He lifted her over his shoulder and as the snow melted around him, he tunneled out. At least she’d not noticed his bare feet, now huge wolf paws, adapted for arctic cold. Outside, the weather had turned severe. A blizzard. Wind and ice hit him hard, stinging like bullets. Temperatures hit sub-zero. Even with his radiating warmth, Rachel’s temperature continued plummeting as she began to freeze to death.
Lev’s eyes glowed penetrating the thickness of near zero visibility. He pushed through while holding Rachel’s limp body. Was her head injury more serious than it looked? Her pulse so slow, he worried he would not be able to save her even with drastic means. He mustered more heat from his body. Despite his emerging fur, he too felt cold.
No choice. She wouldn’t survive the trip off the mountain. He slugged through the snow toward the cavern she’d just escaped. Back at the cave, he stepped over the strewn bodies left in his wake from the recent battle. He set her down on the single sleeping bag and covered her with extra blankets. He packed the entrance of the cave with snow. The wind howled in mockery, that even he could not save his friend’s daughter. His wolf’s mate.
Lev turned and gazed at her. Shit. Lev brushed away icicles from Rachel’s blue tinged face. He had to get her out of the wet clothes.
Lev patted her cheek. “Rachel, wake up.”
No response.
He ripped her clothes off and then he stripped. Lev covered her with his body, then covered himself with the down sleeping bag and blankets. How many nights had he dreamt of feeling her naked body beneath his? Not like this. She might as well be a cold corpse. An ice princess never to be his.
His body radiated heat. Not his supernatural heat, but his own body heat.
Her skin warmed. He lifted himself and cocked his head. No heartbeat. He pressed his ear against her chest. A faint thump. Then nothing.
“Rachel, stay with me.”
Too late, he had lost her.
His wolf emerged. Not too late. Bite her. Save her.
An alpha’s saliva had healing properties. Biting and then sucking her blood would save her and make her his forever. Once he partook of a human with Stallo’s blood, he might become addicted. At the very least, create a bond so great she’d be his forever. Or as a mutant would he be spared? Or would that make it worse? No matter. He’d risk his soul to save Rachel.
Lev sunk his fangs into her neck. He tempered his need to quench his thirst, allowing only a small sampling of her blood. Just enough for healing saliva to stave off hypothermia. Heal her gash. Bring her back to life. To him.
He released her, kissed her lips and closed his eyes.
The taste of her blood took him into a primal forest, releasing his wolf.
The howl of wolves and blazing sun over the Red Forest gladdened his heart. The forest where he’d grown up. Contaminated by Chernobyl, but thriving with life.
Lev’s heart stirred.
Rachel stepped out of the forest and extended her arms. She wore a blue shift, her golden hair flowing down her back. A goddess before him. “Lev, you came to me.”
“My beautiful Rachel, we are as one.” He thumbed her warm glowing cheeks and gazed at her luminous amber eyes. The eyes of a woman meant to have been born a wolf.
“You are the wolf. The one at my window.” She threw him a mischievous grin. “My stalker.”
He lifted her chin. “Your protector. Now and forever.”
“Look, a meadow.” She dashed toward a field of flowers.
What was she doing in the Red Forest? No human should be there. “Rachel! Wait!” The radiation would kill her.
Lev chased after her, not as a man, but in wolf form. He had to get her out of the forest.
Rachel picked up a purple flower and sniffed it. Suddenly, she dropped the flower and touched a trickle of blood cascading down her elegant neck. “I feel like I’m floating in the clouds.” Rachel levitated. “Goodbye, my wolf.”
The metallic scent of her blood reminded him of his bite. Had he drained her? “Rachel, don’t leave me!” He howled in sorrow.
He returned to his senses. A hallucination.
No longer in the forest of his birth, he was back in the cave, with Rachel and with a howling blizzard outside. The taste of her blood still on his lips, he fingered the bite mark on her pale neck.
Lev sat and took her in his arms.