Awakened from Ice: 1 (Werewolf Sentinels)

Awakened from Ice

Marisa Chenery

Book one in the Werewolf Sentinels series.

Exploring an ice cave on the Mantanuska Glacier in Alaska, Cassidy finds something out of the ordinary—six men dressed in fur and leather, motionless and seemingly dead. But she soon discovers they’re very much alive when her touch awakens one—and she finds herself pinned beneath his muscular heat in the blink of an eye.

Edensaw and his wolf brothers have slept for ten thousand years. As ice age Tlingit Indian hunters, they were chosen to be a new race of man, the first werewolves. They are the sentinels, created to protect against evil that is to come. But the touch of one woman ignites his mating urge and Edensaw awakens before he’s needed, into a world he no longer knows and a passion he cannot deny.

As the couple moves from lust to love, the dark evil brews, threatening not only to destroy the mating bond, but the sentinels themselves.

Awakened from Ice

Marisa Chenery

Chapter One

Summer in Alaska was Cassidy’s favorite time of year. It also meant it was time for her annual trip from Juneau to the Mantanuska Glacier State Recreation Site where she camped and went glacier trekking. It was something she did alone to unwind and get away from her everyday life. She’d been coming to the Mantanuska Glacier for the past five years.

Having arrived at the recreation site late the night before—with eighteen hours of daylight during the summer months, darkness hadn’t been a problem to set up camp—Cassidy planned to spend a good portion of this new day trekking along the glacier. She had a quick breakfast before she packed all the gear she’d need to take with her.

Even though where she camped was close to the glacier, there was no direct access to it from there. Which meant Cassidy would have to drive to the Mantanuska Glacier Park at milepost marker 102. The privately owned park was the only access point.

Cassidy put the backpack she was taking with her onto the passenger seat of her older-model crossover, then started to make the short drive. Once she arrived, she paid the entrance fee at the office before she drove up and parked next to the glacier.

Exiting the vehicle, she took in the landscape before her. Cassidy could only describe the glacier as spectacular. She never got sick of seeing it. The Mantanuska Glacier was the largest in the state that could be reached by vehicle. It had started its retreat ten thousand years ago to where its location was today. And being a valley glacier meant it had sunny skies and great weather most of the time, where the areas surrounding it did not.

At the ice, Cassidy paused only long enough to pull on a jacket over her long-sleeved t-shirt, put on a pair of sunglasses and a set of crampons on the bottom of her hiking boots. With her backpack secured over both her shoulders, she set out for her trek.

Since she’d traveled across the glacier several times, Cassidy decided this year would be the one when she’d do a more challenging trek than she had in the past. And she already had a destination in mind—the Mantanuska Glacier cave in the Chugach Mountains.

As usual when she made the hike along the ice, Cassidy felt as if her batteries were being recharged. It wasn’t as if her job was that stressful—she was a graphic artist who worked from home—or that her life was a harried one. It more had to do with the fact she felt as if she’d fallen into a rut and couldn’t get out of it. Every day she did the same things, months and years at a time. And with no husband or boyfriend to spend time with since her break up not too long ago, she couldn’t seem to get out of her funk.

Only here at the glacier, once a year, did Cassidy find the boredom she felt with her life lift. She didn’t know if it was the beauty of the place or just being in the outdoors that did it. All she knew was she felt lighter of spirit.

Cassidy set a steady pace as she walked along the ice. She watched where she placed her feet, making sure she didn’t take a misstep. Being out on the glacier alone, all she needed was to have an accident and end up hurting herself. There were tour groups available, but she hadn’t seen one yet.

After a while, it became warm enough that Cassidy no longer needed to wear her jacket. She stopped to take it off and tie the sleeves around her waist. She also took the time to pull a bottle of water out of her backpack and take a drink before placing the pack on her back once more. She looked around her. The day was perfect. The sun was bright without a cloud in the sky.

Eventually Cassidy reached her destination. She smiled as she walked closer to the entrance of the cave. There was a large piece of ice that rose in the center of it like a giant tooth or a sharp dagger, sculpted by melted water. Knowing it would be cooler inside the cave, she shrugged off her backpack, then put her jacket on again.

