Chapter 9

Isaiah walked to the kitchen in a daze. What the fuck just happened? He had never experienced such an intense sexual attraction before, not like tonight. He had fucked many women and the sex was great but Olivia.

She just rocked his world in ways he couldn’t even begin to explain. Her scent had turned him primal, into the sex crazed animal he always wanted to unleash but knew he couldn’t with a human.

With Olivia, he didn’t even have a choice— it just happened and he fucking loved it.

He opened the cupboard and grabbed two glasses and filled them with water from the tap. The water up in the mountains was always fresh, boasting a subtle sweetness from the springs where they came from. It was pointless to buy water when he could get it from his own land. When he returned to the living room, he walked over and handed her one of the glasses.

She’d already slipped on his shirt, lazing comfortably on the couch, resting from what they had just done.

“Thank you,” she said and took a long drink from the glass.

Isaiah walked over to where he left his underwear and pulled them on.

A moment later his cell phone rang. Olivia looked at him and then to the cell on the table. “Phone service must be back up.” She said.

Isaiah walked over and grabbed his phone. “Hey, mom,” he answered, taking a seat next to Olivia.

“How is she, honey? Did she wake up?” His mother asked.

“Umm. Yeah, she woke up. She’s more than good.” He said, smiling and then winked at Olivia. She moved to her feet, slapping him on the arm and mouthing ‘shut up!’ at him.

“So the remedy worked?” His mother asked. Olivia stuck her tongue out at Isaiah, continuing the playful, childish sport that came with the mouthed ‘shut up,’ “What happened?” His mother added.

Isaiah rose to his feet and started making his way to the dining room, where he looked out the window into the cold abyss before him. He palmed the back of his neck, a low grunt following, “Yeah. It worked great. Scars are gone. It’s a long story, though. I’ll have to tell you some other time. Okay?”

“Okay honey. We heard you're snowed in. Do you want one of your brothers to go up the mountain and plow the road?” His mother’s concerns were always just for Isaiah’s best interests. She knew he was a busy man, and having only just been home a short while; he wouldn’t want to go through the hassle of plowing the road.

He turned to look at Olivia again. “No. We’re good. Frank will have us out by morning. I’ll talk to you tomorrow. Okay?” Olivia started making herself comfortable again, drinking from the glass of water, looking over into the fireplace. She grew comfortable, even in this short time. No threat seemed to be present in Isaiah, and she dreamed of what could have been, had she not so desperately needed to get back.

“Okay honey. Love you.” His mother said. When Isaiah hung up the phone and looked at Olivia who was sitting on the couch again, he saw the grin on her face.

“What?” He asked, cocking an eyebrow and grabbed a seat beside her.

“Your mom knows I’m here?” She asked, letting out a laugh.

“Yeah. I panicked and called her. You were pretty fucked up when I found you—almost dead.” He huffed.

Olivia’s eyes trailed over his face, a soft smile on her own, moving a few strands of her away from his eyes, “Thank you for saving my life. I might have died out there if it wasn’t for you.” She whispered. Isaiah immediately noticed that her tone turned sombre.

The intensity of what happened to her group hit her full force once again and she leaned back into the sectional, pulling her knees to her chest.

Isaiah laid a gentle hand on her knee to try and console her. “It’s going to be okay, Olivia. I’ll help you find their bodies as soon as Frank gets the road cleared.”

Isaiah watched her facial expressions. Olivia lost herself in her thoughts, contemplating everything that happened. It wasn’t until Isaiah spoke that her concentration broke. “Tell me about the wolves. What did they look like?”

She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and she stared down at the back of her hands, moving them slowly over her knees as she tried to put her answer into words.

“I’ve seen that wolf before. He’s the one I have been hunting for over a year.” She turned her head and finally looked at Isaiah and he could see the anger flash in her eyes.

He took a deep breath, not quite understanding what she meant. “I don’t understand. I’ve lived here for over ten years and I have only encountered a handful of wolves in the area over time passing through and they were all friendly. Why would they just attack for no reason?”

Isaiah watched as she tried to process his question. It couldn’t have been an easy one to answer, but in her contemplation, she changed position to face Isaiah sitting on her knees, “These wolves are rogues, there’s something different about them. Crazy, insane even.” She paused trying to find the right words. “Like they’re not themselves or something.”

“How could you possibly know this or even think that?”

“Because that wolf killed my father in front of me and left me for dead.” She spat out, her eyes narrowing at the thought of those bastards. “Listen, I don’t expect you to believe me, but I know what I saw. Those wolves are tainted somehow.”

Isaiah frowned and rubbed his hands together, thinking over her words. It didn't make sense. “In what way? We all know that we can get aggressive. Some even like to kill but normally for a good reason. Not just for the hell of it and especially not humans.”

