Hannah's Hero - Ruby Dixon Page 0,36

I huff and puff my way with every step, regretting every cheeseburger that ever settled on my wide hips and every time I skipped doing cardio at my halfhearted attempts to go to the gym. It’s miserable, and I’m so out of shape I can’t even make conversation with the others, just trot along after them.

J’shel remains at my side, and if he notices how out of shape I am or how far behind we fall from Brooke and Taushen, he doesn’t comment. He also doesn’t try to hurry me along, which I’m grateful for. I’m doing the best that I can, and I think if he nagged me I’d use the last of my energy to punch him in the face.

Well, probably not. But I’d think about it extra hard.

The one good thing about expending so much effort? My cootie dies down. It’s no longer pounding an angry song between my breasts and only gives a slow, steady purr. It’s like it realizes I’m expending all my energy just trying to keep up and won’t give me additional things to worry about.

So that’s something, at least.

When the suns start to disappear behind the mountains, the weather goes from oh-shit-it’s-cold to painful cold. Each breath that rasps into my lungs feels like it’s freezing me from the inside, and the sweaty leathers pressing to my skin don’t feel warm enough. I knew this would happen since it’s the brutal season, the time when winter is that much more awful, but I didn’t realize the change would be so swift the moment the suns disappeared.

Brooke and Taushen pause in their walking, waiting for us to catch up.

“We can stay here tonight,” Taushen says, his gaze on his mate even as he addresses all of us.

“Here?” I squeak out, surprised. I look around. We’re in the middle of nowhere. Sure, there are rocks and some scraggly bushes, but other than that, I don’t see anything that looks like a shelter in the slightest. “Is there a shelter I’m not seeing?”

Taushen shrugs. “We can build a fire near the cliffs to escape the worst of the wind, or we can keep going. There is a hunter cave not too far from here, but…”

“But?” Brooke asks, and then winces, answering her own question. “You’re going to have to carry me, aren’t you?” She groans and mock-stamps her feet like a child. “I haaaate that. It gives me the barfs.”

“It is either that or sleeping out here,” he says, his voice reasonable.

Brooke looks at me. “What do you want to do?”

Me? I look around at the white-bleached wilderness that’s getting colder by the moment. I really don’t want to stay out here. “If you guys want to go on until we hit the cave, I’ll try to keep up.”

“I will carry you,” J’shel says.

I was afraid he’d offer. “Um, I’m kind of a chunk. You’d probably hurt your back. I can run—”

J’shel snorts and before I can say anything else, the world tilts and he hauls me off my feet. In the next moment, I’m over his shoulder, cavegirl style.

It feels unbalanced and scary and I clutch at his braid, a little terrified. “Put me down!”

“So you want to stay here tonight?” he asks, not putting me down.

“No,” I protest, and he starts walking. I notice out of the corner of my eye that Taushen’s picked up Brooke and he’s carrying her, too, and then the men really pick up speed. Taushen zips ahead and I make a squeal of protest as J’shel races after him. “I’m going to break your shoulder!”

He laughs, not pausing. He’s not even breathing hard, the jerk. “I have carried N’dek for many turns of the moon now. You think he weighs nothing? You are light compared to him.” And he locks an arm around my waist and another other around my hips, and we keep going.

Brooke’s right, though. Traveling like this makes me want to barf. My stomach bounces against his shoulder, and the world tilts woozily. I want to ask why he won’t give me a piggyback ride instead of carrying me like this, but the big, heavy pack is on his other shoulder and he’s carrying a spear, so maybe it’s not feasible. Either way, it’s not my favorite way to travel. It also seems to last forever. I bounce against his shoulder as he sprints through the snow behind J’shel, and try not to vomit.

Eventually, the men slow and I realize how dark it’s gotten. Taushen