The preacher congratulated us before taking his leave and Jeremiah leaned forward. I didn’t know if my knocking knees could handle another touch of his lips but I sure was ready to give it a try. He leaned against my ear instead and over the noisy bustle around us, he said, “I’ll go get the train tickets if you want to wait here.”
Leaning helplessly into the delicious scratch of his jaw until it caressed the skin at my neck, I murmured, “okay.”
The intensity in his eyes turned my insides molten as he hovered just inches away from my face.
It was Luke who interrupted the most intimate moment of my life to date. “Come on lover-boy. Go get those tickets before we miss the train.”
Jeremiah’s gaze dropped to my lips, which throbbed with wanting under the intensity of the hunger in his eyes. He spun and disappeared into the crowd as I rocked forward on the scuffed toes of my heeled shoes like a Snapdragon reaching for sunlight.
Luke picked up my bag in a very gentlemanly manner and hoisted it easily with the other three he already carried as he led us to the loading platform. Jeremiah was back shortly, and despite my frightened urge to run from his touch lest he turn me to melted butter again, he helped me onto the train with a tender palm to my lower back. Guiding me past the short bench that nestled Luke and Kristina, we took the seat right behind them.
Luke turned and twitched his head to the door behind us. When I looked I couldn’t see anything abnormal about it, but Jeremiah’s dark eyes narrowed with a thoughtful expression.
“This train don’t have the extra passenger cars for us to escape it,” he said, and Luke turned back around.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“I don’t like us being this close to the cargo car is all,” he said. “It’s nothing to worry about though.”
As the train steamed slowly from the station, it became quickly apparent that traveling by rail and carriage for this long would likely be the best way to get to know Jeremiah and my new family. I hadn’t even brought a book to read or catalogue to flip through. The views were lovely though as the country surrounding the city became breathtaking wilderness blanketed in a thin coat of sparkling snow. Luncheon was served in a matter of hours, and though it was far from elegant dining, my stomach rejoiced over having been fed so well since I’d met my husband.
Husband. What an odd title for the stranger sitting beside me.
He’d gallantly given me the window seat and now he stared over the seat in front of us and out the windows farther up. He hadn’t shaved this morning and the first shadow of dark stubble shaded his jaw. The urge to touch the texture was so acute, I took another bite of my buttered bread and cheese to dissuade myself. His jaw worked and flexed as he chewed his meal and the delicious dark in his eyes seemed to miss nothing, much like his mother’s.
He’d shed his long jacket and it lay draped over the back of our seat. He wore a tight fitting cotton shirt and black sleeveless vest over it. His riding boots were worn but cared for and covered most of his calves before his tan fitted pants disappeared into them. An outfit to show off the lean musculature of an able man. The breadth of his shoulders was wide in comparison to his hips, and something about his figure turned my thoughts to a scandalous nature. What would a man like him look like without any clothes on? Surely he wouldn’t have the soft look of a city man with no physical duties. It was obvious Jeremiah got his strength from the life he lived because the cut of muscle under his thin shirt was curved steel, not the malleable edges of a one born to an abundance of rich foods.
Kristina turned with a mouth full of food. “The train ain’t no place to spend your wedding night, is it?”
“Kristina,” Jeremiah warned. “We’ll layover in St. Louis for a night before we hop the carriage.”
The mention of a break in our trip dried my mouth right up. Would he want to consummate our marriage in some saloon along the way?”
“Hey,” he said quietly, like he could hear my racing thoughts. His hand rested steadily on my knee and I jerked. Why did I always do that? Frustration with myself only deepened to some endless chasm when he pulled his hand away from my skirts. “I ain’t gonna force you to do anything you ain’t comfortable with, you hear?”
I bit my lip and stared out the window. The last thing he needed was to see his new bride falling apart. If I were a braver woman, I’d put my arm in his. I would kiss my new husband on the cheek and assure him everything was all right, but somewhere in the past year, I’d grown cowardly. My insecurities at the beginning of my marriage to Daniel had only grown with his apparent displeasure in my body, and they had exploded over the past month as my mind sifted through all of the things that were likely wrong with me to cause such a reaction from a man I thought I knew.
