Tuesday Teaser 4/3/18: Gina’s Wolf Part 8

Happy April!  I hope you can find April where you’re at. Here it is buried beneath a lot of snow. The morning low was 2 F today and our high was 18. I don’t WANT to have to shovel any more but we are expecting snow on Thursday and over the weekend. Gah, even I am sick of winter!

I have a fairly long snip for you today, because I decided to take the story in a different direction than originally planned. So although the barebones of this will be familiar, I think a lot will be new too. Enjoy!

Chapter Four

Gina barely heard what the woman said. The aroma of ham sizzling on the stove pushed everything else out of her mind. But she noticed Cole’s arms stiffening around her and immediately relaxing, so she forced herself to pay attention to what was going on around her. The woman was not young, but her face had the timeless beauty that perfect bone structure preserved. Her soft brown hair was frosted with silver, the corners of her blue eyes edged with crow’s feet wrinkles, but her expression was lively and warm.

“Come in,” the woman urged. She put out one hand to push her husband back and lightly touched Gina’s shoulder with the other. “Oh, my dear, you’re frozen.” She looked up at Colby again. “Please, bring your mate in from the cold. I’ll take her into the kitchen while you get dressed.”

How did this stranger know that Cole thought of Gina as his ‘mate’? Cole stood silent a moment, and then gently put Gina on her feet. “Thank you.”

Gina’s feet almost failed to hold her up. She clutched Cole’s arm for balance. He steadied her until the farmwife hooked an arm around her waist and guided her into a short hallway that led to a roomy kitchen. The woman’s arm was warm and steady, but Gina was aware of a sense of loss. Cole was warmer and steadier.

Cole didn’t smell like ham and potatoes, though, and the kitchen did. Gina was suddenly ravenous. The woman pulled a chair over to the stove and pushed Gina into it. The stove was blessedly warm.  In a few seconds the woman brought a wet washcloth and applied it gently to Gina’s forehead. The pain from the bump flared back to life.

“Sorry,” the woman murmured. “We need to get this cleaned up.”

Gina tried to distract herself from the pain. “Do you know Colby?” she asked, trying to remember what the woman had said.

“Colby.” The woman paused, obviously thinking. “No, the name is familiar, but I don’t think I ever met him. He would have been just a baby when I married John and left the House to move here. There were so many babies born around that time.”

She said the word ‘house’ as if Gina should know which house. Gina didn’t. Cole came into the kitchen, dressed in threadbare jeans too wide in the waist and too short at the ankle, and a button up summer weight cotton shirt a bit too narrow in the shoulders. His feet were still bare. The farmer followed him in, still holding his shotgun, but no longer looking threatening.

“I don’t remember you,” Cole confirmed. “My dad is Taye, from the pack north of Kearney.”

“Oh, sure, Carla is your mom. We were on the plane together. I’m still in contact with Connie and Kathy. We exchange a couple of letters a year.”

Gina was completely lost by this conversation.

“John,” the woman said, wringing out the washrag, “get the extra blanket from the closet.”

Cole came directly to Gina and crouched in front of her. “Are you okay?”

“Sure.” The pain in her head was better now, but her feet and hands were being stabbed by a million red hot needles. That was good. Sit meant she was still alive. “How about you?”

“Fine.”

The man came back with the blanket but not the shotgun. Cole helped the woman drape it around Gina. She clutched it tightly under her chin, so grateful for its comfort that tears stung her eyes. Cole looked alarmed.

“Are you okay?” he asked again.

“Yes.” She scrubbed the tears away and told a fib. “It’s just the, uh, smoke. Breakfast is burning.”

“I’ll finish breakfast, Nikki,” the man said quietly. “You take Mrs. Wolfe to the bedroom and get her some warm clothes. I’ll finish chores after we get things settled.”

It took Gina a moment to realize that she was Mrs. Wolfe, but Nikki helped her up and led the way out of the kitchen. They passed through a living room to a hallway with three doors. Nikki went past the first two doors and opened the third one to reveal a bedroom crowded with a large, neatly made bed and two wooden bureaus. Nikki guided Gina to the bed and turned to rummage through a drawer. She pulled out a pair of jeans, a bright red sweater, and two pairs of wool socks.

“I’m a little taller than you,” Nikki said with a smile, “but we’re about the same size so these should fit.”

