21. Sean

21

Sean

H e touched her face gently. "You are incredibly beautiful."

"Thank you," she said.

"I have a case of bottled water. We can heat it up in the fire and clean ourselves off. I meant to put the whole case near the fireplace when I first got in here, but you distracted me."

Xyla laughed. "Oh, so it's my fault."

"Yes, ma'am. You're the one who followed me here and seduced me. I didn't stand a chance."

"If you say so. I'm going to find a couple of wash clothes in the bathroom. I will be so glad when I can take a half-hour shower again." She grinned. "I will confess that I probably took more of a ten-minute shower than a five-minute shower after dinner."

"I'm going to tell William and you're going to get into trouble."

She looked at him and made a face. "What's he possibly going to do to me? Ground me to the resort? Tell me I can't leave the mountain?"

He shook his head and poured the half-liquid half-ice bottle of water into a pan and held it over the fire. She disappeared into the bathroom. Sean found it interesting that she seemed completely comfortable being naked around him and wasn't shy about looking at him, either.

They cleaned up with the warmed water and they each drank a bottle of water.

Xyla looked at her empty bottle. "Having sex is thirsty work."

Sean held up his own bottle. "It seems to be." He paused and then said, "You should probably be getting back."

"I want to stay here with you."

He looked at her. Sean wanted so much for her to stay with him, but he knew she was terrified of her father.

"Your father would be livid."

"I don't care. We don't have a whole lot of time left, and I want to spend every minute that I possibly can with you. The idea of spending the night in your arms is another one of my fantasies. You wouldn't destroy a woman's dreams, would you?"

He nodded. They went into the bedrooms and pulled the blankets and pillows off the bed. The couch was a hide-a-bed.

Sean motioned to it. "Sometimes, the floor is more comfortable than these."

Xyla shrugged. "We'll give it a try. If it gets to be too uncomfortable, then we'll just move to the floor."

They put a blanket on the bed and lay on it, pulling the other covers on top of them. Sean pulled Xyla into his arms, holding her close to him. She fit perfectly against his body.

She fell asleep quickly, but Sean lay awake for a while. Xyla felt so right in his arms. For the first time since Ivy died, Sean let himself feel, whereas before, he had closed himself off from all emotions. Xyla made his world spin out of control. She was special and he didn't want this to be their last night together. He wasn't ready to get down on one knee and propose, but he wanted something more than just this evening.

Finally, he relaxed completely, closed his eyes, and fell into a deep sleep.

Xyla moved slightly, waking him.

"Is it morning already?" he asked.

"Yes, and as much as I hate to move, I have to pee."

"Do you think you could hit a bottle? We have no plumbing and wouldn't want the toilet to sit unflushed until who knows when."

"I can hit a bottle," she said.

She got up, went into the bathroom, and returned a few minutes later with a full bottle. After carefully pouring the contents down the drain, she rinsed the sink out with more water.

Sean reached for his underwear. "I guess we'd better go back."

"Do we have to? Can't we just stay here for the rest of the time?"

"Think of your brother. You can't just abandon him."

Xyla hung her head and heaved a heavy, exaggerated sigh. "Alright. I guess. Be that way."

They dressed, pulled the covers off the hide-a-bed, put those back in the bedroom, and pushed the bed back into the couch.

He looked at Xyla and smiled. "Are you ready?"

"No, but let's go, anyway."

Elliot's eyes bulged out of his head when they walked in together.

"Where in the hell have you been?"

Xyla looked at Sean and then back at her father. "I stayed the night with Sean in his cabin."

"What in the hell were you thinking?" he screamed.

"I was thinking that it would be nice to spend the night in the cabin with Sean." Xyla's voice was very calm.

She started to take off her coat. Sean felt everyone's eyes staring at them in shock – well, almost everyone's. Sawyer was smiling.

Elliot snarled. "How dare you spend the night with this dirty, filthy wolf shifter. He's not even a human."

Sean's heart sank. He waited for someone in the group to say or do something, but was surprised when no one moved or made a sound. No one seemed to care whether he was a shifter or not. They simply watched the drama play out.

William walked over to them, raised his cane, and put it across Elliot's gut. "I've about had it with you, sir." The old man's voice was hard and he enunciated every word. "Why don't you take an armload of wood to your cabin and stay there. Your boy or Xyla can take your meals to you, and the rest of us won't have to suffer from your disgusting and disrespectful behavior and nasty mouth."

Elliot's jaw dropped. His face turned red and he clenched his fists so tightly that his knuckles turned white, and Sean was afraid that he was going to punch William.

"Everyone here has been trying to make the best of a difficult situation and you alone have been unbearable. I've had enough of you and I dare you to say one more word."

The group stared at the confrontation, ready to jump Elliot if he so much as twitched and acted like he was going to touch William.

Elliot's jaw moved as though he was trying to say something, but nothing came out. The angry man looked around at the crowd, knowing that he stood alone. Elliot snapped his jaw shut, stormed into the bedroom, and slammed the door shut.

William growled and shook his head. "I've got half a mind to go in there and give him a good thrashing."

The room was completely silent, except for the sounds emanating from the hearth and the wind whistling outside.

The old man looked at Sean and grinned. "A wolf shifter, huh? Well, I'll be. I haven't run into one of you fellas in a long time."

Sean smiled at him.

