Page 7 of Forced Alpha Bride (Wolfshade Brides-for-Hire #3)

The driving curtains of snow are so thick, I can barely see three paces in front of me. Ice chips sting my eyes, my paws are frozen, and my nose is completely useless. As the howls below me get closer, I finally have to admit the truth.

I’m really lost.

A shudder of hopelessness runs through me, so deep that I almost lose my wolf shape. Desperately, I focus again on my wolf, knowing that without her, I won’t survive five more minutes in this storm.

Frantically, I look around, but all I can see are shades of white. I plow forward, seeing the dark shapes of trees around me. Getting deeper into the forest seems like the smartest thing to do, but I have a bad feeling that I’m moving further away from town. I have no idea how to get back.

I lost my supplies in my slip down the slope. Without the map, I know I’ll never find the cabin. It seemed like such a good plan—jogging through the wilderness for a while, then waiting in a nice, comfy cottage for Galen to come and save me.

Galen! I wonder if Krista reached him. He could be on his way here right now.

I wonder if I should head down the mountain to try intercepting Galen on the road. I quickly discard this as a terrible plan. If Galen is expecting to find me at the cabin, I should go there. Otherwise, we’ll miss each other.

Also, I have no idea how to find the road.

It’s painfully obvious to me how out of touch I am with my instincts. My wolf shape is faltering, and I know that without her, I’ll die.

Beneath me, I hear the howls again. They seem further away this time, and to my surprise, they scare me.

Maybe I should let them catch me… at least I won’t freeze to death.

Immediately, the image of Damon rises in my thoughts. At first, it’s pleasant. His deep, dark eyes, hinting at secrets hidden within, enchant me, even just in my memory.

Not just the mystery… the way he looked at me. All the intensity of his body and mind, completely and utterly focused on me.

A low growl rumbles through my chest, shocking me. Small rivers of pleasure streak across my skin, raising my fur all over. The sudden realization that my wolf wants him snaps me back to my human shape.

I’m not going back! No fucking way!

The idea that my wolf could betray me in such a way forces more distance between us, and I can’t call her back. I struggle through the thigh-deep snow, hoping that the shadows I can see ahead are some kind of cover and not the gates of the underworld.

Or a nice hallucination. Does that happen with hypothermia?

My teeth have stopped chattering, and I’m not shivering anymore, which is a very bad sign. True despair clutches at my heart as I realize I’m really not getting out of this.

My choices are to return to Damon… or die.

I stop in the snow, looking around at the swirling clouds of white. Even just standing still for a minute, I watch the snow start to pile up around me. If I don’t keep moving, I’ll get completely covered by it.

And they’ll never even find my body.

I look up, hoping to see the sky, but all I see is endless clouds of white and gray.

Am I really ready to die for this? If I went back to Damon, could Galen save me? What happens with Iris if I break the contract?

I know my family and friends wouldn’t want me to die out here, but for the first time in my life, I consider the full consequences of my actions.

If I go back, and Galen takes me, Damon can go to war with my pack. In the meantime, what would he do to Krista, the elders, and the town of Gryphon Eyrie?

A shudder runs through me that has nothing to do with the cold. Now that I’ve seen Damon in person, I know he’s perfectly capable of all the terrible things I’ve ever heard about him—and probably a whole lot more.

I shake my head, trying to get snow and ice out of my eyes so I can look around. It seems to be getting dark. Now I know I’m in real trouble.

I can’t go back. If Damon doesn’t complete the ceremony, then he can’t officially be named alpha, and he will have no power at all. They can depose him, and Galen can have him tried for my death. No one will get hurt.

Except me.

I shove myself forward, practically crawling through the snow. I try to hold back my tears, knowing they will just freeze on my cheeks and carve permanent marks into my skin.

I’ll die with tear streaks burned into my cheeks. How appropriate.

When a little snort of laughter rattles in my throat, more unhinged thoughts drift around in my mind. Even though I know I’m losing it, I don’t care anymore.

I don’t bother to reach for my wolf. I know if I did, she wouldn’t answer me. My relationship with my primal side wasn’t great before this, and now that I know she wants to hurl herself at Damon’s feet and beg to be his luna, I doubt I’ll ever shift again.

I keep crawling forward, and to my shock, a small thicket of trees appears in front of me. Keeping my belly to the ground, I slither underneath them and curl up in a small hollow.

The snow is still getting in, but I’m mostly out of the wind. The ground is frozen, but now I can’t even feel it.

I’m actually starting to feel very warm.

Warning bells go off in the back of my mind, but they are easy to ignore. I relax against the ground, and it suddenly feels like a feather bed. I can hear the crackling of a fire and the soft voices of my family around me.

Go to sleep, Winnie , they seem to say. Everything’s going to be alright.

“Okay,” I mutter. “I’m okay.”

I drift off into the quiet, letting everything go. It’s as if there was something important I had to remember, but it’s gone now, and I can’t get it back.

Whatever it is, I’ll deal with it when I wake up. I’m so tired… I just need to sleep now.

Warm comfort wraps around me like a thick duvet. Peaceful clarity fills my mind, and there’s no more pain.

Then my perfect world rocks around me like there’s been a slight earthquake.

We don’t get earthquakes up here…

I let that dreamy thought fade as the drugging quiet takes me back.

The world shudders again, worse this time.

You’re okay, Winnie.

“I’m okay,” I repeat softly. “Everything’s okay.”

“No, you’re not okay!” a harsh male voice roars. “You’re fucking dying!”

