Falke’s Peak

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.”

“And he’s so sure, how?”

“You’re human. You would need the sperm of two catamount shifters to conceive,” Axel said, his voice harder now. “I always wore a condom.”

“No, remember, you—” Her face went blank as the meaning behind Axel’s admission sank in. She slowly lowered the hand she’d raised to point toward the kitchen.

Gunnar’s stomach tightened into a knot. That was real smooth, brother!

Sorry.

Fuck! He didn’t look at Axel, but Dakota did, and she didn’t look happy.

“You… You always wore a condom?”

Axel gave one solemn nod.

When she turned her gaze on Gunnar, he could practically see the flames of furious realization licking up her cheeks. Her voice was deadly calm when she said, “Which means you didn’t.”

Gunnar shook his head.

She surged to her feet and stalked into the darkness of the kitchen, her stocking feet thudding against the hardwood flooring with her furious steps. Her breathing was loud, deep, as if she was trying to catch her breath. Gunnar glanced at Axel.

Axel stared at the fire and said, Let her work it out, Gun. Don’t say anything.

It didn’t take long. She practically shouted. “What the hell is wrong with you two? Was it all some sort of damn game? Switch places and see if the city-slicker notices?”

Gunnar winced. “No. I…” He glanced at his brother before continuing. One of them had to say something. She was “working it out” all wrong. “I didn’t mean for it to happen. I was supposed to remain catamount the entire time, but—” She didn’t let him explain. “Oh, man, I don’t believe this! After we did it on the table, the damn cat was making a racket. What the hell was all that crap about Falke having a run-in with a porcupine? That had to be a bunch of BS, so what? If the cat wasn’t…”

She paused and pointed at them. At Axel more so, it seemed—her movement and features less visible in the shadowy area across the room. “That was you, Axel?

Outside? While Gunnar and I—”

“Yes.” Axel got up off the couch and went toward her.

“You saw us.”

“I did, and I was pissed off at him for fucking you, because I wanted you.”

“There never was a porcupine, was there?” she asked, her voice softer. “You attacked him.”

“Yeah, I did.”

She looked at Gunnar and then back at Axel. “You scratched the hell out of your own brother?”

“Uh…we sort of scratched the hell out of each other,” Axel said. “That was me who came back inside.

Gunnar was only human for…well…for long enough to have sex with you.”

“Why the hell was he in his human body at all if he was supposed to be a cat the whole time?” she cried.

Gunnar stood, unable to stand the hurt and anger in her voice and not being able to see her. “Because I was jealous of that first kiss between the two of you. I wanted you too, but you’re our client. We were trying to abstain, but I thought he was weakening.”

“I was,” Axel admitted, drawing Dakota’s gaze.

Gunnar continued, “I thought I’d have better control over myself than he would. We switched places so Axel didn’t have to fight temptation so hard.”

Her gaze snapped to Gunnar’s. “Oh yeah, you really fought me off, didn’t you?”

He flinched, unable to deny her claim.

She closed her eyes and dropped her head forward.

“Sorry, that wasn’t fair of me. I know I started the whole thing, but I thought you were him.” She sighed heavily. Her words hurt, but he said nothing.

“This…I…I’m a one-man woman. I’ve never been involved, much less slept with, two men at once. And definitely not brothers.” She looked at Gunnar. “And if you went back to being a cat, you just let Axel go upstairs and sleep with me after you and I…” She shook her head, her brow wrinkling in confusion.

“How could you do that?”

Before he could answer, Dakota growled and crossed her arms again. “God! I don’t believe this. I told Falke things… you things. I suppose you told him everything I said to you when you were a cat?”