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“She’s anxious.”
A quick smile crossed Bree’s lips as she straightened and ran her hand down Aleu’s back. Aleu snorted her impatience, her breath escaping in clouds like a dragon. A gorgeous white dragon with piercing blue eyes. “She’s itching to run. It’s her favorite thing. Run and lead the pack. She’s the best lead dog I’ve ever had. Like I said, Norte was my lead before her and he was good, but she’s something special.”
Just like a fickle teen, Aleu gave up on her annoyance when she realized it wasn’t getting her what she wanted and bumped her head against Bree’s hand, seeking scratches.
Bree laughed and bent down to kiss the dog’s head. She got a faceful of tongue in return. The three closest dogs—Norte, Indigo, and Diggy—joined in the lovefest and they all tumbled to the snow, which made Bree laugh harder.
Moonbeam yodeled with happiness and soon, all the dogs were singing along. Bree threw her head back and joined in, howling at the sky.
He loved seeing her like this, with her guard completely down. She only ever dropped it around her dogs. He didn’t blame her. She’d been hurt too often in the past to trust easily, but he wished she would trust him. Wished she would look at him with the genuine affection she showed in private moments with her pack.
Ellis reached out and caught her cold hand in his gloved one. She froze under the pile of dogs and her gaze shot up to his, so full of suspicion his heart ached for her. He didn’t release her hand, but he gave her—and himself—an excuse for the gesture by pulling her to her feet.
She was shaking and he doubted it was from the cold. She was part sled dog—the cold didn’t affect her like it did him. His touch, though? That had her shivering and he liked it. He wanted to pleasure her, to make her tremble and gasp until all her walls collapsed and she finally let him in. As soon as they were someplace warm with a real bed, he planned to do just that.
Too bad they were stuck in the middle of nowhere.
He lifted her hand to his lips and pressed a kiss to the tips of her cold fingers. She didn’t yank away, which was a good sign. He smiled and pressed one last kiss to her palm before releasing her.
“Teach me how to run the dogs. Please.”
She stared at her hand for a moment like she’d never seen it before. His smile spread to a grin he couldn’t contain. Yeah, the wheels spun inside that quick mind of hers. She was considering it, considering him. That would have to be enough for now.
She snapped her mittens from her pocket and yanked them on, all business. “Okay, get on the runners behind me. I’ll show you how it’s done for a few miles and you can take over when you’re comfortable.”
He followed her to the back of the sled. The dogs, realizing they were about to run, broke out in song again and he was treated to a flash of Bree’s smile before she pulled her mask over her face.
“There are two brakes,” she said over the dogs’ howling. “These levers by my feet, here. One slows, one stops.”
“Got it.”
“All right. Hang on.” She released the snow hook—a piece of metal shaped like a question mark that held the sled in place. He could all but feel the dogs’ excitement trembling through the gangline up into the sled’s handlebars. Their excitement was contagious, and his own heart kicked with it.
Then she called, “Hike!”
And he nearly flew off the back of the sled. The dogs bolted forward. His hands weren’t working as well as he’d like, and he lost his grip on the handles. Flailed for a moment, then caught her parka and wrapped his arms around her waist.
Bree laughed. “First rule of mushing: never let go of the sled. No matter what.”
Steady again, he leaned down to shout next to her ear so she could hear him through all of her layers. “You did that on purpose.”
“Hey, you passed the test.” She smirked at him. He couldn’t see her lips under her mask, but her eyes crinkled at the corners in a way that told him she was definitely smirking. “Hike means go.”
“Yeah, got that.”
She shouted, “Gee!” and the team swung to the right, curving around a large spruce. “That means turn right. Haw!” The team curved left and shot out onto a flat expanse of snow. “That means left. And this noise”— she made a kissing sound— “means faster. Or you can tell them, hike up!”
The sled shot forward as the dogs kicked it into high gear. Ellis swore they were flying, the skids barely touching the ground. No, not ground. Ice. Another frozen lake. He tried not to think about it cracking under them, the dogs and Bree disappearing into the black, cold depths underneath. He suddenly couldn’t breathe. Shivering, he pulled Bree back against him.
“Whoa,” she called, and the dogs skidded to a halt right in the middle of the lake. Which was the worst possible place to stop. He stared down at the ice between the skids. In his mind’s eyes, he saw it cracking, the icy jaws of death opening up to swallow them all whole.
Bree turned to face him. “Hey, it’s okay.”
When he didn’t look at her, she cupped his cheeks in her hands and made him look. “Ellis, it’s okay. What happened before was because landing the plane stressed the ice, weakened it. We’re not going to break through here. It’s too thick and we weigh too little. You need to breathe now.”
He opened his mouth, but it took another second for his lungs to unlock so he could suck in a breath. Figures he’d get through the Army without PTSD only to experience it here in his home state.
Alaska wanted to kill him. He was sure of it.
