Abandoned Treasure

Carol Sampson’s POV

December 21, 2006

“Carol, we’re home.”

My eyes opened to find Nathan standing by the rear driver’s side door with his hand held out to me. I sat up with a start; I shouldn’t have been sleeping so deeply! I didn’t hear the engine stop or the garage door close. After years of waking before anyone could open the door to my tiny room, my lack of awareness was concerning.

I kept my right hand around the pistol as I looked around. The one-car garage was uninsulated, and the shelves were full of boxes of emergency dehydrated foods in cans. A light hung above the door inside, and the garage door was already closed. “Home was in GRAND FORKS,” I bit back. “You fuckers burned it to the ground.”

“Our hideout, then,” he said calmly, not reacting to my outburst. “Come on.”

“Take your shit. I’ll get out on my own.” He grabbed his go-bag and stepped back. I unzipped the bag and swung my legs around. I pulled my boots on before stepping out. Nathan was smart enough to give me space as he opened the door to a small kitchen.

It was cool inside. Nathan turned the thermostat up. “I’ll build a fire, but first, we need to get that collar off of you,” he said. “Take a seat at the table.”

I sat down and looked around. The house was modest, maybe fifteen hundred square feet. An L-shaped kitchen sat next to a dining room. They opened to the living room with the front door, a big-screen television, and a fireplace. A short hall led to the bedrooms. “One floor?”

He nodded. “It’s on a slab foundation. The main bedroom and bath are on the left, extra bedroom, bath, and laundry room on the right.” He reached into a closet and came back with a boltcutter.

“You mean YOUR bedroom and MY bedroom, and the doors better have locks. You’re not sleeping with me.”

He just smiled. “Soon enough, my mate. Can I take that collar off now?”

I nodded and pulled my curly black hair out of the way. It hung to mid-back now, and I’d never been able to get it cut because some of the males liked to pull on it. Nathan carefully placed the jaws of the cutter on the collar. “Push it towards me a little? I don’t want to catch your skin.” As soon as he was satisfied, he squeezed the handles together until the collar snapped. “Hold still,” he said as he spun it around. “Careful of the exposed silver.” One more snap, and the pieces fell free.

For the first time in years, a silver collar wasn’t holding my wolf back. I felt her in the back of my mind, still weak but happy now. “MATE! Mate is with us!”

“Mate isn’t a good man,” I replied. “We’ll get away when it is safe.”

“We can stay. Mate will protect and care for us,” she replied.

“Your eyes flashed,” Nathan said. “I can’t reach your wolf because the mark I gave you faded. We’ll have to do it again to establish a mind link.”

“Don’t hold your breath,” I replied.

“I’ll start a fire and get some food going. Look around a bit, and let me know if you need anything. It’s your hideout, too.”

I stood up and started poking around the kitchen. The cabinets and counters had dry and canned goods stacked everywhere. A big chest freezer sat in front of the sliding door to the backyard. It was stuffed with frozen meat and fruit. “You weren’t kidding about preparing this place,” I said as I checked the fridge. “There’s nothing perishable in here.”

“I bought a six-month supply of staples, so all we need to cook is water. It may not taste the best, but it’s safer for us. We don’t have to risk leaving the house to go to the grocery store. I have a book with recipes on using the food on the counter there.”

He wasn’t kidding about thinking ahead. “Mate prepared this den for us well,” my wolf said proudly. “We can trust him.” My human side wasn’t close to being there yet. “I’m not looking forward to six months of powdered eggs and pancakes for breakfast.”

“It beats being found and killed,” he said as the fire started.

I walked past him and looked into the main bedroom, then the smaller one. I locked the door behind me and looked around. The small closet and drawers were full of women’s clothes in my sizes. I smiled a little as I saw another example of his planning for me.

I went back into the hall and checked out the bathroom. Like the other rooms, it had months of supplies laid in. I hadn’t had a hot shower in years, so tossing the sweats aside and getting in didn’t take long. I moaned in pleasure as the spray hit my back. I took my time, shampooing and conditioning my hair with the unscented natural products on the shelf. Drying off with a thick towel, I took stock of myself in the mirror.

