Page 50 of Winter's Edge
"We've wasted enough time. It's almost nightfall," Grady said, his voice rough and mean again, when minutes before it had been almost soft and touched with desire.
He came up behind me and wrapped a leather harness around my waist, tugging forcefully until it was secure. Then he tied it to the crossbar in front of me, the leather creaking in the cold. He acted like our kiss, the magic he'd done with his fingers, was nothing. Was it?He’d just left afterward, and I really wasn’t sure how to feel about that.
Now, he stepped away without a word, without a lingering touch.
I had no time to waste on this—or him—right now. Too much was at stake.
"Okay, I think we have everything." Archer came around to my side, his feet crunching the snow. "Remember, the way there was nothing last time. We’re a little farther north of Old Man’s Den than our old cabin, but it won’t take us too much longer to get there."
I nodded. "It was running for our lives out of there that gave us the most trouble." I had a funny feeling we'd be doing more of that tonight.
Archer stepped up onto the sleigh with me, cupped my face in his large hands, and kissed me deeply. So different than Grady but not any less talented. Archer kissed missing pieces back into my soul while Grady burned my soul to cinders.
He pulled away, his rough breaths steaming my face. "See you on the other side of Slipjoint Forest."
Paws hit the ground once he and Grady shifted, and soon they were pulling the sleigh. We were off at about the same pace as last time, even with two wolves, since we had more weight. Grady didn’t appear to be limping in his wolf state, but over the racket we made, I couldn’t be sure.
The air tasted wetter, heavier, like the sky could barely contain the white-out it would unleash on everyone in just a few hours when winter was officially here. If there was ever a time I hoped winter didn't come any earlier, it was right now. Our success tonight starting a raging fire depended wholly on if winter held off like it was supposed to. I had no reason to doubt that it would come when it always came, but my luck lately had been epically shitty.
My ears burned for any sounds of distress from Sasha behind me in her box, and I was certain Archer and Grady were too. But she stayed quiet, hopefully enjoying an innocent adventure. Me? Not so much. I was shivering cold by the time we stopped.
The two sets of paws in front of me quickly turned into two pairs of feet and strode toward the back of the sleigh.
"How's Sasha?" I asked, keeping my voice low in case we weren't where I thought we were.
A slight clatter behind me, and then Archer's chuckle sounded. "She's pissed. Hey, girl. Are you finally growling?"
Sure enough, a light buzzing noise came, hardly a growl, but ridiculously cute.
"Well," Grady started, taking supplies from our stack behind me, "I'm not sure you're going to scare anyone off with that, but it's a start."
"It's fantastic," I said with a laugh. I worked at the knot of the leather harness on the crossbar to free myself, an almost impossible task with gloves and numb fingers. "Don't let anyone tell you different, Sasha."
"Don't listen to the human," Grady muttered.
The human. Because what could a lowly human possibly know about anything? A splinter formed at the base of my heart.
Star anise infused the cold air as Grady and Archer rubbed the crushed herb all over themselves to mask their wolf scent. It was even more powerful than peppermint, and I wrinkled my nose.
While they did that, I took Sasha out of the back of the sleigh and sat down on it with her in my lap for warmth, for comfort. Then I undid my blindfold. Through Sasha’s eyes, I found that we were in roughly the same place Archer had stopped the last time we were here, right behind a large hill.
Archer knelt down next to me, and smoothed his hand over the back of my head and then Sasha's. Tension stiffened his broad shoulders and pinched the corners of his eyes and mouth. Steam puffed between his lips as he looked between the two of us, his midnight hair feathering the strong cut of his jaw.
"You know the plan," he said. "Grady will be back once we start the fire, and then it's your turn while I get Ronin."
I nodded. "Be careful."
"You too," he said, his voice tight.
“Wish I had my walking stick,” Grady rumbled.
I heaved a frustrated breath. “If only we were in a forest full of sticks to choose from.”
He fixed me with those gunmetal eyes of his, his irritation flaring deep. “None of them aremine. The one you lost was perfect.”
Archer threw up his hands while he cut Grady to pieces with the force of his glare. “Yeah, let’s do this instead of what we came here to god damn do, asshole.”
No matter what he did, I couldn’t get a consistent read on Grady. How could he go from fiery hot to frigid so quickly?
