Chapter 17 Chapter 17
As she wandered through the trees, she congratulated herself for not shaking in her shoes. It was daylight, but the area she had wandered into was dark enough that it could have been night. Each time she lowered the camera away from her face and took a few steps, she would see something else that she had to take a picture of. It was truly breathtaking here, the dark woods with a few rays of light shining down through the canopy of leaves.
Memories she thought had long ago faded from came back. The hiking trips with her parents who had loved the outdoors. She always wondered why they had settled in Chicago. Lush, wild forests weren’t exactly common there. She really wished they were still here, now when she needed them. More than once since she’d made the choice to pack her life into the car, thoughts of her parents returned. Had her father known about Aiden’s business? He had worked for that family for as long as she could remember. Her soft-handed, soft-hearted father, could he have known? She would never find those answers, and that added to the confusing mess inside his head.
Letting the camera drop and hang on the cord around her neck she swatted at the bugs buzzing in front of her nose. Not everything here was beautiful, these mosquitoes were the size of moths, and it didn’t seem to matter how much spray she put on, they just kept coming. “Mean and determined, aren’t you?” She fished around in her bag for the spray and pulled it out. Instead of spraying her face again, because if she digested much more of this she was going to be sick, she blasted the swarm of insects in front of her. Frowning as she lowered the bottle to see that had helped for only a few short seconds. “It’s time to find some sunlight and leave you nasty things behind.” Rayne turned around in a circle, picking which way to go.
This had, at one time, been a well-traveled path, but now was overgrown with very little clear direction to follow. There were still remnants of last fall’s leaves with the new growth bursting through them. It was quite something to see the old and decaying mixed with the bright new green growth. Rayne had only ever seen moss and ferns like this in the movies, and it added to the mystical appearance with so much of it around her.
Taking slow and measured steps as she picked up the camera again, she held her breath. A large red-tailed squirrel paused in the path a few feet in front of her. Readying the viewfinder quickly, Rayne managed to take two pictures before it disappeared into the ferns and practically flew up the side of a thickly barked tree.
Life goes on Rayne thought as she headed down the incline of the trail. The new trees were pushing up towards the light, they’d have to fight to survive with so many larger trees hogging all the sunshine above them. The old trees that had their time, now lay on the overgrown ground, recycling back into the earth. She took several pictures of a huge rock that seemed so out of place among the trees, it looked like it had been here since time began, and the trees were new.
She headed towards the light in the trees, her thoughts went back to Devin. She knew she shouldn’t think about him. Don’t you have enough complications in your life right now? Wasn’t it because of a male that you’re hiding in this place? At some point, Rayne needed to figure out what she was going to do about Aiden, or at least figure out what she was going to do without Aiden, and find a life of her own again. A life of her own choosing; there was something she’d never had. Pausing beside a few plants, that she didn’t know the names of, she photographed them from several angles. If she was going to do this whole life-of-her-own thing, waiting for a man to kiss her again probably wasn’t what she should be focusing on. She exhaled long and noisily. “No men.” Hearing it out loud made her chuckle, not that she had them lined up, as the one she was near clearly didn’t want a lot to do with her. Putting the camera back up to her face, she turned around and focused in on the path that led back into the darkened area.
~
As Devin cleaned his paintbrushes, he looked around the landscape. Coming out and painting in the fresh air had been a good idea. It had been a long time since he’d painted anywhere except in the studio. His mind wasn’t co-operating completely by thinking only of painting. It was bouncing from past to present with a constant annoying pace.
Devin’s past was one of trials, heartache, and things he didn’t want to relive. Before coming here to work, he refused to believe he was hiding, he had come dangerously close to giving away the only part of himself he held sacred. His heritage. Devin may not be ready to step to the head of the line, but he was in no way ashamed of his family or his kind. He had been one breath from telling Leeann who and what he was when he’d found her with another man—after that he lost his temper and control of his wolf, leaving no need to tell her. She had been repulsed and scared at the same time.
Stopping, he looked down at his hands. A normal pair of man’s hands holding a paintbrush. At least there was no shaking when he thought about Leeann, that was progress.
Without warning his mind skipped right back to thinking about Rayne. He could still taste her, and as hard as he tried not to think about kissing her, it was as if she was now burning inside of him. What am I going to do about the appealing woman that invades my every thought? What if my father is right and she is my mate? Devin rolled his eyes at his own denial. He knew she was his mate. He wasn’t sure how exactly, he just felt it. What if I do get too close to her and I lose control of my wolf again? With all the if’s he was feeling, he knew one thing for sure, he wasn’t ready to find out what would happen.
Inhaling deeply, Devin froze and began to look around. He could smell citronella and knew there was nothing on his land with that particular scent. At least he’d had nothing on his land that didn’t have two sexy legs with that scent. Rayne was nearby. What is she doing this far from the camp? Was she trying to get lost or hurt? Slowly turning, he inhaled trying to pinpoint where she was. Stopping, he looked down the far trail at the bottom of the hill. She’d been in the densest part of the bush. He tensed every muscle in his body, forcing himself to stand there and not go rushing to find her. Surely, she had some sense of direction. He scanned the trees, trying to find her.
Devin took one step forward, then paused when he spotted her wandering along without even looking where she was walking. He thought for a moment, trying to recall if there were any ditches along that area. His heart thudded when she tumbled right from his sight. He gave her to the count of ten to reappear before he took off to find her. He heard her laughing. The sound of it tickled along his skin and he had no choice but to shake his head while he smiled. She popped back up again, walking out of the long grass and brushing off her jeans. She fiddled with her camera for a few seconds. It must have been all right because she lifted it to her face again and aimed it up towards where he stood. She stopped moving and lowered it slowly, still looking in his direction. Devin fought to stay where he was and not go down to her. Just seeing her standing there pulled at him in ways he couldn’t identify. His heart sped up as he clenched his jaw to focus and control his body from taking that first step towards her. She took two steps in his direction and then stopped and lowered her head for a few seconds. When she lifted it once again and looked squarely at him, he was sure she was going to come to him. Instead, she turned and moved quickly into the long grass she had come from.
Frowning, Devin watched where she had gone for a few heartbeats. It was good she hadn’t come over, that saved him from trying to decide what to do if she had, yet it bothered him that she’d just walked away. He looked back to where she had last stood for several moments before he went back over to where he’d been painting. Studying the canvas, he sighed, any notion of painting now was completely gone.