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  "Are you okay?" he demanded, his voice grim.

  "Yes."

  "Idiot."

  "They left," she said, looking out the back window. She could barely make out the red taillights retreating slowly in the swirling white, but they were retreating.

  Ty grabbed his cell phone and flipped it open only to utter a pithy imprecation. "It’s dead. Let me have yours."

  "I don’t have a cell phone."

  "What? Everyone has a cell phone."

  "I don’t."

  "Why not?"

  "It’s a luxury I can’t afford on my salary as a junior vet."

  He said something truly foul and she glared at him.

  "Why don’t you have a CB? Every ranch truck has one."

  "My truck’s new and I haven’t had it installed yet." If his voice got any lower, he’d be growling.

  "Do you think we can get the truck back on the road?"

  "Maybe."

  She went to get out when he did, but he snapped, "Stay inside where it’s warm."

  "I can help."

  "If I can’t get it, you’re strength isn’t going to make any difference."

  "You’re so darn arrogant sometimes, I want to spit. I’m not a light weight."

  He smiled. "I know, little bit, but let me try first, all right?"

  He was back sooner than she expected with more bad news.

  "The drive line’s broken. We’re not going anywhere."

  "We can stay inside the cab, turning the engine on to keep it warm every so often."

  Ty shook his head decisively. "We cannot stay in the truck."

  "It makes sense. Rescue will come along eventually."

  "It could be hours." He said it like they’d die together in the cab if it took that long.

  "But—"

  "There’s a cabin not too far from here. It belongs to a friend of my dad’s, but he moved on."

  "How far is it?"

  He shrugged. "Close enough."

  "I still think it would make more sense to wait for rescue."

  "We’re in a ditch off a secondary road in a snow storm that is going to cover the truck before long. We can’t depend on rescue."

  ***

  Ty watched the emotions chase across Frankie’s face as she thought about what he’d said. She might be right, they might get rescued if they waited in the truck, but he also might give into the feelings clamoring inside him to mate with her.

  He couldn’t take that chance.

  The cabin was maybe a half an hour walk. It was cold, but he had natural resistance and she had bundled up to ride her horse earlier. Her layers should protect her.

  She sighed, her mouth turning down in defeat. "Okay. We’ll go to the cabin."

  She started putting the layers back on she’d taken off in the warmth of the truck cab. Soon she was as bundled up as he’d first seen her that morning. He pulled the horse blanket he kept behind the driver’s seat and wrapped it over her head and around her like a shawl, as additional protection from the elements.

  "Shouldn’t you use it? You’ve only got your sheepskin. You don’t even have a hat."

  "I do." He pulled the Australian oilskin wide brimmed hat from behind his seat and a pair of wool lined leather gloves as well. Even werewolves knew better than to brave the Montana winters in their skin without basic precautions. He put them on and cinched the string on the hat so it couldn’t fly off. He even buttoned his coat.

  When he was done, he said, "Come out my door. It’ll be safer to exit the truck together."

  She followed him without comment. As he lifted her from the truck, her scent reached out and enveloped him with such strength his knees almost buckled.

  That half hour walk to the cabin was looking almost pleasurable right now. Maybe it would cool his libido to manageable proportions. He’d never found it so hard to control his beast and something else really bothered him.

  He’d been right...Olivia was in heat. He’d smelled it on her before she’d even come out of the barn, but he hadn’t felt the urge to mate her. Not even a twinge. His senses had been full of Frankie’s scent and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t direct his wolf’s interest to the other woman. Was it because he’d scented Frankie first?

  He didn’t know, but he wasn’t mating with a human.

  Not today, not ever.

  His father was respected and feared as pack leader because he enforced pack law with no exceptions. His best friend had mated a human when they were both young. It had not been a sacred bond and the human female had never conceived. She'd wanted children more than she wanted her mate and she'd left him.

  Five years later, Ty's father's friend had been caught mating a femwolf. His first wife was still living and according to pack law, that made both him and the femwolf guilty of adultery. Although they were divorced by human laws, they were found guilty by the pack and pack justice was carried out.

  By Ty's father.

  Both wolves had their throats ripped out by the pack leader and both Duke and Ty had been forced to watch, to see pack justice as well as the consequences of disobeying pack law.

  Ty wasn't sure he agreed with the law, but he damn well wasn't going to risk ever becoming a casualty to it.

  With a femwolf for his first and only mate, he wouldn't have to worry about that. Only werewolves foolish enough to marry humans did.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Frankie stumbled into the small cabin ahead of Ty, too numb from the cold to even appreciate being out of it.

  The door slammed behind her, leaving them in darkness. From the sound of Ty’s movements, that didn’t seem to slow him down. The scratch of a match on a tinder box came just before a small flame illuminated his hand on a kerosene lamp. Once lit, it bathed the main room in a soft yellow glow as Ty hung it from a hook in the ceiling.

  Her first impression of the cabin surprised her. "I thought you said your dad’s friend moved on."

  She’d been expecting a bare floor and no furniture, but while the furnishings were simple, they were definitely adequate and the woodstove partially recessed in the middle of the wall opposite the kitchen looked like it had been tended recently.

