He looked down. “I know?”
“We can’t burn any of those. Way too young, way too much smoke.”
“They’re not for burning.” He dropped them on the floor by the side of the bed. “I’m going to make snowshoes.”
“Have you ever done that before?”
He looked up at her. “No, but how hard could it be?”
“Right.”
“Can I borrow yours?”
She waved vaguely, and he picked one up from the door and then watched as she grabbed another packet of spice. He noticed there was a pot on the stove.
“Not another one!”
“I thought it would smell good and drive out the musk.”
“It smells like a hippie’s funeral in here.”
“These are just some nice warming spices.”
“Okay, Patchouli.”
She gasped in outrage. “This is not patchouli!”
“It’s just that shifters have super sensitive noses, and that is a lot.”
“Sorry, I didn’t even think.”
She took the pot off the stove and flung the contents into the snow.
“Careful!”
She came back inside and swung the door closed.
“Not to keep mentioning the wolf,” he said, and he really, really did not want to do that. “But I’m going to need food.”
In retrospect, tramping around the woods for branches was a pretty stupid waste of calories.
“No worries,” she said brightly, and then paused on her way to the kitchen. “What happens if you get too hungry?”
He clenched his teeth, not wanting to explain, but she should know. “I control who’s in charge and what form we take, but that gets harder to do when I’m hungry.”
“Got it.” She changed direction toward her backpack. She dug into it and tossed him a few bars. Then she dumped out the entire sack on the bed. “Just eat all of those.”
Her voice was casual, but he could sense her fear.
“Please take one yourself. And I don’t need all of them. I just need a normal amount of them.”
He unwrapped the first one he grabbed and bit into the chalky chocolate with relief.
“Well, at least we have plenty of water,” she muttered and went to the kitchen. She sorted through what she could find and held up a box in triumph. “Oatmeal!”
He desperately wanted to ask if there was something like beef jerky but bit his tongue.
She put the pot on the stove again, and he braced, but she didn’t head for the spices, just dug in the next box.
