And then another branch hit it from the side. Natalie, screaming like a banshee, struck the cat as hard as she could. The animal jumped closer to the ledge, dragging Ren with him when its claw got caught in the fabric of his thick coat.
Ren felt the ground beneath him and the cat begin to give way. Natalie was rushing forward to hit the cat again.
“Natalie, no! The ledge is breaking!” Her weight would definitely cause it to fall.
Her eyes were huge as she froze, but it was too late. With a loud crack, the ledge broke away, sending him and the cat into the river ten feet below. The mountain lion jumped away, ripping more of Ren’s skin.
Natalie screaming his name from ten feet above was the last thing Ren heard as the icy water of the river sucked him under.
Chapter Fourteen
Natalie screamed Ren’s name as he fell from out of her sight and she heard a splash below. She turned and ran as fast as she could to a place where she could slide down to the riverbank, praying the whole time that he was okay and she’d be able to find him.
At the bottom she saw the cat running in the opposite direction, thank God, limping more severely.
“Ren!” she screamed again, looking for him in the sea of white. His head popped up out of the water just a few yards away.
“Oh, my God, Ren!”
Natalie grabbed a branch and skimmed across the edge of the river until she got to a large flat rock that cut into the water, that would put her within just a few feet of him. She wasted no time crawling out on her belly, careful to keep her balance. If she fell in the water, they would both die out here. There’d be no way they’d be able to get back to the cabin.
As she got to the edge she could see Ren’s green eyes looking back at her, conscious but in agony as he swam toward her, cold making him sloppy. She threw the branch out to him. He grabbed it as best he could and she pulled him in.
She hooked her arms under his armpits and pulled, using gravity and her own weight to help hoist them backward, and was finally able to drag him out of the water and on top of her. Violent shudders racked his frame and she had to wrap her arms and legs around him to keep him from falling off the rock.
They subsided a little and she got herself out from under him, ignoring the discomfort of her now-wet clothes turning icy. It had to be much worse for Ren.
And if she didn’t get him to the cabin and warmed up quickly, his body was going to go into shock. Then shut down.
Reaching under his arms again, she hefted him until they both were on the shoreline.
“Ren!” She rolled him over onto his back and tapped his face with both hands when his eyes began to close. “Come on, solider. I need your help to get you to the cabin.”
“Na-Natalie...”
She kissed him hard on the lips. “Yeah, it’s me. Now we’ve got to move before you lose all control of your body.” His eyes started to close again. “Ren! I need you to stay awake. We’ve got to get you on your feet.”
Those green eyes looked back at her, glazed with pain.
“I know it hurts,” she whispered. Oh, how she knew. “I know everything hurts. Damien used to leave me out in the snow naked, as punishment.”
She knew exactly how god-awful the burn was from freezing. Like your whole body had been lit on fire with no chance for relief.
“Ba-bastard.”
“He was. Trust me, he was. But I survived and you’re going to also. Now I need you to stand.”
He nodded jerkily, and she got him to a sitting position. She wrapped one of his icy wet arms around her shoulders, her other arm gripping his waist.
“On three, here we go. One, two, three!”
She used every bit of strength she had, pushing through her legs to get them off the ground. Ren groaned but made it to his feet. She immediately began walking them in the direction of the cabin.
A half mile never seemed so far away.
Ren’s face was colorless after just a few steps and she realized he was bleeding from where the mountain lion had mauled him.
They walked slowly but steadily toward the cabin, Ren leaning heavier on her with every step. He wasn’t shivering anymore, which she knew was a very bad sign. Natalie was using all the strength she had just to propel them in the correct direction.
