Frost Bitten by Eliza Gayle Page A

day.” The beast inside him snarled. “I for
one won’t be able to rest until I know what’s going on,
on our own damned mountain.”
    Trent’s
shoulders slumped. “You better radio it in so they don’t
end up wasting their time and send a team out for us when we don’t
make it home tonight.”
    “ Hey,
you never know. Maybe we’re both wrong and there really isn’t
anything out here.” Of course he didn’t believe that for
a second. The cougar had been restless all day. Far more than usual.
Figuring the mystery out was just a process of elimination at this
point. The scent smelled feline but not like any cougar he’d
ever encountered.
    “ It
sure as hell isn’t a bobcat,” Trent argued, nearly
reading his thoughts as usual.
    Seth
let him think that out as he let base know they likely wouldn’t
be back until morning and yes, they were close to the old Willingham
cabin so they’d have no problem finding shelter for the night.
    Finished
with communications for the day, Seth packed the radio into his gear.
From the corner of his eye he saw Trent’s gaze swing sharply to
the left.
    “ What
is it?”
    “ I
smell smoke. Right over there.”
    Seth
followed the direction his brother pointed in, and sure enough,
several miles out, there was a faint trace of smoke on the horizon.
If not for the setting sun’s reflection, they’d likely
not have spotted it.
    “ That
looks suspiciously like the area around the cabin.”
    “ You
think we’ve got a squatter?”
    “ Looks
like. We might as well head that way. Even with all this unnecessary
crap we should get there before nightfall.”
    “ Agreed.”
    Seth
resettled his gear across his back and began the long trek in his
brother’s footsteps.
    ***
    Daisy
shuddered in front of the roaring fire with her hands held in front
of her, desperately trying to get warm. Her idea to escape to the
mountains for a little peace and quiet had turned into a case of
insanity in the making. Never in her life had she seen this much snow
and the radio forecasted for another heavy snowfall overnight thanks
to the front moving right over this mountain.
    Not
that a little cold weather would necessarily kill her but it made her
teeth chatter and did nothing to assuage the agony of her sexual
cycle. She pressed a hand to her abdomen and willed the cramping to
go away.
    Why
had no one warned her how bad this would get if she refused help?
Because you live and work with men, stupid.
    There
was that. A poacher in the midst of the Everglades had killed her
mother when Daisy was still a cub. Fortunately the game warden had
discovered her after only a few days and he’d scooped her out
of the water and brought her to a new family. People like her. They’d
taught her how to live as a shifter and loved her like their own.
    The
next twenty years had gone by in a blur and she’d taken over a
different game warden position about five years ago. Not that it had
been an easy transition. She’d literally fought for it—tooth
and claw. She loved her brothers, but their ideas about her future
were antiquated beyond belief. Overcoming their objections had not
been easy. Fortunately, for her, the men of her kind always
underestimated her because she was so small. Daisy smiled. They never
saw the ambush coming—ever.
    Another
chill swept over her. She rubbed her hands together frantically to
generate friction. No, she was not used to this kind of bone deep
cold. The backwoods of coastal South Carolina, where she now resided,
were nothing like this.
    After
several minutes of trying everything save for dousing her head in the
flames, her head popped up and her nose flared. The scent outside
changed.
    Intruders .
    She
dropped the blanket and ran for her gear. She could certainly smell
them now. Whoever they were they were not trying to hide. She shoved
her feet in her boots and donned the rest of her newly purchased
winter wear. She wasn’t about to sit here and wait to be
hunted. She was jaguar for