“They’re expecting us at the rendezvous point at five tonight,” he said, his voice low and calm. “We’ve got a personal locator beacon.” Gunnar turned away and went to the packs near the door and began digging.
“We’ll put it out. It’ll go for twenty-four hours.” He pulled a cell phone-sized, electronic thingy out of the pack and held it up. “See, no problem. Here it is.
Chances are they’ll come after us as soon as they get the call from search and rescue that the beacon has been set off.” He punched a button several times…and nothing happened. “Oh fucking son of a bitch.” He turned it over, flipped open the back, and stared for a long moment in silence. Then he dove back into the pack and started a frantic search.
Axel came up the ladder, lantern in one hand and a big roll of plastic in the other. He took one look at Gunnar dumping out the contents of the pack and asked, “What the hell is going on?”
Gunnar climbed to his feet. “There’s no fucking battery in the damn PLB.”
“Okay, chill out. Calm down.” Axel set the roll of plastic against the wall and took the little yellow device from Gunnar’s hand. “I’m going to kill Reidar.
He was supposed to replace all the batteries last week.
Damn it!”
Dakota bit her bottom lip and tried to calm her racing heart. “So…we’re trapped here? Stuck? No one’s going to know we’re buried under a pile of snow? We don’t have enough wood to last three days.”
“We have plenty,” Axel said, his voice low and steady. “Snow is actually a great insulator, and the cabin will stay warmer with less fire.”
“The food’s outside in the cache.” She glanced at the frozen sausage Axel had set on the table a few moments earlier. Pointing to it, she added, “That’s not enough to feed us for very long.”
“We have two weeks’ worth of dry food in storage, and lots of snow to make water with,” Gunnar said.
“We’ll be fine. Just might get tired of oatmeal and mac and cheese.” He smiled a little, and it did help calm her nerves.
“We’re okay then. Really?”
Gunnar nodded, stepped forward and reached out his hand to touch her cheek, but she stepped to the side and away from him. With a sigh, he said, “Yes, sweetheart. Really.” He turned to Axel and said, “Let’s get that hole covered before we lose any more heat.”
For the next while, the men put up the plastic, using a staple gun Gunnar retrieved from storage. She started to wonder just how much stuff they kept down there.
“So, who’s up for some breakfast?” Gunnar asked, heading for the storage room again.
The knot had loosened in Dakota’s gut, and she was hungry. “I am,” she said softly, heading over to the fireplace where there was a bit more light.
“Yeah. Me too,” Axel said. “I’ll put the water on.”
He got the old metal coffee pot from the kitchen counter and a big pot from a cabinet, and went out the door to fill them with snow. Waiting for snow to boil into hot water would take forever. She wouldn’t be eating anytime soon.
Gunnar came up the steps and closed the hatch to the storage, went to the counter and set down his armload of stuff, then came toward her. “Catch.” She grabbed the granola bar that zinged her way.
She found her first smile since the avalanche.
“Thanks,” she said as she ripped into the chewy chocolate chip bar.
Chapter Six
Gunnar put the last bowl into the dish drainer and lowered the wick on the kerosene lamp until it flickered and went out, casting the kitchen area into darkness. His heart heavy, he went to the couch and sat down on the opposite end from Axel, slouching into the corner and crossing his arms over his chest.
He stared at Dakota’s back. She had fetched a blanket and pillow from the loft, and one of his mother’s favored Agatha Christie novels from the bookshelf. She lay facing the fire, her back to them, and hadn’t said a word for the last two hours. She also hadn’t turned a page in a good five minutes, which told him she was deep in thought, not deep into the mystery.
We lost her, he said telepathically to his brother.
Maybe. Maybe not. She needs some time and space to adjust. Axel glanced around the darkened cabin.
Maybe it’s a good thing we’re trapped in here so she can’t run away.
I’m hoping that’s part of her problem. The avalanche spooked her. Then we revealed ourselves.
That’s a lot to take in at once. But the way she flinched when I tried to touch her…
Axel sighed. It definitely wasn’t the most idealistic way to go about letting her know what we are, that’s for sure. A discussion over a nice dinner. His laugh was only in Gunnar’s head, and it held no humor.
There wasn’t any other way. I had to turn.
I know, brother. And it was the right thing for saving lives. Just not the right thing for saving our sex life.
Love life, Gunnar corrected. I can admit it. Can you?
Yeah, Axel said with a sigh. I love her. Who wouldn’t? Her first concern during the avalanche was Falke. Not the fact we were getting buried under tons of snow. She was worried about a cat.
Dakota sat up fast and spun around on her butt, crossing her legs and folding her arms over her middle.
Her eyes narrowed on the brothers.
“What’s wrong?” Axel asked.
“You’re talking to each other, aren’t you?” She sounded angry.
Both Gunnar and Axel nodded.
“Stop that shit right now. If you’re going to talk, talk. And why can’t I hear you? I heard you down there.” She flung her arm out, pointing to the hatch in the floor.
“Our telepathic ability is different when we are in our human form,” Axel said. “As humans, we can only communicate with family members. When we’re in catamount form, then we can urge humans to hear us so long as we’re in sight of them.”
She frowned at them. “So all of you are cats?”
“Except Heidi,” Gunnar answered. “She lacks the proper chromosome. But she can communicate telepathically with us, just not other humans.”
“Why is that?”
He shrugged. “It just is.”
“How’d you get that way? What caused it?”
“It’s passed down through the men in our family.
The history of the catamount shifters goes back further than anyone knows.”
“And your mother?”
“Human,” Axel said.
Dakota shook her head and swiped her hand over her face. Then she groaned as she looked at Axel.
“That first time we had sex, we didn’t use protection.
I’m not going to have a litter of kittens or something, am I?”
Gunnar cleared his throat. Axel didn’t say anything.
“I am? Oh, God! What the hell did you think— No, what was I thinking? I wasn’t. I was horny. Damn it, I know better. This is why I don’t have affairs. I’m not good at it.”
That wasn’t true. She was damn good at it, Gunnar thought, but wisely chose to keep the compliment to himself. Instead, he tried to calm her by saying, “You can’t get pregnant from one time with one—” A loud, sarcastic bark of laughter came out of her before he could finish. “I haven’t heard that line since I was in the backseat of my boyfriend’s father’s station wagon when we were in eleventh grade. I didn’t believe it then, and I don’t buy it now.”
“With one shifter,” he finished.
She hesitated. “What?”
“What he’s trying to say,” Axel said, “is you aren’t pregnant.”