Page 18 of Forgiving My Chuchunya (Snuggling under Snowdrifts #5)

Hannah

“Gleb, stop,”

Hannah cries.

“He’s just scared.

Jack will put the knife down.

He’s a Libra and they don’t attack people.”

“Shut up,”

Jack growls through clenched teeth.

He’s looped his arm through her elbows to pin her arms between them.

His other hand holds a knife longer than my hand.

It speaks to his character that he didn’t jump to my aid even though he was armed. Instead, he threatens the woman we both love.

“A male of worth would never pull a weapon on his pleasure mate.

He would honor their past and let her go in peace.”

“A male of worth wouldn’t hide his identity in a fur suit and prey on defenseless women in the Arctic.

Have there been others before Hannah? Did you dispose of them when you were done—drown them like you tried to drown me?”

He leans over her shoulder to scream at me.

The intelligence has left his eyes.

He’s consumed with hatred.

“Jack, Gleb, let’s not antagonize the man with the knife—”

“What about those claws? Hannah, even the wolves don’t trust him.

Did you just hear what I said? This man-child, playing snow beast, tried to drown me.

When I resurfaced, he took you.

You know what your parents said when I told them a snow monster took you?”

Hannah’s eyes fill with tears.

She twists and struggles against his hold.

I take advantage of the distraction to run a few meters closer.

She’s still out of arm’s reach, but I feel better cutting the distance in half. Jack’s not a trained killer—he’s not even a hunter—I can tell by his hold on the knife. His wrist is bent at a strange angle, which reduces his power. Another lapse in concentration and I’ll have Hannah in my grasp.

“I said stay where you are!”

Jack spits on Hannah’s cheek as he shouts.

A bead of blood slides down her throat.

“You’re hurting me, Jack.”

Her sobs break my heart .

“You deserve it for ruining everything! Why couldn’t you get knocked up?”

“All this because you want a baby—”

“No, you dumbass,”

he shouts.

“I want child support.

Duh, why else would someone fuck your bag of bones? Put up with your woo-woo insanity? Listen to your constant, needy whining?”

“My money,”

Hannah whispers, hanging her head.

I can’t see the knife anymore!

“If you don’t want her, let me provide for her.

She irritates you because she’s made to suit me.

With dushevnayasvyaz , we will be happy.

She won’t need your—”

“You’re nuttier than a fruitcake if you think I’m leaving this cash cow with you, so you can collect the reward.

I’ve got a helicopter meeting us in a few hours.

Hannah will be on it with me.

Her parents are expecting us. As soon as I step foot in LA, your ass is grass. I’m going to the authorities about your little swimming stunt. With the GPS marks on my phone, the Mounties will have no trouble finding you. I’m suing that fursuit off your back—if you’ll serve jail time too. I’ll make sure of it.”

“You know I don’t want to return to my parents.

They don’t want me either.

The reward money is hush money, so news of my troubles in the Arctic doesn’t get out.

They find the fact that I work an embarrassment. Wait until they discover I was a nanny for someone less rich than them? Do you think they will reward you when you didn’t stop me?”

“That’s why I signed a contract,”

he sneers.

“I learned from you.

Every time I mentioned marriage, you countered with a prenup.

No matter what, I couldn’t sweep you off your feet. It boiled down to protecting your money. Put your love in writing…how romantic.”

“I thought you had money of your own,”

she whimpers.

“Was that a lie, too?”

The beat of helicopter blades sounds in the distance.

The helicopter that tried to take Sydney from Sergei sounded exactly the same.

What did Sergei do? He rallied the bravest and strongest Chuchunya—and their human mates—to save her.

I’m a shunned disappointment, so I have no Chuchunya to call for help. Vera and Artyom beg Sergei for my forgiveness thousands of kilometers from here. However, Sergei didn’t stand by Sydney as she bled and argued with her enemies.

Someone in the group blew up the helicopter…maybe I don’t need to go that far.

They have no idea where the Chuchunya grounds are or that we even exist.

If I destroy Jack’s star-finder box, the helicopter will lose their signal and eventually give up.

