Chapter 12
CHAPTER TWELVE
It was Shotgun Glacier: that much became clear when they landed at its base, beyond the sliver of black that turned out to be a huge crevasse, not a river at all.
Jo had seen it from the low angle hundreds of times while out on the northern corner of the ranch, and its lower lip was a familiar, comforting shape to finally recognize.
It had only taken a few minutes to glide down its length, and now she stood at Colton's side while he turned his phone on and searched for signal, then paused to take some pictures.
"Why's it called Shotgun Glacier?"
"Cave system at the bottom. We're basically on top of them right now.
" Jo refrained from stomping a foot. "They haven't been explored much because of the danger of the glacier collapsing or shifting and crushing the tunnels, but their entrances look like shotgun pellets hit the rock beneath the glacier.
The ranch is that way," she said, pointing northwest. "Thirty or forty miles or so, probably too far to fly, but it's out there, at least. Any signal? "
"Not even a single bar. Are there any roads between here and there?"
Jo made a face, turning to study the landscape and try to remember.
"Most of it is ranch or national park territory out here.
There are some access roads, but not much anybody is going to be using this time of year.
Snowmobilers, maybe. I'd guess we're probably fifteen or twenty miles from the nearest real roads. "
"So what you're saying is it's low-risk for flying over."
Jo glanced at Colton, startled. His eyebrows were drawn down, expression calculating, though he gave her a crooked smile when she said, "That's not what I said at all!"
"No, it isn't, but am I right? It's a long flight for you, but it's an even longer hike. We don't have to take it all at once."
"Well, but—yeah, okay, sure, but Colton, Great Falls is that way." She pointed southwest this time. "And it's probably closer. And you have a court case to get back to."
"The case is important," Colton said quietly. "Getting you home safely is more important."
"I'm not sure it is, in the bigger picture."
"Then you shouldn't argue with me and we should fly out to your ranch. Unless we're going to reach a road a lot faster going the other direction?"
Jo groaned. "No, it's about the same either way. I think the technical term for this part of the country is 'remote as hell.'"
"Well, then," Colton said with a smug note.
She gave him a half-hearted glare. "Okay, but if we see anybody, we hit the deck, all right?"
"Absolutely. And we'll switch it up between walking and flying anyway, because I don't want to half kill you again."
"That wasn't your fault!"
"Think of all the years of mileage you'll get out of me nearly killing you." Colton's tone sounded like he wasn't entirely kidding, and Jo blinked up at him, horrified.
"Are you crazy? No! Jeez, what kind of jerk do you think I am? If anything, think of all the years of mileage you'll get out of saving me, but no! We call it even, Colton! Neither of us thought it through, and luckily you knew what do when things got scary!"
"Oh." He smiled a little, looking almost embarrassed. "I should have known you wouldn't pull that kind of thing. Using it against me, I mean."
"Never! And I hope nobody else in your life does either!"
"No, my parents are good examples." His smile got softer yet, before he shrugged. "But, you know, I have a lot of friends in relationships that seem to work that way, and sometimes I think my parents are the exception, not the rule, you know?"
"I do know, but even if they are the exception, they're the way it should be!
No guilt trips! No meanness!" Jo was tempted, again, to stomp her foot, but remembered at the last moment they were still on the lip of a glacier, and glared at the snow-covered ice beneath her feet.
"Let's get onto stable ground before I kick a hole in the glacier. "
"All right. A short hop, no more than thirty minutes, okay? And you'll tell me if you're getting too cold before that?"
"I will," Jo promised. "I don't want to do that again. I mean, parts of it were fun…" She slid a grin toward Colton, whose eyes sparkled in response.
"Yeah, but I bet the fun parts will be even more fun without the terrifying hypothermia beforehand."
"I bet you're right." Jo climbed on Colton's broad back after he shifted, and huddled down low against his mane as they flew.
He stuck close to the ground, heading steadily northwest as the snowy earth grew smoother, with fewer trees littering it as they reached the plains.
It was much warmer than flying through the mountains had been, but not warm, and Jo was just about to thump his shoulder and let him know she needed to walk for a while when he came to a landing and shifted to check on her.
"I'm good," she promised through chattering teeth. "Walking will be good, though. We've covered, what, maybe five miles?"
"Probably about that, yeah. You need food or water?"
"Not yet. You?"
"I'm okay." He shifted back to chimera form and forged a path while she walked behind, warming up and thinking about their speed.
Forty miles taken in half hour jumps and hour-long walks in between…
"It's going to take us until tomorrow to get home, isn't it?
