Dakota took a couple of deep breaths before she turned back. A small, strained laugh slipped out of her, and she wouldn’t meet his gaze. “Probably a heck of a sight, huh? Me bare-assed in the snow?”
Axel laughed and draped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her into a little hug. He wanted to wrap both arms around her, hold her for a minute or two, but instead guided her in the direction they’d come. She really was one hell of a woman. He didn’t think there would be any tears forthcoming, and fuck, that was nice. “Damn it,” he joked, “the pants were up before I got a glimpse of anything. Then again, maybe it was good you were doing what you were doing, or you’d have to change your pants.”
Dakota laughed and leaned into his side. She fit there a little too well. “Thank God I was done with that part!”
They made their way back through the twenty feet or so of thick underbrush to the trail where their packs sat. Gunnar was there, lying down, panting. When he saw them, he said, I got a small gash in my right haunch. Nothing serious, but could you check it when you can tear yourself away from her?
Axel dropped his arm. “I gotta check Falke.” To Gunnar he said, Any chance it was rabid? as he went to his pack and pulled out the first aid kit.
“He’s hurt?” Dakota asked, sounding more panicked over Gunnar than she had over the entire wolf incident.
No rabies, Gunnar said. Just hungry, I think. She’s got some babies in the area somewhere. She’s still nursing; I smelled it on her. Dakota probably would have been dinner if I hadn’t been here. Damn, that bitch was huge.
Axel frowned. If Dakota had come between the she wolf and her young, not even a cougar would’ve been able to chase her off.
She gonna be okay? Gunnar wanted to know.
“I don’t know,” he answered, replying to both Dakota’s question and his brother’s. Axel knelt next to Gunnar and poked at a slowly seeping wound.
Just a scratch, he decided.
Gunnar whimpered and cringed.
“Oh, you poor baby,” Dakota said, dropping to her knees next to the cat. “Poor kitty. You’re so brave. I’m sorry I didn’t like you.” Slowly, she extended her hand toward Gunnar’s face, letting him scent her. When Gunnar licked her fingertips, her laugh was low, gusty and sexy as hell. When Dakota sank her fingers into Gunnar’s fur, Axel had the urge to scrape his fingers across the tiny scratch on the cat’s thigh.
Oh, yeah, Gunnar said to Axel, purring loudly as he flopped over on his side, right onto Dakota’s lap.
She let out a soft laugh and scratched Gunnar’s chin, his chest. “He’s okay, right?”
Axel forced himself to not roll his eyes. “He’s fine.
Just a big baby.” To pay his dear brother back for having Dakota’s hands all over him, he poured the alcohol straight over the little wound.
Gunnar shot to his feet with a strange combination of a yelp, growl and hiss.
Axel chuckled. “All better then?”
Fuck you.
“He’s really okay?” Dakota asked, worry in her voice.
“Yep. He’s had worse.” He glared at his brother.
“And probably will have much worse in the future if he’s not careful.”
You’re the one who wanted me here like this. Kind of nice if she wants to pet the kitty now and then.
Axel growled as he got to his feet and helped her up. “You okay? Ready to head out or want to rest some more?”
She glanced around her and shook her head. “I think we should go. What if it comes back?”
Axel nodded. “Probably for the best. Falke, stay close.”
Aye, aye, Captain. The closer the better, especially if she wants to pet me some more, he said with a chuckle in his thoughts.
Don’t make me hurt you, little brother.
Bring it on.
* * *
Dakota was fairly sure she’d never been so tired in her life. As the sun started its descent and some cloud cover moved in, the temperatures dropped. She’d re-layered all the clothing she removed during the better part of the day, the temperature having risen temporarily to around the freezing mark. But now she was cold, and she wore everything she could put on and still move.
Thank God it hadn’t started snowing. There was enough of the white stuff on the ground to plague her already.
She stumbled more often than not now and, although she hated to complain, she feared she would land on her face soon and not be able to get up.
Just as Dakota looked up from her feet to say something to Axel, she walked right into his back, and they both went tumbling into the frozen powder.