  "He may come back. The pac—people take care of it for him."

  "Oh. Lucky for us," she said through lips stiff from cold.

  He winced as if he could feel the prickles of pain across the surface of her skin that speaking had caused her. "I’ll get a fire going in the stove."

  "Is there wood?"

  "Yes." He found it and kindling in a wood box to the right of the stove and built the fire with an agility she envied.

  "What are you, some kind of freak of nature? Doesn’t the cold affect you at all?"

  He shrugged. "I’ve always been this way."

  "I know, but even you should be a Popsicle after that walk."

  He wasn't human. If she didn't know better, she'd think he was some kind of supernatural being...and while she was at it, his brother and father as well. They all seemed superhuman sometimes.

  "Maybe we should have stayed in the truck." He sounded like he was feeling guilty for her discomfort.

  "The storm’s only getting worse. You were right. The chances of rescue would have been slim. Besides, we made it and hopefully, we’ll be warm again soon."

  He took the hint and got the fire going. Then they both peeled off their wet outer layers and hung them on the indoor clothesline near the stove. The sexy little red sweater she’d bought to entice Ty made a poor barrier against the cold still permeating the cabin.

  Shivering, she kicked off her boots and peeled her wet socks from her feet. "I don’t suppose your dad’s friend left any blankets behind."

  "I’ll look, but I’m sure he did." He opened a door on the other side of the woodstove and went through to what must have been the bedroom.

  He came out a few seconds later carrying a quilt. He handed it to her with a jerky movement that said he didn’t want to touch her.

  She was too col
d and too tired to worry about the implied rejection. "We should probably eat something and put on a pot of water for washing up later."

  Thankfully, although there was no electricity, the cabin did have running water. Someone must have been taking care of that too.

  She filled a big stew pot from the faucet and he lifted it to the stove before she got a chance.

  "You’re always doing that."

  "What?" he asked.

  "Taking care of me."

  He was bent over pulling something out of the canned goods cupboard. "That’s what friends are for."

  She didn’t answer. She’d told him she didn’t want to be his friend and maybe he just thought it was feminine pique, but it hadn’t been. It was the desperate act of a woman who didn’t want to spend the rest of her life in love with a man who did not love her.

  She saw that he’d retrieved a big can of stew from the cupboard and a couple of cans of vegetables to add to it, so she got another pot down from where they hung on the wall above the sink. She set it on the two burner kerosene stove and lit the one under it.

  They ate together at the table, her with the quilt wrapped around her shoulders like a cape and him peeled down to a single Henley. Sheesh, the man really wasn’t human.

  Afterward, she examined the cabin while he went to the lean-to off the back door and brought in more wood.

  The single bedroom was small, but the bed was big. The woodstove wasn’t recessed in the wall so much as exposed on its backside to the bedroom through the shared wall. The room was warming up, if not with the same speed as the main room.

  The closet was empty, as was the small dresser, but a picture of a man with his arms around a woman was on top. He looked about King’s age and the way he held the woman said everything important about how he felt about her.

  Tears stung Frankie’s eyes unexpectedly. Something so nice should not make her cry, but she turned away from the photo anyway.

  "There’s hot water on for coffee."

  She pivoted to face the door at the sound of Ty’s voice. He was looking at the bed with a pained expression, then his gaze snapped to hers and the desire burning in his blue eyes was unmistakable. Even to her less than tutored eye.

  She stepped toward him, "Ty..."

  He moved back, his face shuttering with the speed of light. "There’s no cream, but there’s sugar."

  The coffee. She sighed. "No, thanks. I’m tired. I think I’ll just turn in if there’s nothing you need me to do."

  He shook his head and looked at the bed again.

  "It’s big enough for both of us."

  "No." The vehemence in his voice might not be warranted in her opinion, but she wasn’t totally shocked by it.

  "Why are you so adamant against having a relationship with me?" she asked, unable to help herself. "You want me."

  "It’s a bad idea."

  "Says who?"

  "I say."

  "Well, I say you’re wrong."

  This time when his eyes met hers, they were filled with anger. "I don’t give a damn. You’re my friend, Frankie and that is all you will ever be."

  The words hurt, but they didn’t make sense and so she couldn’t quite make herself accept them. "There’s an old saying that friends make the best lovers."

  "And sex can ruin a beautiful friendship."

  "It wouldn’t just be sex."

  "Yes it would."

  Now that really did hurt. He was saying he might want her, but he didn’t love her...not like that. And seriously, after all these years – what were the chances he ever would?

  "I’ll take the sofa. I’m shorter."

  "Forget it. You’ll sleep on the bed."

  She didn’t bother to argue. She’d learned long ago that he could be as stubborn as a mule with a behavior problem. She waited until he left the room before stripping her clothes and pulling on his flannel shirt she’d filched from the outer room. It smelled like Ty and covered her to her knees.

  She rummaged in the closet and found another quilt. She grabbed it, picked up the quilt she’d dropped earlier and grabbed one of the pillows off the big bed before padding out to the main room in her bare feet. The sound of chopping came from the lean-to and she figured Ty would probably be out there long enough to let her fall asleep.

