Читать книгу A New Beginning - Joycee Clark - Страница 15

Chapter Ten

Mariah was ready for her wolves with two days to spare. She had gone over all her paperwork, had her cabin set up, enough wood to last most of the winter and soon Garret and Lucca would be there to take her into town for supplies. They had offered to take her because of the weather warnings that were out for the area. No running out of Beer, diet soda or popcorn! It was beautiful outside, clear sky, and warmth from the sun. Animals scurrying to get their needs ready and a lot of chattering between the squirrels. Mariah loved her little mountain retreat and looked forward to the different seasons she would get to witness along with the wildlife, now she just needed her wolves and the two guys that made her feel so welcome here.

She was starting to relax around Garret and Lucca, a first for her. She had never relaxed or trusted any males even though she knew it was past time to release the memories especially since the nightmares had finally stopped. She wanted to be normal and be loved for the first time in her adult life and was determined this time to give herself a chance at accepting others for what they were and not her negative perception of the world and the guys in it. She had gotten off the phone with Maranda after another pep talk, got her coat on, and went to the front porch to wait for her escort into town.

As she sat enjoying the wildlife in the area, she noticed a huge gray wolf come out of the trees close to her cabin, she tried to figure out what to do. She had already locked the door to the cabin, she didn’t hear the guys truck yet. She noticed the huge wolf watching her really close and very slowly coming toward her. Out of all the thousands of articles she had read about her favorite wild animal, nothing had prepared her for the size or confrontation of the wolf. She sat very still as the wolf walked up to her. He had gray eyes that reminded her of Garret’s eyes with thick gray fur with black tips on most of the fur, also a black throat to match his black paws.

“Well, aren’t you friendly?” Mariah said softly. “Are you here to eat me? Hope not, eh, you are really beautiful, beautiful and very large, you must be into health food.” Mariah kinda chuckled thinking to herself how stupid she must sound talking to the wild wolf. “Oh my, you’re getting closer, do you need to sniff your next meal? Mariah slowly stuck her hand out toward the wolf, quietly praying he had already eaten and was just curious. Just as he reached to sniff Mariah’s hand, he lowered his head and came up underneath, so her hand was on top of his head.

Mariah was so surprised, she didn’t want to pull her hand back too fast for fear of startling her new wolf., so she started petting him and cooing to him at the same time. Then up pulled Lucca in their truck and the huge gray wolf trotted off.

Mariah watched the wolf, then looked at Lucca and said one word. “Explain”. Lucca and Garret had already talked about this and had a plan, so that Mariah could get use to their wolves, because they couldn’t always be here to keep her safe, to protect her. They wanted her to feel safe, even if they weren’t around, and they wanted to start her off with their wolves first.

“Mariah, I know you have questions, and we’ll answer them, but you need to stay calm and keep an open mind.” Mariah just cocked her head to one side and stared at Lucca. “Okay, so there are several of these large wolves around. They are not dangerous to you, in fact they are our friends, since you are staying in our cabin, they will be around sometimes to check on you and protect you even. We use them occasionally in our search and rescue efforts, fire calls, and forest matters. Our teams are the only ones they will work with and they are very helpful. We have seen them protect baby wolf cubs from a mountain lion, helped search for lost kids on the trail and off. You don’t need to be scared of them, just respectful.”

Mariah was looking at Lucca very strangely when Garret came around the cabin. “All clear.” Garret announced “What?” Mariah asked. “Lucca dropped me off up the road a ways so I could check out the property and make sure everything is all good, it is. Let’s go, I’m starving.” Garret announced as he held the door for Mariah and helped her climb in.

“Hey Garret, Mariah met big gray today.” Lucca started explaining so Garret would know Lucca had explained the version they had decided on to explain the large wolves. “Oh wow”, Garret played along. “Incredible, aren’t they?” Mariah looked from one to the other, “Wait a minute, how many phenominal wolves are there?” Her curiosity had spiked. Now she wanted to know everything about them, where they came from, how long had they been working with the emergency services, where was their pack, where they stay, how did they know when they were needed. Question after question flew from Mariah’s mouth, so excited, she had a new species to study. She could use them as her subject material for her doctorate thesis. Garret and Lucca knew they may have over played their hand and it wasn’t working the way thought it would. They needed to call their Alpha, Dean, and figure out how to fix this.

“Mariah”, Garret started, “As near as we can tell they were a government project, they were probably meant to be used in war. When it didn’t quite work the way they expected, they brought them up here on government protected land to live out their days. There doesn’t seem to be any females so they won’t reproduce. It’s a perfect solution. They just didn’t know we would meet them. They are suppose to be a secret.”

“We get very few people up here, and when we do, they stay hidden. They are intelligent creatures. They know when to relax and to get vicious. Leave it at that.” Lucca said.

Garrett took his turn again. “They know to protect you when we can’t be around.” Garret sighed, they were almost to town. Shopping, food, and beer in that order, he hoped.

Mariah wasn’t through with this discussion, but she would drop it for now. They had lots to do in town but she was secretly glad the huge wolves were around. Just felt like more security to her. As errands were run and a fantastic meal at the diner, she was ready to spend some time with Lucca and Garret at the cabin. Mariah had invented a question and answer game she thought would give her better knowledge of the guys without having to tell them too much about her past. Let the games begin.