Blog Tour, Exclusive Excerpt & Giveaway:
Names for the Dawn by C.L. Beaumont
Seasoned Park Ranger Will Avery has found his home in the Denali wilderness, cherishing his solitary routines for the decade leading up to 1991. The trade-off that no one knows of his identity as a transgender man feels worth it for the comforting assurance he finds in the towering glaciers.
Until Will discovers an unexpected passenger in his truck—the visiting wolf biologist everyone in the Park is ecstatic to meet—Nikhil Rajawat.
Nikhil doesn’t return his new colleagues’ fervor. He’s dreamt of Denali for one reason: the pinnacle of his research, and it isn’t anyone’s business that this is the last year he’ll get to chase the wolves. He doesn’t expect to fall for the grizzled Ranger who forces him to carry bear spray in the backcountry. Just as Will doesn’t expect to ask Nikhil to share his bed.
But when their dreamlike summer comes to an end, and Nikhil resolutely leaves on a plane bound for India, a devastated Will pretends he didn’t just plead for Nikhil to stay. And one year later, when Nikhil suddenly re-appears in Denali without explanation, Will must decide if Alaska is his solitary refuge—or if perhaps there’s a home somewhere in the world for two.
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I wasn’t imagining it. There was Nikhil kneeling by the last hut at the end of the line, not twenty feet from where I stood. He hadn’t even heard me. And there, wrapped completely in his arms, was Lugnut.
A rush of emotion gripped me. I found myself leaning against the nearest tree just to stay standing. Lugnut’s tail wagged in the straw, his snout huddled under Nikhil’s chin. There was a calmness between them, the way Nikhil seemed to hold him just so, gently aware of his arthritic knees, where he might be sore. It was a familiarity that far outstripped the only two times I’d ever brought them together last year. Almost as if Nikhil had been . . . all this time . . .
Then Nikhil shifted, holding Lugnut’s face in his hands, rubbing his ears the same way I always did. Lugnut groaned—the sound I’d thought he only ever made for me. Nikhil’s lips moved, like he was whispering something, and Lugnut listened intently, peering straight back into his eyes, tilting his head. Then he lurched, trying to eat the cloud of steam from Nikhil’s breath. Nikhil laughed, a brilliant smile, like he hadn’t stood in my cabin mere weeks ago, tears slipping down his cheeks, clinging to the stove to stay standing, “I’m ruined.”
And I felt a pulse of betrayal.
It was unthinkable that the two of them could hold each other without me there. It felt like I could feel their touch and warmth on my own skin from where I stood, hidden in the shadows. And it looked wrong, somehow against the laws of nature, for the only two beings on earth who really knew me to be together. As if their combined knowledge of me would be powerful enough to erase me from existence, replace me with only their memories.
“You spend the night out here?”
Kelly’s voice, bright and cheerful, bounded across the yard, shattering the silence.
I flinched in surprise, and so did Nikhil, who jolted to his feet at the same time I leapt back into the trees. Kelly and Gina emerged from the direction of her cabin, mist swirling around them, Gina wearing his rugby sweater. Her hair was in a messy bun, soft and bare in a way I’d never seen her before.
Nikhil cleared his throat, brushed straw from his pants. “The busses were no longer running by the end of our meeting. I borrowed a bunk.”
“Christ, you should have said!” Kelly called. “Woulda given you my own cabin. I was with Gina.”
Nikhil shrugged. “It was no bother.” He looked embarrassed as he stared down at his feet. Gina was giving him a small frown, staring between him and Lugnut.
Then Lugnut whined and pawed at Nikhil’s leg, breaking the tension that had settled over the yard. I realized I’d been holding my own breath just to hear every word.
Kelly put his arm around Gina’s shoulders and waved Nikhil over. “Well come on, then. Get a good breakfast before you head back. Pretty sure I have some of that tea you like stuffed in a drawer. Nice and tannic and bloody disgusting.”
Nikhil waited until they were gone, then looked around, as if he was checking no one else could see, then he knelt again, and Lugnut immediately curled up against him, almost knocking him over.
Nikhil was speaking again. I could hear the barest hums of his voice. And I had to know what he was saying, if only I could just make out—
I stepped forward. A twig snapped in half. Nikhil’s gaze shot towards the trees.
He spotted me immediately.
To celebrate the release of Names for the Dawn, C.L. is giving away a signed paperback copy of the release!
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About the Author:
C. L. Beaumont received his B.A. in South Asian Linguistics and Art History from the University of California, Berkeley, and now volunteers as a crisis line counselor while he delves into his true love: writing. When he isn’t hiking or checking another National Park off his list, he enjoys devouring crime fiction, cooking new vegetarian recipes, and working on way too many cross stitch projects at once. C. L. Beaumont lives in Montana with his gorgeous partner and their chickens.
Connect with C. L. Beaumont:
twitter.com/cl_beaumont
clbeaumont.substack.com/welcome
