Chapter One

 

The stranger arrived with a gust of icy air and the scent of fresh snow.

Cora looked up as the door to the inn's small lobby fell shut behind him. After three weeks in Kalyanpur, she'd gotten to know all of the small handful of tourists currently staying in the small Nepali village, and that blue parka didn't belong to any of them.

She watched him curiously—Kalyanpur didn't get a lot of visitors—and then kept looking, spellbound, as he took off his sunglasses and pushed back the hood of his parka to reveal sparkling blue eyes, a tanned, handsome face, and tousled blond hair that she instantly wanted to run her fingers through.

Kalyanpur certainly never got any visitors that incredibly good-looking.

The stranger caught her looking. His eyes crinkled up at the corners as he held his hand out with a smile.

"Hi. I'm Eric Peterson."

"Cora Parker."

Cora pushed back her own hood and took his hand. His fingers were warm and dry, rough with calluses in familiar spots. A climber, then, just like her.

Cora belatedly realized she'd been holding on to Eric's hand several seconds longer than could really be considered polite, and hurriedly let go. Eric seemed distracted himself. He was studying her face with an intent look, as if something about it had surprised him.

Cora tucked a few stray wisps of curly blonde hair behind her ears. She'd tied her long hair back in a sloppy bun this morning just to keep it out of her way. If she'd known that she was going to stumble over a guy this gorgeous, she'd have taken a bit more care with her appearance.

"What brings you to Kalyanpur?" she asked. "We don't usually see a lot of new faces out here."

"Oh, I've been here a couple times, actually, climbing the Rai Parvat. I love this place."

Me too, Cora kept herself from blurting, knowing she'd end up sounding too intense about it. People tended to get weirded out when she got too enthusiastic about mountains, and she didn't really want to embarrass herself in front of Eric.

She looked towards the window, which showed the towering walls of the Rai Parvat rising towards the sky. In the early morning sun, the ice of the frozen waterfall spilling over its lower slopes glittered like the bride's veil it was named after. The Rai Parvat was neither Nepal's tallest mountain nor one of its more well-known ones, but she'd always loved it the most.

When she turned back, she found Eric looking at her, a smile on his face.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" he said, and from the affection in his voice, she thought maybe he would have understood her enthusiasm after all. "My nephew, Josh, he's just started learning to ice climb, so I wanted to take him to the Veil."  

"No better place to learn," Cora said with a smile. She looked over Eric's shoulder towards the door. "Is he here?"

"Still up in our room. I was just coming back to collect him. He's not that much of a morning person."

"Ugh, me neither. I mean, the mountains are worth getting up for, but sometimes, you know, the alarm rings, it's five freaking am, it's dark, it's so cold the window's frosted over—"

"—and the bed's so nice and warm—"

"—and that's when I start thinking, you know, I could've had a nice normal career. The kind where you sleep in till a civilized time."

They grinned at each other.

"So what is it you do, then?" Eric asked.

"Oh. I work as a guide. Get people safely up and down the mountain. Although my last group just went back to the States, so right now I'm only climbing for pleasure."

"That sounds like a great job," Eric said, which wasn't quite the way people usually reacted—more commonly, she got something along the lines of Isn't that dangerous?, which, well, it could be, but that's why she was careful and thorough in her preparations.

"I love it."

Eric simply nodded, and to her great relief didn't ask any of the stupid follow-up questions she'd gotten so often from people, like the dreaded Does that pay well? or the even more terrible That's a strange job for a woman!

"You should tell me more about what you do at some point, it sounds really interesting," Eric said instead, which was not the reaction she usually got. "Oh. It'll have to be later, though." He looked down at his watch in dismay. "When did it get so late? I really need to go up and get Josh if we want to get to the safety briefing on time. Oof." He shifted his shoulders uncomfortably. "Is it just me, or is it really hot in here?"

He took off his heavy parka and the two layers of sweaters he wore beneath it. It left him in nothing but a thin shirt that strained around his arms and clung to every inch of his chest.

Cora swallowed hard.

Eric stretched with a sigh of relief, his shirt pulling up to reveal a glance of his flat muscled belly. "Phew. That's better. I don't know how you can stand it in here in that parka."

"Yeah, it's—pretty hot," Cora croaked out.

It was, in fact, unbearably hot in all her layers. She'd been meaning to head straight out. She was going to be late now. Simon, her climbing partner, would be waiting for her.

"I need to go," she said regretfully. "I'll see you at the safety briefing?"

"Wouldn't miss it for the world."

 

***

 

Eric stumbled up the stairs in a daze. His entire body still felt hot and flushed.

Cora. What a nice name, he thought, and then shook his head at himself. He was being ridiculous.

He kept thinking of his first glimpse of her face, the moment when she'd pushed back her hood to give him a smile, cheeks dimpling. For a moment the entire universe had seemed to fall away around them. His chest still felt tight, thinking about it. It wasn't even the fact that she was pretty—although, damn, she was really pretty, with a face full of freckles and a sensuous mouth beneath a cute button nose.

