Taming His Montana Heart(61)

“So,” Shaw said softly, “were they arguing?”

She took a deep breath, tightened her hold on his waist, continued to stare at the trees, and forced herself to keep going. Her dad had been screaming at her mother when she walked in. He barely glanced at her while her mom told her to go to her room. Instead, she put down her backpack and stepped between her parents. This craziness had to stop. Otherwise she was going to call the police and go live with Mick.

Something snapped inside her that day. The contrast between her life away from home and what she endured within those walls propelled her on. School and sports was where she felt alive. Home was tense silence punctuated by outbursts and occasional violence.

“Dad told me to shut up. In the past, I would have, but I was fourteen, no longer a little girl. I got in his face.”

“What did you say?”

“I don’t remember the exact words.” In essence she’d exploded, years of fear and tension erupting from her. “He kept telling me to shut up, but I couldn’t. He slapped me.” She sucked in all the air her lungs could hold. “I slapped him back.”

“Good.”

“I’d never done anything like that. We were both being violent. I should have…”

He rubbed her back. “Take your time. You don’t have to tell me everything at once.”

Stunned by a sudden realization, she spun toward him. Shaw had broken free of his responsibilities at the resort so he could spend time with her. He’d had no expectation it would turn out this way. If he’d had, he might have canceled.

“I’m so sorry. You don’t need to hear—”

“I’m here and I’m not going away.” Several silent seconds passed. “And I’m ready whenever you are.”

There was something in his tone that went deeper than his much-needed encouragement. The offer hadn’t come easily for him. Later, once she’d dealt with her past, she’d ask him to tell her what he was thinking.

As for why she’d been given insight into his mind—maybe Lake Serene was responsible.

Barely aware of what she was doing, she turned from Shaw and faced the window. Cold radiated out from the glass, but she didn’t back away. Her attention returned to the base of the trees. At first she wasn’t sure. Then she had no doubt something was there—a dark something.

“Shaw,” she got out. “Look.”

He joined her. “What is it?”

“Look.”

“I don’t—Oh my…”

A wolf. The longer she studied the lean form, the more certain and in awe she became. The creature’s side faced the cabin. His head was at right angles to his body and uplifted, staring at them. Just existing.

“He’s watching us,” she muttered. “He knows we’re here.”

Shaw’s breathing snagged. “Maybe he smells us.”

“He must have heard the snowmobile. Shaw, maybe he’s been here all this time.”

“Maybe, like when we were at Grizzly Peak, he’s trying to make sense of the two-legged creatures invading his forest.”

His forest. Shaw was right. The alert but motionless wolf belonged here in ways humans never would. Decades ago men with guns had wiped out most of his ancestors but that didn’t matter to today’s wolf. He was at Lake Serene and had nothing to fear from Shaw even though he’d felt the need to bring a weapon with him.

“What an incredible experience,” she whispered.

“Yes.”

“I wish I could take a picture, but I didn’t think he’d show up.”

“You and I will always know.”

You and I. She was standing next to a naked man in the middle of the night in the middle of a forest that had wrapped itself around her heart. The wolf would stay or leave according to what instinct and impulse told him to do.

What she could control was what she’d been telling Shaw, words maybe made possible by the wolf’s presence.

“I want to go on,” she said. “I believe I need to.”

He squeezed her. “I understand.”

“I’ve never seen my father as angry as he was that day.” She continued to study the still-motionless form. Thank you for being—you. “He was used to my mother pushing back and then giving up. He’d kicked Mick out because Mick refused to follow his rules.”

“Why didn’t you leave with your brother?”

“Mom. I couldn’t leave her alone.”

When Shaw didn’t say anything, she wondered if he blamed her mother for what had happened. Eventually she’d tell him she’d never understood her parents, but saying so tonight would get in the way of what else Shaw deserved to know.

She’d started. Even with the wolf’s distracting presence or maybe because of it, she had to finish.

Her father’s fist had stuck her shoulder so hard it knocked her into the wall behind her. Even though she was stunned, she pushed off and plowed into him. They hit the floor together. He used his greater strength to pin her down, then repeatedly slapped her while she screamed and struggled and clawed.

Blood had gushed from her nose. That was when her mother started trying to haul him off her. Her father switched from disciplining—that was what he repeatedly yelled—his daughter to doing the same to his wife.