Wild Read Free Page B

closer to the fire. Its light gleamed in her hair. It gleamed on her skin, too, when she reached out to hold a hand above it.
    Passing her fingers through the flame, she turned them, curled them. It was like she was daring it to burn her. Cade shifted his weight, and the branch groaned. Like that, Dara stiffened. This time, she did look up. Her gaze passed right over Cade and stopped.
    A shadow lit on her brow. Leaning forward, she narrowed her eyes. Just when Cade was sure she’d spotted him, Josh crashed back into camp. He dumped a meager armful of wood on the ground. The logs drummed the dirt, silencing the forest around them once more.
    â€œThat’ll do us for tonight, you think?”
    Giving up her contemplation, Dara nodded. “I think so.”
    â€œHey, c’mere,” Josh coaxed. Brushing wood chips off his hands, he trailed his touch up her arms. Watching him touch her lit a different fire in Cade’s skin. This one was swift and furious. His teeth felt molten and his stomach, too. For some reason, Dara pressed closer instead of pushing away.
    Cade didn’t understand it, but he knew he didn’t like it. He liked it even less when Josh put his mouth on Dara’s and clasped the back of her neck. She twisted her hands in his shirt; to Cade, it looked like she wanted to put space between them.
    When Josh’s hands slipped lower, Cade couldn’t help himself. Cupping hands around his mouth, he keened like a hawk. The cry echoed, was answered. The forest rose up, other birds arguing. Squirrels rushed to safe perches. The owls would question soon. Their low, booming calls would go on and on.
    Scrambling away, Cade didn’t try to go quietly. He just went. Back to his home; back to the last safe place in the world. With nimble steps, he bounded through the narrow valley. A maze of grape vines hung like a wood curtain.
    His path was nothing but a trace in the brush. Cade saw his own ghostly footsteps. Hints of him left behind in broken twigs and soft earth, leading to the cave he called home.
    The red cooler swayed in the wind, the only evidence anyone lived there at all. Trees, full of beehives, hummed when he slipped past. They gave off heat, the faintest bit, because they were alive.
    Cade found the mouth of his cave unerringly. The cool vault greeted him, sharp with just a hint of still-smoldering moss. Picking up the box that held his kindling, he breathed it back to life. It glowed as he started a new fire, illuminating the place where he lived. That fast. That easy. Josh was an idiot.
    A rough-hewn table and chair stood nearby. There were boxes, some with peg-locks, and a shelf to keep his few books dry. In the back, a carved bed frame held a thin mattress off the ground.
    Fir branches sweetened the mattress from below. Tanned deerskin and beaver pelts covered it. It was stuffed with goose down. Cade needed to get more to fill it out. Once this season’s goslings were hatched and grown, he’d do just that.
    But for the moment, he satisfied himself with dinner and pride. Pulling two thick fish from his pack, he wrapped them in wet hide and laid them on the fire. He stepped over the pit, trailing his fingers through the shell chime he’d made. It was a little bit of music, and if he got it started, the heat from the fire would keep it going.
    Sprawling in the light, he reached for his clay animals. He’d lost the giraffe years ago, but he still had a cat and a bear. Holding them over his head, he turned them until they cast giant shadows on the wall behind him. With just a trick of the light, they came to life.
    First, he made the cat chase the bear. He swirled it in lazy circles, its shadow growing and shrinking by turn. Then the bear fought back, chasing the cat until it was tiny and disappeared. Tucking the cat into his shirt, Cade savored its stone coolness against his skin.
    The bear, he held over his head, studying it by the light of the fire. Pressed into