The Lion, the Leopard and the Wolf (6 page)

Apparently the other horse had run off, and all she could make out in the pale moonlight were tracks trampled over by her, the sleigh and the horses. She had to get back and help Aaron. There was no sign of Trent anywhere along the trail. The horse whinnied again. This time she heard fear as he raced past her and once again knocked her on her ass.

That’s when she saw the wolf.

The wolf got up off the ground cautiously, and limped his way back toward her and the sleigh. The horse must have gotten in a kick. Even at a distance, the wolf looked bigger than she imagined one to be, and not because she sat unceremoniously in the snow on her butt. Now she understood why they told those big bad wolf tales, and in her opinion, Little Red Riding Hood had damn good reason to be worried.

She’d watched enough National Geographic specials to know this was no ordinary wolf. Its pale gold eyes shone bright within a face beautifully marked in grays on black, but the rest of its muscles rippled beneath glossy solid black fur. When the wolf stared at her, something in its expression seemed familiar, challenging, and neither of them dared breathe. She couldn’t tear her eyes away, but not from being paralyzed with fear. No, to the contrary, all she could think about was how magnificent the creature standing before her appeared.

The wolf blinked and started to dig under the sleigh. Mac still couldn’t move. What was it doing? She jumped up when realization dawned.

“Oh no. Oh my God, no, shoo. Shoo.” The wolf was after Aaron. She looked around for a weapon of sorts. She found nothing, not even a stick big enough to chase it away. Mac grabbed a handful of snow and packed it into a ball. She threw it at the wolf. It ignored her, while digging in larger and larger circles around the sleigh. Mac threw snowball after snowball at it, trying to distract the wolf from Aaron. She circled, noticed the wolf was a male, and pounded him from behind until he turned on her. Facing her, he growled. He caught the last snowball in his mouth and sneezed his disgust before shaking and trotting off into the woods.

Mac crawled tentatively on her hands and knees to the sleigh. She never took her eyes off the path the black wolf had taken until she got to the area around the sleigh where the wolf had dug. He’d done a good enough job so she could reach Aaron.

“Now would be a good time for the horse to return.” She could have used some help dragging Aaron out from under the sleigh.

Taking a quick look around, and with obviously no further help coming from the animal world, she grabbed Aaron’s ankles and pulled. She plopped on her already sore butt. He moved, not much, but enough to give her hope.

“Come on, Aaron, wake up. I’m going to need your help if we’re going to find Trent and get out of here.” She worried her lowered lip. Trent would have come looking for them if he could. She wasn’t sure how far they’d come before the sleigh broke free of the horses. She tried to remember the last time she’d heard from Trent, but couldn’t recall just exactly when she’d seen him fly out of the front seat.

Aaron had been unconscious and buried in the snow for a long time. If he hadn’t groaned earlier, she would have been more concerned. She kept up a diatribe of conversation to the unconscious man as she struggled to free his body.

She pulled, and bit by bit, more of his body appeared from under the sleigh. As soon as she had him out, she could go back in and retrieve the blankets and the food. She wasn’t looking forward to climbing back into that hole. But who knew how long it would be before help came? They’d need all the blankets and supplies they could dig up.

No sooner had she returned from her last trip under the sleigh when she heard Trent’s voice calling her. “Trent, where are you? Keep talking.” Mac followed the sound of his voice and discovered him not far along the path where the wolf had entered the tree-line. He looked a mess, but according to him, he thought he only had one or two broken ribs.

Mac thought broken ribs sounded painful, but who was she to argue with a man who growled when he spoke.

“Where’s Aaron?” he asked.

“Not far from here. Can you walk?” she asked. He nodded and she reached down to support him when he tried to get up.

“Is your ankle okay?” Trent asked and quickly pulled away from her as if his weight would be too much of a burden.

She put her arm back around his waist, being careful of his ribs. “Look at me. A wrenched ankle is the least of our worries right now. We need to help Aaron. He hasn’t made a sound since right after we flipped.”

She tugged at Trent to hurry. Once someone else assured her Aaron was fine, she’d relax. Until then, her insides felt like a tight spring waiting to snap.