He watched her delicate fingers reach up to her eyes and then say, “Their eyes. We have an amber iris that forms when we are about to turn. They’re different to us in the way that their eyes take on a green tinge apart from the amber that our own take.”

Isaiah scratched his head and then pressed his fingers together in a steeple, taking a deep breath. A rogue group of renegade wolves that didn’t bode well with Isaiah. Especially not here, so close to his home. He was a protective man, of his land and his family, and the implications of all this seemed to grow heavy on him. Especially, he considered, with these wolves that may have been some form of feral, “I need a beer. Want one?” He offered. It seemed like the right thing to do, settle the nerves, but if he didn’t have too many, he could still think clearly. Create a plan, rather than jump into any harsh actions.

“Sure.” She said, losing herself in her thoughts once again.

**

Olivia grabbed the beer from Isaiah and took a long drink from the bottle. Knowing that the only way for Isaiah to understand everything, she would have to tell him the story. Looking at him, she knew that there was a trust here that she wanted to maintain, and so she would place her fullest in him. “Up until a year and a half ago, my father and I had always gone on a yearly trip. A ten kilometer run in the forest on the outskirts of Madison. About an hour into our last one, we were ambushed by a rogue pack. There must have been at least five of them, maybe more but every single one had that green glow in their eyes. We managed to kill four of them, but the last male—“

She shook her head and looked at the palms of her hands. “He was huge, brown and had a black line running up his forehead. I’ll never forget him. After he injured my father, he came after me. Just as he was about to kill me, my father lunged at him. I sat there helpless, bleeding out with a broken leg while I watched that son of a bitch rip my father’s throat out. I tried to play dead, but I couldn’t stop crying. He knew I was still alive, but it was like he enjoyed watching me in pain, enduring the loss of watching my father die in front of me. After that, he just took off. Left me to die.” Olivia wiped a hand across her brow. She was upset, Isaiah could tell, and why wouldn’t she be? She was reliving a traumatic experience, one that she’d built a wall around, he assumed, and one that she now had to expose to a virtual stranger. She took another sip of her beer.

Olivia was strong, she knew that much, but there was always a helplessness that lingered in her from that day. She wanted to save him, she needed to save her father because it was the right thing to do, but instead, she could only watch as he was killed before her eyes. She fought back the tears as she continued thinking of the dark days gone by.

“My God, Olivia. I’m so sorry.” Isaiah said. He wanted to comfort her but wasn’t sure how. They didn’t know each other all that well, so how could he try and show her support when he wasn’t sure what support she needed. So instead of any bold, grand gesture, he took her hand in his, squeezing softly.

“Yesterday, when we were attacked, it was him— the same brown wolf with the black line on his forehead. He had a smaller female wolf with him, that one I killed, but then again, their eyes had the same green color in them.” She replied his hand wrapped over hers giving some form of small comfort until he pulled away

“He’s probably long gone, Olivia.” He said, taking a swig.

“He’s not fucking long gone!” She snapped and jumped to her feet. “I have been hunting that wolf for over a year. Not one scent. Why is that Isaiah? We all have a scent that can be tracked! And then all of a sudden they pop out of nowhere four hours away, to the same place I moved to get away from them in the first place?” Her chest rose and fell rapidly as she stood there with her hands on her hips, waiting for him to say something as if he had the answer.

He rose slowly and wrapped a hand around her arm, pulling her back down into the couch. “Olivia calm down. Take a breath. I don’t have the answers. Do you think he’s hunting you? That’s why he’s here?”

A shaky hand made its way through her hair, again fighting back the tears, as she sat back next to Isaiah, “He is now. Now that I have killed his mate. He won’t be leaving anytime soon.”

She held the beer high above her for a second, almost as if in silent cheers, before she poured the rest of the contents down her throat, “I honestly don’t know if he knew I was here but when his eyes landed on me, he remembered me. When I snapped the neck of the female wolf, he acted like I had snapped his. The howl he let out was overwhelming, eerie. Just like a true mate feels when their soul mate dies.” She tilted her head towards Isaiah and paused before speaking. “I slashed his throat yesterday, Isaiah. I watched it start to heal in front of me and then he ran off like nothing happened. How is that possible? He should have died.”

Isaiah palmed his face and then turned to look at her. “I honestly don’t know, Olivia. I have never heard of anything you just explained before, but if what you're saying is true, Crimson Creek may have a very big problem on its hands.”

Isaiah thought back for a moment of Sylvie Warren and what had happened to the Kodiaks. He wondered if this had something to do with her. Had she gathered a new pack as her army to retaliate? If so, he would have to inform his father and Romulus before it was too late. He didn't want to think about it but if it was true, that would mean Sylvie Warren was no longer in the Yukon but making her way closer through Alaska towards Kodiak Island.