options dwindled.

  "Oh God, not now. I can't shift out here." Her bones stretched and grew heavier. Unable to move, she willed the process to stop.

  "Aningan. Concentrate."

  The freezing temperature and blowing snow bore into her skin to chill her marrow. Hot flames shot up from the soles of her feet, burning the skin in seconds. She'd never make it back to the cabin with no clothes on. Even if she did, that man waited there to hurt her again.

  "Damn it, Chloe. Hold on, I'm coming."

  One precarious barefooted step at a time, she worked her way over to the fallen tree. She attempted to brush the snow off the log. Leaning over on the wood, she pulled her feet out of the snow and lay across the makeshift platform, exhausted. Shivers racked her body. Unable to pull her legs up into a fetal position to form a ball of warmth with her body, she waited for Granger.

  Chapter Five

  Granger inhaled through his nostrils and kept his mouth pressed firmly shut. The adrenaline spiking in his veins gave him an extra boost of protection against the weather. His legs flew over the powdered snow. He ran on automatic pilot because his mind screamed for Chloe to pay attention.

  She had stopped communicating with him, and the need to find her drove him forward. He still had five more minutes, give or take, before reaching the cabin. He hoped to hell she hadn't wandered too far away.

  He didn't understand her fear over the distance that separated them. The shifters took harming a human seriously. They either killed the offender or left him to live alone. There was no middle ground.

  To harm a child was unthinkable. They'd certainly never leave one alone all these years to suffer through the changes and mystery of their new life without helping in some way. Did Chloe have flashbacks of the attack in her childhood?

  "Aningan, please answer me. I'm coming up on my cabin now. Where are you?" Granger didn't bother going inside the cabin, but called throughout the area for Gretchen. "Where is my woman?"

  "Johnny and your brother are with me. We are searching in the northeast woods, about two miles out. None of us can pick up her scent." Gretchen panted "I'm so sorry, Granger. I didn't—"

  "Find her!"

  He broke through the brush and headed west from the back of the cabin. She'd have sought out this area because of the denser foliage. With fear driving her forward, she'd not think ahead but run blindly, looking to flee to safety.

  The sweet, almost flowery scent of his life mate grew stronger. He picked up his pace. A spot of blue lay on top of the white landscape.

  At finding his clothes that Chloe wore earlier scattered around, he let his jaw drop and sucked in a lungful of air. He lowered his head. Chloe wouldn't stand a chance out in these elements in her human form.

  "Please." Granger passed on every ounce of love in his body to his mate.

  "Granger?" Chloe's voice came back weak and soft. "I can't…"

  "Can't what, baby?" He slunk over the snow.

  "Change."

  Up ahead, draped over a log covered white with a blanket of snow, lay Chloe. He'd almost missed her. He burst over the distance separating them.

  Her arm hung over the side of the log, and he rubbed his face against her cold fingers. It'd do him no good in this weather to change form and carry her home. She'd traveled too far from the cabin, and already he could feel her heartbeat slowing down.

  "Concentrate with me, Aningan." Granger purred. "I need to get you into your lynx. You'll gain your energy back and be warm."

  It took all his power to start her transformation. His heart rate picked up the second she landed on all four paws beside him. He arched his neck and swiped the side of her torso. She crouched down in the snow and submitted.
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  "I'm sorry." Chloe trilled deep in her chest.

  Granger straddled her body and nipped at the fold of her neck. "Don't. Ever. Run away."

  "You don't understand. I can't go back with you." She shook her head to get the snowflakes off her whiskers. "The lynx that bit me all those years ago is one of your people."

  "How do you know?" He thrust down on her ass. She must learn to obey.

  She pressed back against him. "I don't know. I could just tell. You have to believe me."

  He purred. "I do. He sank his teeth into her fur and pulled. "You have to trust me. We will go back to my cabin, and you will let me find this person. I'll get to the bottom of this."

  It didn't take long to make their way back to the cabin. Once inside, he shifted with Chloe and set about getting her more clothes. He didn't find her bag, which Derrick had promised to bring back with him. That must have meant business at the refuge was taking longer than they had hoped.

  "Here. Put these on." He thrust the clothes into her arms and hurried to dress himself.

