Healed by the Alpha (Hunted Book Two)

Chapter Forty Nine

Emily

A slow stream of thoughts started to make their way into my head as my eyes were opening and closing through my fitful sleep. The car was definitely no place to nap, but I couldn't help my tired eyes. The next time that my eyes closed we were abruptly jolted awake. "We're home for the night!" Ferdinand boomed cheerily. I groaned, still groggy from sleep. "10 more minutes. I'm not ready to walk."

An arm snaked around my waist and Dom's velvety voice was in my ears, "if you get up, I'll let you make s'mores with malik's doughnuts." My head snapped up and I blinked up at him, "you better not be lying about the doughnuts." I could hear Malik instantly protesting outside the car. Dom reluctantly removed his arm and went to help out. I watched him leave, looking outside the car windows as he passed. I had to double take as my eyes finally adjusted, there was a blanket of white everywhere. Every possible thing that the snow could've touched was covered.

"When did I start snowing?" I asked slowly, struggling to take in the fact that when I'd fallen asleep it was still sunny and green. "We're further north now, everything is going to be looking white for a while." Ferdinand confirmed. I felt a cold breeze as I shuffled myself towards my car door and wrapped my arms around my body. The air felt crisp and icy, gone was the ability to take in long breaths. Now all I wanted was to find shelter and curl up to hibernate for winter.

I looked around and Ferdinand was starting to set up a little camp, Malik was nowhere to be seen and Dom was busy at the back of the car. Swinging my legs out of the car, they landed with a crunch in the freshly laid snow. I'd made sure to wear a jumper and luckily I'd remembered to get into my boots when we'd stopped off earlier in the day. I wasn't exactly prepared for the biting cold, but it was a start. Long feet stepped into my line of sight as Dom bought by coat over from out of the trunk.

"How you can even move right now is beyond me," I told him. He laughed and put a hand under my chin, "the quicker we can get the camp built the quicker we can go back to sleep." Now that definitely sounded like a plan I could get behind. I shoved my arms into my coat and felt the instant warmth radiate thought my body. Dom headed off towards the trees, I watched as his powerful legs carried him easily through the snow. I shook my head, time to make myself useful too.

My feet seemed to move on their own after that, all the way up to Ferdinand, who was now laying down the large patches of the fur that he had brought. The snow wasn't deep, maybe only a few inches, but it was enough that I had to watch my steps closely for fear of slipping over. "How can I help?" I mumbled from under my coat.

He didn't even look at me as he started to give out instructions, "do you know anything about making fires?" I almost laughed at him, and then I realised he was being serious. "I do, but how exactly are we meant to make a fire in snow? Everything is wet and nothing will be any good as kindling right now." He scratched his head and smiled at me, "I'll rephrase, do you know how to make a fire in the height of winter?" I snorted a laugh at the absurdness of the question.

"I'll take that as a no... Want to learn? " I shrugged, "if it's going to help with getting to bed quicker, i'll do anything you want." He smirked and I blushed instantly, realising how terrible it had sounded. It had come out in completely the wrong way. I rolled my eyes and when I looked back Dom was staring at me. Oh great, he'd more than likely heard what I'd stupidly said and my reaction probably hadn't helped the situation.

Instead of storming off like I'd expected, he smiled and held up his arms which were full of wood and all of it seemed to be relatively dry. Inside he was probably seething, but it made me happy to know that he was making an effort not to show it unnecessarily. If he wanted me to explain I would, but I should feel the need to and I think he was beginning to understand that.

I smiled back at him and turned to see Ferdinand watching the whole exchange, "if you two are quite finished, I'd like to set the fire up now?" I nodded my head enthusiastically and knelt down next to him. "What do I need to do first?" He eyed the wood that Dom was making his way over with, "you need to get a few big sticks into a triangle shape, almost like a teepee. Finding a big enough stick to crack open first would be ideal, but it's probably best if you keep building it up and I'll take care of the lighting?"

I agreed.

Dom held out his arms ready to drop the sticks into the snow and Ferdinand let out a shallow gasp. "You can't stick wood on snow. It'll get wet and it'll be useless to try to light." Dom's arms retracted back to his chest and he seemed to hold the wood tighter. I stood up and took three sturdy looking branches from the pile. I winked my thanks at the Rising Dawn Alpha before getting back down on my knees and creating a pyramid kind of shape out of the wood I had available.

Ferdinand instructed where to apply more wood and after a while I started to notice it without needing the instructions. Soon enough we had a raised fire to make food, stay warm and cook s'mores on. Malik had been out hunting while we were busy setting up the tents and the seats around the fire. Somewhere between helping to make the tents and stuffing the raised logs with kindling, Ferdinand had chopped a log in half and started to rub another twig inside it.

His hands were moving at an alarming speed as smoke started to come from the log, and soon enough I could see small flames crawling their way out of the hole he'd made. He threw it onto the top of the fire pyramid I'd made and quickly the whole thing was engulfed in a beautiful orange, warm glow. I stayed standing next to it for a moment, taking in the heat and the coziness of my surroundings. We had made three tents in a semicircle, the plan was for myself and Ferdinand to get our own single, leaving Dom and Malik to share the remaining one.

To say that I was disappointed at this fact was an understatement. For some reason I'd just figured that I'd be sharing with Dom, but it made complete sense for them to bunk together. Nothing could happen to that Alpha. He was a powerful man. Watching him train and work and lead his pack was exhausting, but he also needed protecting. Everyone had a weakness, an Achilles heel of sorts. Malik was there to make sure Dom's was never tested or exposed.

Thankfully Malik was one of the best hunters in the pack, so the meal we had ended up with was huge. The beta had managed to single handed my bring down some kind of deer. Though I didn't exactly want to eat it at first, I couldn't deny how good it finally felt to have fresh food in my system again. For the most part, everyone was silent. The dark evening clouds filled the sky and in no time everyone was yawning. "We should all head into the tents," Ferdinand declared, "we have a very long day ahead of us and it's vital that we are well rested for it." He looked across the fire to Malik, "thank you for the food."

Malik bowed his head dramatically and looked as if he was about to make a speech. By the time he'd turned back to our guide, Ferdinand had already left and made his way to his tent. Malik pouted and watched as his one man audience retreated. After a few seconds he said "you all suck," and stormed off into his own tent. Now it was just myself and Dom.

I looked across the fire to where he was sitting opposite me, the flames danced in his eyes as he stared right back at me. There was a quiet crackling coming from the wood on the fire, it didn't feel like that was the only thing burning. I gulped watching his arms stretch out and flex as he yawned. Goddess forgive me, I needed this man.