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This man, thismonster,was easily the biggest thing I’d ever seen in my life. I was not a small woman, but I must have seemed like a child to him.
Upside down, I was able to grab onto his hips and get my hand around a sharp blade strapped to his thigh.
Hope soared through me, and I wrenched it out of its holster and didn’t wait a second before plunging it into the male’s thigh.
He roared and dropped me to the ground. Only sheer luck and decent flexibility allowed me to twist at the last moment so I didn’t land on my head.
Sobbing now, I stumbled back to my feet and through the trees, ducking behind a few of them to hide away from the male.
The unforgiving branches around me battered me from all angles. But I wouldn’t stop for anything.
I could feel the thunderous beat of my heart racing with my every frantic step.
Eerie howling and growling had me slowing to move a bit quieter, carefully judging my steps to try and disguise my presence in the dark.
I didn’t know what other threats lurked around me and I didn’t want to find out.
My eyes flitted from tree to tree, shadow to shadow, searching for and anticipating the unknown.
I knew I couldn’t go on much longer.
That burst of energy was thinning by the second.
My skin was so taut with cold that it felt like I would snap at any moment like an overstretched rubber band.
My teeth were chattering so loud I knew it was probably audible, but I couldn’t control it.
I was not an outdoors girl apart from the rare jog through my neighborhood, and I meanrare. I’d never hunted in my life.
Had no inkling of outdoor survival skills, but even so, I knew that even if I did have any skill, they would be useless here dressed the way I was, as unprepared as I was.
And then I was battling the cold. And losing…
Part of me just wanted to give up, just lie down and let it all end.
Denial swiftly followed where those thoughts led me, and I found myself repeatedly pinching my arm, trying to keep myself awake.
Then chanting that I just wanted to wake up under my breath so desperately, no one would have been able to make out my words had I said them any louder because my sobbing would have made it impossible. I wasn’t asleep.
The pain was proof of that. The blisters on my feet and death knocking at my door hammered my predicament home. And as hellish as this place was, I didn’t think I was dead.
And I knew I wasn’t anywhere near home.
With no other explanation, I was just terrified into silence.
Not willing to make a sound and give myself away. Endlessly walking.
I had no destination. I didn’t know where to go.
I just knew I didn’t want to be in these woods anymore. I didn’t want to be cold anymore. But they seemed never-ending, growing thicker and thicker the further I traveled into them.
And then I couldn’t walk anymore.
The snowy ground rushed up to meet me and everything went black.
Chapter3
JUNE
