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The weather held,but the temperature did not. Without any cloud cover, the temp continued to drop despite the sunshine. By the time the sun dipped below the horizon, Ellis didn’t think he’d be warm ever again.
The dogs, though, kept running. Amazing animals. Even Moonbeam. She was happy and playful, running with her pack, totally oblivious to the fact she nearly died that morning.
Ellis wasn’t so lucky. Every time he closed his eyes, he felt like he was going under the water again.
The cold darkness.
Ice filling his lungs, spreading through his blood.
Then he’d jolt awake from his seat on the sled to discover that the cold and dark weren’t only in his imagination.
They had been running for hours, but Bree and the dogs didn’t seem ready to stop any time soon. He had to stop. He didn’t feel right. His brain fuzzed and his heart was pounding between his ears. He tried to lift his arm to signal to Bree, but he was back in the water, moving in slow-mo.
“Bree?” The earth was dead silent around them. The only sounds came from the sled skis shushing over the icy snow and the jingle of the dogs’ harnesses. Still, his voice wasn’t loud enough to carry to her ears. He lifted his hand again and, this time, she noticed.
“Whoa,” she said to the dogs. The sled slowed and then stopped.
Bree hopped off the skids and came around to kneel next to him. “Ellis, your lips are blue.” She pulled off her mittens and touched his face. Her fingers were red from the cold, but her hands felt warm against his cheek. “Your body temperature is dropping again. You’re hypothermic. Why didn’t you tell me to stop sooner?”
“You…” Why was it so hard to talk? It was like his spit had turned to glue in his mouth. “You weren’t ready to stop.”
She huffed out a breath that clouded in the sharp night air. “Oh, you’re an idiot. A stupid, macho man idiot. I’m conditioned for this. I’ve trained for this for months. And I didn’t participate in an unscheduled polar bear plunge this morning.”
She sat back on her heels and glanced around. They were in a clearing at the foot of a mountain ridge. A sparse line of evergreens separated the clearing from the higher rocky ground. Many of them were dead, their branches bare and stretching toward the sky. Snow-covered skeletons dancing in the moonlight.
Bree pointed toward them. “We’ll camp there for the night. Those trees will give us some protection from the wind and the dead ones will provide plenty of firewood.”
There was no wind. The night was eerily still and silent. Every noise they made seemed to carry for miles and miles—but he didn’t have the energy to point that out. Besides, she was the expert here. He was just along for the ride and doing his best not to turn into Frosty the Snowman.
She guided the sled to her chosen campsite and immediately got to work building a fire. He wanted to help, but when he all but fell out of the sled, he realized his limbs were useless. Still, he crawled over and tried to untie their gear. His fingers wouldn’t cooperate.
“No. Ellis, stop. Just sit down before you hurt yourself.” She draped a wool blanket over his shoulders and pushed him to sit down on a crate of dog food. She had the fire blazing in minutes, and he had to admit, the heat was amazing. Now if only he could get his teeth to stop chattering.
Bree shoved something into his hands, and he realized he’d zoned out. He didn’t know for how long, but she already had their tent set up, hay laid out for the dogs, and each dog munched happily on their dinner.
This hypothermia shit was no joke.
He blinked a couple times and looked down into the dented metal mug. “What’s this?”
“Hot chocolate. The powdered kind. I always bring it out here with me. One of the comforts of home I can’t live without.” She mimed taking a sip. “Now drink. You need the warmth.”
He took a sip, and it did warm him all the way to his stomach. He drank more. “No little marshmallows?”
She smirked and sat down on another crate with her own drink. “Sorry, we’re not that fancy.”
“I’ll survive.” Which reminded him that this morning he really hadn’t thought he would survive. He shook his head to clear it of the memory and tried for a joke. “Guess this means I have to give you my man card now.”
She snorted. “Why? Because I set up camp without your help?”
He wrapped his hands around the mug, savoring the heat from the hot chocolate. It wasn’t going to stay hot very long out here, so he let himself have only a moment before finishing it off. “Because I’m useless.”
She finished off her drink and set the mug aside. “You’re not useless. You’re just not used to this kind of weather. A couple days ago, you were living in California, but I’ve conditioned myself for this.” She looked over at her dogs. The soft smile on her lips was full of love. “We were going to run the Iditarod next month. We’ve been training.”
“Because you’re crazy.”
Her gaze snapped to his in surprise. Then she grinned. “Of course. Everyone who enters the race is at least half crazy. You have to be to willingly put yourself through that kind of torture.”
“You love it.” A statement, not a question. He could see that love shining brightly in her as she spoke of the race. It was the same love he saw when she looked at her dogs.
