Lycan Contempt

Chapter Five

Georgia nervously tapped her fingers on the coffee table. The boys should have been back by now. She was worried something had happened to them, especialy after realizing the severity of the snowstorm. She hadn’t known it had been snowing until she stepped out of the warmth of the house onto the freezing porch. When she’d felt the snow pelting her face, she’d eased to the two stairs that led down to ground and was startled to find the snow was already nearing the top of the porch.

She’d tried to cal Henry and Joey several times, but as predicted, her phone had no signal. It had been a little over four hours since they’d left. She tried to rationalize that it would take them longer in the storm, but logic told her that they’d never make it back without four-wheel drive. She sighed when she remembered back two years when the boys had bought the SUV. Henry had wanted to get four-wheel drive, but Joey had insisted they didn’t need it and preferred to save the extra money it would cost to get it.

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.”

“Oh my. I’m sorry. Would you like some coffee?”

“If it wouldn’t be a bother.” He wasn’t cold. He ran several degrees hotter than a human, but he wasn’t going to explain that to her. Besides, a hot cup of coffee sounded like heaven at the moment.

The drive had taken twice as long and had been helish even in Baby. He was doubting that Baby would get him back home, as the storm had continued to rage on, not letting up for a second. He shook his head. Who the hel did he think he was kidding? He wasn’t going to leave her alone now anyway. She was his mate, and whether he decided to act upon that or not, he’d protect her with his life.

Leaving her stranded in the middle of nowhere was inviting danger.

“I’l find the panel now and get the generator going.”

“Thank you.”

He found the panel down the halway and flipped the switch over so he could start up the generator.

When he made his way back to the kitchen, he stopped and watched her, admiring the way she deftly put on a pot of coffee without so much as spiling a drop. Her blindness might be a handicap in certain situations, but he could see that she was more than capable of taking care of herself.

He cleared his throat. “I’l be back in a couple of minutes.”

He went outside, around the house, and breathed a sigh of relief when the generator kicked in on the second pul of the rope. Most of the places up here had the same type of generator as this one because they were vacation homes and not often visited in the wintertime. At his place, he had a self-contained unit that was hard wired into his house. When the power went out, it automaticaly kicked in. He didn’t have to do anything other than keep it ful of gas and do regular maintenance.

He usualy lived up here year round, though. With the electricity being iffy at best during the winter, the generator he’d instaled had been wel worth the time and money for the convenience.

He squeezed his eyes shut. Why in the hel did he have to meet Georgia now? Why couldn’t he have met her before? Before Connie. Before al the others.

He laughed. What made him think she’d be any different in the long run? Don’t be an idiot. Georgia is nothing like Connie.

But was that reasoning because it was the actual truth, or because he wanted it to be the truth? Was there a woman out there that could spend a lifetime with a man with scars such as his? There had to be, but he hadn’t met one yet. Maybe you just did.

Yeah. And maybe you’re a blind idiot. He sucked in a sharp breath. Suddenly, under the current circumstances, that analogy seemed degrading.

True, blind idiot was a simple saying he’d used for years. He’d never actualy been suggesting that al blind people were idiots. But somehow, now that saying seemed derogatory. If anyone said that in front of him, in front of Georgia, he’d take offense to it.

Funny how one didn’t realize something that was said out of habit, no matter how harmless the intention was, could be hurtful to others until the truth smacked you right in the face.

He was puled from his daunting thoughts by a loud crack behind him. The heavy snowfal was beginning to take its tol on the trees. He had a feeling it might be taking a tol on the roof as wel. His roof had been reinforced to withstand such conditions, but again, his house wasn’t the norm for up here. He noticed a smal shed about twenty feet away and found a snow shovel inside.

There was a ladder as wel, and he carried it to the side of the house before propping it against the cedar siding. Luckily, the pitch on the roof wasn’t too steep to impair his job, but had a good enough angle to alow the snow to slide off and onto the ground with some gentle nudging. After he got the majority of the weight off the roof, he put the ladder and shovel back in the shed and headed inside.