How do I wrestle his phone from him without him sl icing further into Hannah’s neck? He will cut something important and I have no medical knowledge. Sergei’s medical teachings were to get him, get clean water, and get out of his way.

“Shut up! Shut up! I can’t think with your sniveling!”

Jack’s outburst pulls me from my thoughts.

He’s lifted the knife from her neck, so a steady stream drips onto the collar of her shirt.

She flinches as he waves it too close to her nose and chin.

With his tight hold on her arms, she can’t move more than a few centimeters.

I inhale a lungful of courage.

“This is the third time you’ve touched what’s mine after she denied you permission.

I’m going to give you one last chance to let her go and walk away.

You don’t want her, and you really don’t want to challenge me for her.”

“Why would I challenge you for what I hold in my arms, idiot?”

“Because I’m Gleb.

It means one who’s called for protection.

Her soul cries for me to protect her, and I’m helpless to do anything less.

One last chance. Let. Her. Go.”

“Look, this isn’t some larping game,”

Jack says, looking over his shoulder when the helicopter noises fade to nothing.

“This knife is real, and I will kill her.

My contract doesn’t specify she must be alive.”

“Please forgive me, Hannah,”

I say, locking gazes with my dushevnayasvyaz .

Hannah

One minute I’m gazing into Gleb’s sorrowful eyes, and the next, I’m spitting mud.

Oh, that’s not good.

Jack’s knife sliced my sleeve.

A gash on my upper arm wears a smear of mud, like a toddler’s mouth after eating chocolate cake. Great, my side wears a matching cut, but less deep. Fibers from my shirt decorate the wound, but at least it’s mud-free.

Two wounds, but neither is fatal.

Always check your wounds before jumping to help others.

I think I learned that from Ms.

Greene…or maybe the dodgy tour company’s experts . Now to break up the spat between the guys and send Jack on his way…

Gleb sits next to a headless corpse and a puddle of blood.

We sit in the mud and stare at one another for a few minutes.

What do I say? Thanks for killing a guy who didn’t listen when I said not to touch me? Wowsa, did you decapitate him to make sure he didn’t show up alive after you killed him…again? Society says I should be horrified.

Instead, I feel gratitude.

My knee-jerk reaction is to ask what’s wrong with me.

Why aren’t I running away screaming to find my parent’s helicopter? What’s wrong with me that I’m pleased there’s someone obsessed with me—even to kill for me?

“Say something,”

Gleb whispers.

He drops his head to his hands, but thinks better of holding his head when he spies the blood on them.

He’s red to the elbows, down his front, and around his mouth.

“You’re a messy eater.”

“I wasn’t trying to eat him,”

he says with a quizzical eyebrow raised.

Great, my obsessive boyfriend who just killed my ex looks at me as if I’ve got a screw loose.

“I wanted to kill him for threatening you, touching you without permission, and trying to break your heart.”

“Break my heart? I told you I loved you.

How could Jack hurt me?”

“He has another lover on the other end of his star-finder box.

They want your money to build their dyla weturanya .

I’m sorry he didn’t want to live with you.”

“He said he was after me for child support.

Remember, he was mad because I wouldn’t marry him without a prenup?”

“I don’t know what these words mean—”

“Of course you don’t! I’m so sorry,”

I say, crawling over to him.

“They are ugly words that have nothing to do with you.”

His eyes widen like I’m a wild animal approaching him.

He pulls his bloody fists to his chin in fear.

Power fills my heart and combines with the adrenaline to form a strong aphrodisiac.

Maybe there’s something wrong with Gleb for killing Jack in my defense. Maybe there’s something wrong with me for getting off on it, or maybe we’re as perfectly matched as Gleb claimed all along.

“You’re hurt….badly.”

I nod and hold out my arm in a bid for sympathy.

“I don’t feel any pain.”

“Your body ignores pain until you are safe.

The pain will smack you across the face once your mind calms if we don’t do something.”

“Thank you and not just for taking care of me,”

I say, climbing into his lap and kissing his nose.

