by Vivian Arend
Naked with bare feet it was.
She worked as fast as possible, but she was still shivering violently before she made it into the cabin and closed the door on the icy wind.
At first glance it looked as if years had passed since the cabin had been used, but there was dry wood and kindling beside the wood stove. She dragged open the chest at the foot of the bed and covered herself with the first thing she found while she got the fire going and lit the oil lanterns.
Curls of heat were slow to poke fingers into the cabin. Dani jumped up and down fifty times to warm up then hit the chest again in search of the stash of clothing that was always found in such places.
The next thing in the chest was better than clothes, though.
“Thank you, patron saint of hospitality.” She held a fistful of chocolate bars toward the sky before grabbing an oversized sweatshirt and pulling it over her head.
The pair of sweatpants she found were three sizes too big. She shrugged. Beggars couldn’t be choosers. She tugged the strings tight to secure them around her waist then layered on another enormous hoodie.
After the excitement of the day she wasn’t going anywhere for a while, so she lowered the mattress from where it had been stored hanging in midair to discourage little creatures from building nests. The sheets came out from the chest, and she made up the bed, looking forward to curling up for the night.
But first, she had work to do.
Dani took the chair near the fire, letting the dry warmth wrap its arms around her as she pulled the transistor radio forward. It was nearly ready—just needed some components from her waistband to finish the connections. It was fidgety work, and she had to improvise when it turned out one piece had broken during her swim. Still, less than forty-five minutes later she had the radio working.
She adjusted the frequency and listened as the static settled into a low buzz.
Time to try it. She pressed the level and leaned toward the microphone. “Delta November to Charlie Alpha.”
Low buzz returned. A slightly higher snap of frequency. Dani adjusted her speaker settings and tried again.
“Delta November to Charlie Alpha, come in, please.”
“Charlie Alpha here. Hey, girlfriend, what’s shaking?”
Dani grinned. She’d never met the other woman, but they’d spoken a million times over the years, and she counted her as a friend. “Wow, that is so not the proper lingo. Is that you, Erika?”
“You know it. Mission accomplished?”
Drat, of all the things she hated to admit. “Negative. Target not achieved. M and I were separated. Have you heard from her?”
“Not yet. You need more backup? What’s your status?”
She glanced around the cozy cabin. She supposed she was fine, other than not finding out for sure if her sister was okay, and other than losing her partner. And other than being chased by feral wolves—okay, he probably wasn’t feral, and if he was, he was very, very nice looking for a feral creature…
Hmmm, just the thought of the growly wolf was enough to make her think happy thoughts. Life was actually pretty good.
Only she doubted all those “other than” moments would win her any super-spy-of-the-year awards. The only way through this was forward at high speed. “Negative to backup. I’ll be making another attempt at contacting my target. Can you tell Charlene that…I need a little more time?”
“Ummm.”
“Please? Stall for me. I don’t want her to know I screwed up. I’m so close. I’m sure I can sneak back and—”
An entirely different voice carried over the line. “I’m not in the habit of accepting half-truths from my agents.”
Shit. It was Charlene. “No, ma’am. I mean, I didn’t mean stall stall, just that I need another couple days, and I’m sure I’ll have the information I need.”
“You plan on simply walking into the place, recruit?”
Oh boy. The stern disapproving tone deepened even more. “No, ma’am. Actually, yes, ma’am.”
A low chuckle carried over the air. “Okay, D. I’ll give you and your partner one more attempt. You have one week, but I expect a report by then. I need you sharp and ready for anything, so get this out of your system once and for all.”
“Yes, ma’am. I will. And thank you, ma’am.”
Everything went quiet for a while. Dani was reaching to turn off the transceiver when it crackled to life again. A whispered sound emitted. “D?”
Erika. “Thanks for throwing me under the bus there, friend.”
“Sorry. Charlene snuck up on me, and the next thing I knew I was in a headlock, with a hand over my mouth, and no way to warn you to be quiet. I didn’t expect her to be wandering around here at nearly midnight.”
Dani could picture it. “It’s okay. I’ve heard that Charlene is damn scary at times.”
“You’re telling me. I live here. One minute I’ll be minding my own business, and the next she’s in the room, eyeing me as if she’s making evil plans.”
Not that Dani even knew where here was—the secret shelter of the secret organization was a…well, secret. “We need to work out a code.”
A snort from the other end. “Sure. How about one if by land, two if by sea, and three if by air.”
They both laughed.
“Good luck,” Erika told her. “I need to go.”
“Night.” Dani signed off.
Darkness had well and truly locked in the cabin, but the air was warm throughout the place. Before morning the fire would have gone down and the room would cool, but for now Dani wandered and explored her twelve by twelve kingdom in comfort. She found coffee in a tin, and food in another sealed chest, making herself a quick snack before tucking it all away from the little forest creatures who she could smell hidden in the cabin corners.
Then she crawled into the bed, feeling a little lonelier than expected. Especially when she realized what day it was. Or had been, since it was now after midnight. In all the excitement of tracking her maybe sister, and the chase, she’d totally missed that yesterday had been her birthday.
