Page 2 of Stranded on the Prairie
There has to be a way out of this, right?
The universe wouldn’t have dumped something like this on my head if I couldn’t cope with it, I just need to find a way through, one way or another...
I settle on a direction, and start to walk, my entire body practically seized from the cold. I wait for the clouds to part and show the sunshine that I saw beaming down before, but it doesn’t come.
If anything, they just grow more and more threatening, until, at last, a rain of sleet drops out of the sky. I dive beneath a tree for cover, but it doesn’t do much to keep the cold off of me, dripping into my clothes and soaking in to my flesh to ensure that what little of me that isn’t frozen soon ends up that way.
I sink down to the ground, my arms wrapped around myself, my teeth chattering as I watch the sleet turn to snow in front of me.Why the hell is it snowing in Colorado at this time of year?I checked the weather before I came out, and it was meant to be nothing but sunshine as far as I could see. But this...
My eyes begin to grow heavy, and a sudden wash of exhaustion hits me hard. Maybe I just need to rest for a while, and then I can start back on to the trail again, try to find someone who can point me in the right direction...
But, before I can grow too comfortable, something catches my attention – the sound of footsteps cutting through the woods, a man’s voice, low, the rumble of it cutting through the tiredness in my body.
My gaze flickers open, and sure enough, there before me is a man who looks like he could have come straight from the front cover of some period-piece drama on a streaming service.
He’s got a crop of brown hair, streaked with a few lighter patches from the sun, and he’s wearing a heavy leather coat overwhat looks to be well-worn cotton pants and a matching shirt. His brow is knitted together with obvious concern as he takes me in, and, as I part my lips to try and say something to him, he reaches down to pull me up.
"Come on. With me."
"I just got lost," I blurt out, my head kind of screwy from the cold and the tiredness. "I lost my phone back there, I don’t know how to get Maps on-"
"What are you talking about?” he mutters, as he slips an arm around my waist, drawing mine around his shoulders. Whatever protest or explanation that I might have had vanishes just as quick as I thought of it when I feel the warmth of his body against mine.
I guess I shouldn’t be letting some random guy carry me off into the woods, but it’s not like I have many better options right now.
"My phone," I try again, but my voice is weaker now, not exactly convincing. "I was just..."
"You need to warm up," he grunts to me, tightening his grip around my waist as he leads me further into the dark woods. The blackness is spattered with white where the snow is falling quickly around us, and I lean on him for support, my legs barely grazing the ground as he carries me away from the cold.
My clothes are still clinging to my body, freezing against my skin, and I know he’s right. The cold is starting to feel a little too close to comfort for me right now, and if I don’t get out of the snow, I might be in serious trouble.
And besides...the warmth of his skin, the strength of his muscular body, and the glint in his dark brown eyes hardly leave me much room for argument, do they?
CHAPTER 2
Wyatt
Icrouch by the fire, stoking the flames to get them up a little higher, and cast a glance to the girl tucked under a blanket on the armchair opposite me.
I grimace. She’s still shivering. I’ve tried my best to warm her up, but I don’t want to move too quick or she could get chillblains. What the hell was she doing out there dressed like that, anyway?
In clothes so tight they look like underthings, in the middle of winter like this. It’s a miracle I stumbled across her in time, not that she would have been easy to miss, with her red hair and olive skin. She doesn’t look like she belongs here, though I can’t exactly work out why – still, not like I could have left her out there to die.
I’m not having that on my conscience, that’s for sure.
Outside, the wind howls against the windows, rattling them in the frame. The storm’ll be gone by the end of the night, I’m sure, but she’ll still be here, and I don’t know what I’m going to do with her now she is.
My mind drifts, briefly, to Boone and Elias, the wives they’ve taken in the last year or so. Both of them having appeared nigh-on out of nowhere, in the middle of the woods, in the midst of a storm, looking like they came from somewhere else entirely.
Is she one of them?
She might be. Until she wakes up, I guess I’m not going to have an answer.
I lift my hands to warm them in front of the fire, and, for a brief moment, my mind returns to the comforts of the town nearby. I can practically hear my father in my head, trying to coax me back home again.We’ve got everything you need here, boy,he’d tell me.And when you find a wife, you’ll have even better reason to stay...
I push the thought from my mind and rise to my feet, checking the pot of stew that I’ve had cooking over the fire since we got back. Not much in the way of good hunting out there, but I managed to pick up a couple of rabbits and a fox who I’ve skinned and added to the stew. It’ll keep me going for the next few days – and her, too, since she’s here.
Not that I know anything about her.
