He’d found her.

She fled.

Tripped.

As she landed, the earth broke away under her. Her scream rent the night, but the cold gobbled it. She landed softly, not brutally, despite the distance, just her face in the snow, her hands and knees dug into the deep snowpack.

She fought her way free from the grip and rolled over. Only then did she feel the pain radiating up from her ankle. It pulsed and burned, and she must have twisted it.

Oh.

She caught her breath, staring up at the sky, watching the warmth from her core form in tiny clouds above her.

A wolf howled, its cry rising, and she sank into it, reached out for more when it ended, the sound of it familiar.

Her own.

In the back of her head, she heard a hum. No, a buzz . . . no . . .

A motor.

She sat up. “Here! I’m down here!” But the darkness and wind ate her voice.

“Here!”

The motor dimmed.

Maybe she’d dreamed it. Longed for it.

She sank back down in the snow.

She’d just stay here for a moment. Rest. Just stay, listen to the mourning of the wolves and watch the waves stretch out over her, light refracted from the bitter palette of ice.

There was a metaphor there, she knew it, but her brain had slowed along with her body, and she couldn’t think.

But the beauty of it. So much beauty.

Maybe she’d just close her eyes.

And then, in a bit, she’d get up and keep searching for that cabin.

ten

Oh, Echo was in deep trouble. She’d veered so far off the path of safety into the crazy what-ifs that she’d found herself in a cabin, alone, with the one man who could make her forget the future and surrender to the now.

And everyone knew how that turned out. Impulsiveness only ended up with you alone in the cold.

Dodge had been about to kiss her. Echo knew it from the look in his eyes when he’d turned her, the way those blue eyes roamed her face, fixed on her lips.

“Echo? Can I—”

Even worse—she would have said yes. Lifted her head and let him kiss her. Like they didn’t have a sled full of baggage between them, as if she hadn’t left a gaping wound in his heart.

How could he just forgive her?

But her own words, her own accusations, came back in answer. “You meant it when you said I was the only woman you’ll ever love.”

And that made her betrayal that much worse.

He deserved a woman who could give him her whole heart—and not look back. Who knew what she wanted.