  She laid the pile on the couch and slipped her feet in the sweatpants. "Granger, I'm sorry. I see how foolish it was to run." She reached over for a sweatshirt. "All the different feelings, though…First Gretchen, and then when I saw those two men walking toward us." She shook her head. "I'm sorry."

  Granger knelt down in front of her. His hands cupped each side of her head, forcing her to meet his gaze. He stroked the skin below her eyes with his thumbs, wiping away all traces of the tears she shed earlier.

  "I'll take away your fears." He kissed eyelids. "Can I trust you to stay in the cabin? You may lock the door. I'll knock when I come back."

  Chloe opened her eyes and nodded.

  He slipped out the cabin and ran to Gretchen's house. Pounding on the door, he bounced on the balls of his feet to keep warm. He'd find out what set Chloe off and fix the problem.

  "Granger! Come in." Gretchen stepped back. "I'm so sorry."

  She swallowed hard enough that Granger heard it. He waved off her apology. "Who are the two men that came up to you on the walk with Chloe earlier?"

  She frowned. "Johnny and Darren, but they helped in the search. They did nothing wrong. One minute Chloe was fine, and the next…whoosh! She was gone."

  Granger nodded. "Thank you."

  He turned to leave, but Gretchen grabbed his arm. He snarled and gazed down at her hand clutching his wrist. She quickly let go.

  "Honest, Granger. They didn't do anything." A single tear trailed down her cheek.

  The click of the door shutting closed in the quiet of the evening echoed inside Granger's chest. Chloe said the dark-haired man scared her. Johnny had blond hair. Damn it!

  He marched over to the cabin across from his, pounded on the door, and added a swift kick in case it wasn't locked. "Open up!"

  "I'm coming, I'm coming. If your balls are freezing, hold on to them tighter."

  The door swung open. Granger hauled back his arm and drove his fist into the man's jaw. He flew across the room and landed on his back. Granger stalked into the cabin, ready to do more damage.

  "What the fuck is your problem, brother?" The man scrambled to his feet, his hands up in front of his chest, letting Granger know he'd not get another free shot in.

  Granger's lip curled. "Why would my life mate believe you bit her?"

  "Fucking hell?" He rubbed his jaw. "I haven't bitten anyone. I wouldn't, you know that. I didn't even get a chance to meet her before she ran off."

  Granger stared him down, sighed, and stepped back to shut the door. Darren wasn't lying.

  "What's going on? Why would she think I bit her?" Darren walked to the fridge, lifted out two bottles of beer, and handed one to Granger.

  Granger took the beer and sat down at the table. "She's scared. Like I explained earlier to everyone, she's not natural born, and her feelings… This is all very confusing to her. Hell, she's an alpha, but she can't even shift on her own yet. She almost killed herself earlier."

  He took a long swig of beer. "I found her butt naked and almost dead out in this snowstorm."

  "Damn." Darren sat down across from him at the table. "She just needs time. She'll come around, right?"

  Granger picked at the label on the bottle. "That's the thing. I don't know how much time we have. The hunters know about her."

  "Shit."

  "I'm going to have to scale back on helping the men and put Chloe through training. The faster she learns her alpha skills, the better I'll feel." Granger chugged back the rest of his beer. "I need you to come over to the cabin with me. She needs to see that you're not the man she believes bit her."

  "Sure. Anything." Darren finished his beer, collected Granger's bottle, and dumped them into the recycle bin. "Let me grab a coat."

  ***

  The wind blew the door out of Granger's hand. He ducked his head to protect his face from the pelting snow. The northern winds blew like a bitch, and by morning there would be another couple of feet of snow on the ground.

  At his cabin door, Granger grabbed Darren's coat sleeve and leaned over. "She's not expecting you. Try to look friendly so you don't scare her more."

  Darren flashed his white teeth and nodded. "By the way, congratulations on finding your life mate. You're a lucky son of a bitch."

  Granger shook his head. His brother dallied with Gretchen, but somewhere out there was Darren's mate; he had yet to find her. Until he found Chloe, Granger had no idea there was a difference between sex with a female and sex with his life mate.

  "Remember, put on your happy face." Granger narrowed his eyes. "I don't want her bolting again." Then his expression softened, and he said in a low voice, "I can't lose her."