“Thank you for your loyalty.

Thank you for your bravery.

Mostly, thank you for your quick thinking and moral compass.”

I cover his mouth with my hand when he tries to interrupt me with self-deprecating protests.

“Yes, moral compass.

You aren’t a discriminate killer if you let the wolves go.”

“What does discriminate mean?”

He says behind my hand.

“Makes good decisions…ish.”

I claim his mouth and thrust my tongue inside.

My palms hold his face, so he can’t escape the love I pour into him.

He kisses me back but doesn’t touch me.

“Let me have your shirt.

I’ll tear off pieces to make a bandage.”

“Oh yes,”

I whisper as I whip my shirt over my head.

Without leering once, he rips my sleeve off and hands it to me.

I tie it around the cut on my midsection, so it lifts my a-cup closer to my face.

With the professional touch of an EMT, he wraps my wounds and binds my breasts.

I have bathing suits more revealing than the makeshift top.

“What’s wrong? Why aren’t you ready to jump my bones? Don’t you want me now that you have me?”

My insecurities release my fingers.

I slide off his lap.

He grabs my butt before I can sit fully.

Mixed signals much? He lifts me to his other side, careful to lift me high enough that I don’t brush his lap.

“We are in wolf country and drenched in blood.

There’s a helicopter searching for Jack’s star-finder box.

The next time I touch you, it will be to claim you.

Make no mistake, Hannah, I’m ready to seed you. What I won’t do is risk your safety, now that I have you. You are mine to love, but also mine to protect.”

“Because you are Gleb,”

I reply with a giggle.

“Because you are Gleb’s dushevnayasvyaz .”

His shy, lop-sided smile sits below his flushed cheeks.

“Unless you wish to return to the human world.

I wanted to show you I could be smart and gentle…well…”

he waves at Jack’s corpse.

“Call it the evil twin of my Gemini nature, but I don’t need your apology.

You killed Jack because he threatened me.

I don’t need to forgive you when I don’t believe you did anything wrong.

It was him or me. Now teach me how to dispose of a body in the Arctic.”

“You want to stay with me?”

“Yes, stay with you, but not here where we’re attracting God-knows-what to eat us.

Let’s get rid of the evidence and flee the scene!”

“Fleas?”

“Nope, it’s a figure of speech,”

I say with a stronger laugh.

“I’ll have to watch those in the future.

What do we need to do to clean up the body? Do we feed him to the wolves?”

“Oh no,”

Gleb replies, shaking his head in horror.

“We don’t want the wolves to see humans as a food source if we can help it.

I’ll get my bag and we’ll make a fire.

Anything you don’t want to take back to my home—our home—we will bury or burn.”

Gleb is adorably overprotective, and I’m grateful.

He holds my hand back to where he left our travel bags and back to the scene of our crime.

Our crime, I’m ridiculous to be so casual…but I’m not panicking.

With my new isolated life and Gleb by my side, I may never have a reason to panic again. The sun glints off his profile… My handsome beast, covered in the blood of our enemy, is sexy as hell.

“Put on your fursuit before your body remembers how cold the Tundra is.

Once you’re warm, make a pile of things you wish to keep beside the bags.

I’ll make a fire on the bloody mud.

The ash will obscure the scent and I can melt some snow for washing. I wish the snow was deep enough to make tea.”

“I can wait for tea until we get home,” I reply.

“Home.”

His whisper is full of promise.

We grin like idiots as the fire builds between us—literally and figuratively.

The first thing I throw in the fire is the sim card to Jack’s phone.

I don’t care if it will melt eventually in the fire.

I want that thing gone.

Now. Gleb raises an eyebrow at me as I watch it melt and spark. Instead of boring him with a lecture, I kiss him. Once he’s smiling, I go back to digging through Jack’s bag. Camera, nope. Food wrappers, nope. He’s got a high-powered flashlight that will make a pretty overhead light in one of Gleb’s caverns.

Jack’s bag proves to be as empty and pointless as my relationship with him.

The idiot didn’t even pack a first aid kit.