Chapter 24

CHAPTER 24

T hree days and nights of planning and passion followed. Work on Max’s book was put to one side as they checked the weather and organized flights. Charlie booked a sled to take them into the mountains where, they guessed from their research, the Felcin pack hung out.

They were told that the sled owner knew of the whereabouts of the Felcin pack, but that there was no way to contact the pack directly, that security was tight, and ogres would intercept messages if they got the chance.

It was dangerous, but more than that, it was exciting. Exhilarating.

Charlie high-fived Max when she got the last leg of the journey sorted. And this time, when he grabbed her hand and reeled her in and kissed her, they didn’t have to resist the pull of their feelings.

And now, finally, today they would be heading for the mountains.

Waking up with Max sprawled asleep beside her, Charlie’s body thrummed with the memory of their lovemaking, the way he seemed to know instinctively the spots on her body that turned her wild, the little dip below her ear, the pad of her thumb, the curve of her spine just where her butt cheeks swelled. His touch ignited her, and she’d lost count of the orgasms they’d shared.

She looked lovingly down at him now in the bed, so ready to kiss along the perfect muscles of his back, run her fingers along his vertebra and over the firm mounds of his perfect tight ass… but they had a research assignment to complete together.

A story o f very recent history. One that she was sure would help Max to integrate his wolf with his psyche.

She wanted him to be free, not tethered to conventions and his view of himself as this sigma wolf buried in his books, without love and laughter in his life.

He’d already broken free, by being here in the bed next to her.

But still, he held back from knotting her. And she wanted that, more than anything. It felt like only then would Max truly be hers. She wanted to test the edge of his wolf, the edge of his civilized nature, to feel the primal fear of her own wild self as he chased her.

She wanted to take them both to that edge.

Because without experiencing the edge, how did you ever live fully?

The rut had freed Eloise. And if she was honest, Charlie wanted to experience that. To reach her full potential with her mate by her side.

Mate.

Max was her mate. She knew it with all her heart now.

They hadn’t said as much, but it had been there from the moment he opened the door that day and his eyes flared with desire. A fire he tried to hide, but could not. Not from her.

Ever since the words in his first book set her heart on fire, ever since she’d gazed at him from the back of the lecture theater, she’d known in her heart, hadn’t she, that it was more than a crush. That this had been the pull of her mate.

She was human. But she could run with a wolf. Love a wolf. Be mated to a wolf.

The thought sent a thrill up and down her spine.

She got up and padded over to the window now, shivering in the cold air. Tugging back the curtain, she saw that the sky was clear. No snow clouds in sight. The mountains way past the city walls were like cut crystal, the snow peaks visible.

Somewhere up there lived Max’s father’s pack. The Felcin wolves.

And as the weather report had predicted, it was the perfect day to go find them.

When Max stirred and stretched, she bounced over to the bed, jumped on top of him and let her curls tickle his neck until he was fully awake.

He groaned softly, then his bright topaz eyes opened. She watched them go from sleep haze to recognition, and then they flared, bright gold with passion… and love.

“Hey, there,” he husked sleepily.

“Hey,” she said softly, kissing his lips, his jawline,

He pulled her on top of him and she felt his cock between them, aroused already. “Look what you do to me,” he murmured.

Somehow, Charlie resisted tumbling back into bed with him. “We need to think about going.”

“Damn,” he said, frowning a little. “Maybe we should just stay in bed instead?”

She shook her head and pulled him out of bed. As he sighed and ambled naked to the bathroom, she watched him, her heart tugging.

Charlie knew he was apprehensive. There had been no communication with the Felcins. They were doing this on a wing and a promise. What if they did find the pack and they rejected Max?

As Alec Felcin had rejected his mom.

Then what?

Charlie took a deep breath. They would face that if it came to it.

And somehow, they’d get through it.

Together.

Max watched the dark dots in the snowy distance turn into clumps of fir trees as they got closer.