“Oh, crap, I’m sorry,” she said, trying to disengage herself from him. She had the snowshoes on again and couldn’t find the strength to lift them up out of the snow where they’d buried themselves. When she put her hand flat on the ground to lever off of Axel’s back, it sank to her shoulder in the soft snow. “Shit.”
Axel laughed. “Hold still, honey.”
Did he just call me honey?
He rolled out from beneath her, sat up, and then dragged her out of the snow so she sat on her butt.
“Better?”
Ignoring the warm fuzzy feeling his unintentional endearment and the touch of his big hands caused in her tummy, Dakota nodded and pushed a few strands of hair out of her face. Then to her horror, her teeth chattered.
“How long have you been cold?”
“Just a little while.” A convulsion of tremors shook her body. “I thought if I picked up speed…it would help.” She clamped her teeth together.
“We’re here. Good thing.” Axel pointed. “You should have said something sooner. Out here—”
“I know. I know. I’m sorry. I think falling down made it worse than it was. Honest.” She glanced at the cabin through the evergreen trees. It looked dark, cold and lonely. And really small. Not exactly a Thomas Kinkade painting, although the snow-covered trees surrounding it were pretty. And it had to be warmer than her current position. “So this is Red Dog Ridge…”
“Yes,” Axel answered.
Falke came up to her and pressed his nose against her cheek. “Hey! That’s cold.” She laughed, raised a gloved hand, and petted his head. “You really are a good kitty, aren’t you?”
Axel climbed to his feet, and though she watched him accomplish the feat without sinking into the snow, she wasn’t sure how he did it. She didn’t need to try it herself though. He leaned down in front of her, nudged Falke away with his elbow, and lifted her up with gloved hands under her arms. How he had the strength to do that after the trek they’d made, she wasn’t sure, but gave in and leaned against him for a minute.
Despite the layers of clothes between them, too many for her to feel his warmth, she tried to take in his strength. And he still smelled so good, she wanted to close her eyes and stay there a little longer.
“Come on. Let’s get you inside and in front of a fire. I don’t think you’re hypothermic yet, but damn, Dakota, you should have—” He sighed. “You don’t have to try to be so tough you kill yourself.”
She leaned back and looked up at him. He was tall, and so handsome it almost hurt. “I am tough.”
He grinned and shook his head. “Yeah, you are.
Come on.” He lifted her up in the air again, turned her and set her back down facing the right direction. “Fifty more feet to the front door. That’s all. Then you can relax.”
Falke slithered around her and led the way, his big paws powering him through the snow, his tail leaving a rut along the path.
That fifty feet seemed like a mile, but she reached the stone steps leading to the porch and stopped, wanting to just collapse. Instead, she leaned down to undo her snowshoes.
“I got it,” Axel said, brushing her hands away.
Within seconds, he freed her of snowshoes and pack.
“Up you go.” He lifted her up off her snowshoes, over a couple steps, and onto the porch.
Falke sat in front of the door, waiting patiently.
“Unhook the latch at the top. The door’s not locked. Go on in,” Axel said as he picked up the snowshoes and packs and hauled them up the steps.
She popped the fat hook out of the eye near the top, then turned the handle and let the door swing open. It was pitch black inside, and visions of animals using the place as a den came to mind, so she froze.
Falke nudged her thigh as he passed by her and went inside.
“It’s safe. I’ll open the shutters on the windows in just a bit.”
She took one tentative step through the door, then to the side to let Axel pass her. He dropped the packs and flipped on his big flashlight as he went straight to a fireplace against the far wall.
The thought of that wolf out there somewhere made Dakota shut the door and turn the lock.
Falke nudged her thigh with his nose, and she absentmindedly petted him. She wasn’t afraid of the dark, but the wolf sneaking up on her earlier had scared the crap out of her. She did her best not to let her fear show to Axel, but the encounter affected her.
Badly.
Dakota thought of all the hiking she did on her own. She wasn’t sure if there were wolves around Vegas, but she knew for a fact there were coyotes.
