Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 87193 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 436(@200wpm)___ 349(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87193 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 436(@200wpm)___ 349(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
Slowly, he lifted her to her feet. She winced as her bare soles hit the frozen floor.
“Hold on,” he said.
He tore the remaining piece of the ripped sleeping bag flat and spread it over the mattress to cover the blood, then picked her up again and laid her back down. He unzipped the other two sleeping bags, climbed in beside her, and pulled them over both of them. “Come here.”
She whimpered something as the ice in her hair started to melt.
He dragged her against his chest. She hissed softly as his warmth hit her chilled shoulders, her body stiff and shaking against him as he wrapped himself around her and held on. “This is not how I pictured us naked for the first time,” he murmured against her hair.
Chapter 12
Reality slowly returned to Nadia’s limbs along with heat. Had she ever been that cold in her entire life? If so, she couldn’t remember it. The memory of the water and the shock of it still echoed faintly in her bones, but it was fading, chased away by warmth.
She lay on her side, plastered against Caidrik’s hard body. Her nose nestled into the crook of his neck and shoulder, breathing him in. She slid her arm around to his broad back, flattening her still-cold fingers against his heat. The guy was an inferno. A naked one. Right now, she couldn’t care. The warmth felt blissful.
“Thank you for rescuing me. Again,” she croaked out, her throat feeling like she’d swallowed those rocks she’d been bashed against.
He placed a soft kiss on her forehead. Even his lips were hot. The contact anchored her in a steady and solid way she didn’t know how to handle.
“I can’t believe Bulwark threw you off a cliff.”
“You can’t?” she mumbled, her lips brushing against his skin as she spoke. She fought the urge to take a taste. This was for warmth, and he had just saved her life again. Licking his neck would be a little unfair.
He flattened his hand across her lower back—her entire lower back—and pulled her even closer, closing what little space remained between them. “I feel like I should apologize for my brother,” he said quietly, “but considering he wants us both dead, I figure you and I are in the same boat.”
“What is wrong with him?”
“I think he was dropped on his head too many times as a kid,” Caidrik said.
She smiled despite everything. “That’s probably true.” She shifted slightly, testing her limbs. “Caidrik, this quest for a new Alpha has been more dangerous than I expected.”
His low chuckle stirred her damp, half-dried hair where it brushed his chest. “I knew it would be dangerous for me, but I’m shocked by the danger you’ve faced,” he admitted. “If you’re the trophy or the prize, which again, totally agree is stupid language, I don’t understand it.”
“I guess we have to remember that these laws are ancient, from back in the day,” she said. “I suppose the Alpha female needed to be as strong and sturdy as the male, really.” Doubt wandered through her, cold and unwelcome. “I’m not.”
He leaned back slightly, his dark gaze capturing hers. “You just survived a fall off a cliff into jagged rapids. What do you mean you’re not strong?”
She lifted one shoulder, the movement small, and looked up at his face. She wasn’t quite warm enough to feel shy yet. “You saved me. I would’ve gone over the edge and probably died.”
He stared at her for a moment, his expression unreadable. “Are you having doubts?”
“Yes.” She didn’t nod because she didn’t want to move too much. “I’m having doubts. The pack needs somebody strong, physically and maybe mentally. I don’t know. I never thought I’d be an Alpha or an Alpha’s mate. I thought I could help organize and maybe push the pack into diversifying the mining operation to include farming. I’m not a fighter.”
He leaned in until his nose touched hers. “Even your nose is cold.”
She rolled her eyes. “I know. Somehow, yours is hot.”
Why did male wolves burn so much warmer than females? Or was it just her? Did Taryn burn as hot as Caidrik? It was entirely possible. The thought drifted through her, unfocused.
She tried to make him understand. “I think one of the things the Alphas have to consider is their offspring,” she said. “You want them to be strong and smart and fierce.” The guy deserved the full truth, just in case he hadn’t studied her enough. “I’m smart,” she said, “but I don’t have the other two qualities.”
It sucked, doubting herself like this, but she couldn’t help comparing herself even to Emily. Emily was tall and knew how to fight. She actually could have been the Alpha of the entire pack if an illness hadn’t taken her under for a while. She was healed now but mated to Jackson, so they had to choose a pack. They’d already chosen his.