When Miki nudged Lena’s palm, she scratched his head. “I’m so tired of running. I didn’t even realize it until I came here and spent time in Alaska and connected with an actual place for the first time…ever. I’ve been living in a hotel, living out of a suitcase, never settling because nothing anchored me. And then I met Jenner, and I realized that maybe home isn’t a place at all. That maybe it’s Jenner. Even if he’s asleep for half the year, I would get the other half. That’s the part I can’t shake. I can’t imagine trying to find someone else. I can’t imagine settling, because that’s what it would be. I would compare every man to him, and how can anyone stack up? It would be a half-life. Nothing more.”
Elyse hugged her shoulders and brought her in close. “Oh, Lena, you have it bad.”
“What do I do to convince him I belong with him?”
A slow smile took Elyse’s face. “Come on. I have something I want you to see.”
Chapter Fifteen
Two days.
Irritated, Jenner rubbed the palm of his hand back and forth against his forehead, his elbows resting on the dining table as he stared at the picture of Lena on his digital camera. It was the one he’d taken when she was up on the horse, posing and grinning with that beautiful smile of hers.
He’d done right by her, but it didn’t make it any less painful now.
Dalton and Chance were on a fishing trip with the bachelor party boys, and Jenner had dipped slowly into madness over the past forty-eight hours with Lennard casting him worried glances every ten minutes.
“I have to show you something,” Lennard said, toting his laptop. He opened it on the Bucks and Backwoods website. A familiar picture glowed back at him, so Jenner set the camera down and pulled the computer closer. It was a picture of the moose in the pond, and her baby in the background. Beside it was an article about Silver Summit Outfitters.
“She did us proud, boy. And so did you. You really impressed her. I didn’t think she wrote articles for them, but they published this one online under their guided trips section. We have the highest rating and are listed at the top. I’ve had calls all day asking about openings.”
Jenner skimmed the article. She’d praised him as the best guide she’d ever worked with, and when he got to the end, to her signature line, he leaned back in the chair, baffled. She had every right to be angry with him, but she’d just boosted his standing in the industry. Why had she gone to the trouble?
“I turned down a couple of immediate tours for you, Jenner,” Lennard said quietly.
“Why would you do that? I need to stay busy. Fill me up.”
“I think you should take a little time off.”
“I take the entire damned winter off, old man.”
Lennard leveled him a look with those crinkling blue eyes of his. “This is just your job, Jenner. It’s not your whole life.” He stood with his gray, bushy brows lifted high on his forehead. “Your brother is on the phone for you.”
“Which one?”
“The growly one,” Lennard said over his shoulder as he meandered off, laptop tucked under his arm.
Well that narrowed it down.
“Hello,” he said into the landline.
“We got an order from Clayton. I need you to come out to the homestead.”
“Aw, fuck off, Ian. I’m busy.”
“You aren’t, and I wouldn’t be asking if it wasn’t important. Tobias will be there in an hour to pick you up. Pack for a few days.” The phone clicked, and the dial tone blasted against Jenner’s oversensitive ear. Asshole.
He resisted the urge to slam the phone back in its cradle, but just barely.
Tobias was right on time. Lennard seemed pleased as punch that Jenner was actually taking time off, and everyone was getting on his damned nerves. For the third time, he made sure the camera was in his back pocket so he could take a piece of Lena with him.
The plane ride sucked, naturally, because Tobias smelled like a fucking bear and growled constantly, but on the bright side, Link picked him up so he didn’t have to cram himself inside a car with his crazy brother. Just a crazy werewolf instead.
At least he would probably get a good rabbit stew out of the deal. Elyse liked to cook that best, and he hadn’t eaten in a couple hours.
“Why are you smiling?” he asked Link suspiciously as he pulled onto the dirt road that led to the homestead.
“Because it’s not me you’re hunting.” Half-truth.
Jenner narrowed his eyes but let it go because he wasn’t in the mood to talk to anyone right now, and half-truths reminded him of Mom.
The sun sat low in the sky as Link pulled to a stop in front of the cabin, and Jenner’s hackles rose higher when he saw Elyse waiting on the porch for him, her eyes all emotional.
“Are you crying?” he asked, appalled.
“No,” she said, her voice squeaky. “I have something in my eye.”
“Where’s Ian?” Because about now he was ready to bleed whoever Clayton had put out the kill order on.
Elyse pointed down an ATV path that led into the woods. “Down there.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” he muttered, not in the mood for games. “I’m not playing, Elyse. I’ve had a shit couple of days, and I’m not up for some damned scavenger hunt for my brother.”
“Jenner Silver, I will stab you if you don’t stop complaining. You want to see your brother? Follow the fucking tracks!”
“Elyse looks pissed,” Link murmured. “Just go, okay?”
“Fine,” Jenner gritted out, shouldering his backpack. “Later.”
He made his way through the trees and, sure enough, there was Ian’s scent for him to follow. It was an old trail, though, and the farther away from the house he got, the fainter the scent, which didn’t make sense. Up ahead, he could see a light through the trees, and he opened his mouth to yell that Ian better not jump out and try to scare him or he would Change and shred him, but just as he was about to say the first word, another scent hit his nose.