Cassidy walked around the large piece of ice and into the cool dimness of the cave. No longer out in the bright sunshine, she pushed her sunglasses to the top of her head. She ran her gaze over the walls and ceiling of the blue ice that surrounded her. It got to her to think this place had been around for thousands of years and had been formed around the time of the ice age.

Exploring farther inside, she found her gaze drawn to what looked like a small hole inside one of the walls. It appeared to be new since there was a loose pile of ice on the ground in front of it. Cassidy walked closer until she stood even with it.

Her curiosity getting the better of her, Cassidy bent and put her hand into the waist-high hole. Her fingers didn’t encounter more ice at the back of it, only open air. She pulled her hand back and squatted in front of it. She peered inside the opening and jerked back in surprise when she thought she saw something on the other side.

Wanting a better look, she shrugged out of her backpack and dug around inside it until she found her flashlight. Cassidy aimed the beam of light into the hole. Given the fact it wasn’t very large, she couldn’t see just how big the cavern on the other side was, but it looked as if she would have no problem fitting in it. And getting inside it was an opportunity she wasn’t going to miss out on. From what she’d been able to see, the cavern wasn’t empty. There was something she couldn’t make out because of the smallness of the hole.

Before she could really think through what she was about to do, Cassidy reached inside her backpack for the ice tool she took with her whenever she went glacier trekking. She took a deep breath, then proceeded to work on widening the hole enough for her to slip through. She worked as fast as she could without having the risk of it collapsing on her. Once she had it widened to the point she could fit her body inside, she went in headfirst.

The beam of her flashlight shook as Cassidy pointed it at what she’d found. Her eyes widened, her gaze flitting from one figure to the next. Inside the ice cavern were six men, all dressed in fur and leather, each lying on a pallet of thick furs. They were all lined up in a row with their weapons at their sides. They were so perfect that at first glance it only appeared as if they were sleeping. The men looked as if they’d just stepped out of the last ice age.

The sound of her crampons crunching on the ice was the only noise as Cassidy slowly walked closer to the men. She ran her gaze along each one. They all had long black hair and the bronzed skin tone of a native. She guessed they would be over six feet tall if they were standing. It was hard to tell with the thick furs they wore, but she guessed underneath their bodies would be heavily muscled. And if they had been alive today, each man would have had no trouble getting modeling contracts, they were that good-looking.

The looks of one man in particular drew Cassidy, but it wasn’t him she went to first. Starting at the opposite end of the row, she knelt at one of the others’ side. She reached out but quickly pulled back before she came in contact with his cheek. Even though he appeared to be in a deep sleep there was no question he was dead, probably had frozen to death with the others thousands of years ago. Did she really want to touch a dead body?

Her mind flinched at the idea, but the longer she looked at him the less icked out she felt about it. Instead of touching his face, Cassidy dragged a finger across the back of his hand, which lay flat at his side next to his weapons. She jerked away with a surprised gasp. His skin was warm. Just as warm and supple as hers. It should have been cold and hard from being frozen.

With legs that shook ever so slightly, Cassidy rose and knelt at the next man in line. He too was as warm to the touch as the first had been. And so were the other three she checked when she moved down the line.

She now stood over the one who she felt drawn to. Cassidy knelt at his side, her gaze taking in his firm lips, sharp cheekbones and straight nose. His long, straight black hair fell to his chest. This one she didn’t touch on the hand. She couldn’t resist trailing her fingers down his cheek.

Cassidy only had a split second to register that his skin was warm as well before his eyes snapped open. She let out a shriek as she found herself pushed flat onto her back on the ice with his much larger body on top of hers. He’d moved so fast her eyes had barely been able to track him. More than a little stunned and afraid of what he’d do next, all she could do was stare into his brown eyes.

Edensaw drew in a deep breath, inhaling the scent of the woman beneath him deep inside his lungs. It was the first one he’d taken in ten thousand years. He’d slept that long with his wolf brothers. They had been handpicked by their tribe’s shaman to become a new kind of man. He’d then put them into their long sleep in the ice cave. As sentinels, Tlingit Indian hunters, they were to awaken when they would be needed the most, to do what they had been created for. But he hadn’t been drawn from his deep slumber for that reason. It was the touch of the white woman who’d done that. Her scent and touch had set off his mating urge.

