Page 3 of Berserker Devotion

She nudged him again and then grabbed the sleeve of his jacket when he didn't react. She shook his arm hard. Her teeth pierced the fabric of the garment, and little puffs of down fluttered out.

Still no response from the man, but at least he breathed evenly. It appeared, he'd somehow knocked himself out.

Her wolf huffed. Talented.

Nora looked around the glen, as if she'd find something or someone to help her. Of course, she found nothing and nobody. Except for the birds, she and the man were alone.

She filled her mouth with snow. The cold against her teeth gave her a brain freeze, and she spat it out into the man's face with a little more force than necessary. She’d hoped it would revive him, but all it did was knock off the sunglasses and revealed more of his handsome face.

His breath did hitch for a moment but then resumed its steady inhales and exhales. His eyelids didn't even flutter. For all appearances, the man looked like he'd just lied down for a nice little nap in the middle of a snowdrift.

Since he wasn't all-human, he probably wouldn't freeze to death if she just left him here. However, if he knew where her uncle was or what had happened to him, then she wanted to interrogate him.Somehow, she needed to get him back to her uncle's cabin and secure him. But they were quite some distance away from that cabin.

It would only take her minutes to run back on her own. Having to drag this guy with her, would slow her down severely.

She puffed out a breath of air. It misted in the cold, as she contemplated her options.

In wolf form, she traveled faster through the snow, but there was no way to carry the man. In human form, she'd be able to lift him—wolf shifters were stronger than regular humans—but she'd be naked, which didn't bother her except walking barefoot in snow was cold and painful.

Nora eyed the man's boots. They were way too big for her feet. If she tried to walk in them, her feet would just slip out. Also, the thought of wearing a stranger's sweaty footwear grossed her out.

She looked at the trail she'd broken from the cabin to this glen and made her choice. She would have to drag him through the snow while in wolf form.

She tried to put the sunglasses back on the man's face, but they refused to cooperate. Finally, she nudged the frames into their folded position and inside the man's jacket. She loved running as her natural beast, but sometimes she missed having thumbs.

A thorough sniff-down didn't reveal any weapons in his pockets. She didn't bother trying to open them since she only smelled snacks, no metal of guns or knives.

Her stomach growled. It had been a while since she'd eaten, and her wolf burned more calories than a human. Maybe she'd relieve the man of some of his granola bars once she got him back to her uncle's cabin. It was the least he owed her for not leaving him passed out in the cold snow.

Gripping the collar of the man's fluffy jacket, she walked backward down the trail she'd broken through the deep snow, dragging the man with her.

His weight, combined with the effort of walking backward, made progress slow. Plus, his ridiculously large boots kept catching on twigs and pebbles in the snow. She had to switch her bite grip several times on the jacket collar because her jaw ached with the effort of moving him and also from frustration making her clench down harder than necessary.

At one point, the man groaned, and she stopped to see if he would wake up. Although his eyelids fluttered for a moment, he remained unconscious, and so she continued her slow and awkward trek.

More than an hour later, she finally reached the outskirts of the clearing in which the cabin stood. She rested and caught her breath before she dug in again and dragged her load to the steps of her uncle's rustic home. The expensive down jacket looked a mess. Her teeth had caused small feathers to leak from the collar, plus twigs and other sharp things on the trail had shredded most of the back of the garment.

Dark clouds had rolled in while she’d dragged the man through the forest, and now fat snowflakes fell from the sky. The trail she’s broken would fill and disappear again.

Shifting into human form, Nora risked leaving the man for the few minutes it took her to enter the cabin and get dressed. She then returned outside and hoisted him up the steps and inside.

All she had to do now was to secure her prisoner, wait for him to regain consciousness, and then interrogate him until he told her what had happened to her uncle.

CHAPTER 3

Nora hurried to start a fire in the wood stove inside the cabin. Once the sun disappeared behind clouds, the temperature plummeted. The only heating source in the simple abode was the stove. She removed the man's wet outer garments and pants and spread them out over the three chairs that surrounded the small table in one corner. Uncle Karl had made the set. Why he decided on only three chairs had never been clear. Against one wall, a couch faced a low coffee table. Across the room, against the opposite wall, a queen size bed stood, covered by a homemade quilt.

Nora had spent the last three nights trying to sleep in that bed while she worried about where her uncle was. Karl knew she was on her way for a visit. He would have left a note for her if he had to go out for longer than a few hours. And he’d left his satellite phone behind.

She dumped the man on top of the quilt, pulled off his long-sleeved shirt, and then the t-shirt he wore under that. Refusing to get distracted bythe prime example of male athleticism that was his upper body, she tied his hands to the headboard. Not an ounce of fat graced his body. No wonder he’d been so heavy to drag through the snow.

Dark blond hairs the same color as the crew cut that had hidden under the knit cap covered his muscular chest, and she could see he was a fighter from the scars he bore. White lines from probable knife wounds crisscrossed his tanned skin. His abdominal region belonged on the cover of one of the steamy romance novels she loved to read. Still, he was her prey, and she needed to interrogate him so she kept it professional. Except for maybe one accidental brush of her fingers against his rippled abdominal muscles.

Once his hands were secure, she threw a blanket over his lower body before she removed his wet boxer briefs. The covering helped her resist the temptation of peeking to see if his enormous feet lived up to the cliché of corresponding to other big anatomy parts.

She tied his feet together and then stretched the ends of the rope and wound them around both legs of the lower end of the bed. Her uncle had built the bed as well, so she knew it would hold. The only thing he hadn't made in the cabin was the wood stove, the sink, and the gas cooker that were on the other side of the low wall that partitioned the living and sleeping quarters from a small kitchen area. He’d even built the cabinets that held provisions.

Worry about the man who had raised her threatened to overwhelm her, so she distracted herself by studying the man again.

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