Alphas in the Wild (19 page)

C
raig’s brain raced a million miles an hour. He’d kept a neutral expression, but Tina’s story made his guts clench in horror. Not much had that effect on him. For a fleeting moment, he considered offering himself to the hostile mountain god, but Tina would never accept his sacrifice.

He could hear her say, “Got myself into this mess. It’s not your problem.” Besides, if his theory about gender held water, he was the wrong sex.

They all took risks when they went to the high places of the world. From what it sounded like, Tina would be dead if it weren’t for whatever had intervened, and all because she hadn’t stocked extra headlamp batteries. As he followed her another idea took shape.

He angled his body into the wind. Spindrift blew into his face, the small pieces sharp as shrapnel against his bare skin. He pulled up the hood of his parka and zipped it so his chin was covered.

“Only for you would I do this.” Tina’s voice drifted back to him. “Weather’s a real bitch.”

He caught up with her. Fortunately, the large boulders provided a windbreak. “Yeah. No one will climb anything until it clears. And maybe not then, if it dumps enough snow to avalanche. I’ll hold those.” He extended a hand for her jackets and held both close. Next came her down vest. He added it to the pile in his arms. The clothing smelled like her. A wave of longing so intense it startled him hit him in the solar plexus.

“Do you think this is enough?”

He looked at her with a critical eye. The full curves of her breasts were visible beneath her form-fitting long john top. She wasn’t wearing a sports bra. His hands itched to curve around those wonderful breasts again, but he restrained himself.

“How about if you take off your hat and let your hair down.”

She pulled off her wool cap. Long, red hair cascaded around her torso. “Now what? Can’t stay like this long. I’m freezing.”

“Call for Illimani and Illampu to help you. Beg them. I won’t be listening, so don’t worry about sounding like a fool.”

“Last thing on my mind,” she muttered through chattering teeth.

The drone of her voice—seductive but laced with desperation—rose and fell around him. She even raised her hands like a supplicant. Her hair twisted like a live thing in gusts of wind that made their way around the boulders. Dear God if she didn’t look like the statues he’d seen in Greece and Rome, timeless and gorgeous. His groin tingled, and he realized a full-blown erection pressed against the front of his climbing pants. What an incredibly sexy woman she was.

He told his body to stand down. He still didn’t know why she’d dumped him. They’d never talked about it. All she’d said was she couldn’t live in anyone else’s shadow. He’d protested he wasn’t asking her to, but she’d said she couldn’t take a chance.

Tina covered the few feet separating them and held out her hands for her clothes. “Can’t think of anything else to say. Brrrr.” She shrugged into her things. “Thanks for holding them next to your body. There’s still some warmth in the down.”

“Best get into your sleeping bag.” He heard the raspy undertone of desire in his voice.

She heard it too. “Want to join me?”

He sucked in a breath. “I’d love to, but no.”

She turned to face him. “You made me a promise. All the sex I can tolerate.”

“It’s one I intend to keep. I—” He bit back the words. He’d almost told her he still loved her. This wasn’t the time. “Let’s get out of this mess first.” Bending toward her, he kissed her ever-so-gently. “I hope we did some good out here tonight.”

Craig walked her to her tent. The rest of them were doubled up for warmth. If there’d been another female on the expedition, Tina would’ve shared her tent. As it was, she had a two-man tent to herself. “Will you be warm enough? I bought a couple extra bags.”

“I’ll be okay. I’ve got the minus forty one with me. Thought it was overkill when I packed it. Now I’m glad I did. Thanks for asking. See you in the morning.” She leaned against him for a moment and then ducked to unzip the tent fly so she could crawl inside. “Whoops.” She straightened.

“What?”

“I’m going to check on Brice and Joe one last time.”

“I could do that for you.”

She tapped his arm as she walked past. “Nah. If something didn’t look right, you’d come get me, anyway. Once I’m in my bag, I want to stay there.”

Craig knew what she meant. Pulling cold boots on was a hassle. Easier to only do it once—in the morning. He detoured off to one side of the camp to relieve himself and then let himself into his tent. Gunter would have shared it, but the German had taken all his gear with him, adding fuel to Craig’s suspicion the German was headed toward Illimani’s summit.

