Page 25 of Forgiving My Chuchunya (Snuggling under Snowdrifts #5)
Hannah
“Thank you for your help,”
Timor announces to the crowd at the end of his directions.
He looks like a shell of the male who told Gleb to kill me or be shunned by the group.
His grief must have progressed through the anger stage and onto whatever this is.
The busy stage?
“Gleb, I see your effort to help with Sveta.
Your loyalty hasn’t gone unnoticed,”
Timor adds, pointing at Gleb and me.
I wait for the announcement that we’re no longer shunned, but it doesn’t come.
Bastard will string Gleb along while he can.
It may be my rebellious side talking—Gemini trait—but I’d like to tell Timor to shove his shunning directive where the sun doesn’t shine.
We will split into groups of four and each take a cardinal direction.
Kaitlyn and Serik are paired with Gleb and I who will go east.
Timor’s family goes south, and four males I don’t know go west.
I guess the whole scouting expedition is moving north to south, and the northern edge of this part of the forest was searched last night.
“If I were Sveta, I’d hightail it out of here too,”
Kaitlyn gripes.
“To have the future of the clan’s leadership resting on your choice at the next chase, or worse, to have Timor pick your mate from the svoloches left—yeah, there are two reasons to disappear,”
her mate Serik agrees.
“He’s worried about his daughter,”
Gleb says with a shrug.
“Then maybe he should have treated her like a person instead of a broodmare,”
Kaitlyn snaps.
“Come on, Gleb, let’s scout out ahead of the women.
Our bickering won’t bring Sveta out of hiding,”
Serik says, pulling Gleb away from me.
“We’ll be no more than two meters ahead.
If you’re hurt, sick, mad, sad, or in danger scream for me.”
“What if I scream just because I want to see your face?”
Kaitlyn stops walking abruptly.
“Then I’ll give you a reason to scream,”
Serik replies, grabbing her chin.
Their kiss starts as brutal as their personalities.
I can’t look away as she melts into his rough treatment.
To each their own but I give Gleb a little headshake that I’m not aroused and don’t want the same treatment.
His laughter breaks up the strange couple.
Serik mumbles as he leads Gleb ahead.
I get a little wave, but I wish I got one of Gleb’s sweet kisses that curl my toes.
Why didn’t we talk about our signals? I guess that’s part of being in a new couple.
Kaitlyn and I walk in small circles, meeting every so often.
We check under logs and in holes.
I find a fox den and almost lose my nose to a snippy mother.
Kaitlyn throws a stick up a spruce tree with evenly spaced branches that look easy to climb—even I could shimmy up there. Neither of us calls out for her. I guess it doesn’t need to be said that she would hide if she knew we hunted her.
I almost feel sorry for the young woman.
“I know this sucks ass, but the other option is boiling and canning berry jams.
Not like this place has stoves or potholders, either.
I’ll save my fingertips and look for Sveta any day of the week,”
gripes my new friend Kaitlyn.
“I don’t know.
Making jam could be fun,”
I reply.
Kaitlyn rolls her eyes and laughs.
Of all the Chuchunya mates, Kaitlyn surprises me the most.
It’s not her eyebrow piercing, nose ring, or dyed black hair.
It’s how much she seems to hate the outdoors.
The fit she threw when Timor said she couldn’t drive around the forest was epic. Only her mate with the black aura could soothe her into walking with me. Even Gleb looked distraught at our pairing with them and he’s part of their clan. If they’re terrible people, why aren’t they shunned? We were!
“Gleb! Gleb! Help me move this log.
She could be hiding under it,”
Serik calls from somewhere in the brush.
“I’m on my way—”
Gleb’s answer precedes a crashing of branches.
Kaitlyn grabs my elbow and pulls me down until we sit in the tall grass.
She covers my mouth with her hand until Gleb’s cacophony stops.
My heart pounds.