Unless we want to fly at night, which will be even colder. "
"I think we shouldn't, yeah." Colton changed back to human and kept knocking snow out of the way as he spoke, although their pace instantly slowed to a crawl.
"I don't want to keep people waiting any longer than we have to, but it would be stupid to make it this far and then freeze to death tonight.
Besides," he added hopefully, "we might pick up signal out here somewhere. "
"Maybe, although I tell you what, the back forty of the ranch is a great place to go if you want to disconnect for a while."
"I've lived in New York too long. I forget there are places where wifi doesn't reach."
"For too long? Aren't you from there?"
Colton glanced over his shoulder with a smile.
"I grew up in Redding, in northern California.
A bunch of the family still live there. It's pretty good," he said, going back to breaking snow.
"Close to the mountains, which is great for a bunch of chimeras.
But I met Jerry's son in college down in Sacramento—"
"Jerry?"
"Oh! My boss."
"Oh. Okay. Go on." Jo waved her hand like she was the Queen giving someone permission to continue, and Colton snickered as they worked their way forward.
"Anyway, so I met Matt, who was going to college in California because it was as far away from his family as he could get and still stay in the country, and he told me about his dad's law practice in environmental law.
I got interested, so I ended up out in New York for law school and I've been there ever since. "
Jo laughed. "So his parents couldn't have been that awful."
"Nah. They just had different interests. This is a lot slower, isn't it?"
Jo looked back at the twenty or so feet they'd traveled since he shifted back to human, and made a face.
"Yes, but it's nice to talk to you, too.
Or rather, it's nice to have you talk back.
But if we travel at the speed of chat, your case will be over before we even get home, and I don't want that to happen. We'll talk more later."
The rest of the day went like that, with leaps forward as they flew, and then dropping back to a comparative snail's pace when they started walking again, but at least Jo didn't get so cold.
They both got single bars of service twice, but neither could connect a call or even send a text, the latter of which left Jo swearing as she marched along in the chimera's wake.
"I thought the whole point of texting was it didn't take as much bandwidth. "
That wasn't really true, but it was a worthwhile complaint, and muttering about it took her up to near dark, when Colton sighed and shifted to human with a helpless shrug. "I think we'll have to camp here. Not many trees to hide under, but did you say there were caves around here?"
She waved at the distance. "There were caves back there. Nobody's ever found any around here, not that I know about, but we've got a few minutes before dark if you want to fly up and take a look around."
"Just in case." Colton shifted and sprang upward, wings flaring, and Jo watched with a goofy smile.
It was just so cool. She wouldn't have cared if he wasn't a shifter, because she hadn't even known about them three days ago, but the fact that he was gorgeous, kind, smart, funny, and a shifter just made Jo feel like she'd somehow hit the jackpot in a lottery she didn't even know she was eligible for.
He flew out of sight for a few minutes, and she kept plugging forward just to give herself something to do.
At least the weather had held: it wasn't clear, but a few early stars were trying to put in a showing through the clouds, while the western sky glowed pink and orange with the last bits of sunset behind the mountains.
They'd probably pushed it a little late, Jo realized. They should have made camp an hour ago, but she knew that she, at least, had been holding out hope that they might somehow make it back to the rest of the world before nightfall.
The fact that she'd have to put Colton on a plane back East as soon as they did get back to civilization struck her, and she sighed as she worked through the snow. He had a job, and some brave kids depending on him. From that perspective, Jo didn't even want to keep him in Montana.
From every other perspective, though, she did.
Boy, did she ever. Never mind replacing the plane or the endangered ranch: everything just seemed so much more possible, and easier, with the idea of Colton at her side.
Even if they'd only known each other for a few days, she felt secure with him in a way she couldn't remember ever experiencing.
That was the mate bond, she supposed. Fate. Love at first sight. All those words made her grin into her scarf. They sounded ridiculous but wonderful, and Jo was happy to embrace them forever.
She was also, at the moment, ready to embrace the idea of moving to a tropical island and never seeing snow again.
It was thigh-deep and heavy out here, with the ground frozen solid beneath it.
She'd spent a whole lifetime dealing with that, and didn't mind, exactly.
Unless, it turned out, she'd been trying to work her way through it for three days on the way back home after a plane wreck.
Then she minded it quite a lot, and thought a beach and the ocean would be better forever.
A shape in the distance made her think of the bison scattered across their ranch, and she laughed out loud, a small sound in the growing dark, but a happy one.
Bison and a beach didn't seem like a happy combination.
She guessed it would have to be one or the other, and ultimately she was pretty sure she'd choose the bison.
On that cheerful thought, the ground beneath her feet disappeared and she fell into the earth, screaming.