And now, with my new groom, I hadn’t the bravery to touch him without the nagging little voice in my mind saying he’d be disgusted with me and flinch away.
Poor Jeremiah for tethering himself to such a damaged woman.
****
There were stops along the railway that gave us the opportunity to get off and use the washroom. The first break didn’t come until the evening of the first day, but it was long enough for us to dine at an eatery for dinner before boarding again for the night. The stretch of the short walk to the restaurant was precisely what my cramped legs required, and Jeremiah’s mood seemed to improve as we hit the fresh country air outside. Kristina and Luke walked ahead of us, talking animatedly, and Jeremiah and I followed at a slower pace.
I’d been fileting myself over my earlier insult to him and in desperation to make it up to him, I squeezed my eyes tightly and took his hand. It was the most uncomfortable feeling in the world, climbing to the edge of a redwood branch and leaping with the hope of not hurling to my emotional death. But Jeremiah only looked down at our intertwined fingers with a questioning glance before he squeezed my hand in what I hoped was a silent thank you and not pity.
“The more you touch me, the more you’ll get used to it,” he said in a deep voice. “It’ll always be welcome to me, Lorelei, but I know this is a lot for you. We’ll go at your pace.”
How had I been so lucky to marry the one understanding man I’d ever met? I wasn’t ready to provide him with an explanation on why I was broken, but with an offer like this, the man deserved one.
“I was shy before I was married, and after, well—Daniel didn’t like the touch of me. He was very outward with his distaste for me and it has turned me into a frightened woman, I’m afraid.”
“That man was a canker sore. It wasn’t you he was disgusted by. I could see it in his eyes last night. There’re bad people on this earth, Lorelei. Men who need a woman cowed and under their thumb to feel like they have control fall under that category. Unfortunately, you married one of those men. I don’t find you disgusting. On the contrary, your touch makes me feel things I haven’t felt in a very long time.”
I wished I could tell him how grateful I was for his words but the emotion in my throat would surely drown my sentiments and I’d had enough embarrassment for one day. We climbed the steps to the nearby eatery and Luke held the door open for us to follow them inside. In a surprising gesture that sent my insides to fluttering, Jeremiah lifted my fingers to his lips and kissed my knuckles lightly before he pressed his hand on the small of my back and guided me to an empty table.
“Tell me about your childhood,” I said as we waited for our meal to be delivered.
Jeremiah’s eyes took on a faraway look as he leaned back in his chair. “I loved it. Ma and Da were the best parents a person could ask for, and my brothers and I always seemed to find just enough trouble to keep them on their toes.”
“You have more brothers?”
“Just one besides Luke. Gable is the oldest by one year.”
Luke chimed in. “He was the worst one of us. He only came up with ideas that would likely end up in us getting hurt or in trouble. Like the time he was convinced we had to follow a bear to find honey. You don’t,
by the way. You follow the bees. Well, he’d pissed that bear off good and that thing had us treed and kicking at him by the time Da came and rescued us. Ma was fit to take the hide off of all three of us by the time we came in for dinner that night.”
“I bet,” I said around my own giggles. “Raising three boys? It’s no small miracle she isn’t completely grayed yet.”
“Do you have any brothers or sisters?” Kristina asked.
“No. My parents tried for years, but I was it for them. I’d always wished for a sibling though. You?”
“Single child here too,” she said. “I, however, did not wish for a sibling because I liked having my mother’s attention all to myself.”
“Why,” Luke asked, “am I not surprised by that?”
Kristina pelted his arm playfully but his dancing green eyes never left her.
Ingrained in me was the urge to eat slowly and enjoy the meal, but while the others had finished and I was only half way done, the train whistle trilled from the station.