Jenner jerked to a stop and inhaled again. The wind was shifting, so maybe he’d just imagined the body wash Lena had used on the trail. But when the wind righted again, there it was, unmistakable. Heart hammering, Jenner dropped his backpack and began to jog. And when Lena’s scent grew stronger, he sprinted forward. In a small clearing surrounding a log cabin, he skidded to a stop.
Lena was standing on the small front porch, surrounded by candle lanterns hanging from pegs. Her hair was down and wavy, two shades darker than the evening sky, and her eyes were full of bottomless emotion.
He reached her in five long strides, hopped over the three stairs, and crushed her to him. “Lena,” he murmured between kissing her lips and kissing her cheeks.
She giggled, but it was the thick sort that said she would cry soon if she wasn’t already. His Lena.
“What are you doing here?” he asked.
“I have a proposition,” she said, hugging his neck and burying her face against his throat.
She felt so damned good against him right now, but when he patted her back, a dust cloud lifted from her sweater. She was filthy from head to toe. “Why are you covered in dirt?”
“Because I was digging.”
“Digging what?”
“Your den.”
She wasn’t making a lick of sense, so he just stared at her, at a loss for words.
“Link and Ian offered to help me dig, but it felt right doing it myself.” She tugged his hand and led him off the porch, then around to the side of the house where there was a large opening under the porch. “Ian made sure the cabin was safe over it, though. Look.” She squatted down and pointed at the hole.
Jenner looked inside and shook his head, utterly floored by the enormous hole she’d dug. Ian had bolstered the legs of the house with metal, but underneath, the den was as wide as it was deep.
“Lena,” he drawled, reality niggling at him.
“Just wait until you hear everything I have to say before you tell me n
o, Jenner, because this is really important to me, and you said you love me, and if you do, you owe it to me to listen.”
Jenner stood slowly, pulling her with him. “Okay.”
“I don’t like that you pick a different den every year so close to where the boys are running guided hunts. I hate it. It doesn’t feel safe.”
“Here won’t be any safer because Ian will be hibernating too close. The only other time we tried, we went to war as soon as we woke up. Almost killed each other.”
“This was Ian’s idea.”
“It was?”
“Yes! Sort of. Elyse and I kind of planned this, and Ian gave his blessing, even said he liked the idea of you hibernating closer and having a relationship… Anyway, stop interrupting me.” She tried to look severe, but failed when she smiled up at him. “Ian said when he woke up last season, it was easy because Elyse had put him in a root cellar and he had plenty to eat as soon as he came to. And I’ll do that for you. I’ll have food here as soon as you open your eyes, and Bear won’t have to feel desperate.”
Jenner looked back at the den as the first tendrils of hope filled his chest. “What about your career?”
“I got a promotion.”
“You did? Lena, that’s great!”
“And then I turned it down.”
“What? Why?”
“Because I want to make my home base here, Jenner. I’ve paid Elyse the first year of rent on this place. It’s ours if we want it. And no, I’m not saying you have to quit guiding, but when it gets close to time to hibernate, I propose we come out here.”
“To home base.”
Lena nodded decidedly. “Yes. To our home base.”
“But don’t you see? This is why I didn’t want to do this. You’ve already turned down a promotion for me.”
“Well yes, I turned down that one, but then they gave me another when I explained I wanted to live in Alaska. That’s what I was grinning about the other day when I was emailing back and forth with my boss. I’m now Bucks and Backwoods’ Photographic Art Director of their Alaska Division. I mean, sure I’ll have to beg some plane rides from your brothers during the summer months to cover my responsibilities, and I’ll have to use the Wi-Fi in Galena to send in my work, but I won’t be giving up anything.” She squared up to him and slid her hands up his chest. “And I’ll be gaining everything. Look, I know you’re worried about me when you hibernate, but I won’t be alone like Elyse was. I’ll have her and Link, and if I get too bored, I can wait until fair weather and travel to the mainland. Pick up a couple of photo jobs. Travel around in the winters if I get the itch. But I’ll always, always be back here when you wake up. The hibernation part of this was never a deal-breaker for me, Jenner. Not if it means I get to keep you.”
Jenner brushed a wavy strand of her hair from her face and tucked it behind her ear. “This is crazy.”
“It’s not. It’s as normal as we can hope for.”
“You really think you can handle all of this?”
“I know I can. For the first time in as long as I can remember, I’ve never felt surer of anything. I want you. I want to grow our relationship and do this life thing together. And someday, when we’re ready, I want to give you cubs.”
“But they’ll be—”
“Bear shifters. I know and I don’t care. We won’t be like your parents. We’ll make them feel secure and teach them how to be bears the way you and your brothers should’ve been taught. And I’ll love them.” Her voice cracked and her face crumpled. “I’ll love them so much, and I’ll love you even more because I know you’ll make a great daddy someday. This is my proposition, Jenner Silver. You already chose me. Now stick with me.”
