Page 12 of An Avalanche Hero Christmas

Mallory’s gut clenched. Forcing herself to return her gaze to him, she asked one of the questions that had been on her mind since yesterday.

“So what are you, anyway?”

Lance paused in the stream, frowning at her.

“I mean,” she tried again, swallowing at the sight of him, “you’re clearly a supernatural. Like me. Are you some kind of shifter?”

Maybe she was imagining it, but she thought she caught a tiny smirk on his lips. “Polar bear.”

Of course.“A bear who hunts fish,” she said. “Makes sense.”

“I hunt other animals sometimes,” came his reply. “Deer, moose…”

“Fae?”

His expression hardened suddenly, and she dropped her gaze. It landed on his left forearm, where a jagged scar tore across his skin.

“I don’t hunt fae,” he said quietly. “Only Boris does.”

“But you don’t like fae either,” she pointed out. “What’s that about?”

“I never said—”

“Did something happen in the past?” Mallory was aware she was starting to sound like a therapist, but she pressed on. “Maybe you had a—”

“Who I am and what happened in my past are none of your business,” he snapped.

Mallory stared at him, lips parted in shock. “I just—”

“I’ll help you get to my cabin, even though I’m risking everything by doing so. Once we get there, you can stay for a while, and then you’ll have to be on your way.”

He drew nearer, and for a split second, she thought he was going to touch her, but he simply climbed onto shore and strapped his blades to his thigh. Up close, he looked even bigger, even more muscular. He handed her the shirt.

“You need this more than I do,” he said without looking at her. “Wait here. I’ll scout around for a bit and get us something to eat.”

And without waiting for her response, he marched off, disappearing into the trees. The sound of his footsteps crunching in the snow faded, and all that was left was the gentle trickle of the stream. Alone, Mallory’s mind spun into overdrive, analyzing her situation and calculating her odds.

You can stay for a while, and then you’ll have to be on your way.

Could that work? From what Lance had said about the Fae Hunter, he was unlikely to stop searching for her simply because she’d hidden herself. And assuming she would be hidden in Lance’s cabin, what would happen when she left? She would be on the run again—if not from Boris, then from whatever other dangers lurked about on this mountain?

The odds were not in her favor. How was she to survive alone on this mountain? She’d barely survived in her own world, burying herself in her work instead of living an actual life. Taking a break from that had led her here.

As if it wasn’t bad enough that she’d become an endangered species, she was still pretty sure Lance didn’t like her. She wasn’t sure why. But at least he wasn’t trying to kill her.

Mallory briefly thought about bathing in the stream, then decided against it. If anything, it sounded like a sure way to end up with hypothermia. Not to mention, Lance could be back any second now.

The image of him staring at her bare breasts, her ankles submerged in the water, crossed her mind, and she felt her cheeks grow hot. Before she could discard the thought, it was forcibly yanked from her mind by acrackthat reached her ears above the trickle of the stream.

Mallory jerked her head in the direction of the sound. It had come from across the stream as if a twig had snapped, as if something, or perhaps someone, had stepped on it.

Her pulse raced. “Hello?” she called out.

There was no answer. She unzipped her MediPack and withdrew her scissors, clutching them like a dagger, listening carefully for the sound of another twig snapping or snow crunching,anything.

But all she heard was the stream.

A chill traversed her spine. Mallory climbed to her feet, grabbed Lance’s shirt, and swept her gaze through the woods once more, unable to shake the feeling that those familiar cold, green eyes were watching her from the cover of the trees.

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