She’d taped the picture of her and Dad grinning at each other with their matching marks onto the side of the mirror to remind her to look for beauty in the little moments. And this life was full of them.
Nicole rinsed her hands under the small trickle of spring water that came through the faucet, then sauntered into the living room and began pulling on layers. Link had taught her so much over the past week of working on this house together, but he had yet to spend an entire night with her, and today, when he came to fix the porch with her, she was going to ask him. No, she didn’t mind splitting time between his cabin and hers, but the two miles that had seemed so minimal before now seemed like a yawning canyon. She spent most evenings with her attention on the woods outside, hoping for a glance of her wolf.
The cabin was undergoing a facelift. Link had decided to expand the porch to wrap around the house and had extended the eaves of the roof to protect it from the weather. Together, they’d repaired the dilapidated chimney, put in a new main beam to replace the last rotted one, stained the exposed rafters inside as well as over the porch, sanded down the water-damaged floorboards and refinished them, and yesterday, Link had brought in an enormous picture window, his signature for each house he rehabilitated. He’d put it in the front of the house, right next to the door, so she had a full and undiluted view of the winter woods outside. He’d even hired an electrician to patch her in to a main electrical line since they were close enough to Galena and she could afford the bill.
She hopped down the splintered porch stairs that would be replaced today and grabbed her new chainsaw from under the ledge of the porch. As she pulled the cord and let the little motor rev and warm up, she was filled with a sudden pride in her abilities out here. Every day she grew more confident in ways she’d never imagined before.
Yesterday, she’d dragged fallen, dried-out logs back to the house with Buck’s old snow machine that Link had got working for her. She had plenty on the woodpile to last her for a couple of weeks, but if bad weather hit and she couldn’t get out onto the land to gather more, she’d be up shit creek. Between her survival books and Link’s infinite well of knowledge, she was fully aware that Alaskan weather wasn’t the most dangerous part of living here. It was being unprepared for the weather that could kill her.
Smoke blasted from the chainsaw as she cut the logs into more manageable pieces, and the sawdust, to her pleasure, came out clean and white. Green logs didn’t burn well, but this was prime fire timber.
Movement caught her attention, and she let the chainsaw idle as she straightened her spine. When she saw Link’s snow machine crest the hill, she turned off the saw and jogged out to meet him. Damn, he was a sight for sore eyes, up on one locked leg, other knee resting in the seat as he maneuvered around the big spruce by the road. But when he cut the engine and dismounted, he didn’t greet her like he usually did. Instead, he shook his head hard and rattled a long, loud growl, his lips curled back over his white teeth.
“Link?”
“Stay back.” His voice dipped and grew gravelly. “She’s going to kill us.”
“What?” Nicole held her hands out helplessly. “I won’t kill you.”
“Not you. The fox. The fox will kill us.”
“Vera? Link, I don’t understand. You said she loves you like her own brother. She won’t hurt you.”
Link leaned forward, hands on his knees and dry-heaved, and when he stood and linked his hands behind his head, she saw his eyes. They were pure white, and blood flowed freely down his nose, dripping from his chin onto the snow.
“Oh, my God.” Nicole approached a step, but he countered and backed away.
Link angled his face in warning, his eyes telling her to stay put. “You don’t want to touch me now, woman. Wolf is hurt.” A feral snarl left him. “Fuck you.”
“What?”
“Not you,” Link choked out, shaking his head again. “That part was for me. I did this.”
She didn’t understand any of this. Didn’t understand the conversation that was going on between Link and Wolf, and she couldn’t comprehend the reason for the gore on Link’s face. His nose didn’t look broken or even swollen.
“Tell me what’s going on, Link. Tell me right now.”
Link spat red in the snow and hooked his hands on his hips. “When you told me to fight, I did. I went and saw Vera. I asked her to try and fix me. Or if she couldn’t fix me, I want her to buy me time. I want more time.”
“With me, or more time to figure out how to fix the curse?”
“Either one. I’ll take anything.”
“And Vera’s medicine is doing this to you?”
Link waited too long to answer. The only sound was the pit, pat, pit, pat of crimson staining the ice near the toe of his boot. Finally, he dipped his chin once. “Vera has tried to cure a McCall before.” He strode around her and up the porch stairs to the cabin.
Stunned, she asked in a high pitch, “And?”