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probably
incoherent, but he got the gist. "I'll take a crew up the
trail."
    His father moved around from behind the
counter and flipped the open sign in the store's window to closed . "I'll take Marisa to Ukiah."
    Marisa sagged with relief and let herself be
led to a battered black Jeep with streaks of mud sprayed along its
side. I'm not crazy. It happened. All of if happened.
    She'd told them a thunderbird had saved her
life. She'd told them a thunderbird had killed Kaitlyn and injured
Ethan. She'd told them Ukiah was a thunderbird and they
hadn't looked at her as if she was crazy.
    Even now, Ukiah's father wasn't glancing at
her warily. He wasn't trying to run her out of town. He was taking
her to his son.
    They passed a handcrafted sign for the Thunderbird Lodge. It startled a laugh out of her and
Ukiah's father chuckled. "Sometimes it's easiest to hide out in the
open."
    Questions formed. So many questions. They
rounded a curve and a beautiful wooden lodge came into view.
    The front door opened and Ukiah stepped out
onto the porch, dressed in jeans and a blue flannel shirt.
    Her heart swelled and raced. He was
everything she wanted in a man.
    The Jeep stopped but Ukiah remained on the
porch, his face expressionless. He crossed his arms over his chest
and ache spasmed through her chest and knotted in her throat.
    Was his claim that she was his a lie? That
he'd found her and he intended to keep her, just the great sex
talking?
    His father reached over and clasped her
hand. He gave it a gentle squeeze. "Go on. Whatever differences
exist between the two of you, they'll work themselves out. You're
the wife of his soul."
     
     
    * * * * *
    Chapter
5
     
     
    Ukiah remained on the porch, stoic and
unmoving. Making her close the distance between them, each step
adding to the suffocating ache in her chest.
    She longed for his smile and to have his
arms around her, for the solid feel of his chest and the rub of his
cheek to hers, for his steady strength and the connection she'd
come to crave.
    Her eyes and throat burning, she reached him
and silently begged, Say something .
    Pain flickered across his face and stabbed
into her. "Why did you leave me?" he asked.
    The question was so unexpected that for an
instant she remained mute. And then she hurtled herself at him.
    "I didn't leave you! I had to go to the
bathroom and afterward I was too scared to climb back down to the
cave!"
    His arms crushed her to him. "Never again.
Don't ever scare me like that again. Promise you'll never risk
yourself again."
    "I didn't think Ethan and Kaitlyn would be
anywhere close."
    His arms tightened. "Promise me."
    "I promise. I won't knowingly put myself in
danger." She breathed in his masculine scent, hugged him more
fiercely, absorbing his strength. "You saved me—again. Just like
you did before. You were the thunderbird. I wasn't
hallucinating."
    Ukiah slammed his mouth down on hers and
plunged his tongue against hers. His. She was his. Had always
been his.
    When he'd woken to find her gone he'd feared
the worst. That she'd run after seeing the thunderbird's shadow
when he'd taken her on her hands and knees. That she'd finally
guessed the truth—not only guessed it, but had been terrified by
it, preferring to risk death rather than to stay with him.
    He had never known such pain. And then when
his spirit had shed the temporary form and he'd taken to the air,
seen her once again under attack— Only the knowledge that it might
make matters worse if he killed her brother had enabled him to rein
in the thunderbird's fierce desire not only to protect its mate and
unborn offspring, but to destroy anyone who threatened them.
    She met the thrust of his tongue with hers,
clung to him. And the feel of her body pressed to his became the
need to share the full truth.
    He scooped her into his arms and her
laughter broke the kiss.
    "I can walk."
    "But I enjoy carrying you."
    Marisa thought he'd do something romantic
like carry her over the lodge threshold.