Safety by Viola Rivard Read Free Book Online Page B

turn them into a fur coat. She’s so heartless, Taylor. I know she’d do it.”
    With mounting anger, Taylor grabbed the door handle. Lark hustled out of the way as Taylor jerked the door open.
    The first thing she noticed was the smell, or rather, the odor . Her cabin smelled like a cat litter box, and it was soon apparent as to why. Little piles of animal feces were scattered throughout the room. Her dishes were all on the floor, one of her ceramic bowls broken and in pieces. There were claw marks on one of the curtains, and another looked as though it had been chewed.
    In short, her cabin was destroyed.
    Too angry to formulate a response, Taylor stood rigid as Lark brushed past her, hopping over the obstacle course of poop that led up to Taylor’s fur pallet.
    As she stared at the pallet, it took Taylor a moment to figure out what she was looking at. The furs that Hale had given her seemed to be moving. She took a few steps in, realizing that there were three small creatures huddled up in her bed. At Lark’s arrival, their heads popped up.
    Baby raccoons.
    “They’re orphans,” Lark said, climbing into the furs. One of the raccoons ran straight into her lap. “I heard them crying a few nights ago. Their mother must have died.”
    Taylor wanted to be furious. The problem was, she had never actually seen a baby raccoon before, and they were, hands down, the cutest thing she’d ever seen in her entire life.
    The two on the pallet stared at Taylor, their dark eyes accentuated by the band of black fur that ran across their tiny faces. One of them wobbled slightly, before putting his head down and nestling into the pelt.
    So cute.
    “Do they bite?” Taylor asked, making her way over to the furs.
    Lark shook her head. “Nah.” She offered up the one in her lap. “Here, want to hold him?”
    Taylor rolled her eyes. “Of course I want to hold him.”
    The baby raccoon was only a bit bigger than Taylor’s hand and it was incredibly soft.
    Taylor sighed and looked into its little eyes. “What am I going to do with you?” She glanced at Lark. “You know they can’t stay here.”
    Lark nodded. “Glenn’s going to build them a house as soon as he’s done with the fence. Some stupid deer tried to eat your spinach yesterday.”
    “My spinach is growing?” Taylor asked, placing the raccoon in her lap. It turned its head from side to side and then hobbled over to its siblings.
    “Yup. It sprouted a couple days ago. I hope the frost doesn’t kill it.”
    “Spinach is a fall crop. It’s pretty hardy,” Taylor explained as she covered the raccoons up with a light deerskin.
    “I’m really sorry about them. I can take you up to the den to sleep.”
    Taylor shook her head. She did miss Alder, but she didn’t want to risk an encounter with Hale. Her feelings for him were still an open wound that needed time to heal.
    “I’ll clean up the poop. You put that nose of yours to work and get rid of any pelts they might have peed on.”
    ***
    Hale parted ways with his brother and went in through the side entrance of his den. He wasn’t interested in interacting with anyone. He needed time to be alone and think. He needed to sleep.
    A familiar, flowery scent had Hale scowling as he neared his room. Turning the corner, he looked up the slope to see Tulip.
    She was sitting on top of his furs, her arms wrapped around her legs and her chin resting on her knees.
    “Welcome back,” she said.
    After a slight pause, Hale continued to his bed. “What are you doing here?”
    Tulip scooted to make room for him as he lay down on the furs.
    “Beka told me where your room was.”
    “I bet she did,” Hale muttered.
    Beka had been making herself scarce ever since word had spread that Hale would be sharing Taylor with his brother. Hale knew she’d start coming back around now that the thrall had passed and he suspected that she was sending Tulip along to gauge where he stood on the issue of Taylor.
    “I don’t understand,”