They’d decided to spare no cost and hire one of Blade Air’s special snow copters, but still, he was nervous. His wolf and his human were agreed on one thing, at least: they did not like being crammed into a metal and glass bubble that was held up in the sky by a few whizzing metal prongs and an engine small enough that it would fit into his briefcase.

He glanced at Charlie, smiling and craning her neck to see everything through the small window. As they skimmed over sparkling, snow-covered valleys and deep ravines, he tried to relax his shoulders and enjoy the experience as much as she clearly was.

Except there were no signs of life anywhere. What if they’d gone to all this trouble and there were no answers to be found?

Max steeled himself. This whole trip was madly spontaneous, he hadn’t given it his usual measured consideration, but he trusted Charlie’s intuition. Face it, his own intuition was shot. Nearly everything he’d believed about himself had turned out to be a lie, right down to his lone wolf identity.

“Where are we landing?” he asked the helicopter pilot over the intercom.

The pilot, a snow eagle (unsurprising—they understood the mountain terrain better than any other shifter species), gestured with a claw at a tiny outcrop of rock.

Maybe sensing the tension in his body, Charlie reached over and snuck her hand into his. Max leaned in and kissed her below the shell of her ear, loving the feel and taste of her, the way it calmed him, just being with her.

And then, thank the gods, they were descending. Max tried not to notice the sheer drop next to the helipad, into a steep ravine.

Unsurprisingly, the snow eagle brought them in without a hitch.

As they disembarked, a pack of huskies came bounding toward them, harnessed to a sled.

A large, muscled monster of a man with long white hair climbed out and strode forward.

He would have been terrifying, if it wasn’t for a gentleness that radiated out of him.

“My name is Ivor. I am your driver,” he said as he reached them.

Ivor was about eight foot tall and covered in fur pelts. His arms were as thick as tree logs, what was visible of his skin was luminous white, and his eyes shone in his face, a pale silvery blue with spherical pupils.

But when he smiled, it was clear that he had a big heart. Kindness radiated out of his crinkled face.

He handed them thick coats, which they dutifully put on, then he invited them to sit in the back of the sled and proceeded to cover them in fur rugs. Max glanced at Charlie and had to smile. Wrapped in furs, she looked like a koala bear. She put her big mittened hand trustingly into his and he took it. Tucking it under the layers, he held it against his body.

She squeezed his fingers, reassuring him.

But even so, as they sped silently through the snow, he couldn’t access the wolf inside of him. It was like it had gone into hibernation.

Disappointment roiled in his gut.

He stared at the passing landscape, a fairy land of snow drooping off heavy branches, sunlight glistening on white slopes. The sled sped on and still, he could not feel his wolf’s presence pumping through his veins.

Nothing. Nada. His heart remained disengaged, his wolf silent. Surely if a part of his roots were here, up in the mountains, he would sense that, connect with it?

Finally, after an hour of huddling into their warm pelts as the landscape hurtled past them, Ivor drew the dogs to a halt. Looking out, Max saw they were at the opening of a cave, under an overhang in a high cliff wall. It was a very deep cave, with light flickering from inside the entrance. A labyrinth of tunnels lit by sconces led deep into the mountainside.

Ivor helped them to disembark.

A woman emerged from the shadows, her thick, dark hair running down her back to her waist, her furs slung over her in a lattice pattern, strapped tight with a leather belt. She strode over in her big snow boots and kissed Ivor on both cheeks. “How have you been? How are the younglings?”

“Growing fast. And eating us out of cave and home.”

“Good, good. As it should be. Who have you brought to see us; I wonder,” she mused, but there was no surprise in her voice as she turned to greet them.

Something in the woman’s demeanor made a latent energy stir deep inside Max, and finally, he sensed his wolf move in him. As if waking up from sleep, he felt its presence, enough to sharpen his sense of smell. Suddenly the scents of wood bark and burning peat, of the pine needles underfoot, were in sharp focus.

Max flexed his shoulders and stood to his full height.

Now the woman came closer, her nostrils flaring, scenting him. Her yellow gaze traveled down his body, and she smiled.