Her aura is more colorful than her mates, but the dark patches of evil scare me to pieces. I don’t want to be alone with her, but as the flurry of swinging vegetation slows, her aura softens to pink.
“We don’t have much time.
Serik can only keep him occupied for a few seconds, but I must know.
Are you here on your own free will?”
“What?”
“Are you a captive? Did Gleb take you?”
“I guess he did,”
I state with my head shaking.
“I’m not his captive, though.
I’m his mate.
He’s kind to me—”
“Yeah, yeah,”
she says, waving her brightly polished nails at the end of my nose.
“You don’t have to pretend to be madly in love.
I have a vehicle, a phone, and a way to get you home to California.
When Serik took me—”
“I know he starved you.
I heard him and Gleb talking.
Gleb was the perfect host—and gentleman.
He’s mine.”
“So you’re in, like one hundred percent, all in,”
she says with concern dripping from her voice.
Kaitlyn trying to rescue me is the last thing I expected.
“It’s not like you can decide it’s over in ten days or ten years.
Chuchunya can’t risk a leak. Timor will make you disappear.”
“He already tried,”
I reply with a nervous laugh.
Wrong thing to say.
Kaitlyn’s eyebrows disappear into her cloud of black hair.
“When I was tentative about declaring us an item, he told Gleb to off me. Gleb refused and we were shunned. Instead of pouting, we worked on our relationship. It’s fine. I’m fine.”
“If you need to run, my vehicle can give you a head start.
I can get you a temporary apartment in Yellowknife if you need it.
You will have to hide out, but I have an escape route—”
“Kaitlyn, I’m not under duress.
I love Gleb.
I’m ready to move to the Arctic to be with him.”
“Ready, huh? Sydney Googled you and word reached me this morning.
Your parents are all over the internet, begging for your return.
They’re hot shit, soap opera stars so it’s all over the globe that you disappeared in the Arctic—and then your boyfriend disappeared when he came to look for you.
What’s your plan to take the heat off the Chuchunya when the Mounties, paparazzi, or US military come to find your ass? Will you let them find Gleb? He will be tucked away into Area 5, so fast your head will spin.”
“I didn’t think of that,”
I reply slowly.
“I thought after we migrate, I could get a phone.”
I stop talking when I realize what I’m about to divulge.
Kaitlyn and Serik don’t know that a convoy of Chuchunya has already started the northern migration against Timor’s wishes.
As sweet as Kaitlyn is to me, the other Chuchunya mates don’t trust her—and there’s the issue of her mate’s dark aura.
I don’t trust him at all.
In fact, having Gleb alone with him is making me jumpy.
Gleb insists they are friends, but can a fiend have friends? Whatever I do, I must get out of this conversation without blabbing about Sydney’s plan.
She will never forgive me.
The consequences for Gleb could be fatal if we’re shunned again.
“A phone? From where? Did you think you could fish your old one from the ocean?”
“I hadn’t thought that far ahead,”
I admit with a shrug.
More rustling and crashes resonate from where the males disappeared.
“What else escaped your mind—your apartment lease, your job, or the worldwide manhunt to find you? Timor’s colossal fit is nothing compared to the hell we will endure when people come looking for you.
What will you do, play dead?”
My apartment lease has four more months on it.
That’s long enough for my utilities to send my bills to collections.
As much as the humiliation of my parents standing for me in bankruptcy court would entertain me, I don’t want my name dragged through the mud.
My website isn’t responding to messages. I said I was traveling the Arctic, but how long before all my clients find new readers? I have no new leads because I’m not taking orders. My parents will enjoy shutting down my business—that’s for sure.
I’ll lose everything I worked so hard to build…and then there’s the issue of Jack’s disappearance.
What if the media assumes I died with him? Will my parents have a joint funeral? No, they never liked him anyway.
“You went pale,”
Kaitlyn says, shaking me.
“You’re not a fainter, are you?”
“I was imagining my funeral.
It wasn’t pretty.”