There was no way I could eat it all, but Jeremiah didn’t seem bothered in the least. “Eat the fish and we’ll bring the rest with us. You can finish it on the train.”
It would be atrocious of me to take my dinner on the run and eat it in front of others on the train, but I hadn’t even had a bite of the bread yet as I’d been saving the best for last. I shoveled as much as I could into my mouth and my new husband finished the leftover catfish in one fell swoop. We jogged down the street with the weight of the roll beating against my thigh from the pocket of my dress. With legs like a wet noodle, I found our seats again. Jeremiah and his brother acted as if they’d taken a leisurely stroll while Kristina and I chugged breath like we’d nearly drowned. How very intimidating that they were so well conditioned for the life they led and that I would soon be required to take part in it.
My days of gentle living were over.
Chapter Ten
Jeremiah
Little by little, Lorelei seemed to warm up to me. I didn’t have a guess at what had happened between her and Daniel to create such a fear of intimacy, but if it was the last thing I did, I’d get her over it.
I needed touch. Most werewolves did. We were an affectionate breed and to secure a strong mated bond, we needed the frequent reminder of devotion. Wolves in the wild were the same and the longer I ran as one, the more similarities I found between us.
She lay against my offered jacket propped on the train window, still and breathing steadily. Sunlight filtered in through the glass and brushed her dark, downcast eyelashes as they rested against her cheek. Luke was trying to teach Kristina how to play poker on the bench seat in front of me, and the other passengers were in different stages of boredom. We’d be to St. Louis by tonight to rest before boarding a carriage in the morning.
Six days of rail and no way to change had my bones singing. The marrow had melted into something molten that belonged in the rivers of hell. The smell of wolf was heavy in the air as Luke and I struggled against the bonds that would force us to change sooner rather than later. We just had to make it to our stop tonight. We’d slip out while the girls were sleeping, and if Lorelei happened to wake and wonder where we’d gone, Kristina would cover for us. She was good like that.
It hurt to move. It hurt to stay still. I shifted my position against the tension in the strips of muscle that gave movement to my back. Every fiber in my body was on fire and I was helpless to ease the pain for another six hours at least.
The train ride had been uneventful and relaxing if not for the wolf and it’s want for the hunt. But here, as the pinpointed pain burst with excitement over the nearing sweetness of release, in the wilds between civilizations, a noise pricked at my oversensitive ears.
The galloping of hooves was so faint, it was the vibrations that washed over me first. I flicked my head to the side and frowned, but they’d disappeared. The sound of shuffling cards carried on and Luke gave no inclination that anything was amiss. Maybe it was just my crazy wolf again, creating paranoia where none should exist.
But then, there it was again. Lorelei didn’t stir as I leaned over her to look out the window and as soon as I determined no one was there, Luke’s head snapped up. His eyes were fever bright on me. I couldn’t actually read his mind, but I knew him better than anyone. He’d heard it too and if I wasn’t mistaken, his instincts were probably screaming like mine were.
We jumped to an empty seat across the aisle and pressed our faces to the glass. Six horses carrying six armed riders were barreling down on our train from behind.
“What do we do?” he breathed so softly no human ears would hear.
Our options were limited and if my brother and I got involved, there’d be no stopping the storm of the wolf that would burst out of us like hellions come to earth. “We let ’em rob the train.”
“You know well as I there’s probably a payroll for the track workers in that car behind us, Jeremiah. Hardworkin’ men won’t get paid.”
“Nah,” I said as I leaned farther into the window. “Payroll will be insured. Their pay’ll be late is all. Lay low and keep them safe.”
Luke’s green-eyed gaze fell on Kristina, who watched us with a look of curious dread.
“Listen up,” I called to the other passengers. Most were women and children, though a few men dotted the other seven groups. “This here train’s about to get robbed.” I held my hands out to steady the hum of fear. It only got louder when the masses rushed to the windows and saw the fate that was coming for us. “If you want to live, you’ll listen! Let them have it. Don’t nobody try to be a hero. The faster they get what they want, the faster they’ll be on their way so just stay still, stay calm, stay alive.”
