Luckily, he hopped up with ease.
Unluckily, he grabbed the back of my jacket and lifted me straight in the air until my face was level with his. The enormous paw he used to hold the back of my jacket kept my torso parallel to the ground and my feet kicking as they dangled—sans skis now—while he stared me in the eyes. He was more than a little aggravated, his rugged features stained with red heat.
I grasped where my coat met my throat, pulling so it didn’t choke me. “I’m sorry!”
“Not good enough,” he growled, grinding his pearly whites. “Try again.”
“Um…I’m really sorry?” I panted. My group was rushing down the hill now. Apparently their shock had finally disappeared. With one hand, I patted his cheek awkwardly. “Be a honey bear and let me down?”
Shit. Probably not the time to joke.
He bared his teeth, his predator—the bear—actually snarling, but I was quickly gripped around my waist and yanked out of the livid Shifter’s hold. In an instant, I was held tightly—again, dangling—against Sin’s side. My savior murmured, “You’ll have to excuse her. Her skills on the slopes are just as evident as her manners right now. She apologizes for ramming into you.” Sin jiggled me inside his hold. “Don’t you?”
Wiping snow off my face, I grumbled, “I already said it twice.”
“See?” Sin’s lips curved in an unkind smile at the bear. The Shifter’s eyes were quickly widening as he stared at my hair and then at our Royal group swiftly surrounding us. “She’s apologized.”
Elder Merrick, always silent—always panty-soaking-hot—slid forward closest to the bear Shifter, an effortless, bored command in his gaze. My brows puckered when he flicked a hostile, irritated glance in my direction. I was grateful when his attention altered back to the Shifter. He didn’t speak. Just stared at the man, pure alpha. Pure Royal.
The Shifter actually gurgled for a moment, then he nodded in a rapid motion. He tipped his head to Elder Merrick in submission, before he bent and picked up my skis and poles, handing the items to the silent Elder. “No harm, no foul.” His eyes flicked to me and he stated respectfully, “I didn’t recognize you, Ms Jules. Please excuse my earlier rudeness.” He leaned in, whispering quietly with a bit of sympathy, “And you should take a few skiing lessons before you hurt yourself.”
I bared my own teeth, pissed and self-conscious. My mouth opened to say something, but Sin beat me to it. Much more polite, too.
With amusement, he agreed, “Duly noted.”
Chapter Two
The thing about skiing with someone who is just as awful as you is that you both tend to make the same mistakes, following each other blindly because you’re concentrating so hard not to ram into one another—or other people—as you zoom past them. That was what happened to Aria and me. I wasn’t sure which of us turned away from the group, or even at what point that happened, but the sun was beginning to set by the time the two of us started trudging up the hill toward the back of the merrily lit lodge. Many groups were drinking and conversing on the large wooden planked picnic tables on the patio, while Aria and I moved like aged Coms, our bodies sore and abused and in need of some major TLC.
“There was no shame in taking off our skis halfway down whatever death-fucking-drop we were on, right?” I asked absently, popping my neck. Twice. “We don’t have to tell them we walked for miles to get here.”
“You just did,” Aria whispered harshly, tilting her head toward the lodge.
I squinted through the dying light and spotted our group staring at us.
They appeared to be laughing in an uproar. A few were even pointing.
She glanced down at the front of our bodies. “There may be no shame in walking, but there’s definite shame in the mud.”
I perused the dried mud that coated the entire front of our once pristine snow outfits. The brown sludge even covered our faces—except where our wide goggles had been, leaving clean patches. “Yes, there’s that.”
The two of us stopped in front of our group. Some of them had tears rolling down their cheeks, and all were laughing at our expense.
Sin managed to choke, “How the hell did you find mud on a snow spelled mountain?”
“We’re talented like that.” I exhaled grandly. “Do you know what happens when a person hits a patch of mud while wearing skis?” No response came from the table other than more guffawing. “Well, I’ll tell you what happens. The damn skis stop but your body doesn’t. It was like those dumb cartoon characters that go splat!” I angrily waved a hand at all of their amused faces. “Someone could have warned us about this!”
Leric placed a hand over his stomach, his eyes crinkling at the corners. He sputtered, “Are you both all right?”