Trent didn’t argue with the pace she set. When he saw the overturned sleigh and the body of his friend in the snow, he grunted.

Mac had bundled Aaron up in the blankets with his head slightly elevated on one of the seat cushions. She’d done all she knew to manage the situation, now she’d let Trent take over.

“If only every breath I inhale didn’t feel like I was losing air instead of gaining it,” he complained. She watched him wince in pain as she brushed against his side.

“I’m so sorry. You need to rest, but we have to find shelter first. Can you keep up?”

He turned, and Mac swore she saw him sniff the air.

“There’s a cottage up the path on the right. It’s not too far to walk, but it won’t be easy dragging Aaron. We’ll have to put something together to carry him on.” Each word Trent spoke sounded painful to Mac.

“Why don’t you sit down and try to stay warm with Aaron? He could use your body heat, and you could use his while I get more supplies out of the sleigh.”

Trent’s eyebrows lifted at her suggestion.

“Talk to him and keep him with us.”

Mac organized the provisions, tying them up in separate bundles, rolled Aaron slightly over to put one side of the blanket under him, and then gently turned him over to pull the other side out. She placed the folded quilt beneath him for padding, tied his feet together outside around the bottom of the blanket, and placed the rest of the extra blankets on top of him.

When she looked around she noticed two sticks. She tied their individual bundles of provisions to them and handed one to Trent. Where were these sticks when she’d needed to ward off the wolf?

“Oh, I forgot to tell you, a very large wolf was here earlier, so watch out. Didn’t you see him? He had to have gone right past you on the path. I chased him away from Aaron by throwing snowballs at him.”

Trent grimaced with what looked like an attempt at a smile. “Snowballs? At a wolf? First of all, there are no wolves this far south. Must’ve been a coyote.” Every word he spoke sounded filled with pain.

“Okay, okay. Stop talking. Catch your breath and lead on.” Mac grabbed her side of the blanket and began to drag Aaron as Trent did his best on the other side. It was going to be slow work, and she hoped the padding she’d added to the makeshift travois would protect Aaron from the bruising terrain. They had to get to shelter soon. Light flakes of snow began to fall and got thicker with each step they took.

Exhaustion and pain caused them to stop several times to rest. When they did, Mac adjusted Aaron’s blankets and checked Trent’s injuries while he grumbled. She was afraid to sit too long, sure if she stopped to think through the last few hours, she’d start screaming and wouldn’t stop. She’d never been the adventurous one in the family. Not since she’d broken her leg in the skiing accident ten years ago. They’d said she had promise—they’d spoken in terms of the Olympics—and then she fell. The leg healed good as new, but she came to realize she wasn’t cut out for taking chances. Something inside her heart never healed.

Now look at her. In the deep dark woods of Colorado, with two usually capable men in a dangerous bind, and tonight they needed her to get them out of this. Mac shook her head as she got up to start walking again. If they depended on her, then they could all be in deep trouble.
No!
She wouldn’t think about herself like that. So far she’d handled the challenges and handled them well. She’d continue to do whatever was necessary to get them to safety.

Trent remained quiet and focused. He grunted for her to turn right and follow the narrow path downhill around to the east side of the mountain. At least the snow wouldn’t accumulate as quickly here and the travois slid easily over the iced path.

“It’s not far now,” Trent reassured her.

She didn’t acknowledge him, focused only on the path ahead. She could do this.

“Stop.” Trent pulled up short. She wanted to drop the supplies and Aaron, and drop dead in her tracks. But she looked up at Trent and thought she saw the wolf in his dark brown eyes. For a moment they flashed gold like the wolf’s when he looked at her. “We’re here. Let me check it out first and make sure we aren’t barging in on any bears or such.” He did smile then, even though it had to have hurt with the swollen lip he sported.

The smile he gave her warmed her from the inside out. He added, “We have to get Aaron to shelter and warm him up. He’s always hated the cold. I never understood how he could stand the summer heat.”

Mac looked forward to a warm fire. The wind began to howl and the cabin looked cozy and inviting after the night’s events. She hoped Aaron would come around when they got his body temperature back up.

