Not only was it open, but snow was making its way in.
A chill ran down my spine as I quickly put on my shoes and grabbed my jacket. She wouldn’t go out by herself, not at night, right? I mean I’d told her as much earlier, but I had been right there. I was trying to scare her away, not get her killed!
I grabbed my cell and turned on my flashlight as I stomped out into the blizzard. We already had well over a foot and it was still coming down hard. What the hell had she been thinking?
And how long had she been out there?
I rounded the corner and froze. She was lying facedown, the previously white snow now stained red.
I opened my mouth to yell.
But I didn’t even know her name, did I?
Breathing another curse, I fell to my knees next to her and felt for a pulse. It was there—barely. “Hey, wake up . . .”
She let out a moan.
Thank God.
“Hey.” I shook her lightly. “I need you to wake up. I think you hit your head, and I don’t know how long you’ve been out here.”
“Is it gone?”
“Is what gone?”
“The elk.” She shivered. “Huge.”
“You fought an elk?”
“I lost.” Her teeth chattered as she tried to sit, she brought her hands to her lips. The fingers were fire engine red, and looked frozen solid.
Shit.
“Can you walk?” I asked, gently cupping her face with my hands. Blood was sticking to her right cheek and was scabbing near her ear.
She seemed confused, like she wasn’t sure if she knew how to answer that question, which only made my panic increase.
The blizzard was bad.
It wasn’t stopping.
And she needed better medical attention than I was prepared to give her.
“Come on.” I stood and pulled her to her feet. She stumbled against me. Biting back yet another curse, I threw her over my shoulder as gently as I could and made the trek back into the house.
I immediately set her on the floor right in front of the fireplace. “Stay awake, alright?”
She moaned but nodded her head.
I ran as fast as humanly possible back outside to grab more firewood and made it back just in time to see her nod off.
“No!” I yelled, knowing I was being rough. “You have to stay awake, you could have a concussion.”
Honestly, I didn’t know what she could have.
A concussion?
Internal bleeding?
Her teeth chattered as she blinked her eyes open and tried to focus on me.
I built the fire while watching her out of the corner of my eye, every few seconds she’d close her eyes too long, and I’d grunt.
Apparently, my grunt was terrifying enough for her to jerk awake and glare at me.
Good. I was okay with her anger if it kept her awake long enough for me to try to figure out what the hell to do.
“Cold,” she whispered. Her lips were starting to turn blue.
I sighed helplessly and shrugged out of my jacket. “You know I was joking earlier when I said we’d need to use body heat.”
She blinked slowly as I pulled my sweater over my body and tossed it on the floor then jerked my sweats down until I was standing in front of her completely naked.
I didn’t give her time to process what I was about to do, instead I grabbed one of the down blankets off the couch and spread it behind her, then very gingerly tried to peel off her jacket.
Thankfully, she didn’t protest until I made it down to her bra and underwear, which were soaked through.
“I need to take these.” I was asking permission from someone who could die if I didn’t get her core temperature back to where it needed to be.
She swatted my hand away and then hung her head. “So tired . . .”
“Nope.” I patted her left cheek lightly. “Stay awake, princess.”
“Princess,” she repeated like it disgusted her.
Her snarl was almost endearing as I unhooked her bra and then pulled her against my chest, easing her wet underwear down her legs and mentally apologizing to whomever she belonged to for not just seeing her naked but undressing her, exposing her, and worst of all, looking.
I pulled her freezing body against mine and wrapped the blanket tight around us as we sat in front of the fire. Chills wracked her body as I rubbed up and down her arms.
I needed a plan.
Get her warm, examine her wound, make sure she had all ten fingers and toes then call for help.
Her head lolled to the side like she was going to fall asleep again.
“Nope, sorry, I know you’re tired, princess, but we need to get warm, and then I’m going to make sure that you didn’t hit your head hard enough to die on me, alright?”
“Didn’t.” She turned in my arms and clung to my chest, tightly pressing her head against my skin. “So cold. Don’t care.”