Inside the trunk was a large plastic crate. Fingers trembling, she opened it.
Hope flared and died.
No shine of gold as she swept the flashlight over the contents. Nothing but stacks and stacks of old photos.
Her father’s promise of riches was a lie.
Tears filled her eyes, but she brushed them away with an angry fist.
Kara picked up a photo. This time the tears fell freely.
When her mother died, Alastair had removed all evidence of her existence, as if it were too painful to bear. All the family photos had been destroyed. Kara hid a picture beneath her pillow to save it from his purging.
But he hadn’t destroyed them after all, only placed them here, in the trunk he’d said contained pure gold.
A smiling, dark-haired woman held a chubby baby in her arms, her waist encircled by a male with a goofy, happy grin. A young child sat on the ground before them, a look of impishness in his eyes.
Her parents with her siblings, Lara and Aiden.
Kara dropped the photo back into the storage bin. Who was this man? She combed through the photos and cards, desperate to find something, anything to prove there was good in the male she’d called father.
Photograph after photograph she laid upon the cool concrete floor. Kara spread them out, and saw her parent’s past unfurl. She picked up a picture of her father sitting on the steps of the lodge, one arm flung protectively around her mother.
The last photo in the bin featured the entire family. Seven-year-old Kara nestled against her mother’s side. Aiden was 13, his lanky body showing signs of the muscled Lupine he’d become. Lara, their elder sister, sat on the ground. A smiling Alastair stood behind them all, as if guarding his family.
He’d smiled in those days. And then their mother had died and he never smiled again.
A single tear splashed onto the yellowed photograph. She stroked her father’s image with a thumb.
“Why did you change?” she whispered. “I know you loved her with all your heart, but couldn’t you love us too after she died?”
The darkness seemed to press against her from all sides until it suffocated. Kara returned all the pictures to the bin, closed it and then slammed the lid shut. She wiped away her tears. Enough, she told herself. There were no answers here to Alastair’s rejection of his family. No gold, either.
Minutes later, she came to the tunnel’s end. Kara emerged, blackberry brambles scraping her hands and face as she fought past the foliage hiding the entrance.
She brushed dirt off her jeans and stood, her legs wobbling.
Dense trees surrounded her. The forest was quiet. Kara hid the flashlight and picked her way through the forest to a clearing on the ridge. Climbing down the rugged trail to the meadow, disappointment bitter in her mouth, she headed for the lodge. How was she supposed to stop a pack war with no money?
Four rugged cowboys galloped across the meadow, and pulled to a stop mere feet away from where she stood. They sat tall in the saddle, sunshine beating down upon their broad shoulders and their white Stetsons. All of them were muscled and handsome. And dead serious as they stared at her. One of them whistled a signal. A fifth horseman raced across the meadow on a sleek black stallion, stopping on a dime before them. Dressed in blue chambray and faded jeans, Ryder wore a black Stetson. Leather creaked as he leaned over the saddle, concern sharpening his features.
“You’re hurt.”
Blood stained her fingers after she touched the scratches on her face. “It’s nothing. They’ll heal soon.”
“You lost, Kara?”
He must have realized she was gone from her room, and sent his men to search for her. “Just checking out the old homestead.”
“Hmm. If I didn’t know you better, I’d say you were playing hide and seek. Your sire hid the gold and now you seek.”#p#分页标题#e#
“I don’t play games.” The treasure was supposed to save them all. What a joke.
“Too bad,” he said softly. “Because they can be quite enjoyable. Such as the chase. I’ll give you a ten minute start to get your sweet little ass back to the lodge before I catch you.”
Lifting her chin, she locked her gaze to his. “And if you catch me?”
“Then I get to play whatever game I want with you.” A gleam lit his eyes.
Defiance filled her. “Fine.”
“Naked.”
Delicious anticipation tightened her belly. Catch me first, wolf. Kara shifted into her wolf form, startling his mount. With a big wolfish grin, she sped off toward the lodge.
Only to hear a long, low howl behind her.
Running away triggered his Lupine instinct to chase. But she was no scared rabbit. Racing across the meadow, relishing the wind rippling across her fur and the taste of freedom, she gave a joyous yip. Behind her, she heard Ryder hot on her heels. Deliberately she slowed, allowing him to catch her once they’d left the other cowboys out of sight.