Trent dropped his tramp stick and bag to help Mac drag Aaron inside. Once they were beyond the sill, he stepped out to bring the rest of their things in by himself. Then he closed the door behind him.

Mac hardly had time to look the place over before Trent had a fire going in the fireplace, and he directed her to help him move Aaron close to it. He piled the dry blankets around his friend, efficiently working despite his earlier injuries, and then searched the cabin for anything they could use. He went through a doorway and came out with towels.

“Take off your clothes,” Trent demanded. He stripped himself and Aaron down to the skin while she contemplated his order. Well, not much had changed in the last few hours, Mac thought. He was still demanding and arrogant.

He looked up and sneered at her modesty. “If you’re wet, you’re more likely to get frostbite. Dry off and hang your stuff over those chairs to dry.” He gestured to the chair.

Wrapping a large towel around his hips, concealing himself from the waist down, his voice deepened when he threatened, “Then come here. I’ll warm you up.”

Back at the lodge, when each of the men had pleasured her, they’d remained fully dressed. Now as she stared at Trent’s chest, she understood his physical power. He was more glorious than anything she’d ever seen before. His defined muscles rippled in the firelight as he worked over Aaron.

She noticed scratches and bruises covered him. My God, what was wrong with her. The poor man stood there injured, and she ogled him while he tried to save his friend’s life. She shook her thoughtful self back and went over to help remove Aaron’s shirt and pants.
Oh my
, she couldn’t help the intimate thoughts his naked body evoked when she remembered taking his cock into her mouth.

Trent growled. “I’ve got it. Take off your clothes and come over here and get under the quilt with Aaron. Now.”

He handed her the towel, and she did what he told her. She couldn’t believe she felt somewhat self-conscious after what they’d done earlier today.

Trent threw the last of their clothes over a chair and dove under the quilts with her. He reached out to grab a couple of the heavy down comforters they’d brought along and buried all three of them under them.

“Okay, now we have a job to do. Crawl over to the other side of Aaron and press your body up against his.” Trent had turned Aaron on his side to take advantage of more surface space. “I’ll take this side. Now start rubbing him all over. Get his circulation going.” He started rubbing Aaron down, demonstrating what his friend needed.

“He’s been lying around freezing while we’ve been busting our asses. But at least the work kept our blood circulating. That’s it. Good, just like that. We’ll have him warmed up in no time.”

“But he’s shaking all over.”

“That’s how he’ll get his own body temperature up. The shaking is good.”

“Should I keep talking to him?”

“Yes, that’s right. Let’s bring him back from his little vacation.”

Mac could feel the fire on her back, and the needles and pins poking her extremities as circulation returned into her own limbs. A low rumble emerged from deep within Aaron’s chest.

“Did he just growl?”

Trent stopped rubbing her arm and really looked at her, like he wanted to tell her something, something important. But instead of speaking his mind, she recognized the minute he reconsidered and said, “You’re exhausted.”

“Do you think he’ll be okay?” Her arms circled Aaron’s waist and Trent wrapped his arms around them both, holding them tightly as Aaron shivered.

“Sure, he’ll be fine. We’ve been through far worse. He’s too hard-headed to let a little bump do him in. Besides, he’s got you and me. Right?”

She nodded. “What about you? Are you breathing okay? How’re your ribs?”

He sounded better. “I heal fast. They probably weren’t broken, just bruised. Relax.”

He stroked circles over her back, soothing and comforting. Aaron’s shivering slowed, and her hooded eyes dropped, closing in the soothing warmth from the fire and the men in her arms.

Sometime during the night, Trent shifted them all around and placed Aaron closest to the fire and sandwiched Mac between them. Trent whispered in her ear, “I’ve had enough of cuddling Aaron’s cold ass.”

“He seems unusually warm now. Could he have a fever?”

“Nah, his body temperature runs higher than most.”

“Maybe that’s because he has so much body hair.”

“Nah, he’s normal. It’s probably your imagination.”

“Maybe,” she admitted. She was so very tired and probably imagining all this.

Aaron groaned and moaned as Trent moved him around. “His grumblings are a good sign.” Trent assured her that Aaron would be alright by morning and turned her away from the other man.