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
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.
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
