Finn was too. There was no doubt in his mind that he would have lost his sister and his niece and nephew if he hadn’t brought Lainey in to help. She’d been magnificent. So capable and skilled.
“I’m sorry I hurt her,” Hildie added.
Finn thought of the raw claw marks he’d glimpsed and felt a wave of guilt. They should have done a better job of anticipating what might happen. If his mother hadn’t been right there, it could have been so much worse.
“You didn’t do it on purpose.”
“I know. That doesn’t mean I don’t feel awful about it. How is she handling everything anyway? It must have been quite a shock.”
“I don’t know,” he answered honestly. “She was still processing when I dropped her off last night.”
Hildie’s brows furrowed. “You didn’t stay with her?”
In a manner of speaking, he had but not the way he’d wanted to. He’d spent the night sitting in the shadows of her deck, just in case she needed him—or better yet, wanted him around.
“Not to her knowledge.” He exhaled. “I’m heading back there today. I just hope she’ll see me.”
“You really like this girl, huh?” Hildie asked softly.
He nodded. “Yeah, I do, but ...” She’s human. She’s got a job and a life, and she is leaving in three days.
He didn’t have to say any of those things. Hildie already knew.
“But nothing. Talk to her. Give her all the information.”
“She already has enough information to destroy us. What if she decides to go public?”
“You knew that was a risk when you brought her here,” Hildie said quietly. “That tells me, in your heart of hearts, you trust her. My advice: trust your instincts. Talk to her. Let her decide what she’s going to do with it. If she’s as good a person as I think she is, she’ll make the right choice.”
Lainey
THE RHYTHMIC THUMPS that dragged her out of the depths were getting louder.
“Go away,” Lainey mumbled into her pillow, pulling the covers up over her head.
This was the second day in a row she’d been woken from a sound sleep by someone pounding on her door. It was like being on call at the animal hospital, except she wasn’t on call. She was on vacation and more than a thousand miles from home.
Then, she thought about Finn’s sister and felt a stab of guilt. She was glad she had been able to help.
She listened. The knocks were insistent but not urgent, which meant she could ignore them and hope whoever it was went away. She wasn’t ready to talk to Finn yet, and if anyone from the lodge was trying to coax her into more group activities, they could go take a flying leap. In fact, she might not leave her room for the remainder of her trip.
“Lainey, if you don’t open up this door right now, I’m going to get the manager and have him open it.”
Lainey’s eyes popped open at the familiar voice issuing the threat, certain she was hearing things. “Henry?”
She threw off the covers and got out of bed anyway, wincing when her aching body and healing wounds protested. She threw open the door, and yep, there was Henry.
Could this vacation get any more bizarre?
“What are you doing here?”
Henry moved inside. Lainey peered out into the corridor, finding it empty.
She closed the door and asked, “Is Vicki with you?”
“No.”
“What’s going on? Why are you here?” Lainey asked again.
“You haven’t been answering your phone.”
She gaped at him. “That’s why you flew up here? Because I didn’t answer my phone?”
“It was Christmas, Lainey! With you being up here in the middle of arctic nowhere ...” He ran his hand through his hair, a familiar tell that indicated he was beyond upset, more so than he should have been for a call that wasn’t answered right away. “You always respond. When you didn’t, I got worried.”
Lainey frowned. “I did wish you a merry Christmas, right after midnight. I don’t remember seeing any missed calls or messages after that.”
In fact, she wasn’t even quite sure where her phone was. She vaguely remembered putting it on the vanity when she’d cleaned herself up at Finn’s parents’ house, but she didn’t recall seeing it when she’d undressed the night before.
“I’m sorry I worried you,” Lainey told him, checking her coat pockets. “I must have lost my phone.”
“How did you do that? And why are you moving like that? Are you hurt?”
“I went snowmobiling yesterday,” she said, searching for something she could safely tell him. “I need coffee. How about I order us some breakfast, and you can tell me why you’re really here?”
“VICKI AND I HAD A FALLING-out,” Henry admitted later over a plate of pancakes.
“Over what?”
“I wanted to take her out for a romantic dinner. Just the two of us. I had it all planned out. Reservations at a Michelin-star restaurant. Wine. Chocolate. Caviar. The works.”
“Sounds nice. What happened?”
“Vicki wanted to go to a party instead. That’s all we had been doing—hitting one get-together after another. When we weren’t going out, Vicki’s parents were hosting. It was nonstop. I just wanted to spend an evening alone with her, you know?”
“Understandable.”
“Well, I put my foot down for once. She said I was being selfish. I said I wasn’t going, and you know what she did? She went without me.” He stabbed a sausage link and waved it in the air. “To be honest, it’d been building for a while. But that was the final straw. I got up early Christmas morning and left.”
“And you decided to come here?”
Henry shrugged. “Where else was I going to go? You’re the only family I have. I know I haven’t been the best brother lately, but I thought we could take a couple days, have some fun, and then head back together. What do you say?”
Lainey forced a smile. “Sure. Sounds great.”
Chapter Seventeen
Finn
Finn wanted to believe Hildie was right. That once he explained everything, Lainey would understand. Assuming she was even willing to speak with him, that was.
At least the universe had given him a slight break there. Lainey had left her phone behind at his parents’ place. Even if she didn’t want to talk to him, she’d want her phone back, and that gave him an opening.
Worst-case scenario: she took her phone, told him to get lost, and threatened to expose them all. If that happened, he’d have to go to the Alliance and get them involved. They’d try to reason with her. If that wasn’t successful, the shifters who called Aurora Falls home would have to go into hiding, and the town would have to find some other way to survive.
He couldn’t see her doing that though. Lainey didn’t have a mean bone in her body. But her never wanting to see him again? That was a real concern. He’d been fooling himself, believing he could enjoy her company for a short while and then simply let her go.
He liked her. Really, really liked her. As in he wanted to drag her back to his den and spend the rest of his life with her liked her. He’d never experienced anything like it, but now that he had, there was no going back.