William slapped him on the back and said, "Franny's going to be angry if we don't get in there and eat while the food's warm."

Xyla and Sean exchanged glances.

She put her hand on his arm. "I'm so sorry."

"No worries. I expected it. I'm actually happy that you faced him."

"It felt good." She looked around the room. "No one seems to care that you're a shifter."

"That's because they got to know me before they found out and know I'm a good guy. Now, I'm starving. Someone had me work up quite the appetite."

Sawyer joined them at the table. "Well, that went better than I thought it would. I was expecting you to have to put the man on the ground." He cast an apologetic glance at Xyla. "Sorry."

"Don't apologize. He needs to be taken down a peg or two."

Edward looked worriedly at Sean. "I don't want to go in there tonight."

Sean put his hand on the boy's shoulder. "You can sleep in our room."

After breakfast the four of them went outside to play catch for a while and then went back inside for a couple exciting games of Uno until lunch.

Edward finished his cheeseburger and fries and said, "I'm bored."

"Are you now? I have an idea. I'll be right back."

Sawyer got up and talked to William. The old man looked at the table and then nodded. Sawyer returned with a huge smile on his face.

"William has some snow shoes that you and Xyla can use. Sean and I have our own. How about if we teach you two how to snowshoe?"

Edward's eyes lit up. "Awesome. Can we, Xyla?"

"If they promise not to laugh at me when I fall down."

"No guarantees," Sean said.

"None whatsoever," Sawyer added.

"Fine. Bullies." The laughter in her voice and smile told Sean that she enjoyed the playful banter.

The four of them spent the next several hours outside. Xyla fell down and both Sawyer and Sean laughed at her. Xyla looked at her brother and nodded. Xyla rushed Sean and Edward rushed Sawyer, knocking them down in the snow.

"Hah. Take that," she said, putting her hands on her hips.

Edward and Xyla quickly got the hang of walking with the large, leaf-shaped woven mats on their feet. Although none of them really wanted to go back inside, they were cold and the sun was going down. None of them wanted Edward getting too chilled.

Elliot came out of his room long enough to grab a plate of food and take it back into his room. He brought it back out half an hour later without saying a word to anyone. Xyla tensed but didn't say anything.

Even though Sean knew that Xyla had stood up for herself, she also hated that her father was so upset. The man's hate didn't just affect him, it also affected his children. Sean wished that someone could knock some sense into him.

When the dishes were cleared away, Marcie stood up and grinned. "I think we should sit around the fire and tell ghost stories if we have one.

"That's a great idea," William said. "Sara, Ginny, and Franny have had some experiences on the mountain that will likely scare your socks off."

Franny made some popcorn and everyone grabbed a drink of water, soda, or tea, and gathered in the living room.

Sara breathed in deeply and started the story. "You guys might have seen the cabin at the far end of the U-shaped cabin layout. It says staff only."

Everyone nodded.

"One summer evening, Franny, Ginny, and I were sitting on the front porch, shelling peas. We heard an eerie sound like someone was humming." Sara's voice was low. "None of us was humming. There were no televisions or radios on."

Franny took up the story. "We looked at each other and figured out that the humming wasn't coming from the house. It was coming from one of the cabins, and we knew exactly which one. We didn't want to check out the cabin, but we had to in case someone was in there who shouldn't be."

Ginny said, "We couldn't ask Howard or William to look because they had gone on a supply run to town. Sara grabbed her shotgun and I fetched my rifle, and we walked to the cabin. Franny unlocked it, but there was no one in the cabin."

Franny shivered. "The humming only got louder. It was a very sad song. We stepped inside and all of us felt an overwhelming sense of sadness and dread. There was a piece of paper on the desk that said, ‘Evelyn is here. Never leave. Never leave.'"

Sara pushed her hair out of her face. "We heard the sounds of a piano playing. The door slammed shut and we couldn't get out. We heard maniacal laughter, like that of a crazy person."

Franny raised her hand. "I'll admit that I screamed. I was pretty certain that I was about to have a heart attack. Luckily, the men had just gotten back and heard me. They rushed to the cabin to let us out."

"Who's Evelyn?" Marcie asked.

"She was a guest who stayed here when the previous owners had the place. William and I have only owned this place for the last thirty years. Anyway, there was an avalanche then, too. They didn't have the crew we did, and it took a couple of days to get her out. By that time, she had lost her mind and refused to leave the cabin," Sara reported. "When the owners went to check on her and take her food, she was laying on the bed, dead."

"Every so often, you can hear her humming. She had a radio with a CD with piano music on, which you can hear, too." Franny wrung her hands. "I guess she's lonely because if you go in there, she won't let you out."

Suddenly, a humming sound filled the room and everyone looked around wide-eyed. A door slammed and Ellie squealed. Then, William, Howard, Franny, Ginny, and Sara burst out laughing.

Howard shook his head. "The cabin is off limits because it needs a lot of work done to it. I keep a few supplies in there. There's no Evelyn."

Grinning, William said, "That story gets people every time."

Everyone laughed good-naturedly at the joke played on them. They all hung out for a few hours, telling ghost stories or other types of stories if they had one.

Xyla sat next to Sean, holding his hand the entire time.

This is the way it should be. This feels right.

He caught her scent and it flooded every cell in his body and something settled in his soul.

She is my fated mate. Now I just have to figure out how to convince her of that.