My body was a patchwork of bruises and scars now. The silver in the collar kept my wolf healing in check, and I couldn’t shift to accelerate it. Add in the loss of weight and muscle? I looked old and broken.

“Let me out,” my wolf told me.

I hadn’t brought new clothes since the shower was a spur-of-the-moment thing. I let my wolf come forward, but it wasn’t the pain-free and instant shift of old. I let out a scream as my body broke and reformed. My scream became a yip before the change finished a few seconds later. I was lying on my side and waiting for the pain to recede when I heard Nathan at the door.

“Carol? Are you all right?” I could only whine and whap my tail at the sound of my mate. He rattled the knob, but I’d failed to unlock it before the shift. I didn’t want to shift back, fearing it would hurt just as much. “Growl if this is an emergency, or bark if you need help.”

I let out a yip. “I’ll be back in a minute. I’d rather not destroy the door on our first night together.” I heard him move away, then come back a minute later. There was a pop as the door unlocked before he poked his head in, holding the bent paperclip he’d used to pop the lock. My head and shoulders kept him from opening the door wide enough to come in. “I’m going to close the door so you can move out of the way.”

I curled around the toilet, growling with the pain of moving, then yipped. This time, he had enough room to get in. He leaned down and caressed my ears and neck, making my wolf happy as the tingles eased the pain. “You should have waited for me,” he said. “Can you get up?”

I tried but collapsed into his arms a few seconds later. “I’ve got you, baby.” He wrapped his arms under my chest and back legs and picked me up. I caught a glimpse of us in the mirror as he turned. My wolf was thin, and her coat didn’t look thick and healthy like before. I was still a black wolf, with white on my belly, left front leg, and right ear.

I couldn’t cry in wolf form, but the sight made me want to.

Nathan carried me back to the living room and set me on the bearskin rug by the fireplace. He had a decent fire going, and the flames warmed my fur and skin. The thick fur felt wonderful under me. “Nice, huh? I put a foam pad under it to make it comfortable for sleeping.” He scratched my ears and stood up. “I’ll keep working on some food for us. Don’t try and get up until you’ve eaten something. That change looked like it took a lot out of you.”

I laid my head back down as he walked away. I fell asleep listening to him in the kitchen as he cooked beef for me.

When he woke me up, the fire was down to coals, and the house was warm again. He sat by my head with a bowl of steak chunks. “Sorry it isn’t raw, but I didn’t have time to let it thaw out. I had to cook it a little and let it cool off.”

I didn’t care; it smelled great, and I was starving. I managed to sit up while my mate fed me by hand. My wolf loved the attention, while I was happy getting a meal without moving my body much. When my belly was full, Nathan asked if I could shift yet. I shook my head no.

He brought water out in a bowl, and I drank most of that. I fell asleep soon after, waking when nature’s urges struck. Nathan was sitting on the couch, watching the nightly news. I stood stiffly, growling through the pain, then walked slowly to the back door. I had to go, but not in the house. I scratched at the door to get out. “Gotta go?” I nodded. “It’s too dangerous to go outside where a neighbor might see you. Can you shift back?” I shook my head no. “Come on.” He led the way to the cold garage and pointed to a plastic tray filled with kitty litter.

Kitty litter? What’s next, newspapers? I growled at him in annoyance.

He pointed at it. “It’s that, or you shift and use the toilet,” he said.

I didn’t like it, but what choice did I have? I did my business, then wiped my paws on the entry mat so I wouldn’t track anything inside.

Nathan went to the kitchen and made us a plate of meat, cheese, and crackers. He sat on the couch and patted the cushion before I jumped up next to him. He talked for hours about the preparations he’d made as we snacked. I was impressed with how he’d pulled this off without anyone else knowing.

It gave me hope the month would end well.

I fell asleep to his hand scratching my neck as my head lay on his lap.