CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Sas closed the door on his cabin for the last time. Someone else would come across it and move in or it would be a good shelter for a traveler. He hadn’t realized how peaceful his life had been.

On one hand, he wished he’d never found Angel, but as soon as the thought crossed his mind, he tossed it away. Wherever she was, he wanted her to be happy. He’d saved her as fate decreed. It was time to move to a new place. He hadn’t been to Russia yet.

He strode up the incline from his ledge and crossed over to the adjacent mountain, where he’d found Angel. When he reached the spot, he stopped. The vision of her as she’d lain there rose to meet him. Relief that he’d seen the reflection off her phone that day surged through him.

As much as he’d hoped for something else, her leaving was for the best. How could they have a life together with him hiding the atrocities he committed which she would never be able to forgive? Even worse would be explaining why he didn’t grow old with her then watching her die in his arms after years of having her in his life.

He had to focus on that. If it hurt this much to have had her in his life for a month, what would it feel like to lose her after decades of happiness? The same reasons for not growing close to her in the first place were still in play. If he hadn’t been so weak, he wouldn’t hurt so much now.

But she loved you in return. She wanted your body in return.

He shoved the thoughts away. She didn’t really know him. He’d never told her everything. And when she discovered his immortality, she did what any other human would do. She ran. He should have expected no less, but he’d been blind, weak, greedy.

Forcing himself to turn away from the spot that had changed his life, he continued up the mountain. He’d head north and take the arctic ice over to Russia, find an isolated spot and continue to exist. He was resigned to his fate. He had nothing left to fight it. Three hundred years had worn him down.

He focused on putting one foot in front of the other, the early afternoon sun and unusually warm weather making the climb uncomfortable. Stopping, he shrugged off his wool shirt and packed it up, then continued north.

Twice he discovered his steps headed west instead of north. He needed to keep what little shadow he had to his right and not leave it behind him. It was as if he was being drawn toward Savik.

Luckily, the sky was clear, though clouds were gathering in the west at a slow pace, not unusual for an evening dusting, though with the warmer temperatures, he wouldn’t be surprised if he saw rain. Determinedly, he adjusted his course for a third time and trudged on.

The sound of a plane in the distance halted him. It couldn’t be? Charlie didn’t fly after the first week of November.

He turned toward the sound and scanned the sky to the east, blocking the sun with his hand. His heart raced as he searched the blue expanse. To the east, it was as clear as a shallow stream, but a tiny flash brought his eyes to a dot.

Without blinking, he kept his gaze on that spot until a white shape became visible. It could be any plane, bush pilots were a common sight in the Alaskan skies, but his gut said it was her.

When Timber said she would be back as soon as she could, he hadn’t believed it, especially not now.

What did it matter? They were still far too different. How could she want to be with a monster? Why would she want to grow old while he stayed young? Had she even thought about that?

She must have. She knows and still she returns. The voice of his younger, more impulsive self, caught him off guard.

That was true. She knew exactly what he was, or close to it. She was aware of his body’s ability to keep death away, if not always pain, and still she came.

She wants you.

He shook his head. She still didn’t know everything and as Timber had warned him, secrets between them would ruin anything they had.

Then tell her.

Talk to her? See her again? He couldn’t do it. Yet even as he made up his mind to turn away, his feet headed west, toward Savik, and Angel. Unable to resist the pull on his soul, he led his shadow down the mountain.

He checked the sky as he walked, the outline of the plane becoming clearer. Yet even as he moved westward, it would take him until dusk to arrive in Savik. Charlie would need to leave before then. He could be too late.

After checking the position of the sun and that his shadow was now behind him, he took off at a run.

“Angel. I can’t wait any longer. There’s a storm coming in. You need to make a decision.” Charlie emerged from one of Grubber’s aisles, having just come in from outside.

“But I thought you didn’t have to leave until just before dusk.” That Sas was nowhere in Savik worried her. Was he that angry with her? She hated the thought that she’d hurt him.

Charlie glanced at the ceiling as if looking for patience. “I need to fly while there’s still light. With a storm coming in, I lose the light, so I have to leave in a few minutes. You’ll have to make a decision.”

She looked at MJ who sat next to her at the table. “What did Surge say exactly?”

The woman set down her cup. “He said that Timber promised to give Sas the message.” MJ patted her arm. “Don’t worry, if Sas is still here, Timber would have found him. According to Sturge, Timber was worried about him. He was acting more like an animal than a man. He’s probably just not here yet. If he waited until he heard Charlie’s plane, he won’t be here until tomorrow without a dogsled.”

