Page 21 of Puck Love

“The road that was supposed to beclosed?”

“Yep, that’s theone.”

“Van . . .”

“Come on, country, where’s your sense of adventure? If you’d checked in to that hotel you’d already be back to your miserable life. This way, you get the break you so desperately need, and the bonus of two strapping young gentlemen for company. Tell me it wasn’t smart tolie.”

“It wasn’t smart to lie,” I say, but I think my smile tells him everything I won’tsay.

“Here’s the thing—you haveto be absolutely quiet,” Van says, as he settles in the snow besideme.

“Okay.”

“You can’t make a sound,” Emmett says too loudly. I glance at Van, expecting him to shush his brother like he just did me, but he winks. I’m freezing my ass off out here. I’d much rather be sitting cozy at Lodge Ross with a hot chocolate that I’m not supposed to drink. Instead, I’m knee-deep in snow, decked out in cammo and sporting black war paint under my eyes like a footballplayer.

I hunker down between the two boys, using their bodies as a shield against the cold, and when I’m sure I’m about to die of hyperthermia we hear a guttural bellowing sound. “Hear that?” Vanwhispers.

I gulp, not sure I want some mammoth moose coming toward me, but after an hour of freezing my boobs off, a bull finally enters the grove. He’s the biggest thing I’ve ever seen, with a deep brown coat and antlers so wide they must be at least six feet from end to end. Istill.

Emmet whispers, “See it,Stella?”

I can’t speak—I can only nod. I don’t know if it’s the size of the beast that I find the most intimidating or the fact that it’s walking in tight circles and butting its head intotrees.

“Oh shit,” Vanwhispers.

The moose looks right at us and sways alittle.

“Oh shit? Oh shit,what?”

“He’s gotbrainworm.”

“What does that mean?” I hiss back. Panic swirls in my gut. The zombie moose charges for us, then falls down in the snow, but it’s back on its feet again in a matter of seconds. I shriek and take several stepsback.

“You’re gonna need to go,” Vanshouts.

I’m frozen to the spot, watching the animal stumble and fall. “What are you going todo?”

“I gotta put himdown.”

The moose charges again, and this time I don’t wait to be told to move. I run. With flailing arms, I take off through the forest, but the moose runs, too, right on after me. Somewhere far behind, above the sounds of a one thousand-pound moose chasing me, I hear a shot ring out from the opposite direction, and Van shouts, “Stella!”

Emmett’s voice echoes his, but I keep running, and then I hear something bearing down on me, a huge body thundering through the woods, and I think I’m done. I can’t look back for the fear of running headfirst into a tree, but that panic is nothing when my legs go out from under me as I’m crash-tackled to the ground. I scream, tense, and wait for the moose to eat me alive or spear me right through, but I land hard on the forest floor with . . . Van, on top of me? All the air is squeezed from mylungs.

“Are you fucking crazy? You’re going to get shot! There are hunters outhere.”

I slap his chest. “You scared me half to death. Where’s themoose?”

“He’s down for now, Ithink.”

A shot goes off, ricocheting off a nearby tree. “Oh my god! Is someone shooting atus?”

“Yeah, Stella. That’s what happens when you run through the woods in a hunting area. They think you’re a deer. Stop!” Van says, and a man lets loose a string of colorful profanities. I glance up at Van. We hear another body thundering toward us through the underbrush, and suddenly, a man-bear holding a rifle is towering over us. Van gets to his feet and offers me a hand up. I take it, but only because I have no desire to fall on my ass in front of the big scaryhunter.

“What the hell were you two thinkin’, eh?” The hunter points his finger in my face and thenVan’s.

“Hey, don’t you talk to her like that, and don’t point your goddamn finger at my girlfriend.” My head snaps so fast in Van’s direction I’m surprised I don’t pull amuscle.

“I almost shot you two. I can’t afford to go shooting no humans when I’m just out here looking for abull.”