Chapter 6 – Shadows of the Wild

As you can imagine, my parents were less than thrilled when they came home to find me hobbling around with a sprained ankle. And to top it off, Ethan had the nerve to tell them I was still groggy from waking up and had tripped down a couple of stairs while heading to the kitchen. The audacity!

So, the next morning, I had to hobble over to the doctor’s office to get a CAM Boot—and now I’m stuck wearing this clunky thing for six weeks. SIX! School starts in just a couple of weeks, and I’m going to be that new girl who shows up in a CAM boot. Talk about humiliating. The only silver lining? At least I don’t have to deal with crutches. That would’ve been even worse.

My parents were overjoyed with the new Inn they’d bought. They figured it would take another week to fix up all the little things before we moved in, which meant I’d still have enough time to settle into my new room despite my injury. Meanwhile, Ethan and I were already getting pretty chummy—though his nickname for me, ‘Hop-along,’ was getting old real fast.

“Watch your step, Hop-along,” he’d tease every time I passed him on the stairs. I’d just glare at him, knowing full well that my ankle didn’t get twisted from any staircase mishap.

I found out Ethan was looking after the Inn we were staying in for his parents, who were off on business, opening up other Inns across Alaska. Pretty cool, actually. Maybe if we became better friends, he could take me on some trips to see these new Inns. I already thought Alaska was beautiful, and if the rest of it was like this, I definitely wanted to explore more.

But there were three things I couldn’t stop thinking about. Why did that little wolf’s bite cause so much pain, making me feel... different, like something inside me was trying to surface? What was that creature that chased me the other night? And why did I feel such a deep connection to that wolf that brought me back here?

So many questions and absolutely zero answers. And who could I even ask? The wolves? Yeah, right, like I speak wolf...

“YO, Hop-along!” Ethan’s voice suddenly broke into my thoughts, snapping me back to reality.

“What?” I snapped, annoyed at being pulled out of my spiralling thoughts. “Why are you yelling?”

He looked at me like I’d lost my mind. “I called you three times on my way up, knocked on your door, and then called out again when I walked in. You were staring out the window like you were in a trance. At least you heard me the fifth time!” He flashed a smug grin.

“No, you didn’t!” I shot back, trying to sound innocent. Okay, maybe he did, but I was too deep in my thoughts to notice. Still, I wasn’t about to give him the satisfaction of admitting it.

“Hellllooooo, Earth to Quinny!” Ethan waved a hand in front of my face. “Did you hit your head or something? You seriously just zoned out on me.”

I chuckled, a bit embarrassed. I do tend to get lost in my thoughts like that. “Yeah, sorry about that. So, what do you want?”

My eyes widened as I realized how rude that sounded. I quickly corrected myself. “I mean, what’s up?”

Ethan rolled his eyes but didn’t seem too offended. “I’m heading to the lake. You’ve been cooped up here for three days, and I thought you were the adventurous type. Wanna come?”

“I can’t exactly run from any beasts in this boot,” I replied, a bit more snarky than I intended. ‘Great, just keep pushing his buttons,’ I scolded myself internally.

To my surprise, Ethan burst out laughing, so much so that I thought he might pass out. Was he laughing at me being rude, or was it the mention of the beast?

When he finally caught his breath, he managed to say, “Quinny, there’s no beast. I told you, you must have imagined it. But the reason it’s so funny is that I just pictured you hopping away from some ‘beast,’ and it looked hilarious in my head.”

I grabbed the nearest pillow and hurled it at him with all the strength I could muster. It hit him square in the stomach, nearly knocking the wind out of him.

“Whoa, you’ve got a pretty strong throw there,” he said, wide-eyed. “See, you’ll be fine. The beast wouldn’t stand a chance against you and your mighty pillow toss. Now come on, let’s go,” he insisted, already heading for the stairs.

I didn’t move, still processing the fact that not only had I given this guy attitude, but I’d also just launched a pillow at him. And yet, he still wanted me to come along?

Suddenly, I heard his footsteps thundering back up the stairs. Ethan burst back into my room, his eyes gleaming with mischief.

“Actually, if I wait for you to make up your mind and then wait some more for you to hobble down the stairs, we’ll only get to the lake by dark. So, up we go...” Before I could protest, he bent down, slung my arm over his neck, and hoisted me over his shoulder like I weighed nothing.

“Ethan! Put me down!” I yelped.

“Nope. I’ll put you down once we’re at the car,” he chuckled, carrying me down the stairs effortlessly.

As I bounced along over his shoulder, I couldn’t help but wonder why on earth he was being so nice to me after all that. But something else nagged at me too—something dark, lurking just beneath the surface, waiting for the perfect moment to strike...