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Harleigh
The wind picks up and I groan, stumbling into yet another snow drift. The cold air bites into my frozen skin as I try to pick my way around yet another drift that practically swallows me whole instead. I’m still dressed in the same clothes that I wore to the party and a little black dress and bare feet are definitely not made for this kind of weather. I can’t feel my fingers and toes and the blanket that I keep in my car is soaked from the snow. I accidentally left my coat at the party when I left with Dick.
My heartbeat accelerates and puffs of white shatter the cold air. I push the panic aside. They didn’t see me and Dick. I know they didn’t. I try and tell myself that but I know it isn’t true. I was more sober than Dick and I saw them and what they did. He was too busy up-chucking to really pay too much attention to what was happening. I left my shoes there after he threw up on me. It shouldn’t have been a big deal. I could get a new pair at home.
But once I locked eyes with those guys and Dick dropped in a heap at my feet, passed out and snoring like a freight train, I knew I couldn’t go home.
I jerk my wild thoughts back and hide myself behind a thick tree trunk, trying to get out of the cold. Even for a second. I’m shivering so hard that it feels like my teeth are castanets. At least this dress has sleeves but that’s not saying much. The thin fabric is wet and clinging to me and the blanket over it isn’t made for this kind of insanity either.
Why the hell did I come up this mountain? There’s nothing out here but snow and more snow. Wind that bites into your body all the way to the bone. A wolf howls and my head jerks up, my eyes widening.
There’s something else out here alright. Something that’s stalking me. I shift away from the tree and push myself harder. I don’t need another meeting with a different kind of animal tonight. The first one yesterday was enough to last me a lifetime.
I groan when I can barely lift my legs and my toes ache so bad that it feels like they’re about to fall off.
Frostbite. Just what I don’t need. How the hell was I supposed to know what else to do though? I don’t have more clothes and I think if I waited in my car, they could have caught me. And my chances out here in the cold are a helluva lot better than if those guys find me.
My blurry gaze locks on something in the periphery of my vision. Warm and welcoming in the cold dark of the night. It beckons me and I’m not sure it’s actually there. It shifts and changes so that I think my mind is playing tricks on me. Is it a house? If it is…can I trust whoever’s there to help me or will they push me back out when they find out what and who I’m trying to get away from?
My body clenches tight against the shudders wracking me. My teeth set against the pain. But I’m feeling warmer and calmer. Less anxious and that scares me more than running into the wolf or the owner of that inviting light .
Because it hasn’t gotten any warmer. The storm is still raging so bad that I can’t see clearly. The wind whipping the stinging white flakes into my face. The air has to be just as cold but now I don’t feel it as bad. Like my body is acclimating to the freezing air.
It’s not. Hypothermia. I know that I’m moving into a more dangerous medical diagnosis and I move forward faster, hoping that I can make it to that warm light.
Almost running, I stumble into the night. Until all of a sudden a dark shape moves in front of me and I scream, fear tearing into my frozen body. Locking me in place.
“No, no, no!” I babble mindlessly, turning to run the other way. It’s got to be the wolf. Or a bear.
I’m drawn up short by a strong grip on my arms and I’m thrown over a strong shoulder, my face buried in soft fur. Warm fur that moves with every step the thing takes.
But wolves don’t walk on two legs. And they don’t hold onto your legs so that you don’t fall.
Or run.
My eyes close and I breathe deeply, feeling a strange lethargy steal over me. I drift on a soft cloud that pillows me and takes away the cold, cocooning me in the soothing feeling of nothingness. I’m numb to everything but the peaceful feeling washing over me.
It could be minutes or hours since it got me. I don’t know and I don’t care. For the first time in what feels like forever I feel safe. Even when the body under me grunts with effort and stalks up what feels like steps, staggering into bright light and heat.
My head reels and hands grab at me. I shove them away, mumbling under my breath.
“Leave me alone.”
A gruff, deep voice answers me back and my head aches with the effort to listen. “I need to undress you, baby girl. You’re soaking wet and you’re gonna catch your death.”
Whining in my throat, I groan. “Don’t kill me! Please don’t kill me! I won’t tell anyone what I saw, I promise. Just don’t kill me.”
The rough, calloused hands soothe my fears and his gentle voice croons. “Nothing’s going to hurt you, baby. Just lie still and I’ll take care of you. I promise. Nothing will ever hurt you.”
His words soothe me, the rumble of anger in his voice settling the fears running rampant in me. I still and he undresses me quickly then covers me with a soft, warm blanket and moves away.
“Don’t leave me. Please,” I plead.
“Don’t worry, sweetheart. I’m just building up the fire. We’ve got to get you warmed up.”
I nod my head and my heavy eyelids slip closed again as I tunnel further into the warmth of the fabric covering me. With a huge yawn, I slip under.
Slipping in and out of consciousness, I swear I feel those calloused fingers chafing at my fingers and toes as they come alive, the pins and needles shooting through my tired body. Moaning and thrashing, I feel warmth and smooth muscle against my skin, heating me from the outside in. My fingers wrap around that warmth and pull it tighter into me.
