“And you, uh…how many of you were born at the same time? You all looked so alike. Are you…did your mother have all of you at once?”
Gunnar moved to the couch, where they’d dropped their clothes earlier, and pulled on a pair of jeans. “No.
There were quadruplets first. Then triplets. Heidi is the youngest, born with Sindre and Torsten.”
“And that’s normal for you? So many children born at once?”
“Yes. Between two and four babies per litter,” Axel said.
“You’re born babies…not kittens?”
He chuckled. Her gaze told him she worried she might offend them, but he wasn’t surprised by her curiosity. It was a valid question for those unfamiliar with shifters, which of course accounted for most of the human race. “We don’t reach our catamount maturity until puberty, so we can’t shift until then.
We’re normal little kids, human in all regards save one. Our only gift as youngsters is our telepathic ability, and that doesn’t really manifest until language is learned.”
“Telepathy, which your mother didn’t have because she was human, right? Poor woman.”
Gunnar turned and grinned. “We were forbidden from using it when she was around. House rules.”
“What about your sister? Will she have a whole bunch of shifter babies at once?”
Gunnar grabbed the big water pot off the hearth and headed for the door.
Axel answered, “Only if she hooks up with a catamount shifter, but we’re rather few and far between. Our family unit is uncommon.”
Dakota looked from Axel to Gunnar’s back as he opened the front door, then back at Axel. “There’s more like you out there?”
“Yes, but most males of our race are loners. They don’t mate for life, and if they are alone, they cannot impregnate a woman unless she carries the catamount gene. Females aren’t born to catamounts very often.”
“Why?”
He shrugged. “It’s just the way it is. We don’t question certain things, because who would answer?
We can’t be genetically tested for fear of being found out. We live our lives in secret because it’s the only way to survive without becoming some lab experiment.”
“But you exposed yourselves to me.”
“We did,” he admitted softly.
“Because my life was in danger.” She dropped her gaze to his chest.
“True, but also because deep down we wanted you to know. We trust you.”
“I won’t tell a soul. I swear. Gunnar saved my life.”
He didn’t bother to tell her that the house hadn’t collapsed; therefore his brother hadn’t saved her life, at least not from the avalanche. Gunnar hadn’t needed to expose himself to her. But he understood his brother’s way of thinking. There had been danger, and secrets be damned. Gunnar wasn’t about to let the one woman they could both love be killed.
“And if your life hadn’t been in danger and we’d showed you what we were?” Gunnar said, shutting the door behind him and carrying the pot full of snow across the room to the fire. “What then? Is your vow of secrecy only out of gratitude because your life was in danger?”
Dakota turned her head and looked at Gunnar.
“Would you really have shown me otherwise?”
“Yes,” both Gunnar and Axel said in unison without a second’s hesitation.
Her mouth dropped open in obvious surprise.
“Seriously?”
Gunnar set the cooking pot on the hearth to warm.
Then he sat down on the other side of her from Axel and touched his fingers to her cheek in a tender caress.
“I was only waiting until we were off the mountain. I wanted you to know me. Not me pretending to be my brother.”
She looked back and forth between them, and then a frown furrowed her brow. “You need to share a woman,” she said hesitantly, “because you need both your sperm to impregnate her.”
He and Gunnar both nodded.
“I can’t be that woman. I don’t want to get pregnant.”
“Ever?” Axel asked, his heart nearly seizing up on him. He desperately wanted children. He’d been brought up in a big, loving family, and he wanted to expand that family, give their fathers grandchildren.
She frowned. “No, I don’t mean that. I’m just not ready. I’m only twenty-four. I…” She swallowed hard.
“No. Not ready for that. Four babies?”
A little relief ebbed through him. She wasn’t saying no forever, just for now. There was still hope. He glanced at Gunnar, then back to Dakota. “I wore a condom this last time, and if—when—we have you again, we’ll both wear protection. We’d never trap you or harm you in any way, honey. We hope you believe that.”
She nodded quickly. “I do. I know. You made that clear earlier.” Then a slow grin parted her lips. “When, not if?”
Gunnar chuckled. “When, sugar. When.”
Axel finally checked his watch. It was just after six.
If plans went as they should, their brothers would be heading out to find them very soon, being that they were now an hour behind schedule for their rendezvous at the trailhead. He’d give it about three more hours, and with luck, they’d be dug out and on their way back to Leavenworth. He prayed everyone followed the protocol they’d set up years before for this kind of emergency but had never needed to use.
Three hours. That should give them plenty of time for food and more. He pressed a fast, hard kiss to Dakota’s lips. “The when will be soon. After dinner.”
He winked, realizing he was famished and all they’d have to eat tonight was mac and cheese, some freeze-dried meat and maybe, for desert, a granola bar.
“Oh?”
Axel got up and reached for his clothes.
“Oh, yeah,” Gunnar said, then kissed her and stood up. “There’s a whole lot of that gorgeous body we still need to explore.”
She grinned up at him even as her cheeks turned a little pink.
In that instant, he knew that nothing had ever felt more right. The three of them. Not just in the sack, but being together, sharing a space, laughing, teasing.
Loving.
He pulled on his sweater and turned to look down at Dakota. “You’re okay, right? We didn’t do anything…too outrageous?”
Her grin grew, as did the sparkle in her eyes. “I’m great, Axel. Thank you for asking.” She flicked her pink tongue over her bottom lip. “I’m thinking there’s not much you could do that I’d say no to.”
Axel growled and had a hell of a time pulling himself away from simply gazing at her, even if it was just to gather up supplies to start dinner. “We’re taking you up on that in about—” he glanced at his watch, quickly calculating how long it would take to boil water and make macaroni, “—an hour.”
Dakota laughed. “I’ll be waiting.”
They’d need to hurry if they wanted one more round with her before the family arrived. He was sure the entire clan would show up for the rescue effort.
That was the kind of family they were.
Dakota rolled left, searching for one of the two warm bodies that had pressed against her for the last few hours. When she found nothing but cold floor, she rolled right, reaching out for the other one. Nothing.
She frowned and buried her face in her pillow. She was cold, and Axel and Gunnar had abandoned her.
But then her frown eased into a smile as she recalled all they’d done to her body before she’d fallen into an exhausted, satisfied heap.
Because she was cold and had to pee, she finally opened her eyes. Yep, the fire was out in the fireplace.