But what had really gotten to him was that she'd looked so alive somehow. Her brilliant blue eyes had sparkled with curiosity, her hands moving as she spoke, her entire body turning towards his.

Eric barely remembered a word of what he'd said, now. He hoped he hadn't been staring at her too obviously, or said anything silly. They'd talked about the Rai Parvat, he remembered that much; remembered, most of all, how her expressive face had softened with fondness when she'd looked out the window at the mountain, as if it was an old beloved friend.

There weren't many people who loved the mountains like that. Even the other members of Eric's own pack, who loved being outdoors the way all shifters did, had never really understood his fascination with the dangerous beauty of the Himalayan mountains. But Cora understood.

It took him two tries to get the key into the lock.

"Hi, Uncle Eric," Josh said, looking up from his backpack. "Sorry I was late, I'm just about ready now."

"Sure," Eric said absent-mindedly. He forced himself to concentrate, double-checking the pile of gear Josh was stowing in his pack: ropes and carabiners, safety gear, first aid kit, everything laid out exactly as they'd planned. Cora must do this a lot, if she worked as a guide: double-checking other people's equipment, making sure they were safe. She'd sounded happy when she'd mentioned her job—

"Eric? I said, should I pack the second rope?"

"Huh? Oh. No," Eric said, trying to shake himself from his distraction. Josh's voice was sharp in a way that meant he'd probably asked that question once already. "I've got a spare rope in my own pack, we're good."

They needed to be leaving soon, if they wanted to make it to the briefing on time. Eric bent down to help Josh stow the last of his things, forcing his mind back to the task at hand. He pushed the image of Cora's smiling face aside with an effort.

 

***

 

The icy wind hit Cora like a slap when she left the inn. It would warm up later in the day, but for now, the air was still well below freezing.

There was another newcomer outside the inn, a young man sitting in the snow with his back against the wall. Cora recognized him after a moment's thought: one of Jeff Carpenter's clients. Their expedition had arrived by helicopter yesterday.

The young man's face was twisted in frustration as he struggled to put on a pair of crampons. Cora recognized that look. This wasn't the first time Cora had seen even experienced hikers confused when it came to putting on the more specialized ice climbing equipment.

Crampons consisted of a grid of metal spikes that were supposed to attach to one's boots by nylon straps. Even people who'd used them before tended to underestimate how tricky they'd be to attach with thick gloves on and your fingers half numb from the cold. Cora made her own clients practice it at home until they could do it in their sleep for that exact reason.

After a long minute of fumbling, the kid tugged his gloves off to try and get a better grip. Cora winced. Bare fingers on freezing cold metal was a surefire recipe for frostbite.

With a sigh, she resigned herself to being late. Simon would go to the safety briefing without her if he had to. He could catch her up later.

"Can I give you a hand there?"

The kid's shoulders sagged with relief.

"Please. I've got no idea what I'm doing wrong, I just can't get them to fit!"

Cora knelt down and took the crampons from his hand. Up close, the kid couldn't be older than seventeen, and the sheepish puppy-dog look he gave her made him look even younger.

Cora held the grid of spikes up against the sole of his boots.

"Yeah, that's not gonna work. These are meant to go on hiking shoes, not snow boots."

"Oh." The kid looked down, dejected.

"Haven't you ever used crampons before?"

Surely even Jeff Carpenter couldn't be planning to take a complete beginner up the Rai Parvat? The hike up the South Face of the mountain wasn't exactly the world's hardest climb, but the altitude alone made everything a lot more challenging, especially once you got towards the top.

"We practiced at home, but we rented the equipment then. I bought these new before I left." He gave her a pleading look. "Now what am I going to do? Jeff and my uncle are going to be so mad. We were gonna start for the summit today."

Damn Carpenter to hell. He shouldn't ever have let his clients board the plane to Nepal without checking their equipment first. When Cora guided expeditions, she always made sure to go through people's stuff with them at least a week before they left the States, when there was still time to fix any problems.

By all rights she should dump this problem in his lap. Taking care of issues like that was the whole point of a guide. But she couldn't blame the kid for not wanting to go to Carpenter. God knew he was the last person in the world to whom she'd like to confess a mistake.

Cora sighed. "Give me a second, let me try something."

"Thank you! My name is Andrew, by the way."

"Cora."

A few minutes of careful hammering with the flat side of her ice axe managed to widen the crampons enough to fit over the sole of Andrew's boot. He gave her a beaming smile when the clasps clicked securely into place.

"Thanks!"

"It's not perfect, but better than nothing."

"Thank you, seriously. I don't know what I would've done," Andrew said. His cheeks flamed red with embarrassment.

"Don't worry about it."

Cora cast about for some topic of conversation to dispel the awkwardness a little. "So you flew in from Lukla yesterday?"

