“What? No fire this time?” I asked in an attempt to tamp down the panic I felt at being stranded in God only knows where.
“No time.” He quit arranging the various bags onto the sled and began to secure them as quickly as possible. Once everything was to his satisfaction, he unzipped one of the bags on top and withdrew a series of nylon straps. “This part goes over my head,” he said, opening up a hole in the middle. “Put that on first, and then slide my front two legs in here,” he opened another hole, “and here.”
“I’m sorry, what?”
“We don’t have time for this. I have to Change, and you have to get me harnessed and attached to the sled before your Change starts.”
Whoa. Wait a minute. “You could have explained this all to me while we were floating up the river, you know.”
He moved fast and was towering over me before I could back away. “Just do what you're told.”
“Screw you!” I yelled, although in my fury I may have used a harsher word. “I thought we were past this. I thought we were going to work together, that this not telling me anything routine was over.”
Liam looked ready to explode, and I braced myself for an attack, but it never came. Instead, he took a deep breath and rubbed the back of his head. “Sorry. I screwed up. Again. But please, Scout. We can only get to the cabin in our wolf forms, and we need these supplies. Work with me here.”
I was still angry, and I knew this discussion wasn’t over, but I’m not so selfish or stupid to not realize the importance of what he was saying. “Let’s make sure I get it right,” I said, taking the harness from his hands. “Show me one more time what goes where. And you’ll have to tell me how to hook it to the sled.”
We barely made it in time. Liam Changed in record time and was very agreeable with the whole harness situation, even in wolf form, but I was clumsy and uncertain, and by the end I was shaking from the effort of holding back the Change. Once I was sure everything was hooked up the way it was supposed to be, I barely got hidden and my clothes removed before I fell to the ground. Even without someone there to time me, I knew it was my fastest transformation yet, but it was also my most painful. When I was finally able to lift my head I found myself looking into a pair of familiar grey eyes.
Hey you, Wolf Scout thought at her friend. Liam’s ears perked up and he tilted his head, as if he had caught a whisper of what I said and was straining to hear more. Can you hear me? I asked, hopeful, but when he continued to twitch his ears around, I realized it wasn’t going to happen.
Since Liam had a sled attached to his back, I took on the responsibility of procuring us some dinner. The first track I found didn’t smell like anything familiar, but I followed it all the same. Maybe if I had recognized the scent as a beaver I would have found something else knowing a dip in the freezing waters might be in my future. As it was, I was still shaking water off my fur when I returned to Liam. When he laughed at me, or the closest a wolf can get to laughing, I considered not sharing my kill with him.
The path Liam led me down was narrow and winding, and involved a whole lot of climbing up and over things. Wolf Scout loved it and wanted to run it as fast as she could to show off her strength and cunning. Fortunately, the beaver had been enough to let Human Scout have a say in the matter. Following Liam was frustrating, but when the sled started to topple or needed an extra hand (or nose), I was there. The trek took most of the night. It was nearing dawn when the trees began to thin and a small cottage appeared nestled at the base of a small hill.
Once we were close, Liam collapsed onto the ground, exhausted from having to haul a load over such rough terrain. There wasn’t much moonlight left, but I went off in search of food anyway. Luckily, I was able to snag a small bunny rather quickly. It wasn’t enough for the two of us, and Wolf Scout really thought she should have it since she caught it, but I gave it to Liam, who inhaled it with gratitude in his eyes.
When the sun’s first rays started turning the snow into a field of diamonds, I trotted off to the far side of the cabin to Change. Somewhere around halfway through the transformation Human Scout took charge. Her first thought wasn’t of pain or exhaustion, but the realization that she had no idea where her clothes were.
Chapter 17
Being outside in the snow completely naked is not something I would recommend to anyone, even if you’re a Shifter who happens to Change into an arctic wolf. Even if the air temperature on your exposed flesh and the wet snow crunching beneath your bare feet doesn’t bother you - which, by the way, it will - the frigid breeze whipping across your exposed naughty bits will have you shivering as if your life depends on it. Which, I suppose it might. My understanding of hypothermia is basic at best.
I stood hidden behind the corner of the cabin contemplating if shivering was a good thing or bad and at what point I should become concerned about losing appendages when a sad, frustrated whine reached my ears.
Liam was still in wolf form.
Of course he is, the part of my brain that was completely human and not obsessed with how cold I was said. How can he Change when you’ve got him wrapped up in that harness?
If I didn’t have my hands shoved up in my underarms for warmth, I might have done a face palm. Liam was going to be trapped in wolf form until I could free him from the harness. Sure, he could try to Change back in that thing, but it would hurt, and if he couldn’t break through it as he Changed… Well, I didn’t really know what would happen. Would he be trapped in between forms? Would he just revert back to being a wolf?
There was no way I was going to make him find out, which left me with the whole conundrum of what to do about the naked situation.
“You’re going to have to close your eyes,” I called out. “I’m going to come out and find me some clothes, and then I’ll let you out of that thing, but only if you promise to keep your eyes closed until I tell you to open them.”
Liam yipped.
“Was that a yes or a no?”
His low growl told me I was being ridiculous. And, once I thought about it, a little presumptuous. Like Liam Cole wanted to see my boobs.
I darted the distance to the sled, horrified to realize the cabin had been blocking most of the wind. I couldn’t locate my bag anywhere, but Liam’s was on top. I found a long-sleeved t-shirt and threw it on. Luckily, it came nearly to my knees, since there was no way I could keep his pants on. If it had been Jase’s or Charlie’s clothes I was stealing I would have grabbed a pair of boxer shorts, but my many visits to laundromats had taught me Liam was a tighty-whitey kind of guy, and I was so not going there.