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"It doesn't matter," Kade murmured, and he half meant it, too. He was too busy dealing with real life-and-death shit to worry about how low his father's expectations might be for him. "I appreciate the information, Max. And the insight. I also appreciate that you came by." Max, perceptive as ever, took the gentle hint and stood up. "You have things to do. I should not delay you."
When he stuck out his hand, Kade grabbed him into a brief embrace instead. "You're a good man, Max. A good friend. Thank you."
"Anything you need, Kade, you need only ask."
They walked to the door together, and Kade opened it just as a pair of women, bundled in winter coats and each carrying a folded down-filled blanket, were walking past the cabin. One of them looked over and did a quick double-take.
"Oh ... Kade?" she asked, then her pretty face lit up with a bright smile. "Kade! I heard you'd returned to Alaska, but I didn't realize you were here."
"Hello, Patrice," he said, giving a polite smile to the Breedmate his twin brother had kept waiting in the wings for the past couple of years.
Beside him, Max had gone very still. Kade could feel heat radiating from the other male as Patrice continued to chat animatedly, sweet and gorgeous with her bright red hair and dark green eyes illuminated by the firelight pouring out from the door.
"Ruby and I were just on our way to watch the aurora borealis from one of the ledges. Would either of you like to join us?"
Kade and Max both said no together, but it was Max's refusal that dimmed Patrice's smile the most, although she tried to hide it with the edge of the blanket she held. As the Breedmates walked away, Kade noticed that the elder male couldn't keep his eyes off them.
Or, rather, one of them.
"Patrice?" Kade asked, stunned by the carefully restrained longing he'd just seen in both of them. Maksim snapped out of his stare and looked at him. "She has promised herself to another. I would never interfere with that, regardless of how long it takes Seth to finally accept the precious gift he's been given. The ignorant, arrogant little bastard."
Kade watched his uncle walk off the porch and continue on across the snowy grounds to his own quarters.
He didn't know whether to chuckle over the virulence of Max's declaration, or curse Seth for potentially ruining two more lives.
Chapter Twelve
Alex poured a kettle of boiling water into the battered old drip coffeemaker on the stove. As the kitchen filled with the aroma of fresh-brewed beans for a second time that morning, she turned back to the little table where she and Jenna were having breakfast. Or rather, Alex was having breakfast. Jenna had only little table where she and Jenna were having breakfast. Or rather, Alex was having breakfast. Jenna had only nibbled at her home fries and had left her scrambled egg mostly untouched.
"God, I hate winter," she murmured, leaning back in the creaky wooden chair and slanting a thoughtful look at the darkness that still pressed thick and deep against the windows at 8:00 AM. "Some days it feels like it's never going to end."
"It will," Alex said, as she sat across from her friend and watched the haunted look grow deeper in Jenna's eyes.
Of course, it wasn't really the darkness or the cold that was weighing her down. Alex didn't have to look at the calendar on the wall near the telephone to understand Jenna's mounting gloom.
"Hey," Alex said, forcing a brightness into her voice. "If the weather stays clear to the weekend, I was thinking about flying down to Anchorage. Maybe do some shopping, go to the movies. You game for a girls'
weekend in the city?"
Jenna glanced back at her and gave a weak shake of her head. "I don't think so."
"Oh, come on. It'll be fun. Besides, you owe me now. I just made the last of my Red Goat coffee for you. I need to hit Kiladi Brothers and stock up again."
Jenna smiled, a bit sadly. "The last of your beloved Red Goat? Wow, you must be worried about me. You think I'm in pretty bad shape, huh?"
"Are you?" Alex asked carefully, a direct question that required a direct answer. She reached across the table and placed her hand over Jenna's. She watched her friend closely, listening to the instinct inside her that always seemed to know whether she was being given the truth or a lie. "Are you going to be all right this time?"
Jenna held her gaze as if locked there. She sighed quietly. "I really don't know, Alex. I miss them. They gave me a reason to get up in the morning, you know? I felt needed, that my life had some higher purpose when Mitch and Libby were in it. I'm not sure I'm ever going to have that again." The truth, then, pained as it was. Alex acknowledged her friend's admission with a tender squeeze of her hand. She blinked, releasing Jenna from the invisible hold of her truth-seeking stare. "Your life has purpose, Jenna. It has meaning. And you're not alone. You have Zach and me for starters." Jenna shrugged. "My brother and I have been drifting apart for a while now, and my best friend has been talking a lot of nonsense lately about picking up and moving away.">Brock's exhaled curse told Kade what he thought of that prediction. "Better you than me, my man. Better you than me." There was a pause before he asked, "You have a chance to see your family yet?"
"Yeah," Kade said, tipping his head back to stare at the thick beam rafters of the cabin. "My arrival home went over about as well as I expected."
"That good, huh?"
"Put it this way, I get a warmer reception stepping outside in the twenty-below darkness."
"Harsh," Brock said. "I'm sorry, man. Seriously." Kade shook his head. "Forget it. I don't need to talk about my welcome homecoming. Just wanted to touch base and pass along another bit of info that Gideon might find interesting."
"Okay, shoot."