He heard Tina’s footsteps crunch through the snow and the screech of a frozen zipper as she got into her tent. He smiled, glad she was safe—at least for tonight.

Since he’d been unsure about when Gunter would return, Craig had tossed the extra sleeping bags into his tent. He was glad to have them. He layered one over his foam pad and tucked his own bag into the other extra one. It still took a while to get warm. He shut his eyes and willed his breathing into the slow pattern that let him drift into sleep. It didn’t work. A vision of Tina, naked and straddling him, danced behind his lids. All her amazing hair hung over his chest like a curtain of living flame. His cock throbbed, hot and hard where it lay against his stomach.

He wanted Tina. Ached for her. Maybe he should’ve taken her up on her invitation, but it hadn’t felt right. People in life and death situations fucked to remind themselves they were still alive. He knew all about that because he’d done it a time or two. Nameless bodies swathed in layers against the cold on peaks he could barely remember. Only two body parts were required to get the deed done. It was easy enough to finesse. Craig winced. He didn’t want it to be like that between him and Tina. He needed her to choose him for himself, not as a hedge against the void.

His cock twitched. It didn’t care about philosophy. It wanted release. Craig clicked on his headlamp and grappled in his pack for a towel. He lay back down, doused his light, and made a neat package of his cock wrapped in the towel. Dipping beneath its soft layers, he wrapped a hand around himself. He wouldn’t be able to sleep until he took the edge off his lust for Tina.

He closed his eyes and visualized her taut breasts pushing against the thin fabric of her long underwear. Pebbled against the cold and wind, her nipples had been fully visible. He’d never forgotten what they looked like, strawberry circles tipped by wonderfully sensitive points. He’d made her come just by suckling her many a time.

He pumped his shaft, moving fast and sure. His breathing quickened, and his heart hammered against his chest. Her pussy with its red curls filled his mind. He pretended he was pushing into her, feeling the heat of her close around him, inhaling the musk of her arousal... His cock pulsed hard in his hand. Craig imagined her muscles clenched tight around him and stroked himself until the last jets erupted.

He lay against the down and nylon of his bag, panting. The towel had caught the worst of the mess. He tossed it out of his sleeping bag. The damp parts would be frozen long before morning, but it didn’t matter. This time when he closed his eyes, he slept.

* * * *

W
ind woke him. No longer satisfied with just howling, it had risen to a screech, which would’ve roused the dead. The light filtering through the yellow tent fabric was gray. He tilted his wrist to look at his watch. Six. Time to see how everyone had survived the night. It was pretty clear they weren’t going anywhere but down today. He was grateful they weren’t far from Estancia Una. Much closer than they would’ve been if the clients had been more like normal ones and able to make the usual location for high camp.

Gunter.

The thought crashed into him. It was obvious the German hadn’t returned during the night. Craig grabbed the two-way radio and called him again. All he got was static.

Nothing I can do about that right now. He tossed the dice and wasn’t very lucky...

He struggled into his clothes, keeping as much of himself in his nest of sleeping bags as he could. It was bitterly cold. Well below zero.

“Hey, you decent?” Tina’s voice sounded from just outside his tent.

“Yeah. Have you checked on everyone? I was just about to do that.”

“They’re all fine. Brice still has a headache, but it’s manageable. Joe’s lung sounds aren’t any worse. The weather’s sort of like it was last time I was here. Can’t see five feet in front of me.”

“I’ll talk with the twins. Maybe I can offer them free passage on another trip in exchange for this one not working out. Or maybe we could still pick up Sajama after you and I are done, uh, hunting for Gunter.” Craig was all too aware the others could probably hear their conversation. The wind had a strange way of magnifying things.

“That would be nice. They’re the only two mountaineers in the group. They understand we need to retreat. Both of them said as much not five minutes ago.”

“Did anything, uh, unusual happen after you went to bed last night?”

He heard her snort. “If that’s a roundabout way of asking if I had any unexpected visitors, the answer is no.”

“I had another idea. We’ll have time to talk about it after I’m up.”

“Okay. I’m going to boil water for oatmeal. Want some?”