She was too cozy to get out of bed to grab a piece of chocolate in lieu of a cake, so she stared at the fire in the airtight stove and tunelessly sang happy birthday to herself.
When she woke to a clouded sky and a still-empty cabin, it was even lonelier.
For the next two days Dani wandered the territory around the little cabin, twiddling her thumbs as she waited for Michele to show up. It was tempting to ignore Charlene’s order and head back to Chicken on her own, but it was bad enough she’d messed up once. No matter how much she longed to get to the bottom of the mystery with her sister, making another mistake was ix-nay on the agenda.
Nope. Bored was good. Dani searched the territory and climbed trees. Checked out the storage shed and shower house and finally, so bored she was ready to crawl the walls, she crawled the walls. Outside the cabin.
It was good practice, especially as the wind picked up and nasty weather rolled in.
It would be good to be doing the next thing. Assignments and work would usually mean being part of a team, and Dani wanted that. She liked being needed, and liked working in groups. And someday, she wanted to be part of a duo, i.e., she’d like a steady guy, but she had so much other living to do before settling down.
Strange. Her older sister, the one she hoped she was tracking, had married young. Her little sister, Suzanna, also talked incessantly about meeting and marrying that special someone. Dani—oh, she wanted a sweetie, but she didn’t want to settle down. Not yet. Not for a long, long, long time.
Long time.
She nodded firmly then tucked the covers under her chin and let the small noises outside the cabin lull her to sleep. After days alone the wind in the trees and the sound of the river in the distance had become a lullaby. The outside, trying to get in. Familiar and yet not.
Dani opened her eyes to a hint of light to the east, while the rest of the cabin remained pitch black. Firelight snuck out fr
om the banked stove. Her nose stuck out into the cold, and she shivered under the blankets for a moment.
What was that?
Scratching. The slightest sound from one corner of the roof, then the other, the quietest creak from the front wall of the cabin.
A branch against the window?
Another scratch.
Ahh, a mouse?
The sound was faint, just barely there, but no way she was going to sleep anymore.
Dani wiggled her way out of the bed, quickly jerking on the enormous hoodie as protection against the cold, and with her feet bare, walked silently across the floor to peer out the window in an attempt to spot her little furry visitor.
Nothing.
She placed her fingers quietly on the door latch, squeezing slowly. Tugging the door just toward her—
The heavy wooden plank pushed past her, and in the dark, a figure loomed. Hands caught her shoulders and lifted her in the air, twirling her a hundred and eighty degrees to push her firmly against the wooden plank door that had slammed against the wall so violently the wooden frame now hung by one hinge.
She tried to lift her knees. Didn’t work.
Tried to relax so she could slide out of the tight grasp—anything to escape, but it was like being held in place by a Darth Vader mental force field.
Dani couldn’t move, but her captor’s dark face came toward her, stopping only inches away. An intensely unreadable expression worn by the solid, dark male she’d left standing on the riverbank three days ago.
Oh. “You’re not a mouse.”
He pulled back, and all she could see was a mouthful of teeth bared before her.
3
Cole held her trapped, her struggles barely registering as he pressed every inch of his body against hers and squeezed her against the wooden door. He’d had a hell of a time of it.
His goal had been to track her down as rapidly as possible, but it seemed the universe had other ideas.
Far enough out of town there was no longer phone reception, he’d come across a family of five trekking on foot to Chicken, their broken vehicle abandoned at the side of the road. Cole couldn’t leave the woman with her small children in the dark and cold, so he’d done an emergency run to get them back to town.
That was the first interruption of a good dozen, and by the time he’d made it to the riverbank nearly twelve hours later, the rising bad weather had knocked out all but the faintest hint of scent from his prey.
He’d slept in snatches when he could, pausing his quest again when he found a teenage bobcat shifter hiding from the storm in a ramshackle lean-to. Escorting the runaway home had taken a full day—but what was he supposed to do? Leave her in the cold when she had nothing but a backpack filled with useless electronics?
He was wet and hungry and totally pissed off by the morning he made it to the clearing where the happy little cabin holding his quarry sat, all toasty and warm with a fire and conveniences like a freaking roof.
Yup. He’d been cold, hungry, pissed off…
And now, pressed against her? Instantly turned on. Dammit.
In this position, her sex was very apparent. She was little, but lush, the breasts hidden under the mass of her sweater pressing against his chest hard enough to leave him utterly aware that she was female.
Mate…?
The temptation was impossible to resist. He lowered his face to the crook of her neck and inhaled deeply.
A massive shiver shook her teeny frame. “Don’t hurt me,” she begged. “Don’t bite me.”
Fear turned her voice ragged, and her panic was nearly enough to make him release his grasp.
Nearly—
His nose told him her tone of voice was the trick because, other than that initial quiver, her entire body wasn’t saying terrified. Instead she’d used the motion to loosen his grip and now she was wound up with the tension of a warrior waiting to spring a trap.
“Don’t tempt me,” he growled. Biting her. Jeez, just the thought made his body react. “If I want to, I damn well will.”
For a split second she held on to her act before making a rude noise. “Your response was pretty good,” she admitted. “Very gruff and scary. You win this round. Now do you think you could put me down, Mr. Mouse?”
