Page 43 of Billionaire Lumberjack's Bride

“LYLA!” I push deeper into the woods, following what I hope was her path, trusting Whiskey to help. “LYLA!”

I scream her name over and over again, until my voice goes hoarse and my throat is raw. Whiskey races ahead, zigzagging in front of me, darting to the sides into areas too dense for me to reach, hopefully catching her scent. But he isn’t trained to locate people, and I can tell by how frantic he is that he hasn’t found her yet. And he knows something is wrong, just like I do.

Dread starts to coil around my spine.

Lyla’s barely been with me for a few days, and I’ve already managed to get her lost in the fucking woods.

What the hell was I thinking bringing a woman up here who knows absolutely nothing about this lifestyle, about how to stay safe?

She probably thought she was doing the right thing going after Billy, that she’d easily catch him and she wouldn’t have to admit to me that she let him out of the pen. And then he led her deeper into the woods until she had no idea where she was.

It happens a lot to people out here, but it shouldn’t be happening to my wife.

“LYLA!!!”

A branch scratches along my arm, but I barely feel the pain. Running solely on adrenaline now, I surge onward, casting the light everywhere I can in hopes she’ll see it if she can’t hear me.

Whiskey barks somewhere unseen ahead and rushes back to me, bouncing on his paws excitedly. He charges forward, then spins in place and looks back to make sure I’m following him.

“Did you find her, boy?”

He rushes toward me, circles, then takes off with a determination I haven’t ever seen in him before.

He found her.

Hope starts to bloom in my chest as I race through the dark, clambering over fallen trees, through sharp branches, and across uneven ground. “Lyla?”

Whiskey leaps over a giant log, and I swing my leg across it and come down on the other side, almost on top of Lyla.

Fuck.

She lies huddled up against the log, her eyes closed, arms wrapped around herself, shaking violently.

“Shit. Lyla?” I drop to my knees and pull her up by the shoulders. Her head lolls to the side and her eyes flutter, but she doesn’t open them all the way. “Lyla, can you hear me?”

Her lips part, her breaths visible in the frigid air. “I’m s-s-sorry…”

Fucking hell…

I scoop her up into my arms, and the ice-cold of her cheek against my already-cool skin tightens that coil of dread around me. If I don’t get her warmed up fast, I’m going to lose her.

ChapterSeven

SILAS

“Lyla, stay with me.” The panic I’m trying to tamp down threatens to bubble out with each word. She’s barely conscious, but I can’t let Lyla hear it in my voice. I swallow it back, fighting the pitch-black night toward my only hope of saving her in time. “We’re almost there…”

Her trembling body held tightly against mine, each stumbling step I take through the woods back toward the cabin, reminds me of how long she’s been out here in the freezing temperatures.

Too long.

And the light, cold drizzle that’s started to fall has already dropped my body temp noticeably.

The forest seems endless and hostile—branches reaching out to try to hold me back inside it, brambles and bushes blocking the most direct path to safety.

But I finally make it to the tree line.

My cabin comes into view—along with it, an intense sense of relief. But we are far from out of the woods yet.

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