“What?!”

The scream rips out of my throat, burning my lungs as I take in a gasp of freezing air. I struggle against the ground, feeling the branches of the bush scratching at me, the freezing snow under me.

And a pair of very strong hands holding my arms.

“Wake up!” the voice yells, shaking me. I manage to get my frozen eyelids to open slightly, and when I see the inky black hair and shadowed eyes, I know who’s got me.

Damon. How the hell did he find me?

“Don’t,” I mumble, trying to struggle free. “Leave me alone!”

“Was this seriously your plan?” he snaps. “Suicide?”

“No,” I say stubbornly. I can barely make my lips move, and I can’t keep my eyes open.

Damon rubs my hands between his, shaking his head as he scowls at me. “You didn’t have long, do you realize that?”

I shake my head and try to protest, but no words come out. Damon rolls his eyes, rocking back on his heels as if to beseech the sky.

“Jesus fucking Christ,” he growls. When he looks back down, he throws himself on top of me, wrapping his arms around me and covering my body with his.

For a moment, fear paralyzes me worse than the cold, but it doesn’t take long for me to realize he’s warming me up.

His arms around me are strong but gentle.

Even though he’s heavy, his weight blocks out the snow and freezing wind.

To my surprise, he’s very warm, and I can feel his heart beating against mine.

“I think I’m strong enough to get up now,” I whisper.

“Give it a minute,” he mutters.

I stay quiet underneath him, wondering exactly where this is going to go.

Would he really do it, right here and now? Is he crazy?

Then my body starts to shiver violently, and pain streaks through my chest. My teeth chatter so hard, I split my lip. I’m in so much pain, I can barely breathe.

“What’s happening?” I gasp.

Damon shakes his head, still holding me tightly against his chest. “I’ve warmed you up enough for your body to realize how cold you are. If we don’t find shelter soon, it’s over for you.”

“But not you?”

“Maybe,” he says with a shrug. “But I’m used to living rough, and I’m not that lost. If I turn downwards, I’d probably find a landmark.”

“Can’t you get us both back?”

“You won’t make it,” he says flatly. “Even if I carry you as fast as I can, you won’t make it back alive. That’s assuming I can even find a trail.”

“Oh,” I mumble, trying to stay coherent through my violent shivering. “How long do we have?”

Damon looks down at my face. His dark eyes are so deep and soft, it moves something inside me.

He doesn’t look like a big, scary man… he looks like a lost little boy.

“Maybe an hour,” he whispers. “If you’re lucky. I can keep you covered up here, and it might slow things down. Maybe if you slip into a coma, we could revive you… depending on how long we’re out here.”

Jesus fuck. Is that what my options have come to?

“I’m kind of starting to wish I didn’t run,” I mumble.

“Why did you run?” he demands, eyes wide. “I don’t understand.”

I try to raise my voice, but I’m too weak to really yell at him. “I know you,” I finally stammer. “I know all about you, and you’ll never be alpha of Gryphon Eyrie!”

He glares at me, but he doesn’t look angry, just sad. I feel sympathy for him, as well as a deep connection between us that lives behind my fear.

I’m delirious. This is all just the effects of my brain cells dying.

“Winnie, what was the plan?” he demands. “Were you really just going to run into a blizzard and get yourself killed? Did you think that far ahead?”

“I was going to a cabin,” I mutter. “Krista told me about it. She gave me a map. I lost it, and my supplies.”

“I’ve never heard of a cabin up here.”

“It’s private, hidden. She said no one could find it without the map.”

“Where is it? Can you remember anything at all?”

“The dark gully below the north face of the mountain,” I answer. “That’s where she said it was.”

“That’s a big area,” Damon mutters, tightening his grip on me.

It’s kind of bananas how we’re having this totally normal conversation while we’re naked and wrapped around each other.

“Is there anything else you remember?” he asks.

“Krista drew a picture of the mountain and a little trail straight from her house in a little loop halfway up, marking a trail that brings you to the north side.”

“That’s where we are now. How did you get so low so fast?”

“I fell,” I answer. “Slipped off the path.”

Damon whistles through his teeth. “Nasty. You’re lucky to be alive. Was there a trail from here to the cabin?”

“No,” I say. “She couldn’t remember the turns once you got into the trees, but she said to look out for a bend in the creek, and a white-tipped rock.”

Hope dawns across Damon’s face, and I’m struck by how gorgeous he is without the mean snarl.

“I think I know where it is!” he says excitedly. “Can you walk, Winnie?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Can you call your wolf?”

“No,” I answer in a hard tone.

I probably can’t, but even if I can, I’m not risking her wrestling Damon down in this snow and joining with his wolf!

A pact made by the wolf shape can be dismissed by the human mind as temporary insanity, but sometimes—like in arranged marriages—it can be seen as soul truth, a permanent binding.

No fucking way. I’m still getting out of this, if I can.

I look down at myself, how pale my skin is, the dark red of my fingertips and toes. My limbs are shuddering so hard, it hurts. Every breath of icy air cuts my throat and burns my lips, sending pain lacing through my chest.

Not getting out of anything today. I’m at his mercy.

Damon slowly gets up and looks around. I wait for him to make another stupid suggestion, but instead, he just scoops me up off the ground and holds me tightly against his chest.

“I’ve got you, Winnie,” he says confidently. “I’m going to get us out of this, I promise you.”

A strange feeling fills me. Something that feels a lot like hope.

He may be bad, but he’s also strong, and that might be enough to save us both.