“That’s the question,” I huffed. “For right now, there’s a storm coming in, so I’m taking you upstairs to wait it out.” I rose from the makeshift bed and stepped to his side, my nose wrinkling. “And sticking you directly in the shower.”
“Sorry,” Jeremy whispered. “I..it’s been too cold to wash in the creek for the last couple of weeks.”
I shivered at the thought. “Don’t worry about it,” I said gruffly. “The lodge has plenty of hot water.” I shoved the trap door open and steadied the deathtrap of a stepladder. “Now, you are going to climb out slowly and carefully and meet me outside, understand?”
“Yes, Alpha,” Jeremy sounded exhausted and completely defeated. “I won’t run.”
Once he was safely out of the cellar, I switched off the ancient flashlight and followed him outside.
“Son of a bitch,” I growled when I stepped out of the lean-to and didn’t see Jeremy waiting. I took a couple of steps and nearly tripped over his body. “Oh, double hell.” I lifted him carefully and carried him into the lodge, laying him on the bed in the first room I came to.
He was still breathing steadily, so I crossed my fingers that he’d just fainted. Sure enough, a minute or so later, he began to rouse.
I waited until he seemed fully conscious. “Jeremy, when was the last time you ate?”
He blinked his large blue eyes. “Not sure. I guess a couple of days ago?” He shrugged and I suddenly realized that, other than his tummy, he was ridiculously thin. “It’s kind of hard to hunt right now.”
Of course, it would be. That would explain all of the small animal pelts. He couldn’t have been eating much at all.
“Stay right here,” I ordered him, using my Alpha voice to its full potential. “I’ll be right back with some food.”
“Yes, Alpha,” Jeremy’s words ended in a yawn and I headed for the kitchen, strongly suspecting that I was going to have to wake him up when I returned.
ChapterFour
Jeremy
I had to be dreaming.
That was the only explanation for why an Alpha I only met once for a multiday fuckfest had suddenly appeared in the damp, chilly root cellar I’d denned in to drag me up into a warm, brightly lit cabin and feed me hot soup.
I waited until Kade spooned the last of the canned minestrone into my mouth and left to return the dishes to the kitchen to pinch the skin inside my elbow.
Ouch.
Nope. Not dreaming, after all.
And that raised a whole bunch of other questions, starting with why the hell Kade was part of the effort to find me. It’s not like there is a huge number of hyena shifters in the USA and I definitely hadn’t recognized him, so what was his interest?
I was still sitting in the same spot where he’d left me when Kade returned to the cozy living room, the long sleeves of his shirt shoved haphazardly up over his elbows.
“Jeremy?” When Kade said my name, his voice was gentler than I’d expected given how annoyed he’d seemed when I found him on my bed. “Come into the bathroom so we can clean you up.”
The promise of real soap and warm water after months of quick scrub-ups in freezing river water was more than enough to keep me from getting pissy about being ordered around. Not like I was really in any condition to object. I struggled to my feet and followed Kade down the hall, past the main bathroom, and through a huge bedroom to a five-piece en suite. The water was flowing in the large, glass-enclosed shower in the corner and the air was already thick with steam.
Before feeding me, Kade had wrapped me in a warm blanket to replace the nasty t-shirt that I’d foolishly tried to return to him and then somehow lost on my way out of the root cellar. He gently pried the blanket from my fingers and drew it off my shoulders before his fingers dropped to the elastic waistband of the filthy sweatpants and drew them off.
“Commando, huh?” he said with a small laugh as he knelt in front of me, raising one foot at a time to pull them free.
“Nowhere to find drawers that would fit when I started growing,” I managed to mumble.
“Oh.” The amusement in Kade’s tone fled, replaced with something akin to sympathy. He opened the glass door and took my elbow to help me in. “Easy does it,” he warned, steering me toward the waterfall of steamy water and bracing my hands against the smooth tile of the wall. “Just stand there for a minute, okay?”
I nodded, closing my eyes as the water sluiced over me, warming me. I knew I should get started washing, but I was so bone-weary that I couldn’t seem to make myself move. I was still trying to find the energy to reach for the soap when large hands began to stroke over my back, spreading a rich, honey-scented lather as they went.
I moaned as they worked the lather into my hair. Then whimpered when strong fingers trailed down my neck to dig gently into the knots along my spine left by the uneven gait from my sciatica.
“You’re okay, baby,” Kade crooned sweetly, talking in a low, soothing voice as he spread the rich soapy froth over my body, scrubbing every inch before lifting the hand-held nozzle from the cradle and rinsing me clean. “Everything is going to be okay, I promise.”
