As he mowed, he thought about the caretakers, becoming angrier by the moment. He really wanted to throttle them, especially since whoever had crashed there was either one of them or someone they had given access.
He’d be able to see which was the case once he was done with this. The place looked like any other cabin, but it was loaded with surveillance equipment that should have footage of the intruder. He’d been tempted to look before he came out but he was going to lose daylight and wanted to sort out the worst of the situation so they could perhaps grill later on.
He was moving along quite nicely, finishing with the portions around the cabin and out toward where the fire was burning. He stopped the lawnmower to stoke the fire and add some more logs. He wanted to make sure as much of the deer was incinerated as possible.
As he went to pick up some logs that he had set aside earlier, a wave of gray swept over him.
Everything went black.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Maeve
Maeve took a break from her cleaning to look in the fridge. She half expected to see more decay in there, but it was clean and running as it should. The only contents were some bottles of water, which all seemed to be sealed, so she grabbed one and walked outside with it to get some fresh air after breathing chemicals from all the cleaning.
She was surprised to find it was silent. She’d expected to hear the lawnmower still running. The smell of fresh-cut grass filled the air around her. It was surprising that it was still so green with fall already taking its toll on the leaves of the trees that surrounded the place.
Glancing out across the yard, she noticed a crumpled figure on the sandy area near the beach by the fire pit. At first, she couldn’t quite make it out, but then she realized it was Ronan. Bolting up from the chair she’d just sat down in, she ran toward him, dropping her water on the ground beside his unconscious figure.
“Ronan? Ronan? Can you hear me?”
She struggled to turn his much larger frame onto his back so she could look him over. He was pale and sweaty, but he didn’t appear injured. She put two fingers on his wrist, feeling relieved when she detected a pulse. Panicked, she dug her hands into his front pockets in search of his phone to call for help, but he began to stir as she tried to locate it.
“Mmmph,” he groaned, his eyes beginning to focus as he struggled to sit up. “What happened?”
“I don’t know. You tell me,” she replied, reaching out to help him to his feet. “Come on, let’s get you out of the heat.”
Ronan stumbled as she put her arms around his waist to try and steady him on their way back into the house. He was so much bigger than her, and they wobbled back and forth as they made their way. She was terrified that he would topple back over and she wouldn’t be able to get him back up.
It was slow progress, but they finally made it inside. She sat him on the sofa and got him a cold bottle of water and a cool cloth to wrap around his neck. She abandoned calling for help for the moment and instead focused on just assessing his condition. He still seemed awfully wobbly.
“I don’t know what happened out there,” he mumbled, his words slow and somewhat slurred.
“I think you need to lie down for a bit.”
“Probably. I think I got too hot out there. Let me get out of your hair.”
“Get out of my hair? Where do you think you are?”
“I don’t know,” he replied.
“Come on. I’m going to get you to the bed to lie down for a bit.”
“I’m fine. I need to finish up outside,” he protested, sounding a little more cognizant now.
“No. Come on. I’m going to put you in the bedroom.”
“No. I’m fine. I just stood up a bit too fast and got dizzy.”
“Don’t be stubborn, Alpha. Come on.”
Maeve steadied his much larger frame once again, a firm hand on his arm to guide him. For a moment, their eyes met, sending a shiver down her spine. This was the first time she’d seen him seem so vulnerable.
She pushed it aside and continued helping him to the bedroom. He was still incredibly weak from whatever had happened to him out in the yard. Though he struggled to keep his weight off her, she could feel him pressing down on her.
“I’m going to get you some more water and another cold cloth. I’ll be right back,” she told him, quickly heading over to fetch what she needed so she could hurry back before he could say anything else about it.