Mate Fur Hire (Bears Fur Hire #3)(48)

“Let me hear her.”

“I’m here,” Elyse said into the speaker. “How are you still awake? Did someone hurt you?”

“No, it’s nothing like that. Listen, I wanted to try this on myself before I put Ian and Jenner at risk.”

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

Tobias took a deep, steadying breath, then clicked the button again. “You two go start putting food in their dens. I’m coming to you. I’ll be there in three days.” Tobias smiled down at Vera. “I’m going to wake my brothers up.”

“Wake them up? Tobias, you can’t. They’re hibernating.”

Tobias’s chin trembled with emotion so Vera buried her face against his chest and hugged him up tight. “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—” Tobias swallowed hard and hit that button again. “Lena, I owed it to him to try. I hurt him.”

“Tobias,” Lena said. “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.”

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

A moment of silence stretched for eternity as Vera cried silent tears of joy against her mate’s sweater.

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

Tobias’s voice wavered with emotion as he murmured, “I’ve found a cure.”

“Oh my God,” Elyse sobbed into the radio. “Tobias, tell me it’s true. Tell me this isn’t some cruel joke.”

“Vera isn’t just a fox. She isn’t just my mate. She’s a scientist, and she’s been busting her ass to save us from hibernation. I’ll tell you everything you want to know. I’ll explain everything as soon as we can get to you. The weather is shit here, but when it lets up, we’re coming to you.”

“Vera!” Lena yelled so loudly into the radio, a high pitched noise blasted out of the contraption. “Vera,” she said again, her voice shaking. “Tobias put her on!”

“I’m here,” Vera said into the speaker as Tobias held her tight.

“Thank you. Elyse can’t talk right now, but from both of us…thank you.”

Vera waited a minute to compose herself. Link intertwined his hands behind his head and squatted down, gut-wrenching emotion in his eyes as he dragged his blazing gaze to her.

Clicking the button again, she said, “You’re welcome. I’ll bring the medicine and the moonshine. We’ll celebrate right. With our men. And Lena?”

“Yeah,” Lena said across the line.

“We’ll be spending the holidays with our boys from here on.”

“I can’t wait.” Moments passed before Lena’s voice came back on. “I have to take care of Elyse now. We’ll be ready with food. We’ll be waiting.”

The door banged closed, and Link was gone. Vera hung the radio speaker on the receiver and padded over to the window in time to see Link’s gray wolf lope off into the trees. Just as he made it to the tree line, he turned and laid his bright gray gaze on hers. His breath steamed in front of his muzzle, and he looked so heartbreakingly beautiful, standing there alone in the snow. One McCall against the world. Link turned and trotted off, disappearing like a ghost into the snowfall.

Tobias gripped her shoulders and kissed the back of her hair. “He’ll be back.”

But Vera wasn’t so sure.

She was safe now with Tobias to protect her during the winter. Elyse and Lena would be safe as soon as Vera administered the serum to Ian and Jenner.

Link had clung to his sanity when he had a job to do—when he had friends who needed his protection.

What could possibly tether a half-mad McCall to this world now?





Chapter Twenty


Tobias cut the engine of the snow machine and held out his hand for her to lean on as she dismounted from behind him. Vera took off her sunglasses and pulled her winter hat off her hair as she waited for Tobias to shoulder the backpack he’d tied to the back. He handed Vera one of the two carefully stored jars of blueberry moonshine and pulled his gloves off with his teeth before he led the way to the small homesteader cabin nestled in the clearing.

There were several cattle in a pen, a pair of horses in a coral, and the clucking and flapping of chickens sounded from inside of a massive coop. Such a strange feeling washed over her. She halted in the middle of an undisturbed snowy patch.

“What’s wrong?” Tobias asked with a worried frown.

“I don’t know. I just had déjà vu or something.” Vera huffed a laugh. She’d apparently lost her damned mind. She’d never been to Elyse’s and Ian’s homestead before, so déjà vu didn’t make any sense. “Forget it.”

Tobias lifted his hand to knock, but a dog let off a sharp bark from inside and Elyse threw the door open before he could rap his knuckles against the rough wood. Her eyes were bright green-gold, her cheeks flushed with excitement. A black and white husky with bi-colored eyes bounced around them barking until Elyse shushed him. She pulled Tobias into a hug.