When she lifted the pillows to remove the cases, she spied the T-shirt she slept in folded underneath. Oops! Almost forgot that, she muttered to herself. As she picked it up, she recalled the erotic dream she’d had on her first night in the cabin. It had been extremely satisfying, but unfortunately, one of a kind. Closing her eyes, she pressed the shirt to her chest and allowed herself to relive the memory. Mmm... Her imagination had certainly out done itself when concocting that man. Everything had been so realistic...
Suddenly, a horrible thought entered her mind and she snapped her eyes open. Oh no! Surely not! But... A feeling of dread swept over her as a theory developed in her mind. Could it have really happened? She hurried into the main room and stared at the pile of Ryne’s clothes. If the man was willing to run home naked in the middle of the night, would he also be the type to creep into a bedroom?
Her skin crawled at the idea that Ryne—still a stranger at that point—had touched her so intimately. As she contemplated the possibility, her breathing accelerated and panic tightened in her chest. Calm down, calm down, she told herself. It might not be true. Forcing herself to breath slowly, she tried to figure out how Ryne could have entered her room. There’d been only one set of footprints and all those wolf prints... Of course Josh said they were old prints and it had something to do with the frozen ground being farther from the cabin... But the weather forecast had said it was above freezing... Mel ran an agitated hand through her hair. None of it made sense. Why would Ryne...? And how...? A shudder swept over her as mental images formed of the man looming over her as she slept.
She made herself push the thoughts from her mind. The hows and whys didn’t matter; what was important was the fact that she was lucky enough to be getting away from Ryne sooner rather than later. After all, if she stayed around, who knew what weird, abnormal thing he might have done next? The very idea spurred her to action. As fast as possible, she finished tidying the cabin and packing her car, now more anxious than ever to leave Stump River—and Ryne Taylor—far behind.
*****
Ryne was thankful that there was a rush on tires that week. It kept him busy all day and gave him a chance to work out his anger without damaging anyone or anything. His encounter with Melody had left him in turmoil as his head argued with his wolf over what had occurred. Hours of lifting tires and struggling with rusted bolts and nuts had taken the edge off his mood so he was able to present a relatively calm face to the world.
As he put away his tools and began to wash up, Ben wandered in with Harley at his heels. The dog immediately went over to Ryne and wagged his tail, fawning around his legs. Ryne scratched his ears and gave a low rumble of approval that had Harley sighing happily. The beast licked his hand before flopping down on the ground, obviously feeling that all was right in his world now that he had the Alpha’s approval.
“See you got a lot of work done today.” Ben had a stack of completed work orders in his hand. “I’d have thought that fighting over that girl last night, would have left you all tired out, but if anything you’ve worked faster than ever.”
Biting back a sigh, Ryne explained the situation yet again while inwardly grumbling; didn’t these people have anything better to do with their time than gossip about what he did? “I wasn’t fighting over her. I was just trying to talk to her, and Watson took exception to the fact. He swung at me first.”
“Uh huh.” Ben nodded, but Ryne could tell he didn’t believe the story. “Well, whatever. Thing is, she seems to be a nice girl and you could do worse. She likes Harley, after all.”
Harley lifted his head and thumped his tail at the sound of his name.
“Funny thing though,” Ben continued with a puzzled frown on his face. “When I was talking to her yesterday afternoon she told me this story about seeing Harley out in the woods and thinking he was a wolf. I guess, she’s never seen a real wolf before, because Harley doesn’t look much like one, if you ask me. Anyway, I told her it couldn’t have been him, since I took him to the vet clinic on Tuesday for his rabies vaccine and then kept him inside for the rest of the day.”
Ryne froze, his mind racing and connecting the dots even as Ben kept on speaking.
“She had a funny look on her face then. I guess she realized she must have really seen a wolf. You know, you could use that to your advantage, boy. Tell her that there are wolves around, but you’ll protect her.” Ben chuckled. “Not that you need help with women. Anyway, I just came back here to tell you to take tomorrow off. You got us caught up on all the pending jobs. I figure with that big house you’re fixing up, you can always use some extra time to work on it.”