Despite fallingin front of his savior, Alec surprisingly found the floor far more forgiving than a bed of dried leaves. A large rug softened the impact—woven strips of old cloth repurposed into an entryway rug that was much larger than Alec was expecting from the sight of the tiny cabin from outside.
“Are you alright?” asked the wolf, and Alec groaned a bit as he rolled to his side, aches and pains complaining the whole time.
“Better than falling in the woods…” Alec started to reply, and he blinked, shocked silent.
The werewolf was in his human shape, and obviously naked. The soft glow of a lamp beside the door cast enough light to illuminate the smooth, chiseled expanse ofmuscles and pale skin flushed with exertion from transforming.
Longish red-blond hair fell to shoulders wider than Alec would ever be able to boast, and a short beard redder than the hair graced a strong jaw that led to pink lips curved in an amused half-smile. Crystal blue eyes twinkled as the very naked and very attractive man stepped through the doorway and held a hand down to Alec.
He stared at the hand a long second, before a chuckle from the alpha made him snap out of it and he took the help, the alpha gently lifting him to his feet with impressive ease.
“Leif,” the alpha introduced himself with a dip of his chin, still holding Alec’s hand. “What’s your name, little greenbough?”
Greenbough. That nickname for an unspecified fae was old, older than the country they both stood upon, and Alec found himself answering without hesitation, the warm fingers holding his chilled hand sapping his normal reticence. Leif’s accent was subtle, a charming mix of southern Appalachian influences and a hint of something that sounded almost like an actor from a gritty Viking movie.
“Alec, um..oh, you’re tall…Alec Greyfeld.” The swift grin on Leif’s face was devastatingly attractive, and Alec found himself blushing, something he hadn’t done since puberty, he was fairly certain.
“Go have a seat by the fire, Alec,” Leif gently ordered, slowly letting go of his hand. “The night is cold, and the hearth is warm. You’re welcome in my home.”
Another sign of age, even if it didn’t appear on Leif’s face or frame—such courtesy was foreign to Alec’s experience but not unknown to him—his mother was where his fae blood originated, and she taught him as well as shecould before her poisoning, an unnatural death that orphaned Alec as a young teen.
“Thank you,” Alec replied softly, fighting off another blush, eyes darting away from the quick grin on Leif’s handsome face. He found himself squeaking in surprise when Leif wrapped a heavy arm around his waist and all but carried him to the fireplace, depositing him in a massive armchair draped with lush furs and woven blankets.
“But, I’m covered in mud and blood…” Alec protested weakly.
Leif arched a thick brow and grabbed a dark brown fur from the back of the chair and proceeded to wrap Alec up in its delicious warmth, ignoring the dirty clothing. Alec got an eyeful of the very naked alpha, and his wide eyes and mouth opening in a small ‘O’ of stunned fascination had Leif grinning again, sharp and a bit less human, more wolf.
“Stay by the fire,” Leif told him, his words a rumble coming from deep inside his chest, eyes flashing a bit in the light from the fire. The embers had been banked, but the touch of Leif’s fingers to a carved sigil in the stone wall fed the fire and it grew to a steady flame. Leif removed his fingers from the spell once he was satisfied with the result. He cast Alec a stern glance, as if making sure Alec wasn’t going to wander off, and then he disappeared into the shadows in the far corner of the cabin, and Alec blinked in disbelief when he realized the far wall wasn’t wood, but solid stone.
The hearth was carved into the side of the mountain, and Alec saw where the rock had once been exposed to the elements, now covered by the cabin. He realized the black depths of the shadows in what he’d thought was the far corner from the door was actually a wide opening in therock wall. The floors were wide hardwood planks, wider than Alec had ever seen, cut from trees so large they surely had no modern contemporaries remaining in the Appalachians.
Small on the outside, and far, far larger on the inside, and while it wasn’t a TARDIS, the cottage had a certain charm to it that delighted Alec. It smelled of rock, rain, and smoke from the hearth, along with the scent of a predator—blood and metal, and a musk that was not at all unappealing. Alec buried his nose in the soft fur that surrounded him, smelling the fibers of the creature now long gone, and overlaying it all, the scent of Leif.