“Sure.” Craig smiled. Oatmeal and coffee had been their staple breakfast in the mountains all the years they’d climbed together. It felt right somehow. Just like being with Tina felt right. She was still a part of him. He’d forced himself to keep going without her, but there’d always been an empty place.

Craig scrambled into the rest of his clothes. He wore all his layers, but he’d still be cold until he got moving. He cursed as he shoved his feet into his frozen glacier boots. He’d considered bringing boot heaters, but even if he had them, he’d never have bothered with them on a rinky-dink climb like this one. No, they would’ve been with the gear he left in La Paz. He blew into his mitts to warm them, slipped his hands in, and unzipped the tent and fly.

Wind hit him full in the face, along with a mouthful of blowing snow as he fought to close the partially-frozen tent zipper.
Crap!
Tina hadn’t been kidding. He reached into a pocket and pulled out goggles, settling them around his head. The lenses were orange to improve visibility in low light conditions.

If I were superstitious, I’d believe this trip was cursed.

He stopped by each of the tents and told his charges to put on everything they owned. He also told them they’d be returning to Estancia Una where he’d either see them settled on a bus or in taxis to make the drive to La Paz. He explained he wouldn’t be returning with them because he needed to try to find Gunter. To his relief, no one seemed upset.

“How about breakfast?” Ted asked.

“Hot water’s in the mess tent. You can have hot cereal, dried fruit, and tea or coffee.”

“No pancakes?”

“If you want to try to cook them, go for it. I think we should clear out of here before things get any worse.” Craig made an effort to sound cordial. What he wanted to tell Ted was it wouldn’t hurt him to miss a meal or two.

Don’t antagonize the clients. One of his Alpine Attack teachers told him to pretend it was a logo stenciled on his soul.

“I have to check on the mules. Best thing you can do is to finish dressing, eat something, and get your personal gear packed.”

Without waiting to see if Ted came back with a snarky rejoinder, Craig turned toward the area he’d hobbled the mules. They brayed reproachfully at him, and he dug oats and their nose bags out of their partially buried pack frames. He couldn’t finesse what he needed to do with his thick alpine mitts, so he pulled them off. By the time he was done, and the braying had mutated into contented crunching, his hands were numb. He stuffed them down his pants and stifled a shriek as they came in contact with his stomach. Blood returning to his fingers created a small agony of its own. Once it was manageable, he put his mitts back on and headed for the mess tent.

“There you are.” Tina glanced at him. “Your oatmeal was freezing solid, so I gave it to one of the clients. Let me mix you up another bowl.”

“Thanks.”

“Sheesh. You look like the abominable snowman. Your face has rime ice on it.”

“Good thing most of it’s covered by my beard, otherwise I’d be truly cold.” He tugged off his goggles and pushed his hood back. “Mules seem okay. Has everyone gotten something to eat? We need to get them out of the tents and everything packed and back onto the mules. It won’t be easy in this wind.”

She stopped stirring and handed him a bowl. “Eat quick, while it’s hot. Yeah, all the clients have stopped by for food. I think we should leave a couple of tents pitched here. For one thing, if Gunter manages to stumble off the mountain, he’ll be trashed. For another, we’re coming right back. Doesn’t make sense to break camp only to set it up again a few hours later.”

He spooned oatmeal into his mouth. It was good: warm and creamy. Tina had added sugar and powdered milk. “Thanks.” He gestured at the bowl with his spoon. “I suppose it would make sense to leave your tent and mine here and some of the food and supplies. The mess tent too. I’d planned to send it all to La Paz. A tour outfit I work with there would store it for me, and not steal too much.”

“We can keep my drugs and medical supplies here. They don’t weigh much since I didn’t bring oxygen.” She pursed her lips. “Even if things go well, I don’t imagine we’ll be back much before dark—”

“Which means we won’t be heading uphill until tomorrow,” he finished for her. “Not a problem. I’ll mark this site with the GPS. It may be the only way we can find it again. It’s starting to snow more. By the time we come back, there won’t be any tracks to follow.”

“It will be a problem for Gunter,” she murmured. “If he’s still alive.”

Craig put his bowl down, walked up behind her, and put his hands on her shoulders. “I’ve tried to raise him on the radio a dozen times, starting last night after I got to camp and realized what he’d done. He hasn’t answered. What do you think the odds are?”