A man in a top hat cocked his ivory handled pistol. “What if we don’t want to be robbed?”
“I recon it’s your funeral, sir. Try not to get the rest of us killed though, you hear? It’s six trained guns against your pea shooter.”
“Sit down,” his wife said as she pulled on the tails of his coat.
Lorelei was awake now, and the fear that swam in her eyes pulled at me so deeply I wanted to kill those sons of bitches for what they were about to do. “It’ll be all right. I promise.”
An explosion quaked the ground beneath us and in the chaos of screeching breaks and terrified screams, the passenger car slid from the tracks and followed the engine through a cloud of smoke at an angle. I launched myself at Lorelei to keep her from rocketing into the seat in front.
“Shut the window,” I yelled as black smoke billowed into the car from the front.
The man in the top hat jumped across the aisle and slammed the only open one closed as we skidded to a screeching halt.
“The plan still stays the same,” I said over the cries of terror.
Lorelei’s breathing was ragged and rushed and the smell of terror wafted off of her in waves. “They just blew up the train.”
“No, they blew up the tracks. Train’s still mostly intact. We’re going to be fine.”
The sound of clomping boots and jangling spurs strode across the roof of our car and the woman who held a baby beside us whimpered.
A man with an old, dirty handkerchief covering his face came in through the connected door up front. A long barreled pistol hovered in his steady hand and swung to each passenger in turn. He smelled of whiskey, and if the filth on his skin was any indication, he’d been living rough for a long while.
“Make no mistake,” he said. “We don’t plan on killing the ones who do what we say, but we will, without hesitation, blast a hole in you if you don’t.”
Another two men entered the cabin with their peace makers drawn and descended without delay to the back where the cargo was being stored. Another three took their place up front.
“First thing’s first,” the leader snarled. “We’ll be needin’ all them weapons you got on you. Don’t be shy.”
The outlaws behind him scuttled from row to row collecting pistols from the men. Luke
gave me a questioning glance but I shrugged. We had more weapons than just guns between my brother and I. The glint of gold in Lorelei’s ring brought a slither of unease to my stomach. “Sit on your hands,” I whispered as I pulled my guns out of the holsters on my hips and held them up harmlessly by the barrel.
She shoved her palms under her skirts just as one of the gunmen came to relieve me of my pistols.
“Gotta couple of big ones here fellas,” he sneered through rotted teeth and rancid breath.
Holding my hands up in surrender, I said, “We don’t want no trouble.”
His half-cocked glare and narrowed eyes were a temporary discomfort as the train robber behind him announced it was time to relieve us of our valuables.
That’s exactly what I’d hoped wouldn’t happen. The men behind us had already managed to jimmy the cargo door open and were shoving paper money into a knapsack.
The man standing over me lifted a poisonous glare to Lorelei and said, “Since your man said he don’t want no trouble, I think we’ll start with you.”
A snarl ripped through me before I had the mind to stop it and the cold barrel of my own gun was against my temple.
“Show me your hands, Ms.,” he said.
“Please, sir. I have nothing else but my wedding band to my entire name,” she pleaded.
Dangerously slowly, he said, “Show me…your hands.”
A tear streaked down her face as she lifted them and the man grinned cruelly at his find. “We’ve got us some well-to-do’s here, boys!”
He leaned over me to yank the ring from her, and my eyes rolled back in my head with the loss of myself. His chin made a cracking sound as my palm smashed against it and while he was still shocked I spun my gun around in his hand and pulled the trigger into his neck. Luke was already moving and leapt onto the nearest robber like a jungle cat. He’d have to handle the men up front while I took out the thieves in the cargo room. I ducked as a bullet went flying past my head so close I could feel the breeze from the path of the trajectory grace my cheek. I jumped for the storage above and used the leverage to hurl my booted kick into the gunman. Shots fired from the front of the car and women shrieked in horror.