He glanced over to see his wolf brothers still slept before he focused on the female. Edensaw drew in another lungful of her scent. He found it intoxicating. His body reacted to it, his cock hardening. He ran his gaze over her face. Her long hair was the color of the sun and her eyes matched the blueness of the ice around them. They were colors he’d never seen on a person before. Her skin was so pale compared to his.

She shifted beneath him. “Off,” she said in a tight voice. “Please get off.”

Edensaw knew she wasn’t speaking Tlingit but he still understood her words. While they slept, the shaman had given each of them the ability to “listen” to the world around them. And with that, he knew it was no longer a place he’d once roamed. The ice had receded and humans thrived. Even the race of werewolves he and his wolf brothers had sired had survived, multiplying in number.

Ignoring the urge to claim the woman as his mate, Edensaw rose to his feet, pulling her up with him. Given what she was to him, he wasn’t about to let her get away. The shaman had said each of them would find the woman meant for them after their long sleep. He’d always assumed his mate would be one of his people, but he wasn’t any less attracted to her because she wasn’t. He found her coloring exotic.

She tugged at her arm, trying to break his grip from around her wrist. “Let me go.”

“Be still,” he said, the words strange on his tongue.

She jerked harder but he didn’t release her. “You speak English? You can’t be what I thought you were. Are you and your friends playing some kind of prank? You could get in a lot of trouble.”

Edensaw ignored her. As the alpha of their small pack, it was his job to wake his wolf brothers. He threw back his head and howled the howl that would draw them from their deep sleep. The woman stiffened, then gasped as the others stirred.

His wolf brothers—Ketah, Wachei, Kajakti, Durlach and Capac—rose from their fur pallets and stood to face him. Their gazes settled on the woman before they turned them back to him.

“Has the time come?” Wachei asked in Tlingit.

Edensaw shook his head. “No,” he responded in the same language. “The woman found us and her touch woke me. She’s my mate.”

“Then I have to thank her,” Ketah said. “I never thought we’d sleep for so many years. Who knows how many more we would have if your mate hadn’t come along? Our slumber was too long.”

“I agree,” Kajakti added. “I yearned for the freedom we once had.”

“But the world is no longer as we knew it,” Capac said.

Durlach grunted. “True, but I have to agree with Ketah. We slept for too long.”

The woman gave a tug on her arm. “Ah, guys, I haven’t got a clue what you just said since I only know English. Whatever it is you’re discussing, you can leave me out of it. I’ll just be going and we can go our separate ways. I won’t tell anyone about whatever this is you’re doing.”

Edensaw turned to face her and switched to her English. “You will stay with us. You are mine.”

She yanked even harder to try to free herself. “Look, buster, I don’t know what kind of fantasy world you and your friends are living in, but I don’t want any part of it. And I sure as hell am not yours.”

He scowled at her. “I am Edensaw, not Buster. You are my mate so that makes you mine.”

With his mating urge brought to life, he ached to have her under him again, to feel her naked body pressed to his. But the choice of when he claimed her would be hers to make. He could wait for her to come to him. The urge to mate would always be there. It just didn’t control him.

“Well, Edensaw,” she continued, “this is the twenty-first century. A man can’t just go up to a woman and say she belongs to him.” She looked him up and down, then said in a low voice, “No matter how good-looking he is.”

He smiled. At least he now knew his mate thought he was attractive. “After we learn more about each other, you’ll be more than happy to accept me as your mate.”

“Great. Good-looking and conceited,” she said on a huff.

Wachei laughed. “Your woman isn’t going to make this easy on you, Edensaw.”

She glared at Wachei. “I do have a name, you know. It’s Cassidy, so stop referring to me as his woman.”

Cassidy.
His mate’s name was as different as she was. She might not be ready to accept him, but this wasn’t the time or place to try to convince her he was hers. Now that he was awake, Edensaw longed to feel the wind on his skin, to see the sun shining high in the sky. And he was sure his wolf brothers felt the same.