  She really was tired.

  She curled up on the sofa under both quilts and willed her mind to stop spinning around the insurmountable problem of her useless love for her best friend.

  ***

  Ty walked into the cabin and was hit immediately by her scent. He wanted to howl at the moon, but even more than that...he wanted to taste her whole body, to soak that scent into every one of his pores.

  He frowned when he realized her presence was so strong because she was sleeping on the couch.

  Stubborn.

  He smiled grudgingly. He should have known she’d do it when she didn’t argue with him. She’d spent over a decade taking care of him too. He’d laughed at her efforts sometimes, finding it genuinely amazing that this small human woman could think he needed her to protect him in any way.

  Even though she didn’t know he was werewolf, she did know he was a strong man...and determined. Only this time, she would get her way. Normally, he would have just picked her up and put her in the bed, but he couldn’t trust himself to touch her. He wanted her too badly. The full moon and his change were getting closer by the hour, making it more and more difficult to control his baser impulses.

  He stoked the fire, trying to ignore the lure of her scent. After putting on another big log, he went into the bedroom and shut the door. Hoping for a respite from the seductive smell tormenting him, he groaned in real pain when he saw her clothes folded in a neat pile on top of the dresser.

  He picked them up, holding them as far from his body as he could and carried them into the other room. He left them by the woodstove. He could tell her he wanted them to be warm for her in the morning if she asked about it.

  Thankfully, the scent that lingered when he went back into the bedroom was muted. He shut the door and cracked the window, letting in frigid, but fresh air to help mask it.

  As it was, he doubted he was going to get any sleep that night.

  ***

  Frankie woke up pulsing between her legs from a dream about Ty, rolled over and fell off her narrow bed to the hard cabin floor.

  "Ooph..." She climbed to her knees, still disoriented from sleep. "Jeeze. Trust me to fall out of bed when I’m twenty-six years old."

  Standing up, she winced with pain. Her neck and back hurt from the cramped position on the couch and she would bet her favorite copy of the Merck Veterinary Manual she was going to have a big purple bruise on her hip tomorrow.

  The main room was cooling off and she realized the fire needed to be stoked again. She was surprised Ty hadn’t come out to do it. He must be sleeping pretty heavily. She took care of it and then tried to stretch out the kinks.

  It only took a few seconds of stretching to realize that any attempt at sleeping the rest of the night on the sofa would be hopeless.

  If she snuck into the bed with Ty, he wouldn’t even notice. It was so big. His insistence they not share it was just plain stupid. So, okay...he didn’t want to make love to her, but no one was asking him to. She just wanted a comfortable place to sleep without the guilt of knowing she was consigning her best friend to the purgatory of the too-short couch.

  She opened the door to the bedroom as quietly as she could and tiptoed toward the bed. It was freezing. Goosebumps shivered down her arms.

  "What are you doing, Frankie?" Ty’s voice was gravelly and low, but not sleepy.

  It was also not in the least welcoming.

  Since he was awake, she made no effort to be quiet as she crossed to the window. "It’s open. Are you nuts?"

  "I like fresh air when I sleep."

  "Well, you’re going to have to go without tonight." She shut the window with a snap.

  "To hell with the window, what
are you doing in here?" It sounded like he took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Damn. That wasn’t smart. You’re supposed to be on the couch." He said it like he was telling her she’d shirked her duty toward world peace, or something.

  "I fell out of bed." She grimaced at the admission.

  "Are you okay?" All irritation had drained from his voice to be replaced by immediate concern.

  How was she going to walk away from this man? "Not really." She sighed. "I bruised my hip and I can’t get comfortable on the sofa again."

  "You have to try."

  "I don’t want to. It’s hopeless, Ty."

  "You can’t sleep in here with me," he ground out, the softness fading as fast as it had come to his voice.

  She ignored him. Sometimes you just had to do that with bossy men. She crossed the room and climbed into the bed on the opposite side of Ty. "Just pretend I’m not here."

  "I can’t do that."

  She rolled her eyes in the dark. "I promise not to kick."

  "You’re breathing. That’s enough."

  She turned on her side away from him. "Get over it, Ty. I’m not going back to the couch."

  "You chose to sleep on it, to get your scent all over it. I can’t sleep out there now."

  Great, now he was saying she stank. Nice. "So, I made a mistake."

  "Yes, you did."

  She turned back to face him and realized he’d moved across the bed. His face was less than six inches from hers.

  "You don’t sound so good."

  "You’re wearing my shirt."

  "Do you want me to take it off?"

  "Yes."

  She gasped.

  "No. Damn it. Get back in the other room before I do something we’ll both regret."

  "Are you talking sex here?"

  "Yes."

  Her body pulsed with need at that one small affirmative and a truth she’d fought earlier settled inside her. "I won’t regret it."

  She was meant for him...even if he didn’t want her in a forever after kind of way.

  "Yes. You. Will. Now, go." He sounded more like a wild animal than a man.