Page 17

Dahlia woke up when the bed moved, groggy, and not sure where she was. She opened her eyes and Crew was laying next to her, up on his elbow, facing her and grinning, looking hot and handsome with sexy scruff on his face, his short dark hair perfectly combed.

“Time to get up, sleepyhead,” he said.

Then Dahlia remembered where she was—in Ella’s guest bedroom.

“What time is it?” she asked.

“3:30 in the afternoon.”

He rolled and picked something up off the floor. It was her duffle bag she’d packed for their planned overnight trip.

“I’ve got all your stuff,” he said.

“Oh, ok.” Dahlia still felt sleepy. She laid her head on the pillow and closed her eyes, speaking softly. “What about my e-reader?”

“Grabbed it, plus your notebooks and pens.”

“Good.” She pulled the blanket up to her chin and snuggled into her pillow.

Crew yanked the covers down. “No way, Doll. Up and at ‘em. Everyone’s waiting on you.”

Dahlia sat up and rubbed her eyes. "Are we riding with Beckett and Cerise?"

"Not just Beckett and Cerise. Everyone's going, even Mac , Bruin, Troy and Trent. The roads are closed but the resort is still open, so we’re all going by snowmobile." He rolled off the bed and stood up.

Dahlia got up and stretched, feeling sluggish. “Snowmobile?” she said, trying to make sense of it all. She really just wanted to get back in bed and pull the covers over her head, but the heavy snowfall out the window caught her attention. She went to the window and looked around, but she could only see white.

She turned back to Crew. He held her pendant out to her. “Trevor thinks everyone should wear their pendants. You good with that?”

“Sure,” she said, feeling a little more awake now. She took her pendant and fastened it around her neck. “Is Ella wearing hers?”

“She still won’t touch it, so Cerise has it.”

“Oh good, that’s smart.”

Ella wouldn’t touch her pendant because in the past, it had ‘traveled’ her to dangerous places. Cerise didn’t have a pendant because it had been stolen, but she could hold Ella’s without any problems, and since Heather had been able to do some powerful things with Ella’s pendant when they’d needed it, they thought Cerise probably could, too.

Crew held up a stack of clothes topped with a white and purple snowmobile suit.

“We’re really going by snowmobile?” she asked.

“You, Cerise and Ella are, plus Mac and Bruin. The rest of us are running there as wolves.”

Dahlia was surprised. The males rarely went anywhere as wolves, and never together in a group that she’d seen so far.

“Trevor thinks it’ll be fine because of the snowfall. The roads’re closed and no one’s out and about. Serenity’s shut down.”

“But the hotel’s open?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay,” Dahlia said. She went into the bathroom to get ready. When she was finished, Crew was waiting for her.

“Hey, Doll,” he said, looking impossibly sexy, moving in close, wrapping his arms around her and whispering in her ear. “You look pretty in that snowsuit.”

She smiled sweetly at him and kissed him on the cheek. He held out his hand and she took it.

“Wait!” she said. “I have to get your Valentine’s Day gift.”

He grinned and dug in the bag, then held it up. She’d gotten him a signed book from one of his favorite authors and thank goodness she’d wrapped it days ago.

“I found it with your notebooks and figured you’d want me to bring it.”

They made their way downstairs to the living room, which was empty, but, through the sliding glass door, they could see the team was clustered on the back porch, where they were protected from the snow. Trevor was talking, while Ella, Cerise, Beckett, Trent, and Troy were listening.

“If there’re any issues at all, switch to route B. Got it?”

Troy barked and Beckett said, “Yessir.” Ella, Cerise and Trent nodded. Dahlia slid open the door and Cerise saw her right away. Cerise was dressed in an adorable yellow snowsuit and she waved enthusiastically at Dahlia and then grabbed Beckett’s hand, pointing at his identical snowsuit.

Dahlia grinned. “Twinsies.”

Cerise ran down the porch steps, motioning for Dahlia to follow. “You’re with me,” she said, heading for the snowmobiles which were parked under a tarp. Dahlia and Crew followed.

Cerise got on one, patting the seat behind her, but before Dahlia could move, Trevor stepped in front of them, obviously wanting to tell her and Crew the plan. Behind Trevor, Ella also got on her snowmobile and waved at Dahlia. Dahlia waved back, then paid attention to Trevor.