He huffed a shocked sound and shook his head in disbelief that this beautiful woman was claiming him back. She was declaring she wanted him to start a life with. She wanted him to start a family with. It made no sense, but he was tired of questioning everything. If she could be brave enough to rearrange her entire life for him, then he could be brave enough to make sure she never wanted for anything.
“I’ll make you happy,” he whispered, resting his forehead against hers.
“I know.”
“Marry me then, Lena. If we’re going to do this, I want my last name on you.”
Tears fell from her eyes, and she clutched his hands. “Well, ask me proper then.”
God, he loved her. He loved her. She was everything—so much more than he deserved—and she was standing here, offering him something he could’ve never imagined. All of herself.
Jenner dropped to his knees in the loose dirt she’d dug from his den and lifted his gaze to hers. The sunset was streaking the sky with oranges and pinks behind him, and her cheeks looked rosy in the evening hues. Her shoulders were shaking as she cried, and he thought she couldn’t look any lovelier than she did right now, staring down at him, waiting for him to say the words that would bind them for always.
“Lena, I love you more than anything, and I can’t imagine my life without you. You’re already my mate, but will you do me the honor of being my wife?”
“Yes,” she said, nodding. She dashed her damp cheek against her shoulder and said it again, the word that changed his life completely. “Yes, I’ll marry you.”
Jenner launched upward and picked her up off the ground, holding her tight against his chest. He could feel her heart pounding against him, and he closed his eyes tightly as she laughed a happy tinkling sound.
“I’ll buy you a ring. Something pretty. Whatever you want.”
Lena laid tiny pecks all over his face before her lips pressed against his. She hugged his neck so tightly as she kissed him, as if she never wanted to let him go, and he understood. He didn’t want this moment to ever end. This was the best feeling in the world, declaring a future with her.
“Lena,” he murmured, staring at the cabin. “Did you get us a home?”
She was smiling big as she nodded. “Link fixed it up last winter to live in, but he got work in town and bought a place closer to his job. We all pitched in and fixed it just how I wanted it over the last couple of days. Oh, Jenner, I love Elyse, and Ian’s so nice, and Link’s crazy, but he’s awesome, and with the money I paid in rent, Elyse will be able to buy more cattle, and I bought curtains the same blue color of your eyes and a nice mattress because this is our first bed together, and Elyse is going to teach me how to can salmon. And Jenner! Everything just feels so perfect. I get you, and I get a home, and I have two whole months with you before you go to sleep, and we’ll make the most out of every moment. Even if I have to tag along on your guided tours and call myself the Silver Summit Outfitters’ resident photographer, I will. I get to be with you Jenner. I’m the luckiest.”
She wasn’t, though. His sweet mate didn’t see that he was the lucky one.
“Are you happy?” He could see it in her eyes, but damn, he wanted to hear it right now.
“Yes. I never thought I could be so happy. I feel like I finally belong somewhere. You did that, Jenner. I don’t have to run anymore.”
“You won’t ever have to run again. I’ll take care of you.”
“And I’ll take care of you because we are a team.”
“Team Silver.”
She cupped his cheeks again and laid a lingering kiss on his lips. Easing back, she grinned and whispered, “Team Silver.”
Chapter Sixteen
She couldn’t pull her eyes from Jenner. It was his smile, a grin she’d only seen flicker across his face now and again, but here, in the glowing lantern light of their new cabin, it stretched across his lips, transforming his face.
Short, dark scruff graced his jaw, and she ran her fingertips against it. His dark hair had fallen forward over his forehead, making his eyes look even brighter in the fading evening light.
“You haven’t shaved since I left,” she accused.
“I haven’t done much of anything since you left except stare at this picture I took of you.”
Her stomach
filled with a fluttering sensation that had her melting against him. With a sigh, she rested her cheek against his chest. “Why did you let me leave then? If it hurt so bad, why did you let me go?”
“It’s not that I didn’t want you, Lena. It’s that I wanted better for you.”
“Well, that’s not how love works, you ridiculous man. You don’t set someone free against their will.”
Jenner’s lips pressed against her hair, lingering as he swayed slowly from side to side. At last, he whispered, “Can I see the cabin?”
Lena nipped his chest, then pulled his hand, leading him up onto the small porch with just enough room for the two rocking chairs that swayed gently in the breeze. She pushed open the door and watched his face as he ducked under the frame and stood to his full height. The smile still lingered at the corners of his lips, but his clear blue eyes pooled with some deep emotion she couldn’t fathom. She’d spent the last two days frantically trying to fix it up, but tried to see the cabin from his perspective.
It was split into two primary rooms with smooth wooden floorboards and heavy log walls. There was a single couch in the small living room, right in the shadow of a stone hearth. The butcher-block kitchen counter took up the back wall, speckled with appliances, and on the wall by a two-seater table was a black and white picture of her and Jenner. It was her favorite, and she’d had it printed in Galena today as the finishing touch on this place. She’d thought they were both grinning at the camera when she’d taken it, but while she was cheesing, Jenner had his forehead pressed against her temple, eyes closed like he was taking in the moment with her. They both looked blissfully happy.
Jenner’s gaze hesitated on the picture, framed in rough wood, and the emotion in his eyes deepened. God, he was stunning.