Her heart skipped. “What do you mean if Sas is still here? Is there a chance he left?”

MJ looked away. “I heard that Sas wouldn’t go back to his cabin.”

“Why?”

MJ shrugged. “I don’t know, but Timber had him at his home, last I knew.”

Shoot, now what was she supposed to do? If she left, she might miss him and if she stayed and he didn’t come, she wouldn’t get out until spring.

As if the woman had read her thoughts, she smiled. “You can always stay here in Savik. Between all of us, we can put you up for the winter, I’m sure. That is, if Sas doesn’t come to his senses.”

Angela licked her lips. This isn’t exactly how she’d expected this to go, but she should have. She was well aware that travel and messages took longer this far out in the wilderness.

Would she run back to civilization or have her last grand adventure? If it was just herself she had to be concerned about, she wouldn’t think twice, but now she had a baby to think of.

And that baby’s father was somewhere out here. “Charlie, I’m going to stay.”

“You are?” His raised brows almost made her laugh, but it was no laughing matter.

She’d never been through winter this far north and this remote. But if Ginny could do it, so could she. Besides, the baby wasn’t due for another eight months. “What’s the earliest in the spring that you can get back here?”

He shrugged. “It all depends on the weather. May for sure.”

Her baby wasn’t due until July. She’d have no pre-natal appointments except with Frankie, but then again neither did Ginny. She’d follow whatever Ginny had done. “Then I’m staying.”

Charlie’s eyes widened. “Wow, you must really love him.”

She did, if Sas was who she thought he was. And if he wasn’t? She’d enjoy her adventure with the people of Savik. Her letter for her brother had detailed instructions for her apartment and her job, in addition to her explanation of why she’d left. Still, she wouldn’t be surprised if he flew into Tavva and hired a sled dog team to bring him to Savik in the middle of winter.

Shoot, look at her. She really was going to stay. She would lay her heart on the line for Sas and hope he accepted it. Rising from the table, she turned to the pilot. “I’ll walk you out, Charlie.”

Hearing something in the distance over the sound of his footsteps, he came to a stop.

The plane!

The sound came at the ground level which meant it hadn’t taken off yet. Angel!

He sprinted toward Savik, ignoring the snap of branches against his body and the conviction that he wouldn’t get there in time.

The plane engines grew louder as he dodged trees to get to the outpost. He had to make it. He had to see her.

Suddenly, the engines revved and he could envision the plane racing down the runway west of the buildings. No! He pumped his legs harder, his lungs sucking air as he sped toward Savik.

He burst through the trees in time to see the plane lift off, the now misting rain making visibility minimal.

“Noooo!” He stood in the middle of the end of the outpost, unwilling to believe he’d missed her.

“Sas?”

He moved his gaze toward the sound of her voice. Was it in his head?

No. There she stood in the growing darkness, just outside Grubber’s in her parka, her hands in new mittens and a tentative smile on her face.

“Angel?”

“Yes.” Her smile widened.

He stalked toward her, all thoughts gone with the need to hold her in his arms and kiss her.

“I’m so relieved you came. I need to talk—”

He swept her into his arms and inhaled the minty scent of her before taking her mouth with his, coaxing her open and tasting her like a man starved. His body came alive as she melted into him, tangling her tongue with his. Yes. Mine.

The rumble of thunder in the distance brought him to his senses. He broke the kiss and stepped away from her, shaken by his loss of control. Nothing had changed.

Or had it?

She stood still, her rapid breaths creating tiny clouds of moisture in the damp air.

“Why did you come back?” The question tore from him unbidden, his voice scratchy from disuse.

“I had to. I know who you are. I know about Victor.”

His blood chilled, freezing him to the spot despite the light rain now falling. How? Yet even as he asked the question, he knew. The book Mary had written after finding Captain Walton’s letters in her ancestor’s belongings. “You read the book.”

“Yes.” Her voice was soft.

Was she afraid? “I would never harm you.”

She nodded solemnly. “I know that. You were so young with no parent to guide you. I understand what you did.”

He shook his head. How could she? Even he didn’t. “William, Clerval, Elizabeth. They were all innocent.”

“I know. But in a way, so were you.”

He snorted. “So innocent I framed Justine for a murder I committed? So innocent I led my father on a chase over the world until he dropped dead?”