“Hello Maximillian, son of Alec. We have been expecting you.”

She embraced him with strong, warm arms, and he felt himself yielding against her powerful chest. Gods, he hoped Charlie wouldn’t take it the wrong way that he felt such a strong compulsion to return her embrace.

They stayed like this for long moments, clasped together.

And when she drew away, Max said hoarsely, “Who are you?” His eyes searched her face; the familiarity in her steady topaz gaze was so strong, it seemed to reach into his very soul.

“I am Perdita, leader of the Felcin wolves. And your father’s twin sister.”

As Perdita led them deeper into the cave, Charlie glanced at Max’s handsome profile, lit up by the flickering wall sconces. It was perfectly composed, except for the jump of a muscle in his jaw that betrayed his underlying tension.

He had insisted she join him in the cave, be beside him, even though at first, she had resisted. “Charlie, I want you at my side. There is nothing to hear that I wouldn’t want you to know.”

Perdita had also gently encouraged her. “You are part of this too, Charlie. As Max’s mate.”

Charlie’s heart jumped at those words.

As they moved deeper into the cave, its intricacy and beauty took her breath away. The rock formation on the arched ceilings was like honeycomb, and in places natural light shone through fissures, sending prisms of sunshine into the cave.

They passed many entrances, some with evidence of occupants, chatting, and even a lilting music drifting from one—a stringed instrument, a lute maybe. But the music was nothing like Charlie had heard before. Each entrance had skins strung up outside, and along the hallways were delicate structures, almost like spiderwebs, that caught prisms of light and reflected them around in a kaleidoscope of colors. Charlie guessed they were mirrors of a sort, to bring more light into the caves.

She hadn’t ever considered that the homes of wolves out in the wild mountains could be so beautiful and sophisticated.

Really, Charlie Sullivan. You thought you would just turn up here on a wind-blown mountain, maybe find a grave, get to speak to some shaggy looking old wolf on a ledge…

She almost laughed at her own naivety.

Finally, they entered what appeared to be a meeting room and Perdita motioned for them to sit around a stone table. A small, spiky-spined creature with long claws brought them steaming hot aromatic drinks.

“Soon, other family will join us, but first, we must speak about your father,” Perdita explained. “Please ask what you wish, and I will tell you all I know.”

For a moment Max was silent, then he said quietly, “Why did my father reject my mother?”

“Reject? I guess it wasn’t that simple.” Perdita sighed. “Your mother was a free spirit; you of all people should know that.”

Max’s soft laugh bounced off the cave walls. “Oh, I do.”

Perdita spread her long fingers out on the rock table.

“Your mother was an amazing woman. Complex, determined, fierce… and uncompromising to the point of cruelty.”

Max was silent for a moment, then he said, “I am beginning to comprehend that, Perdita.”

“She was hard to resist for a young wolf from the mountains. My brother fell in love with her on a trip down to Motham as a teen. He chose to enter the ruts, and each year, they found each other in the chase. She came up here once or twice on his motorbike, so we got to meet her. I can’t say our pack loved her, but Alec was obsessed, so we accepted her.”

“But then one summer after the rut, she told him she was moving to Selig to do her PhD. She said if he loved her, he would join her.”

“Alec was destined to be head of our pack. Our alpha. The rules of our pack are very clear. His mate must come and live here with him, or he must reject them. And yes, our codes are rigid—they have to be if we are to survive up here in the mountains. We are fighters. It is our life’s purpose to pit our wits against the ogres, we have done it since our leader brought us here.”

Max nodded. “Colonel Felcin, the mutineer.”

“To us he is a hero. Here in the mountains, we are proud of him.” Perdita’s chin raised, a jut to her jaw.

“I understand,” Max said, bowing his head.