  Darren grinned. "Fuck dude, you've fallen hard. I never would have dreamed I'd ever hear you say something like that about a woman." He laughed. "You're so tagged!"

  Chapter Six

  The clomping on the floor roused Chloe from her nap. She opened her eyes, smiled, and squirmed to sit up on the couch. Granger stood inside the doorway, covered in snow, his long hair windblown and heat in his eyes.

  Another person stepped out from behind him, and she screamed. Shrinking back into the corner of the couch, she hugged her arms to her chest and squeezed her eyes shut. Why did he bring back that man? He'd harm her again, or worse, he'd hurt Granger.

  She opened her eyes, threw off the blanket, and launched herself at the man with her fingers spread out, ready to claw him to death. Granger caught her by her middle and hauled her back.

  "Let me go!" She swung her arms, trying to do some damage, but Granger picked her up. "He's the one who bit me, you dumbass!"

  "Settle down, Aningan. He is my brother." He carried her to the couch and sat down, keeping his arms wrapped tight around her to prevent her from trying to attack the man again.

  "I don't care. He's dangerous. Look what he did to me!" She pulled up her sleeve and showed him the ugly thick scar where the infection festered after she was bitten. "Tell me he's not dangerous now."

  "Sh…" Granger rested his head beside Chloe's and looked at his brother. "Sit down. Let's get to the bottom of this."

  The man sidestepped over to the chair on the other side of the room, never turning his back on them. Chloe stopped thrashing about but glared at the man. No way in hell would she trust him to not come after one of them.

  "Chloe, this is my younger brother Darren." Granger leaned his head back. "Darren, my life mate, Chloe. Years ago she was bitten at her family's wild animal refuge by who we think is a rogue shifter."

  Darren shook his head. "I'm sorry."

  "Go to hell!" Chloe snarled. "You know exactly what happened that day. I opened the cage to pet you, and you attacked me! I almost died afterward."

  "I think you can understand why she is so upset." Granger let up on the pressure around her waist. "She was very young. Innocent. Then, to go through the transformation…" He shook his head and pulled Chloe back to his chest. "You've got to realize
that none of the people here would ever do that to a child." He raised his gaze toward his brother. "Right, Darren?"

  No response. Granger repeated, "Darren?" His tone was laced with a trace of urgency.

  Granger's brother stared at her, inhaled, and held his breath. She narrowed her eyes. Guilt played all over his face. Why couldn't Granger see it?

  "Shit." Darren rubbed both hands over his face.

  Granger's hands tightened against her waist. "Darren? Tell her it wasn't you."

  His brother raised his chin. His jaw muscle twitched. "I can't."

  Granger tossed her off his lap and hurled himself against Darren. He barely had time to stand up when Granger slammed him against the log pilings of the cabin wall. She stood, unsure whether to help Granger in case the man turned on him or to flee for her own safety.

  "Don't move!"

  She froze.

  "You better start explaining…" Granger slammed Darren's head against the logs again. "Now!"

  "I will!" Darren hung his head. "I will," he said again, his voice full of remorse.

  Granger gave him one more slam against the side of the cabin. "Spit it out or so help me, I'll kill you myself."

  He walked backward to Chloe and wrapped his arms around her. Granger shook with anger. Chloe found herself stroking his back, trying to calm the rage building up inside her mate. She frowned.

  He'd spoken the truth. Granger would kill his own brother for her. She sensed it deep inside.

  "It was back when I lost Shawn." Darren sank down against the wall, his arms limp at his sides. "I had just watched them kill Mom and Dad. The hunters got hold of both of us, but Shawn escaped, and they shot him down not thirty feet away from me."

  Granger stiffened. She glanced back and forth between the two brothers. The pain in the room was palpable.

  "Go on. Chloe needs to hear what happened."

  Darren wiped his face. "I just wanted to go home. I wanted to find Granger to see if I had any family left." He squeezed his eyes shut. "I didn't mean to hurt you. I just wanted to go home." He opened his eyes and stared right at Chloe. "In my head, I imagined Shawn waiting for me, but my nightmare really happened." He sniffed. "I never meant to hurt you, but I had to go home."