Nikki said nothing about the party dress as she helped Gina out of it, but her brow furrowed briefly as she set it aside. Gina wondered what she should say if she was asked why she was outside in a dinner dress and nothing else. She groped for a believalbe lie in vain. Nothing could explain this bizarre situation. Even the truth was ludicrous.

Nikki didn’t ask. She carefully examined Gina’s toes, fingers, nose, and ears as she helped her dress. “No frostbite,” she said with relief. “Let’s go back out to the kitchen. You need to sit close to the stove to thoroughly warm up.”

Heaven would have thick wool socks. Gina was sure of it. She followed the woman back to the kitchen, each step driving pins and needles through her feet, but by the time she came in the kitchen, the pins and needles were fading. Cole visibly relaxed when he saw her. He took her hand and gently tugged her back to the chair by the stove.

“I want to sit at the table,” she protested.

In answer, he went to the large wooden table, slid one hand under it and lifted it. With no sign of effort, he carried it three yards and set it down in front of her so gently that nothing on it was disturbed. Gina gaped at the sugar bowl and the two place settings before raising her gaze to him. No wonder he could carry her for miles without panting.

The farmer was staring too, but his wife calmly brought more tableware and made two more place settings. “Coffee?” she asked placidly.

Gina giggled. It was a nervous, half-hysterical giggle, but Cole smiled at her and brought the chairs over. He put one chair next to her and sat in it. Somehow, he was just as warm as the stove. Between the stove at her back and Cole at her side, Gina could literally feel herself thawing.

Nikki served them. She apologized for the potatoes, which were a bit scorched, but the ham was perfect, and the eggs plentiful. The bread was toasted, and the butter was rich and thick. It reminded Gina of her stepfather’s dinner party last night.

Gina froze. That was just last night?

“What is it?” Cole asked.

“Nothing.”

The farmer paused in shoveling in eggs. “We should introduce ourselves.  I’m John Andrews. My wife, Nikki. I met Nikki in Kearney, when she was working at the Eatery in the Plane Women’s House. We married three months later, after I proved to Des and Connie Wolfe that I would be good to her.”

Cole nodded. “I’m Cole Wolfe. I’m a member of the Pack north of Kearney. This is my mate, Gina.”

Gina made herself small, bracing herself for their disgust when he told them who her stepfather was. But he didn’t.

“I came to Omaha with kin for the spring legislative session. That’s where I met Gina.” he went on. “I need to go to back to Omaha. Will you look after Gina for a day?”

“Of course,” Nikki began.

Gina cut her off. “You’re going to Omaha now? Without me?”

“Yes,” he said. “You need to rest.”

“You need to rest, too,” she countered.

“You worry about me?” There was something tender in his dark eyes when he looked at her. That look melted her insides. The melting froze when the tenderness was drowned by arrogance. “Don’t. I am a wolf warrior. You are not. When did you last sleep? I can travel faster without you. I will find my cousins and we will bring you safely home to the den.”

She opened her mouth to argue, drew a breath, and closed it to consider the right words to use. If she let him have his way in everything, she would end up just like her mother. Gina refused to be an obedient doormat. She put her fingers lightly on his wrist and waited for his eyes to turn to her. They did with alacrity.

“Cole, I’d rather go with you.” She nodded to their hosts. “The Andrewses have been very generous to us, but I don’t want to cause them any trouble.” Like having the Kansas-Missouri army come knocking on their door and find them hiding the President’s fugitive stepdaughter. She tried to convey that to Cole with her eyebrows. “We could go together this afternoon after we get some rest.”

He looked dubious. “It would be safer for you to wait here while I bring my cousins to escort you to Omaha.”

His tone was so carefully reasonable that Gina almost smiled. He was probably trying to figure out why her eyebrows were wiggling like that and wondering if this woman he barely knew were insane.  “We could compromise,” she suggested. “You and I can go after dark. We wouldn’t be seen as easily then.”

He seemed to consider that, chewing his ham thoughtfully. “I suppose we could do that. But you need to rest while I run a patrol. I need to know if we were followed.”

John Andrews’ head came up. “Followed?” He swallowed potatoes. “Are you in trouble?”

Gina looked from John to Nikki to Cole, wondering how much to admit. “It’s possible. Cole, uh rescued me from the Kansas Missouri camp last night. They might want to get me back.” There. She’d told the truth.

John’s mouth tightened and he muttered something that sounded like, “Those encroaching good for nothings need to clear out.”

