No, I discovered after stumbling toward the direction of the new scent.
My "cave" turned out to be a shallow hole in the mountain wall.
Just big enough to fit one exhausted she-wolf if she decided to curl up inside it.
There was no "if" about it, though. Before I could even make a conscious choice, I was already shrugging off the crossbody bag and crawling into the unexpected mountain bastion in my soggy, freezing clothes.
I had never in my life been less comfortable. Every inch of me was soaked and chilled to the bone. But as soon as I tucked myself intothe hole, my limbs turned to noodles, and a hot flush stole over me, dragging me down into sleep.
Not a good idea. Some vague survival factoid sparked in my tired mind, warning me of what could happen if I fell asleep in ice-cold, wet clothes.Hypothermia… frostbite… death…
A heavy, black sleep pulled me under before I could finish that ominous thought.
I slept like the dead. Cold, numb, and completely oblivious… until suddenly, warmth jolted me awake.
I blinked, disoriented, as I realized I was no longer in the freezing hole but lying by a warm, toasty fire.
A soft blanket was wrapped around me, and the air was filled with the most wonderful smell — another wolf, I realized with a start. But not like Sea and Wild. His scent was somehow both rich and cool, like freshly baked bread mingled with the crisp, clean aroma of stone and rain.
“Good, you’re awake," said a voice.
Warm, lilting, and Irish, it washed over me like a thrilling piece of music, making my heart flutter as if I’d just heard my favorite songfor the very first time.
"I was going to take my chances with a human doctor from the local town if you didn’t come to soon.”
I sat up to see who was talking, and more of that amazing scent filled my nose. I followed the stronger trail with my eyes to find a shadowy figure standing in the arched entrance of what I could barely make out as a front room, just outside the light's reach.
I'd been saved… by a wolf. A male wolf, like Sea or Wild. But he smelled nothing like Sea or Wild. I squinted into the dimmer room, trying to make him out in the fire's flickering light.
"Thank you for saving my life," I said, my voice thick with gratitude. But then I had to ask, "Who are you?”
“Who am I?” my savior asked from the shadows. “Who areyou? Last thing I expected to find on my night walk was a foreign she-wolf tucked into the mountain. What happened, then? Did you miss all those warning signs posted around the lake and fall in?”
His question made my cheeks burn with embarrassment, and I opened my mouth to defend myself with the truth.
But then I thought better of it. Yes, this unmated male was actually talking directly to me, and he'd saved me from dying of hypothermia in that mountain hidey hole. But he just happened to be living right above the secret kingdom?
What if he was some kind of real-world guard or yet another one of Sea's and Wild's minions who hadn't gotten the memo about me being the supposed destined queen to the two Kings of Ireland?
“Could you step into the light?"Suddenly, seeing him clearly became a matter of life and — well, if not death, certainly recapture. But I tried to keep the suspicion out of my voice when I told him, "It's kind of hard to have this conversation with someone I can't see."
"Sorry, I didn't mean to come off like a creeper." The male wolf stepped out of the shadows into the light of the fire and crouched down so that he could be at eye level with me, even though I was sitting on the floor. "How's this?"
The entire world stopped.
He was clean-cut with strong but approachable features and rich brown hair, slightly tousled and long — but long like he'd just missed a haircut, not long like he was living out some kind of historical cosplay like Sea.
No, he was the complete opposite of the wolves who'd kidnapped us. In fact, if not for his lupine scent, I'd think he was a regular, modern human dressed in a simple pair of jeans and a long-sleeved t-shirt.
A faint smile tugged at the corner of his lips — not devastating like Sea's or mocking like Wild's. It felt like he was trying not to laugh, and for some reason, I had to tamp down the urge to laugh along. At an untold joke only the two of us could hear.
He was a stranger, yet my gut filled with a knowing sensation, like finding an old friend in a crowd. Or in a foreign country.
I'd grown up cloistered, but for some reason, I wanted to ask him, “Have we…?”
“Met before?” he finished. “Now that we're talking face to face, you feel so…”
He trailed off, but I picked up his thought. Easily. "Familiar."