He smelled like a wolf, of course, and something more. Something that made Alec’s eyes close, and he breathed in deep, face buried in the furs, each deep breath a comfort.
“Here, I found these. They might fit you.” Leif’s sudden reappearance had Alec blinking up at him in a fog, frowning to see that Leif had wrapped a short length of dark red fabric around his waist in a rudimentary kilt. He’d secured the end on his left hip with an iron clasp, and the cloth fell to about mid-thigh. He was certain Leif was naked under the kilt, and there was no mistaking the blessedly large bulge cupped by the dark red cloth. Nothing was left to the imagination, and Alec idly thought that perhaps if he asked, Leif might go back to being naked.
Alec reached out from his comfy cocoon of furs and took the neatly folded clothing from Leif, who backed away with a short nod and a gesture over his shoulder. “There’s a water-closet in the back hall if you want to change in there, or need to use the privy,” Leif informed him, and he went to fuss over the fire, swinging a large iron teapot over the flames on an iron arm bolted into the rock wall. He soundedless American and more Nordic the longer he spoke, giving Alec even more hints as to his age.
The flames of the fire were now bright enough to illuminate the room, and his host. Alec pulled the clean clothes to his chest, wondering idly if he could just get changed in the chair since the hearth was so warm and he wasn’t sure of his footing, when something caught his eye.
There was a scar on Leif’s left pectoral muscle, shiny and smooth, a paler hue than Leif’s already fair skin tone, and Alec only saw it because the light reflected off it in a silvery flash, making him squint. The glare was gone in an instant, but the scar was more visible as Leif worked, rotating out different iron arms to move various cooking apparatus over the flames. One a grill, about two square feet, another a deep iron pot that swung beside the kettle that had a thin tendril of steam already rising from the spout.
“Do you eat meat?” Leif asked over his shoulder, that brow rising again when he saw Alec was unmoved, still staring. “Need some help? I didn’t want to presume.”
Alec stopped staring and investigated the clothing. A thin t-shirt and some sweatpants, the kind with the drawstring waist so he could tie them up, as there was no way the pants would stay up on his narrow waist without some help.
“I’ll eat anything,” Alec said, meaning it. “I haven’t eaten in over a day.”
Leif’s eyes darkened and his mouth tightened, but he refrained from voicing his anger. Alec knew Leif was not angry with him, but a part of him still shivered in alarm. In his experience, when men got angry, he got hit. It was uncharitable of him to be wary of Leif like that, but ingrained habits were hard to break.
Leif must have seen something on his face since he slowed his movements and made sure that Alec was looking at him before he made any big motions with his arms, like reaching out one big hand toward Alec, palm up, fingers relaxed. Alec held the clothing to his chest with one hand and took the offered help with the other, letting Leif pull him gently from the warm nest in the chair and to his feet. He wobbled a second, and then Leif gently slid a big arm around his waist, and Alec found himself neatly swept off his feet and carried toward the dark recess in the far cabin wall.
It was cooler than in the cabin, but not by much, and it was utterly black until Alec’s eyes adjusted to the gloom, and he stared in amazement at what must have been a mine shaft, wide enough for a car to drive through, and about nine feet or so tall, the walls shored up with thick timbers spaced evenly along the walls and ceiling of the shaft. About ten feet into the shaft there was a door, the frame also shored up by thick timbers. Leif opened the door with his free hand and set Alec beside the threshold, leaning him against the wall. A light came to life overhead, a simple glass lamp that hung from the ceiling on a chain, the wiring encased in tubing that ran back toward the doorway and out into the mine shaft. Realizing there was power in the mine had Alec mesmerized, but the finished flooring, smooth walls, and the rich scent of fresh, clean spring water had him eager to get washed up and changed.
“Water is fresh, straight from a well,” Leif gestured to the sink, which looked like it was carved right out of the stone wall, next to which was a toilet, the only piece of porcelain he’d seen so far in the entire structure. “Past the toilet is a shower. Can you see magic?” Leif asked abruptly, peering down at him with a slight frown.
“I can,” Alec replied, though he didn’t want to go into the specifics of what he could see and do. It was his abilities that had brought him to the attention of some really bad people and while he doubted a super powerful alpha werewolf needed a fae alchemist, he was reluctant to risk losing the unexpected safe haven he’d found with Leif.