"No, we flew in from Austin—oh, wait, is Lukla that little airstrip where we changed to the helicopter?"

God. Cora took a deep breath. That couldn't be right. Austin was less than a thousand feet above sea level. To fly directly from there to Lukla was hard enough on the body; at Lukla's altitude, the air was already thin enough that most people tended to feel the lack of oxygen. At the very least they should have taken a few days there to let their bodies acclimatize.

To move straight on to Kalyanpur, which was even higher up, and then plan to climb a mountain the very next day—even Carpenter couldn't be that reckless.

"If you came straight from Texas, you must have been doing some other trips, though, right? To acclimatize?"

"Oh, yeah, sure. We went up Mount Rainier, uh, two weeks ago, and we've done Kilimanjaro in September. Never had any problem with the altitude."

God save them all. Cora lurched to her feet. "What room is Carpenter in?"

"Uh, nine. Why? Um. Thanks again!" Andrew called after her retreating back.

 

***

 

Cora slammed into Carpenter's room, barely managing to restrain herself and wait for his response to her knock.

Carpenter and his client were sitting down to breakfast. Both of them turned to look at her in surprise.

"I need to talk to you," she said to Carpenter, then added, "Alone," when he just kept looking at her.

Carpenter raised an eyebrow. "We're in the middle of breakfast."

"It's important. I'll make it short."

"So tell me, then. My bacon's gonna get cold."

She looked at Carpenter's client. Everhart, that was his name. She'd been in the lobby when Carpenter and Everhart had checked in and overheard his name. It had stuck in her mind precisely because he hadn't even bothered to say hello or introduce himself. Usually, hikers were a pretty friendly bunch, but the guy had had a sneer on his face the entire time.

She thought of Eric, and how friendly and nice he'd been when he'd introduced himself, and some of her irritation receded.

"I need to talk to you alone. Please," she repeated, in a more conciliatory tone. 

Carpenter raised an eyebrow. "Then it'll have to wait, won't it."

The words burst out of her. "You can't take that kid to the summit. He's not acclimatized."

"What, Andrew?" Carpenter rolled his eyes. "Kid's an experienced hiker, and he's been on acclimatization trips. How about you stick to your clients, and I take care of mine?"

"He's been to Rainier. That's not even 15,000 feet. He'll be higher than that at Base Camp, at the bottom of the mountain. And anything he did a couple months ago isn't going to do him any good now. Look, Carpenter, I'm sorry to talk about this now—" in front of Carpenter's client; she had tried to get him alone—"but this isn't safe and you know it."

"Miss, I don't know where you think you get off—" Everhart was glaring at her.

"Cora's a guide, too. Bit more of a—low cost alternative, of course," Carpenter said, giving Everhart a significant look.

Cora took a deep breath, forced herself to let that go. No, she didn't charge her clients $30,000 for a two-week trip, and her style of tour usually included a lot more hiking and a lot fewer helicopter rides to the base of the mountain. The fact that Carpenter's clients could afford to pay for luxury wasn't the issue here. The point was, they also paid him to make sure they were safe, and this wasn't the first time she'd had to tell Carpenter he was dropping the ball on that part of it.

So far, he'd always gotten lucky. But luck wasn't a thing you could rely on in the mountains.

"This is the blizzard thing all over again, isn't it," Carpenter said. To Everhart, he added, "She gets very anxious about things."

Cora clenched her teeth. Yeah, the blizzard she'd warned Carpenter about had passed them by. Didn't mean it hadn't still been a boneheaded move to take a group of five inexperienced hikers up the mountain when the forecast gave an even chance it'd turn around and hit them.

She didn't rise to the bait. "Look, this doesn't have to be a big deal. Just—push the hike to the summit back a few days. Spend the weekend down here. Take it slow on the way up, spend a night in the tents at Camp One. Give him a chance to get used to the heights."

Everhart gave her an icy smile. "Really, thanks for the warning. But I don't plan to spend my vacation sitting around in this charming little rustic hovel."

He cast a scathing look around the small room with its comfortable padded armchairs and carefully hand-painted walls.

Cora tried to catch Carpenter's eyes. "Jeff, come on. You know this is a stupid risk—"

He was already turning back to his breakfast. He'd stopped listening.

 

***

 

Cora closed the door very gently behind her, just barely resisting the urge to slam it closed. God damn that stubborn, reckless son of a—She took a deep breath, tried to control her rising temper. She should've known she wouldn't get through. Carpenter had never listened to anyone else's opinion in his life. But she'd had to try.

Andrew was still outside the inn, testing his new crampons on a frozen pile of snow. He startled when Cora called his name.

"You need to be careful up there, okay? If you start feeling sick, if you've got any problem at all—you let them know, and you tell them they need to turn around, all right?"

She knew her agitation was coming through in her tone. Andrew looked at her a little warily, but he nodded easily enough.

"I'll be careful," he said.

She could only hope that it would be enough.