What the hell was this shit? “Mouse?”
He didn’t move.
She stared back, examining his face carefully. All he could really see of her was the tip of her nose and a glimmer of light off her eyes. The oversized hood hid the rest of her face in the shadows, but Cole’s nose had told him all he really needed to know…
His mate.
She shook her head slightly. “Okay, you’re bigger than the average mouse. That would explain why you were making more noise than I expected. But we could have a regular conversation like human beings. There’s a perfectly good table over there, with chairs.”
Cole refused to let her go. It had taken too much energy to find her, not to mention he was enjoying being pressed against her. “Not human,” he pointed out.
A sigh of exasperation escaped before all of her tension leached away, leaving her nearly boneless in his arms. “You win. Oh, did you save the sled? I’m sorry about that. It was a nice sled. I had fun riding it.”
Cole ignored her question. “Why’d you steal it?”
“Bad habit? Joy ride?”
He waited.
She tilted her head and tried again. “I’m a secret shopper? Doing consumer analysis for Ski-Doo?
He waited.
She wriggled an arm free, placing her elbow on his shoulder so she could rest her chin on her hand. “You really are very strong to be able to hold me this long, but could you put me down?”
“You ran away.”
“I did,” she admitted slowly. “What if I promise not to run away from the cabin?”
He considered. Truth rang in her words, so he relaxed his grip, reluctant because having her against him felt damn wonderful.
It was a trillion kinds of torture as she slid her way down the front of his body, brushing against his growing desire until her feet hit the ground.
They stood in the open doorway, with nothing between his prey and the outside world. She glanced at freedom then turned and moved quickly to the table, lighting a lamp before climbing into a chair with her legs curled up under her.
Cole forced the door shut, using the latch to hold the broken hinge in place.
He moved to the opposite side of the table instead of the seat next to her. The temptation to touch was more than he could resist if she’d been within reach.
“Who are you and what were you doing with my sled?” he demanded.
“I think it’s only fair if I answer a question, you do the same for me.”
He dropped his chair between her and the door. “This isn’t a conversation.”
She tapped on the table. “I need to know. Dark-haired woman you were with, really petite, turned into a white bear. What’s her name?”
Cole sat up straighter. “I won’t discuss the people I’m protecting with their stalker, if you don’t mind. Now your name.”
He leaned in as he said the last word, nose inches away again. She did that little head-tilt thing again, and his spine stiffened.
This was driving his wolf crazy. All the beast wanted to do was grab her, strip her out of that pile of fabric she was hiding in, and make her his. He wasn’t sure that they needed to make it to the bed five feet away from them, either.
He’d just about reached the end of his rope when she gave a quick nod. “My name is Danielle, but you can call me Dani. I’m from Kodiak Island, and I’m looking for my sister. She’s a ghost bear, and I think I saw her running with you today. I need to talk to her.”
Again—truth. His nose wasn’t lying, and neither was she. Cole didn’t want to trust her, but he desperately needed to trust her because at this point he was almost positive she was his mate. His wolf was pacing inside as if it had eaten an entire batch of screaming-hot ch
icken wings without inhaling.
They were close enough their knees bumped, and a shiver slid over his skin as his wolf roared in his head.
Cole dragged his control back into place even as he gave in to the need to touch her. He laid a hand on her bare knee, heat slamming into his palm. “Push off that hoodie and let me see your face. If you’re sisters, you should look like her, right?”
To his shock and delight, Dani obeyed. Her hands rose to grasp the fabric and shove it backward, light from the lantern casting a golden glow over her.
High cheekbones, bright eyes with whiskey-toned flecks. A smattering of freckles over her nose and cheeks that didn’t seem to go with the rest of her colouring. Lips that were generous and full. Beautiful, but—
Young.
Oh man. Here he’d been imagining his mate would be somewhere around his age. Someone old enough and experienced enough in life that having their future choices torn from them wouldn’t be a huge—
Okay, the whole child of destiny thing was always going to be huge, but to someone so young? The prophecy was about to roll her to the ground.
Cole’s heart fell as he choked off his sexual attraction with a steely fist.
Dani was tempted to roll her eyes, resisting only because she’d learned enough over the years to know poking dominant wolves wasn’t a good idea. Still, she could nearly read his mind. He’d been quivering, all but beside himself with rage, but the instant he saw her face he’d shut it down. Probably worried that his powerful frustration was going to “scare the poor wittle girl.”
Fah. She got treated like that all the damn time, and she was tired of it.
So what if she looked young? She’d trained hard at the things she wanted to be good at, like self-defence and sneaking. In fact, she’d turned sneaking into a profession. Looking as innocent as she did could help get the job done. Heck, being underestimated would help her.
But for some reason with this man—this wolf across from her—it was unsetting to know that he too was ready to misjudge her.
She pointed to her face. “Sisters. Now do you believe me?”
He’d snatched his hand off her thigh and was rubbing his palm against his leg as if he was trying to wipe off cooties or something. He lifted dark eyes to hers, tension lifting his shoulders. “Maybe.”
