Bear Fur Hire (Bears Fur Hire Book 2) (16 page)

Epilogue

Lena cocked her head and readjusted the large picture over the bed until it was straight. There was no headboard, so she’d decided to make a photo montage of differently sized and shaped pictures across the back wall instead. They were all black and white prints of her and Jenner’s wedding day.

Her gaze drifted to the picture window. Outside, the ground was covered in white, and the branches of the towering evergreens were covered in snow. Large flakes fell from the gray sky in a constant downpour. It was beautiful, but more than that, it was haunting. Sadness bloomed in her chest as she ripped her attention away from the wintery landscape. A piece of her would always hate snow now.

It had been one month since Jenner had gone to sleep. One month that felt like a year as each day dragged. Twice already, she’d given in and curled up under the house with him in her warmest winter clothes just to be close to him—her silver-furred bear.

Elyse had warned her over and over, but Lena had no way to mentally prepare for how long hibernation actually lasted. Six months didn’t sound so bad before the snow. One, two, three, four, five, six, and it would be done. She would be reunited with Jenner. But when each day dragged on for eternity, it was a different story.

The pictures scattered across the bed around her feet were an escape. This project was a way to remember how good things had been, and how good they would be again.

Soft notes sounded from the record player in the living room, and Lena reached forward, brushed her fingertip lightly over the enormous print above the mattress.

Her and Jenner’s wedding had been at the lodge in late September, and the first snow had decided to show up that day. Mom and Lena’s sisters had traveled all the way to Alaska for it and fretted over the weather for two days before the wedding, but not her. The falling snow made the most beautiful photographs.

This picture over the bed was the only one taken of her and Bear. Jenner had allowed her one, after all the wedding guests had gone inside except for Elyse. Lena had found a quiet place in the woods and set up the shot on a tripod, then Elyse had taken the picture with an old film camera. In the oversize print, she wore her fitted wedding dress, covered in crystals with a long flowing train, just like she’d always imagined when she was a little girl. The light train whipped in the wind, and though Lena faced the camera, her head was turned, as if she was waiting. Because she was. Behind her, barely visible through the falling snow, Bear was walking toward her.

Jenner had built her a darkroom on the back of the house, and she’d developed every one of these prints herself. In one, Link and the Silver brothers laughed, looking dapper in their dark suits on the deck of the lodge overlooking the snowy river. In another, Mom was wiping a snowflake off Lena’s cheek. One was of Jenner’s face when she’d first come out of the lodge in her dress. Eyes raw and open, Jenner looked at her as if he’d never seen anything more beautiful. Elyse had clicked away on Lena’s camera, capturing incredible pictures of their special day. Lena and Jenner slow dancing in the snow. Link watching the Dawsons warily with his wolf-bright eyes. Tobias and Ian talking, hands in their pockets. She and Jenner’s first kiss as the snow fell around them. Lennard, Dalton, and Chance grinning right at the camera, all with bunny ears behind their heads.

One by one, each photo she’d developed in the chemicals in her dark room were exposed as treasures.

A bark rang out, and Lena tilted her ear toward the front of the house. Link sometimes ran these woods as a wolf, just to make sure all was well, but he rarely even yipped. Must be Miki, which meant Elyse was on her way over. With a grin, Lena set down a picture of Mom crying and smiling as she hugged Jenner’s shoulders. In a rush, Lena bolted for the living room and turned down the record player, then threw the door open.

Only Elyse looked panicked and was sprinting toward her in a heavy jacket and snow boots.

“What’s wrong?” Lena called out, reaching for the rifle over the door. If something was after Elyse, she would be ready to protect her friend.

Miki was bounding in the snow near Elyse’s feet, barking over and over, clearly agitated by whatever had Elyse running so fast.

“Turn on the radio,” Elyse cried.

“It’s on! What’s happened?”

Elyse took the porch stairs two at a time and just about fell in through the front door. Miki came in, too, but at least he quit his barking. Now he was licking at Elyse’s fingers, trying to console her.

Winded, Elyse locked her hands on her knees and gasped out, “Tobias.”

Panic flared in Lena’s chest. “What about him? Is he hurt? Elyse! Talk to me!”

She lifted her gold-green eyes to Lena and said, “He radioed the house.”

“What?” Lena looked outside at the falling snow. It was mid-November, way past when the boys went down for hibernation. “Why is he still awake?”

Elyse shook her head and stood up straight, taking long, deep breaths. “I don’t know. I asked him, but he said he wouldn’t say another word until I was with you. He said he was going to radio over here.”

Baffled, Lena checked the radio, but she already knew it was on. That’s how she and Elyse talked when the weather was too bad to travel the mile to each other’s cabins.

“Lena,” the radio chirped out. It was really Tobias. “You there?”

She ripped the speaker off the box and pushed the button. “Yeah, I’m here. So is Elyse.”

“Let me hear her.”

“I’m here,” Elyse said into the speaker, then shrugged her own bafflement at Lena. “How are you still awake? Did someone hurt you?”

“No, I never went to sleep. Listen, I wanted to try this on myself before I put Ian and Jenner at risk.”

“What are you talking about, Tobias?” Elyse asked, voice frantic.

“You two go start putting food in their dens. I’m coming to you. I’ll be there in three days. I’m going to wake my brothers up.”

“Wake them up?” Elyse whispered, her eyes gone round. “Tobias, you can’t. They’re hibernating.”

“I owe them, Elyse. I
owe
them. I knew I had to fix this when you were attacked by the McCalls and we couldn’t do a damned thing about it. You wouldn’t have that scar on your face if we were awake to protect you. And Jenner—” Static blasted across the line. “Lena, I owed it to him to try. I hurt him.”

Lena shook her head at Elyse’s confused look and grabbed the speaker. “Tobias, we don’t understand. And Jenner isn’t mad for what happened when you were kids. You didn’t mean to hurt him. Just…tell us what’s happening.”

Elyse was crying, but Lena didn’t understand why. She just hugged her friend tightly and waited for Tobias to tell them what the hell was going on.

“You’ll never have to worry about winter again,” he said. “You’ll never have to wait for your men to wake up.”

Elyse was sobbing against her now with her hands clasped over her mouth, body shaking. Tears slid down Lena’s cheeks in rivers as a thin thread of hope wound around her heart.

“Say it, Tobias,” Lena demanded thickly. “Say it now before we fall apart.”

Seconds ticked by, and at last the radio static disappeared. Tobias’s voice wavered with emotion as he murmured, “I’ve found a cure.”

Up Next in This Series

Tobias Silver gets his story in

Mate Fur Hire (Book 3)

Coming December 2015