Henry would never let Joey live this one down.
Hel, she might not either, except Joey had probably been right. Under normal circumstances, they would have never needed four-wheel drive. How was he supposed to know that the three of them would one day out of the blue take a trip to Frank’s cabin and get caught in a blizzard?
Her stomach growled and reminded her that she hadn’t eaten anything al day. She wasn’t a big breakfast eater, and by the time she’d decided to take a break from listening to her book, hours had slipped by her without notice so engrossed she’d been in the mystery being unwoven. She made her way to the kitchen and scrounged through the cans.
The good thing about canned goods was that they lasted forever. The bad? She had no idea what was in any of them.
She blew out a breath in frustration and decided to rummage through the fridge. It turned out to be a lost cause, which didn’t surprise her. No one kept a fridge stocked in a vacation house.
“Okay. Let’s do this then.” She found a can opener and opened can number one. She nearly gagged when she sniffed at it. “Yuck. I hate olives.”
Can number three turned out to be the winner.
Oranges. She could handle that. She also found a box of oatmeal and heated some clean water in the coffeemaker. Soon she was settled at the kitchen table with a bowl of hot oatmeal and oranges in another. It wasn’t the best meal she’d ever had, but it was far from the worst, and it was filing.
After she ate and cleaned up her mess, she figured it was time to let Lucy go out and do her business once again. She hated the thought of going out in the storm, but there was no helping it. She bundled her coat around her and zipped it up to her chin.
“Lucy, come.” She immediately obeyed as usual, even though Georgia knew her paw had to be sore.
“Let’s get this over with, girl. Then I’l get you cleaned up and bandaged again.” When she opened the door, the bluster of cold air stole the breath from her lungs. “Good grief. It’s freezing.”
She gave Lucy the command to do her business and felt bad for the dog for having to go into the deep snow, which would likely reach her bely or further. A couple minutes later, Georgia turned her head to the side and listened. She smiled when she heard the distant hum of an engine.
“Wel, wel. The boys finaly made it back.”
A couple more minutes and Lucy was back on the porch with Georgia, but Georgia now frowned. The engine did not sound like Henry and Joey’s SUV, and as it came closer, she was certain it was not the boys.
“Inside, Lucy.” Whoever it was, she did not want to be caught outside with someone in the middle of nowhere that she did not know. She at least wanted a solid door between her and her unknown visitor.
Georgia locked the door, shrugged out of her coat, and hung it beside the door. The vehicle came closer and closer until it was right outside. She wasn’t normaly a nervous ninny, but right about now, she was feeling extremely helpless. The engine shut off and a door closed shortly after. A knock sounded on the door within seconds and startled her even though she’d expected it.
“Yes,” she said through the door.
“Ma’am, I live about an hour east of here, and when I was in town earlier, I think I crossed paths with some male friends of yours. They were in a green SUV and I overheard them talking about being worried for leaving you up here at Frank’s place alone.”
“And?”
“By the time I left, the storm had already taken hold, and I noticed their vehicle was not equipped with four-wheel drive. After getting halfway home, I had high doubts that they would make it back up here in the bad weather. I thought I’d come check to make sure you were getting along okay.”
“Oh.” She was okay, wasn’t she? Yes, other than being a bit shaken up about being unintentionaly abandoned and worrying about her friends. Just as she was about to tel the man—the one with the most amazing voice—that she was okay, the house became eerily quiet.
She cocked her head to the side and listened. No fridge, no hum of a water heater, nothing. Shit. The power was off.
“Um, my power is off.”
“Yes. I see that. If you’d like, I can check to see if you have a generator around back. If you do, I’l have to come in and flip the electric panel over to the generator before I start it up. Would you like for me to do that for you?”
Did she have a choice? She had no idea how to start a generator. If she didn’t let him establish power back to the house and ran out of firewood, she’d have no way of keeping warm. She blew out a breath of resignation. This was one of those rare times that her blindness made her feel weak, and she hated feeling that way.
“Okay.”
“I’l check to see if you have a generator first. I’l be right back.”
Lucy stood by her left leg at alert. She hadn’t growled at the stranger, which was a good sign, but she remained unusualy tense.
“There is one out back. It doesn’t have any gas, but I have a can in my truck.”
A few minutes later, he tapped on the door.
“Yes?” she caled out.
“I need to come in and flip the switch over to the generator.”
“Okay.” She unlocked the door and hesitantly opened it.
The first thing that hit her was his scent. She swayed in surprise when she realized he had the same scent as the man she’d dreamed of last night. That’s weird.
Kish’s knees nearly buckled under him when the woman who’d been a mystery up until that very moment swung the door open. It was her. Georgia.
The woman from his dream. And just as the ful realization hit him of what this meant, her scent slammed home the reality, daring him to try to deny what fate had just dropped into his lap. His mate. The one woman on earth destined for him. She had two scents. The main scent that al lycans could smel and the mated scent, which only a destined mate could detect.
And there was no denying that she was his. Son of a bitch. I’m not going to go through this again.
No fucking way was he going to let this woman hurt him. Yeah, he’d argued with himself in the dream that she wasn’t like the other women he’d been with, but here, face to face with her in reality, was a whole other balgame.
He caught his breath as he took her appearance in.
She was as gorgeous in person as she’d been in his dream. Her golden skin was flawless, her eyes were as richly colored as precious emeralds, and her hair was honey blonde with waves that tumbled past her shoulders. Her purple sweater outlined her ample breasts, her jeans hugged her gently flared hips, and his fingers ached to caress both. His eyes darted back to her face when her tongue danced out across her lips.
He nearly groaned as the need to taste her hit him like a basebal bat.
“Are you al right?” she whispered.
That’s when he noticed the slight tremble in her hands, and the huge Rottweiler standing next to her gazing at him, warning him that if he harmed a hair on her head, it would have no trouble taking some chunks out of his hide.
He was such an asshole. He was probably scaring the living hel out of her. She was out here alone, blind, and abandoned by her dumbass boyfriends with a stranger. Boyfriends. That word again. But this time, that simple word made his blood boil with jealousy. His claws threatened to pop through the ends of his fingers, but he shoved the wolf back. It was the first time since he was a young pup that he could remember nearly losing control to his wolf.
“I didn’t mean to frighten you. It’s just been a long drive, and it’s extremely cold.”