Total pages in book: 123
Estimated words: 119597 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 598(@200wpm)___ 478(@250wpm)___ 399(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 119597 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 598(@200wpm)___ 478(@250wpm)___ 399(@300wpm)
Until a rumbling roar vibrates the air, yanking our gazes across the tundra.
Leo revs the Turbo Beaver, maneuvering it into position for another run.
“What is he doing?” I climb to my feet.
Kody stands against my back, wrapping his arms around me from behind.
The sound builds, the growl of horsepower and propeller thrust echoing across the landscape, as Leo pilots the plane along the bumpy terrain, gaining speed.
Then something shifts. The plane accelerates, and this time, when it lifts, his adjustments are more subtle. It doesn’t immediately fall back to the earth. It hovers, a perfect glide that separates wheels from ground and a gentle touch that reunites them without a jolt, without a mark. Not far, not high, but it’s enough to ignite a hot flash of hope in my chest.
“He did it.” I sag against Kody, relief washing over me, swamping the residual pounding of my heart.
“He did.” He tightens his embrace. “I knew he would.”
Leo circles back toward us, the plane bouncing gently along the ground, his face alight with a triumphant grin visible even from a distance.
The Beaver comes to a rest, the engine quieting into a hush that settles across the tundra.
He hops out and prowls toward us, his point made, his confidence buoyed.
We all feel it.
Together, we climb the steps to the deck and sit beneath the overhang, shoulder to shoulder, enveloped in a silence that’s thick with a thousand unsaid things.
Tomorrow marks the end of our captivity, the end of an era for Leo and Kody, and for me, an unexpected, full-circle turn onto a new path.
I don’t know how long I’ve been here, but I counted my daily entries in the scrapbook and estimated how many days I didn’t journal.
I arrived at least eight months ago. Probably nine.
Nine months.
Sitting between them, I find the strength to share a thought that’s been haunting me for weeks. “If…if things had been different, if I hadn’t miscarried, I would be holding my baby right now.”
“I know.” Leo shifts closer, his breath stirring my hair. “And that child would have been loved and fiercely protected by Kody and me.”
Kody drapes an arm around my shoulders, leaning in. “We’ve been through hell. Can’t get much worse, right?”
“Whatever happens tomorrow, we face it together.” Leo glances at the plane that waits in the field. “We survived these hills. We survived Denver. We can survive anything.”
I hope he’s right.
Starvation has really left a cruel mark on me, ravaging my figure and my self-worth until both are unrecognizable. The woman who stares back at me in the mirror is a stranger, her features sharpened by necessity, her body whittled down to the bare essentials.
I don’t like her, this bony, sick version of myself. I don’t want anything to do with this new normal.
Each glimpse of my nude form chips away at the little self-confidence I’ve managed to cling to, leaving me feeling vulnerable and unattractive.
Feeling ugly has a way of killing a girl’s libido. So does fear and worry and calorie-deficient exhaustion.
The guys don’t have this problem. They’re always hard, always horny, always in the mood. And despite their weight loss, they’ve retained their chiseled, otherworldly beauty. It’s unfair.
We sleep together every night, our bodies entwined tightly. But the second a hand touches between my skeletal legs, I go frigid.
They sense it and never pressure me. We talk about it. They love me and reassure me. They constantly tell me I’m beautiful. Every day. All the time. Too often.
I know why they do it.
They want me to be happy.
That just makes me feel worse.
I might be depressed.
It helps to talk to them. I draw strength from their words, from their steadfast love. “I know I’ve been struggling lately. But spending every day with you guys, it’s given me something—two very important somethings—to hold onto.”
“If Wolf were here…” Leo stares up at the stars. “He’d have something outlandish and inappropriate to say in response to that.”
If I listen hard enough, I can hear his dry laughter in the chambers of the night. “Did he ever tell you the fairy tale about the lion, the bear, and the drag queen?”
They shake their heads, their expressions carved in permanent loss.
“Oh.” My heart constricts. “It’s just…it was something he shared the day I arrived. It made no sense at the time, but now…”
I fall quiet, searching for him in the starlit skies.
“Now you have to tell us.” Leo squeezes my hand.
“I wouldn’t do it justice. No one tells a story like he did. I can’t.”
“Try.” Kody kisses my shoulder.
“I’ll cry.” My breath trembles beneath the weight of the eyes pressing against me on both sides, waiting.
Dammit.
“Okay.” I clear my throat. “So there’s a drag queen with a grand plan to hit up Disney World, but she won’t go without her pets—the lion and the bear.”
Leo groans. “I hate it already.”