Were they as dangerous as wolves? Sure weren’t as big. That wolf had been as big as Falke.
She looked down at the big cat who purred like an outboard motor. “Thanks again,” she whispered. “I think you might’ve saved my ass out there.”
He leaned against her and rubbed his side against her thigh while she scratched behind his ears.
Across the room, Axel had a nice fire built in the rather impressive stone fireplace, which provided some much-needed light to the space, and was adding small logs to it. There was a long, comfortable looking sofa in the middle of the main area, a hand-woven rug in front of it, and a bookcase against the far wall to one side of the fireplace. The bookcase shared the corner with a small desk located behind a wooden ladder that led to a loft. For storage maybe?
She glanced to her left and noticed a tiny kitchen and dining area with a square table and stools shoved underneath.
Other than the front door, she only saw one more door on the opposite wall to the left of the fireplace, and she assumed it led to a bedroom. She also hoped it offered access to a bathroom. Then she just about smacked herself in the forehead, realizing there wouldn’t be running water out here.
This cozy, little one- or two-room cabin was about as far out into the boonies as one could get.
Oh, great, three days in close quarters without a shower. So much for a little hanky-panky. “Damn it,” she muttered under her breath.
Falke gave a whiny sound that almost seemed like a question. She looked down at him and sighed.
“Fantasy out the window,” she whispered. “That’s all.”
She gave him one last pat and headed across the room to Axel. “Anything I can do?”
“Yeah,” he said, throwing one last thin log onto the fire before sitting back on his heels. “Sit down here, take off your jacket and boots and thaw out. I need to run outside and get some more wood. The last group up here didn’t leave enough in the bin to make it through the night.”
Dakota slipped off her gloves, unzipped her jacket, shrugged out of it and then pushed her ski pants down her legs. She dropped the coat and gloves onto the floor and sat down on the rug next to the river stone hearth, and started working on undoing her wet, swollen laces.
“Why are the windows covered?” There were two on the front of the cabin, a smaller one in the kitchen area, and on the opposite side wall a large picture window. But all four were shuttered, so no light came in through any of them. “Are storms that bad up here?”
Axel turned to look at her, raised an eyebrow. “You want the truth?”
She frowned. “That would be nice.”
“Bears. They’ll bust a window to get into a cabin and tear it apart searching for food.”
“Great.” She jerked at her wet laces. “Wolves, bears, lions, oh my.”
Axel chuckled, pushed her hands out of the way, and took over on the laces. “Wolves, yes, as you know.
Bears, not so much this time of the year. They’re hibernating. And as for lions…” He shrugged. “He’s on our side.”
“Yeah, but there are others out there, aren’t there?
Wild ones?”
He nodded. “Yeah, there are, but trust me, Falke has marked this territory as his enough times that they’d be stupid to wander too close. Cats are very territorial. They take care of their own.”
“I thought they just impregnated the females and took off to find the next one.”
“And I thought you didn’t know animals.” Axel laughed and tugged her right boot off her foot, then set to work on the left. “Mountain lions in the wild do that, but domesticated ones like Falke… Well, they’re a different breed altogether.”
The subject of their conversation came over and stretched out next to her. She laid her hand on his back and dug her fingers into his already warm fur.
“Oh? They mate for life? Domesticated ones? I guess they don’t have much choice but to take what they’re given.”
For some reason that struck Axel as very funny, and he burst out with a hearty laugh. “Believe me, Dakota, there’s always a choice. But yes, Falke, when he’s ready, will mate for life.”
She frowned at Axel. “When he’s ready?”
Axel jerked off her other boot, peeled down the wool socks so she only wore her pair of white sweat socks, and pulled the ski pants off her feet. Then, to her amazement and complete delight, he picked up both her feet, put them in his lap and started rubbing.
“Oh, that’s good,” she murmured as she closed her eyes and let the growing fire’s warmth start to seep through her flannel shirt and jeans, while his fingers worked magic on her feet, sending little tingles up her legs. “What did you mean by when he’s ready? He’s a cat.”