Nikki’s hand when to her mouth. “They stole a wolf’s mate?” Horrified disbelief threaded her voice.

Gina didn’t answer that. “If they do come this way I don’t want them to find me here with you. I know how they operate. They would punish you, so we need to leave as soon as possible.”

John pushed back from the table. “They haven’t crossed the river this way yet. Do you know what their plans are?”

“I don’t know everything. The president wants to take his family back to Kansas City. They should be leaving within the week. Maybe.” How long would her stepfather search for her? Guilt swirled in the pool of anxiety lodged in her stomach. “But he’ll be back. He wants Omaha.”

Nikki must have seen her anxiety. She leaned over to give her a quick hug. “Don’t you worry. The Clan and the Packs will protect you. That sleazy president might have an army, but he hasn’t run up against the Clan yet.”

Gina wanted to believe her. No one had succeeded in standing against her stepfather.

“That’s right,” John said. “Omaha isn’t defenseless, and neither is the rest of Nebraska. Even this farm isn’t defenseless. Eat your breakfast. You are welcome here.”

Gina ate with a sense of wonder. These people were like Lachlan and Ceara. They were good and caring. They looked after other people, even strangers. Gina had known too few good people in Kansas City. It was like her stepfather had sucked all the caring out of them. She couldn’t go back to that. If Cole hadn’t showed up last night, what would she be doing right now? Probably eating breakfast with Tanner and Jon on either side of her, poking and pinching her, showing her a hopeless future as their wife. What her future now held she wasn’t sure, but compared to Jon and Tanner, Cole was a prince.

Beside her, Cole’s hand brushed over her arm, almost like it was an accident, but when she glanced at him she saw he was watching her with a small, warm smile. Was he reading her mind? “Finish your breakfast,” he ordered. “Then come out with me to say good bye.”

“Bossy,” she muttered, but continued to eat. She noticed Nikki’s lips were pressed together as if suppressing a smile.

They finished breakfast quickly and Nikki collected the plates and stacked them in the sink while water heated to wash them. John went back to the barn to continue his interrupted chores. Cole led Gina out to the mudroom.

It was cooler here than in the kitchen, so she didn’t object when he put his arms around her. He smelled like lavender and cedar, probably from his borrowed shirt, and something else, something that just him. She buried her nose into his chest.

“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” he whispered into her hair. “Will you miss me?”

She snorted and leaned back to look into his face. “Maybe.”

“My sweet mate.”

He leaned down as if he would kiss her. Gina swallowed irrational panic. “So, what’s with this Plane Women’s House Mrs. Andrews is from?” she blurted. “And how does she know you’re a wolf?”

He was even more handsome when he laughed silently. “Ask her to explain it. Now hold still. I need something to keep me warm on my patrol.”

He was going to kiss her! He bent his head slowly, watching her closely. She realized he was giving her time to tell him no. That fact erased her reluctance, giving curiosity room to grow. She lifted her face, waiting to feel his lips touch hers.

They did, so lightly and softly that it was hardly a kiss. His nose pressed into her hair behind her ear was unexpectedly erotic. She awkwardly lifted her arms to put her hands on his shoulders. The strength she felt in the thick muscles under her fingers was foreign. She’d never embraced a man. Well, she had, but never such a handsome man, and never one who seemed to think she belonged to him. No, that wasn’t it either. Cole was bossy, but he honestly seemed willing to do anything to protect her. If Jon embraced her she wouldn’t feel this mix of trepidation and wonder. His touch would be loathsome.

Cole’s breath stirred her hair and warmed the tender place behind her ear. His arms tightened for a moment, then relaxed. He leaned away and raised her chin with his fingers. “I’ll be back soon, mate.”

“Be careful,” she whispered.

His smile was a bold slash of white in his dark face. “Always.”

With complete unconcern, he stepped away, unbuttoned the shirt and let it drop, and then unfastened the jeans and stepped out of them. Gina gawked at the male perfection of his naked body. His broad shoulders tapered to a hard, narrow waist and long legs. She got a glimpse of his sculpted chest and belly before he turned to the door, showing her a hard, round behind. Dang it, she thought, she had missed the main attraction!

He opened the door and paused to glance back at her. His wicked smile said he knew she liked what she saw. “All yours, Gina. All of me belongs to only you,” he said.

Then he blurred into gray fur and was gone, the door swinging shut behind him.