“Look, I’m sneaking away to visit my delivery box while Serik covers for me with Timor.
I could take you with me,”
Kaitlyn whispers, pulling me lower.
“When Serik and I were dating, I left to wrap up loose ends.
I set up my online delivery box, got a new vehicle, said goodbye to my brothers, and quit my job.
It’s understandable if you have loose ends to tie into a neat little bow before you become Ms. Dushevnayasvyaz.”
“My business, my apartment, my parents.
They are all loose ends.”
“Exactly, you can run home, run back, and nobody will be the wiser.”
“Except Gleb—”
“Hannah? Kaitlyn? Hannah, where are you?”
“Gleb!”
I jump to my feet and run without finishing my sentence.
I can’t hurt my future to solve the problems I left in my past.
Gleb’s tender heart won’t heal if I don’t tell him I’m leaving.
Will he believe that I have every intention of coming back?
Then there’s the added problem of the migration.
I can’t leave with Kaitlyn and leave with Gleb in opposite directions at the same time.
Even if Kaitlyn extends this offer again—after Sydney’s baby is born—will my return be in time to save my past from harming the Chuchunya? If the Arctic fills with reporters, it’s too late.
There’s also the wrinkle of Jack’s remains. We burnt everything we could, but DNA was on the metal pieces and the few things I kept. All I need is a sleuth to make a trail back to me. Gleb ends up hurt and alone in a lab while I rot in the slammer.
“Gleb! I’m sorry, we fell behind.
We had an interesting conversation and found lots of nature, but no signs of Sveta,”
I ramble, as I fling myself into his arms.
“Hannah, we never leave a partner behind, scheez.
Kaitlyn? Kaitlyn! Stay where you are, and I’ll come to get you,”
Serik shouts before stomping back the way I came.
“I’m making a mess of this,”
I whisper to Gleb, who seems to want to kiss me more than listen.
“Artyom’s warnings of never leaving someone alone flew out of my ear when you called.”
“That just means you should be my partner and not Kaitlyn’s,”
he whispers against my lips.
At this rate, we will never find Sveta.
“I know where there’s an abandoned cavern close to here.
Want to make a break for it?”
“Do you know all the hiding places in this forest?”
“Yes,”
he says, the smile lines smoothing from around his eyes.
“I was the youngest, with little to no supervision.
I ran wild.
If you ever need a hiding place, I’m your male.”
“If I ever need anything, I’ll come to you first…because you will always be my male. ”
“Come on, come on,”
Serik shouts as he leads Kaitlyn through the brush I leaped over to get to Gleb.
“We have to at least pretend to look for Sveta.”
“Yeah, I’d hate to think of the consequences of a human finding her first,”
Kaitlyn replies, staring right at me.
Her eyes bore into my soul and zeroed in on my insecurities.
The four of us resume walking and searching but my mind is miles away.
My secrets could lead dozens of reporters to Sveta.
A young woman sheltered her whole life, is on her own…hiding on the edge of human civilization.
What if they set up a search grid for me and found her instead? What if she mistakes them for friends and she’s locked in Area 5 like Kaitlyn threatened? I’d never forgive myself if something happened to her because I selfishly wanted to spend every minute with Gleb.
Human couples separate for business or vacation all the time. My dushevnayasvyaz doesn’t have to be all or nothing.
Even Kaitlyn stepped away from Serik to straighten her affairs.
She has a safe way to escape and return, so it’s not like I’m endangering them more.
It’s safer for me to leave than go.
As much as I hate to admit it, Kaitlyn is right.
Imagine if I was watching Gustav on the northern grounds—next to where I supposedly disappeared—Sydney is in labor, and a search party stumbles into our cavern looking for me. We’d all be locked up.
“I must go,”
I whisper into Kaitlyn’s ear.
“I agree that tree looks like it’s hiding something,”
she says loudly.
“I’ll be right over there,”
I tell Gleb.
A rock slams down on my heart.