“Yes, he is. Okay, you sit here and relax,” Axel said, seeming to want to change the subject. “The wood pile is just around the corner of the cabin, so don’t lock me out.” He winked as he stood up. “Be back in a minute.”
“Pick your mate, huh,” she said to the cat as he leaned against her and purred. He rolled onto his back and looked up at her. As she rubbed his chest and belly, she wondered how… “Oh, you’re going to go off into the wild and find some hot-to-trot kitty and bring her home? Or are you a love ’em and leave ’em type?” Her voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper.
“Maybe Axel’s just delusional?”
The purring stuttered, almost sounding like a chuckle, which made her laugh.
“I knew it! You are, aren’t you? Axel’s living in a dream world. Still, he’s the best damn good looking, delusional guy I’ve ever met. But don’t you dare tell him I told you so.” She winked, enjoying their little one-sided chat, and scrubbed her nails over his deep chest. He seemed to love that if his swishing tail was any clue.
“Well, I’ll share another secret with you.” The cougar’s ears perked up, and she grinned. “I’ve never been much of a cat person, but you’re growing on me.
I’m glad you were there today. Lucky for me, you’re on my side.”
The cat purred again. Dakota sighed and closed her eyes, tired to her bones.
The door banged open and in came Axel, carrying a stack of wood so high it covered his face. He walked unerringly across the room to a big wooden box in a corner and dumped the logs inside.
“That should get us through the night,” he said as he went back to the open door. He stepped outside and brushed wood crumbs and snow off his jacket, then came back inside and shut the door.
A cold draft made its way to where she sat, and she shivered.
Meow.
She shook her head and tucked her fingers under her armpits. “Yeah, well, it’s going to take more than five minutes for me to thaw, okay?”
Her stomach rumbled, and the cat growled as he rolled to h
is feet and left her side.
“Sorry,” she grumbled.
“Hungry?” Axel asked, as if he’d heard her belly.
But there was no way he could’ve since she was across the room from where he was peeling off his outer gear.
“Uh, yeah. Famished.” How the hell did he know?
She’d had another of those nasty power bars no more than an hour ago. Probably hungry himself. “Need help fixing dinner?”
“Nope. We’re just going to have…” He pulled the door open, leaned out and picked something up. When he shut the door he held up what looked like a freezer bag full to bursting with something brown. “Venison stew. Guaranteed to fill you up and make you beg for more.”
Dakota laughed. “Where’d you get that?” She was sure he hadn’t brought it up the mountain in his rucksack.
“Out back there’s a secured cache. We fill it up after the first hard freeze.” He went into the kitchen and, using his flashlight, scrounged through a lower cupboard to retrieve a big pot. “It’ll take a while to warm, but it’s fully cooked.” He pulled a pocket knife from his jeans and used it to cut away the bag from the frozen lump of food, then dropped the whole thing into the cast iron pot before carrying it toward her.
“Wow. Definitely rustic,” she said, scooting to the side a bit when he reached around her for something.
He set the pot on the hearth and set up the something. It was a small tripod with a hook dangling from the center. He carefully hung the pot handle from the hook.
“But not without some civilization,” he said, making her suspicious that he’d talked to Heidi about her and her expectations for this trip. He pointed to a generator against the wall near the front door. “We’ll fire that up in the morning so we can use the stove. We try not to use it much, since hauling in extra fuel for it in the winter is a real pain.”
“Hot water, maybe?” she asked hopefully, willing to take sponge baths if she could get her hands on Axel. His ass, as he leaned over the fire, was definitely something to look at. She really wouldn’t mind seeing it without the denim.
“I can get you some of that tonight,” Axel said with a grin when he straightened up and headed back into the kitchen. This time the pot he brought out was at least ten-gallon sized. He went to the door, slipped on his boots and went outside. He returned almost immediately, carrying the pot overflowing with fresh snow, kicked off his boots, shut the door and brought the pot to the fire. “It should be ready about the same time as the stew. We have a stash of hot chocolate in the cupboard, if you’d like.”
Falke’s Peak pn-1 Page 4