“For Alec, forfeiting his leadership, deserting his pack, was not an option. Even though he loved Angelika, he had to reject her. She left in a rage, of course. And he pined, goddess, did he pine. Every year after that, in summer she would roam these parts, tempt him to follow her into the highest mountains, seduce him and mess up his head—but he always came back to his pack. Then one summer he chose to be promised to another wolf, a young female who would bear him strong cubs. When he told your mother, she was beside herself. And that’s when she flung at him that he had sired a cub, now a ten-year-old boy. Max was furious beyond measure. Not only because he hadn’t ever known, but because she had denied him the right to be your father.

“He got on his bike, determined to go and tell you the truth. Before he married and sired more cubs, he needed you to know you were his firstborn.” Perdita’s face tightened. “And that’s when the accident happened.”

“The accident that killed him?” Max asked, his voice shaking slightly.

Perdita nodded, her features drawn. “A drunk ogre in a truck came round a bend on the mountain road and clipped his bike. Alec went over at the highest point on the pass; a sheer drop. Nothing could have saved him.”

“Why did no one ever try to find me? To tell me?” Max asked. Charlie could hear the note of anguish in his voice.

Perdita’s face crumpled. “Oh Max, there was too much trauma at the time. Our mother was grief struck, Alec’s bride-to-be was grief struck. I had to take over the pack, and soon after, our mother’s health worsened, and she died. There was no time to think about contacting an angry she-wolf who loathed us and had refused to let Alec have access to his child.

“I consulted a mage, who told me the time to make contact had not yet come. That I must let the issue lay dormant, like a seed waiting for the earth to warm. That eventually love would bring you to us. It was a riddle I had no time to decipher, to be honest. Running this outpost has taken all my energy these last two decades. But now you are here.” Her eyes scanned his face “Maybe you can explain the mage’s riddle?”

“Yes, I think I can.” Max looked at Charlie, his eyes soft as he reached for her hand. “This amazing woman has made me face up to what I was denying in myself. For her, I recently transformed into wolf for the first time in my life…”

Perdita’s brows shot up. “For the first time, ever?”

Max laughed. “I know, it must seem strange to you.”

“We shift nightly,” Perdita said. “We have to, otherwise we could not hold our own against the ogres up here.” She stretched her hands out and touched Max and Charlie’s joined hands across the table. “You are good together, I feel it.” After a moment, she said, “Max, would you like to see your father’s grave? To honor him as his son?”

“I would,” Max said gravely.

“Then you will have to shift into your wolf. You cannot get to the place where he is buried in your human form, it’s too unsafe. But it is something we wolves often do; we trek out there to honor our dead in the graveyard cave over the far pass. Your cousins will take you there, but even for a wolf it is a few days’ journey. Are you up for that?”

“Charlie?” Max looked at her, and she knew there was only one answer to give.

“Max, of course, you must visit your father’s grave.”

“But what about you? I don’t want to leave you.”

“I’ll return to Motham, and you’ll come home when you are ready,” Charlie replied solemnly.

“Babe, I may be gone for days,” he said, his eyes clouding as he stroked her hand.

“That’s okay, Max, take your time. You need to do this. You need to pay homage to your father and make peace with your mom’s deception. You need to heal the wounded wolf inside you.”

He nodded, still grasping her hand tightly. “Yes, I know.”

“Out there in the mountains, that’s where you will find answers. Not in a book, Max. Not this time.”

He shook his head, smiling at the truth of her words. “I will come back to you very soon,” he promised, touching his forehead to hers. “You know that, right?”

“Yes,” Charlie said simply, pressing her forehead against his.

He drew back, his golden eyes basking her in his love, his gratitude. Tilting up her chin with his finger and thumb, he kissed her lips tenderly. But he didn’t say those special words she longed to hear. After a moment, reluctantly, Charlie drew away and went over to Perdita, who wrapped strong arms around her, pulling her into a warm embrace. “Thank you for persuading him to come here,” Perdita said. “Ivor will arrange your transport back to Motham.”

Charlie nodded, thanking her.

Not daring to look at Max in case she cried, Charlie walked away, leaving her wolf to lay the past to rest with his pack.