Gleb’s trusting smile makes me feel like the scum building up on the bottom of my boots.
“Don’t leave our sight,”
Serik scolds but blows a kiss to Kaitlyn when she sticks her tongue out at him.
She flashes a tongue ring too.
“It has to be now,”
she whispers as we round the side of the tree.
“I retrieve my online shopping from my mailbox this afternoon.
You can call for a rideshare from my phone to pick you up at the research station—”
“I’ll call Grant with the helicopter,”
I mumble, rubbing my arms to ward off the sudden chill in my bones.
“Oh, la do dah, I’ll call my helicopter,”
Kaitlyn says in a singsong voice that grates my nerves.
“Let me just leave this.”
“Why are you putting a blue mushroom up there?”
“It’s my signal to Serik that I’m taking you.
We worked it out last night.
My car is over there.
I can’t let him worry about me or have Timor looking for us. Serik will run interference,”
Kaitlyn says, grabbing my elbow and hauling me away.
We crawl under a few downed trees and then break into a sprint.
She’s not as fast as me but much more sure-footed.
I stumble and trip after her as if it’s my first day walking.
She throws me into a black vehicle with caterpillars over the tires and armored doors. Who knew Kaitlyn drove a tank?
“But what about Gleb? I don’t want him worrying about me either,”
I yell, buckling my seatbelt.
Her engine roars to life as she floors the gas pedal.
“Serik will explain it,”
Kaitlyn replies, yanking the wheel to the right to dodge a huge pine tree.
I burst into tears as we exit the forest.
The car jumps the ditch and glides onto the road, cutting off a red pickup truck.
It blares its horn and flashes its lights.
Kaitlyn jerks the wheel and swerves out of the way to let him pass. He gives me the finger as he speeds ahead. Somehow I believe it’s a sign from the Fates. Did I just throw away the best thing that’s ever happened to me?
Leaving with Kaitlyn was the right thing to do, right? We had to leave now because of Sydney’s plan…right? Timor thinks we’re looking for Sv eta.
Serik will cover for us.
The migration continues without interruption.
Gleb’s heart breaks right now—the sting travels along our soulmate bond and pierces my heart. I second and third-guess myself as Kaitlyn wrestles her strange vehicle. It sounds like a bus but acts like a sports car.
“I bought this vehicle when Serik blew up my SUV.
It’s perfect for migrations.
You won’t catch me behind some smelly reindeer ass.”
“Did you buy it when you went to tie up loose ends?”
“Yeah, Serik didn’t take it so well, but we’re happy now.”
“What do you mean he didn’t take it well? He’s supposed to be calming Gleb when Gleb finds out we’re gone! He’s supposed to tell Gleb I’m leaving but returning because I love him! What happens when Gleb has nobody to question but Serik? What did Serik do when you left?”
“Gleb will mope with yearning and understanding.
Serik went stalker and followed me.
could be worse,”
Kaitlyn says with a shrug.
“Yeah, he high-tailed it Yellowknife and knocked on my apartment door.”
“He what?!”
“But he will talk to Gleb and tell him this was our plan all along,”
Kaitlyn says, patting my knee.
“You must clean up your old life before the mess falls on his head.”
I cry quietly toward the window.
Serik doesn’t know that I left with the intention of returning.
He will give Gleb the wrong idea.
This wasn’t my plan at all. I wanted to migrate north and start our new life.
Kaitlyn puts on the radio when it’s clear I don’t want to talk.
I screwed up.
Majorly screwed up.
Now, Gleb is looking for me, too. The whole world searches for me. When I was found, nobody wanted me. What’s so great when I’m gone? My parents didn’t want me until the accident. Jack only wanted me for my money. Now, Gleb, who genuinely loved me, won’t want me after I left so suddenly.
He will think I deserted him.
I must do everything in my power to prove him wrong.
Why did I go against my intuition and trust Kaitlyn and Serik? Why did I let my fear of losing Gleb trick me into betraying him?