“He wasn’t your father.” Angel’s angry tone caught his attention. “He was your creator, your betrayer, and your executioner, if he’d had his way.”

He shook his head. “I should have let him catch me. Only he knew how to end my miserable existence.”

She stepped up to him, blinking away the rain from her eyelashes as she looked up at him, into his eyes. “No. If that had happened, I would have never met you.”

At her observation, his anger cooled. To have never known her would have been to have died without living. Thunder rumbled closer, and he looked to the sky. The storm was upon them. “You need to go inside.”

Her eyes widened. “Why? Where will you go?”

“Away.”

She put her hands on her waist, wincing as she did so, and he ached for her pain. “Sas, I did not come all this way to hide from a storm while the man I love leaves me. No, I’m here because I want a future with you.”

Stunned by her admission, he ignored the flash of lightning nearby. “My future is forever. How can we have a future? I cannot bear to have decades of happiness with you and then watch you die. Would you torture me more?”

“I don’t want to torture you. I just want to be happy.”

He shook his head, holding one hand out against the happiness she offered as he backed away. “No.”

“Please, Sas.” She took a step closer. “There’s more at stake than just us.”

He backed up again, confused and desperate. “What do you mean?”

Her hand moved to rest on her abdomen as she smiled through the downpour. “We’re going to have a baby.”

He stared. It wasn’t possible! How could it be? Joy like he’d never experienced, never even imagined, pulsed through him just as a light flashed and pain swamped his body. His ears were deafened by the sound of a crackle and his nostrils filled with the smell of burning flesh.

“Sas!” Angel’s scream penetrated his senses as he fell to the ground.

His body hurt, but he couldn’t seem to move. He wanted to get to Angel but it felt as if he was being stabbed by the sharpest knife, deeper and deeper. Darkness encroached on his vision, but Angel’s screaming made him force it back. He had to get to her.

He felt his head being lifted, the rain stinging his face as the pain in his body changed to a hard throbbing. “Sas, speak to me. Please be alive.”

He stared at Angel, her eyes filled with water beyond the rain. He tried to work his jaw, but it was stuck. Forcing hair through his throat, he grunted.

“Oh, God. Don’t do that to me ever again. I don’t care how immortal you are. Being struck by lightning can’t be fun, and it scared the daylights out of me.”

The throbbing was slowly fading and his jaw finally moved. “Pain.”

Her brow furrowed and her gaze swept him. “Shoot, Sas. You’re bleeding. All the scars on your chest are bleeding, on your arms, everywhere.”

Bleeding? “Can’t bleed.” No matter what he did, he never bled, unless…was that why he’d always feared lightning?

She shook her head. “You are now.”

Excitement filled his soul. Had he lost his immortality? “Show me.”

She lifted his hand up so he could see it. Blood dripped from beneath his leather band and at the crease in his arm where another scar was.

His stitches. They bled. Euphoria filled him despite the pain and numbness.

“What happened?” Four-Point stood over them, his wife right next to him.

Angel put his hand down. “He was struck by lightning. Help me get him inside.”

He hadn’t even heard their footsteps in the slushy snow. His extra-sensitive hearing was gone. If he’d had any doubt, it was washed away in that single moment.

He wasn’t a monster anymore.

He was a man.

Angela lay next to Sas, still unsure about what had happened, but happy just to have him with her. He rested peacefully on one of Grubber’s extra beds after getting quite a bit of first aid.

If the residents of Savik were surprised by Sas’ many bleeding sites, they didn’t show it. It had been a group effort, not only to get him inside when he couldn’t seem to move, but also to bandage up what looked like fresh stitches all over his body.

He hadn’t moved much except his eyes and his mouth for a few words, though that was less of a surprise. She feared he’d been paralyzed by the lightning strike. Between that and the bleeding when he never bled, she was afraid. What if he had to live through eternity unable to move? Who would care for him when she was gone? Their child?

Tears started down her face. If she hadn’t come back when she did, he wouldn’t have been struck by lightning, his biggest fear.

His fingers on her chin lifted her face up as he lowered his lips to hers. That comfort helped her stop crying. The kiss was gentle, letting her know how much he loved her, and she gave him the same in return.

Shoot. She pulled her face away and looked at him. “You can move!”

He nodded. “It would appear so, though not without some pain. I think in time I will have all movement back. Is what you said true? Are you with child?”

She beamed. “I am. It’s still very early. I only discovered it because the hospital did some tests. I really don’t want to raise a child by myself.”

