"Cantankerous? He could have killed Cameron. He would have, if I hadn't clobbered him." Faith folded her arms. "Kintail's wolves might be okay where some people are concerned, but not with us."
"You hit the wolf?" Charles stroked his chin. "I'm not one of Kintail's men. I respect what he does, who he is, but I don't work for him. But he's super-protective of his wolves. I wouldn't want to be on his bad side and…" Charles just shook his head, as if he thought better of saying anything further. As if he wanted to warn Cameron of trouble, but he was afraid, or maybe just loyal to someone who sent business his way, who he respected, and lived nearby.
But the connotation was there. Cameron was on Kintail's bad side. He smiled a little. No one wanted to get on Cameron's bad side either.
"Do you know Trevor Hodges very well?" Faith asked Charles.
"He's an old-timer who's worked with Kintail on hunting excursions forever. Get your bags and join me at the barn." Charles eyed Cameron for a minute. "You sure you feel all right?"
Cameron thought it odd he'd ask again. "Yeah, I'm fine." For the moment, he was ready to get this show on the road. Maybe just the notion he could get somewhere where his friends were concerned and help Faith with her difficulties was all he needed to make him feel right again.
When Faith and Cameron entered her cabin, she packed up a bag with a few items of clothing. "Do you really think you'll locate your friends through Trevor?" Faith asked, heading for her sleeping bag.
Cameron hadn't unpacked his bag, so he just set it by the door. "I think he'll have seen them and reassure me they're just fine." But he wasn't about to speculate any further than that. Before Faith could roll up her sleeping bag, he halted her. "We don't need to take your bag also, if you don't mind sleeping in mine again with me."
"Sure, stay warmer in the cold that way. Okay, I'm ready."
He handed her his sleeping bag since it was lighter and more compact, then he grabbed the bags with their clothes and other items and headed outside. She locked up the place, but way before they even reached the barn, the sound of dogs excitedly barking made them both smile.
"Sounds like the dogs are ready to go," Cameron said, but just their enthusiasm was making him feel the unfathomable urge to run again.
"We used to have a standard poodle, and when we said the word go, whether we were talking about taking her for a car ride or walk or anything, that dog would act crazy, hopping around, poking her nose at us, ready to go."
"Sounds like a Lab I had. He would sit by the truck if I mentioned taking a ride."
She smiled. "Someday, I wouldn't mind having another dog, but I'm living in an apartment right now and no pets nor children are allowed."
Cameron raised his brows a hair, wondering if he'd read Faith wrong. "A swinging singles place?"
She chuckled. "Not sure about the swinging part and there are a lot of couples… working couples."
"Ah. Just sounded kind of interesting." He winked and she grinned back at him. But again that strange feeling of possessiveness washed over him, of not wanting to hear that a ton of single guys were hitting on her where she lived.
Trying to quash the unreasonable feelings bubbling up inside him concerning Faith, he led her into the barn where Charles was harnessing one of the teams. "If you can, Cameron, just copy what I'm doing. I'll check to make sure you've done it right after I'm finished here."
Cameron strode across the floor and began harnessing the first of the dogs, but they were so excited about running, they wiggled and thrashed about so wildly, it was hard to do the job right. In the oddest way, Cameron knew the feeling of wanting to run so badly, he could taste it. As if he was a runner in a competition, and yet he'd never been interested in competitive sports before.
Nikki poked her nose at his bare hand and gave him a warm wet kiss on the cheek while he was working on aligning two of the males. "You get to be on my team, Nikki."
Faith rubbed one of the dogs between his ears. "Looks like you have a new girlfriend already." She raised a brow, her lips curving up slightly.
Cameron gave her a small smile in return. No way was a pooch stealing his interest away from the tantalizing woman.
"At least they're well fed and had a little rest." Charles hitched the first team to the sled.
When his dogs were ready, Charles came over to check the harnesses Cameron used on the team, then helped him to hitch them to the sled. "A couple of tips. When we start out the team, you say, 'Hike.'"
"In the movies they hollered 'mush.'" Cameron wondered if that was another Hollywood-ism.
"The sound is too soft, not a distinct enough command for the dogs. Make a loud kissing sound to get the dogs to speed up. 'Gee' means turn right. 'Haw' is for left turn. 'Whoa' means stop. 'On by,' to pass another sled team or some other kind of distraction. And just remember, to the sled dog, you're the leader of the pack."
Cameron didn't need to be told that. Dogs naturally seemed to want to please him, and these even more so. Plus, now that he had come to an agreement with the leader of the pack, Cameron was it.
"Also, we don't talk while we're sledding, unless giving orders."
The dogs were so hyper, the air felt electric with their zeal—ready to run, ready to gratify their masters. The thrill of the impending trip electrified Cameron's blood and in the worst way the craving to run with them grew.
"Faith will ride with me up ahead, so I can show the way, and if you take a spill, she'll be safe," Charles said.
Cameron's jaw tightened. He couldn't pinpoint why he was feeling so acutely possessive of her when he knew Charles wasn't interested in anything but her safety. Although no matter how much he tried to crush the feeling, the stirrings of wanting to protect her nearly strangled him.
"He's at a campsite located twenty miles northeast of here that will take us about three hours to reach. That's where Trevor is planning to be for the day and overnight. I've packed lunches, dinner, and food for the dogs for the trip."
"Good," Faith said, but the unsettled sensation that raced through Cameron's blood hadn't gone away, he had to admit, and he barely heard what Charles was saying.
Despite realizing how crazy the notion was, Cameron had the most awful urge to rip off his clothes and run through the snow, not as a naked human, but as a… wolf. As if something alien possessed him, or someone had slipped him a drug that was making him feel so strange. And yet the vivid dream he'd had during the night reminded him he'd felt the very same way before and then it was as if he had stepped into his dream and made it real.
He thought back to Charles's comments about this very matter. How had Charles known how he'd feel? Cameron's attention shifted to the way the dogs were bouncing around, which stirred his own compulsion to get on with business.
Faith climbed into the heavy canvas bag filled with wool blankets on Charles's sled and she looked warm and cozy, but most importantly, safe. He should have been satisfied. She looked over her shoulder at Cameron and smiled—sexy and siren like. He wanted her on his sled, and he couldn't conceal the annoyance he felt as he glowered at Charles.
Charles looked from Cameron to Faith and gave a slight shake of his head.
Cameron felt he could drive a sled well enough and that Faith's safety wasn't an issue, but he gave in to the older man's decision. Cameron climbed onto the two ski-like blades attached to the bottom of his sled and grabbed hold of the horizontal bar in front of him, his body tensed for the new experience. The dogs continued to bark, their muscles taut like tightly coiled springs, readied for when he gave them the magic word.