Maggie sighed. She’d felt so useless this whole challenge. Unlike TJ who had more than pulled his weight, all she’d done was ensure they hiked slower than usual. Usually she was good at logic puzzles. She picked up the clues and shuffled through them again. Something caught her eye.
“Erik, what are these notes?”
He sat next to her and she soaked in his presence. “Those? I kept track of where we found the answer. I figured everything might help in the end.”
Her heart raced. “What if the clues weren’t just to help us find the location, but we have to use them twice?”
Jared plopped down across from them, hope shining on his face. “How do you use a clue twice?”
Maggie laid out the paper and pointed. “We found the answer to number eleven by looking in the reflection of the pool at the base of the waterfall, right?”
“There was the Greek symbol omega. We wrote it down. It means nothing.”
She nodded. “But when you look at your reflection it comes out backwards.” She wanted to jump up and down. This was the right track, she was sure of it.
Erik brushed her arm. “But the symbol for omega is the same whether you draw it backward or forward.”
Maggie laughed. “But what if you think of it as the back of the alphabet? Omega is the last letter of the Greek alphabet. What’s at the other end?”
TJ shot up his arm before lowering it slowly. “Sorry, too many years of school training. Alpha is the Greek A.”
“Right.” Maggie started a new paper. She deliberately drew the symbol for alpha. “And here…we wrote down gold. But the clue said Cutting you off. The chemical formula for gold is Au. If we cut off the U we get an A.”
The next thirty minutes passed in a blur as they struggled through the rest of the puzzle, discovering as they fed the current answer through the clue again there were clear-cut alternatives.
“In your notes you recorded what height we found the answers, high up or low to the ground. Should I add that information?” Maggie glanced at Erik to find him staring at her with a twinkle in his eyes. “What?”
“You’re very attractive when you’re obsessed about something.”
Jared laughed. “You two. Save the lovey-dovey for later. Let’s solve this thing.”
When the new list was finished, Maggie held it up with a flourish. Now they would be able to find the final answers. She scanned the page quickly and her hopes fell. There was nothing but a series of single letters from A-G mixed up again and again.
It still made no sense.
Jared and TJ started laughing, and her temper flared.
“It’s not funny.” So much for her being an asset to the team like Erik had suggested.
“We tried. I guess we’ll just have to finish without the final information.” Jared threw a rock into the bush and lay back on the ground in disgust.
TJ startled. “What are you guys talking about? Don’t you see it?”
His earnest expression made Maggie feel even worse. “There’s nothing there that helps us, TJ.”
He snorted and took the paper from her to scrawl down six more letters.
Erik looked at the list and raised a brow. “You think?”
“Positive.” TJ nodded rapidly. He scrambled in his pockets, fumbling as he pulled out his harmonica. As the first notes of the familiar children’s opera rang into the air on the unusual wind instrument, Maggie laughed.
“No way, you’re saying those letters are musical notes? That tune is too funny.”
Erik grinned at her. “I think TJ’s hit on the right solution. Does it help if I tell you the race director’s name is Peter?” He clapped slowly. “Well done, team.”
Jared groaned. “‘Peter and the Wolf’? We went through all that searching to have to listen to TJ playing bad classical music on his harmonica?”
TJ hit him and the two of them tumbled away to wrestle again. Erik smiled down at her and she grinned back in satisfaction. She really had managed to help the team.
Suddenly the idea of being a part of the pack didn’t nauseate her. The guys had been nothing but supportive of her, and her heart no longer went into palpitations when she remembered she was in the bush with three other wolves.
Except for the rushing, pounding rapid beat of her heart that remained every time she thought about Erik. Her wolf bumped to the surface, as if reaching for him. His eyes widened as they stared at each other, and Maggie had to hold back from pressing closer, rubbing herself all over him. For one moment she seriously considered dragging him into the tent and accepting their mating.
Her throat closed tight and she dropped her gaze away, fidgeting with the papers. She organized them, then thrust them out at him.
The idea of being in wolf form with others around—she wasn’t sure she’d ever be ready for that step. Mating with Erik but refusing to let their wolves have contact would be the cruelest thing imaginable. She couldn’t play games with his emotions, couldn’t tease his wolf with promises she was unable to keep.
What of the challenges still to come in the Wolf Games? Had she helped solve this puzzle only to tear victory from their grasp when she was unable to shift?
“You’re thinking too hard. Let it rest.” Erik brushed a stray hair back behind her ear and she leaned into the caress without thinking. “In fact we all should turn in. Just because we know what we’re looking for won’t make tomorrow any easier.”
“So using the song to solve the puzzle gave us six letters in the answer column, but no idea where we’ll find them? I assume that’s the information we’ll need for the final event, right? That sucks,” Jared complained as he unzipped the fly to the tent.
“Hey, at least we know what to look for, and with TJ’s great sense of smell, I’m confident we’ll be at the checkpoint in plenty of time.” Erik patted TJ on the back, catching him by the shirt when he tripped. “Yup, a good night’s sleep and a short hike tomorrow. I’m betting there will be little time between the end of this challenge and the start of the next.”
Erik settled the boys, returning to hold his hand out to her. “As much as I’d love a repeat of last night, I suggest we hit the sack as well.”
She nodded slowly. There was too much to say and she didn’t have the strength yet. “Erik, what if I can’t—?”
He held up a hand. “I’m not trying to be rude, but I’d like you to trust me on this one. Sleep first, discussions later. You did so well with the puzzle, but I can feel your exhaustion from here. While you’re getting the chemicals you need from being with us, I doubt you’ve hiked this far in the past few years while hanging out in Vancouver.” He pulled her against his body and she molded herself to him. It felt so wonderful. He lifted her chin and stared at her. “I’m warning you I’m going to hold you tonight. I can’t resist, and I think you need it too. If you were planning on protesting, argue here so we don’t wake the boys.”
Jared’s snores already rocked the tent and Maggie laughed. “Like me blowing a trumpet in his ear would wake him.” They exchanged grins before she grew serious again. There was nothing she wanted more right now than to feel his arms around her. “I could handle you holding me. If you feel you absolutely must.”
He nodded seriously. “I think it’s vital.”
They slipped into the tent and Maggie relaxed, the warmth of her mate covering her like a blanket as the never-ending light shone through the walls of the tent, filling the space with a peaceful blue glow.
Chapter 8
Erik was pleased when their team finished the challenge in plenty of time, finding all but one of the puzzle pieces. Maggie had insisted on recording everything she could think of about the locations where they’d discovered the letters, hoping the information would help them down the road. They barely crossed the line at the checkpoint before they were whisked away to Carmacks to start the next race.