“I would never allow that. I want to care for my child like I thought I should have been cared for.” He paused, obviously still surprised by the news. “I didn’t think it would be possible.”

“Why not? We certainly worked at it quite a bit.” She winked.

His eyebrows drew together in confusion. “I thought I needed another like me to produce offspring.” He moved his gaze back to her. “It never occurred to me that I could beget a child on a human.”

“Now that we know, I’ll need to look into birth control or I’ll end up with a child a year.” She shuddered. She was ecstatic that she would have a child with Sas, but the living would be hard. “Of course, this does mean we’ll need to add on to the cabin.”

“I can do that.”

She smiled, relieved and happy all at once. “I was so afraid you’d be paralyzed for eternity.”

He shook his head. “I no longer have eternity. All I have is what I can have with you.”

She frowned. “Why? Because of the lightning strike? I did notice your eyes are whiter around your irises and they don’t look black anymore, more like a warm brown. Is that why you didn’t like lightning? You were afraid you’d become mortal?” Did she inadvertently cut his life short by returning?

He chuckled, a sound she’d never heard before. She stared in shock.

“No, if I’d known that lightning would take away my immortality, I would have stood out in a storm hundreds of years ago. I’m glad I didn’t know because then I would have died without ever meeting you.”

“So, you’re sure you aren’t immortal anymore?”

He nodded. “I’m sure.”

She grinned. “Then you need to officially adopt Sas as your name. That is the name these wonderful people gave you, and I love it because it’s so different.”

“Sas.” He said it as if testing it for the first time. Had he really never contemplated it as his name?

“Angel and Sas. Yes, I like it.” He nodded as if he’d just made his name official.

“So that means you have no more excuses not to marry me, right?”

He started to smile, but quickly frowned. “I have no surname to give you.”

“I don’t need a new last name. I’m not sure how much you’ve kept up with the times, but many women keep their own last names when tying the knot.”

“But you would take mine if I had one.” His frown made her swallow her chuckle at his high handedness.

How frustrating to want her to take his last name but not have one to give her. She’d say it served him right, but he’d paid far too long for his crimes and mistakes.

This was a new start. He was a man now. “I actually think you do have a name. Dr. Frankenstein did give you life, which by default means you carry his name. Wouldn’t he just hate that?” She smirked, unable to help feeling a little vindictive toward the long-passed doctor. In her opinion, he was an ass.

“You would take the name Frankenstein?”

Hmm, now that was a good question. There was nothing wrong with Ellis, but for her to keep her own name would hurt Sas’ feelings. There was no other name that she could associate with him, so she was stuck. Besides, in the Alaskan wilderness, no one bothered much with last names.

“Hmmm, Angela Frankenstein. That is a mouthful.”

Sas’ eyes grew wide. “Angela? What is that?”

“That’s my real name. Didn’t you know that? Isn’t that why you gave me the bush name of Angel?”

He shook his head. “I didn’t know.” He stared at her for a moment before he glanced at the ceiling. “Fate.”

She frowned. “If you didn’t know my real name then why did you call me Angel, and don’t you dare say you decline to answer.”

His gaze filled with love. “When I first found you, you literally looked like a fallen angel. Then I discovered you were still alive and believed you could be my redemption if I saved your life. And you have been. You’ve saved my soul.”

Tears filled her eyes at his profound explanation and she brushed them away, wetting the bandage on the back of her hand.

He caught it and kissed it. “You will always be my Angel, but would you take the name of Frankenstein’s monster?”

“I would. I mean I will, if you’re asking.”

He looked at her blankly before understanding dawned. “Angel, will you be my wife?”

Her heart filled with love for the man who had saved her life and now made her happier than any woman alive. “Yes.”

Sas’ lips curved upward, and she held her breath, afraid of his smile, but it had changed. It lit his face and made him more handsome than he had a right to be. Shoot, the man was even hotter when he did that. Good thing they would live in the Alaskan wilderness because with that smile of his, she’d have to shoot any woman who came close to him. No one could resist that.

“I love you.” His words broke his smile, but they also warmed her from the inside out.

They’d come full circle from the days of him warming her from the outside in. She was one lucky woman to have captured the heart of Frankenstein. “I love you and now I’m going to show you exactly how much.” She wiggled her brows as she lifted the blanket. “After all, I heard you were a little stiff.”

Sas’ laugh filled her soul, giving her a pleasure far surpassing what she was about to give him. It was her turn to take care of him.