“Everyone on snowmobiles will cut across the property,” he was saying. “then follow the fence line of the neighbor’s cornfield. Once you hit the old highway, stick close to the road. The rest of us are going to stay inside the tree line. When we have to cross the highway, we’ll do it in spaced intervals.”

The sound of a snowmobile engine caught Dahlia’s attention and she looked around. A third snowmobile came around the side of the house and zoomed by them, with Bruin driving and Mac behind him. They went up a snowdrift and caught air, Mac whooping, and Bruin steering for dear life—and then they hit a tree. The snowmobile’s engine cut off, the machine stopped short and crashed to the ground, sending a mini avalanche of snow from the tree’s branches, which covered Mac, Bruin, and the snowmobile completely.

CRACK.

The unmistakable sound of a tree branch breaking made Dahlia’s breath catch. It was a thick branch on the tree they’d just hit, and looked to be falling directly toward the two males and the snowmobile.

Dahlia clapped her hands to her mouth and Cerise covered her eyes. Trevor yelled and ran that way, even though there was no way he could reach them in time.

Beckett and Crew both said, “Oh shit,” in unison.

Ella, on her snowmobile, shouted and thrust both her hands straight out at the falling branch. Power flew past Cerise, rocking her in her seat. The branch splintered, making twigs fly deep into the forest, and in the eerily quiet aftermath, snow continued to fall like nothing had happened. Ella dropped her hands to her belly, her eyes on the tree.

Everything was quiet and still. They all stared spellbound at the big mound of snow under the affronted tree.

Trevor stopped running, sliding to a halt in the snow. “Mac?” he called, with something sounding suspiciously like worry in his voice.

Mac burst out of the mound, face covered in powdery snow, yelling, “I’ll save you Bruin!”

He dropped to his knees and dug, both arms flying, but then the snowmobile’s engine burst to life and it and Bruin emerged from the snow like a submarine breaching the ocean. Bruin took off across the yard at high speed, then turned and looped a wide circle around Mac. They were both covered head to toe in snow and grinning like lunatics.

“Climb on, Mac, I’m itching to go!” Bruin shouted, still moving.

Mac grabbed Bruin around the shoulders and flung himself into the second seat and they zoomed off into the forest.

Trevor watched until they were out of sight. He turned, shaking his head. “On second thought,” he said, “you three stay just outside the tree line, and we’ll stay just inside. We’ll deal with crossing the highway when we get there.” He patted the bags strapped to Ella’s snowmobile. “All the essentials are here.” Ella smiled at him, and he moved in close to touch her belly, giving her a questioning look. She nodded slightly, and he bent to give her a kiss.

Beckett pointed at the cargo sled. It held an oversized bag labeled, ‘pop-up tent’, plus two duffel bags, and a metal stockpot with the lid duct taped on.

“They forgot the stew.”

The noise of the snowmobile had faded, but now it was back and increasing. Dahlia giggled as Bruin and Mac drove slowly past, sheepish and snow-covered, with Trevor, Crew, Trent, and Beckett glaring at them. Troy was lying on the ground, his fur starkly black against the bright white snow, and his big body shaking as he laughed his ass off. Bruin stopped the snowmobile near the cargo sled, he and Mac hooked it up, then they drove off without saying a word.

“Alright, time to head out,” Trevor said. He took off his boots and socks and put them in a bag strapped to Ella’s snowmobile, then walked barefoot through the snow onto the porch and into his house. Crew and Beckett both took their boots off and put them in the bag, then they went into the house, too.

A short time later, three wolves came out. Trevor was first, a big black wolf with a boomerang shape in white on his left shoulder. He looked almost exactly like Trent and Troy except he had sprays of silver and gray fur around his face and neck. Next was Beckett, who was always interesting to look at, because of his black ‘boots’, but the only one Dahlia really cared about was Crew. He exited last, then pulled the door closed with the wolf-friendly handle, and came down the steps. He was big, silver and black, with amber eyes and a dark starburst pattern on each shoulder. He moved with a simple grace that fascinated Dahlia and she could not look away. He loped right over to her and pressed his nose to her face. She hugged him.

Ready? He asked in her mind.

Yeah . She kissed his furry cheek, then released him. He loped across the yard to the forest and Beckett followed. Cerise started the snowmobile and Ella started hers. The three of them put their helmets on, and then they were on the move, leaving the property and heading for the resort.