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Instinct takes over, and I wrap my arms around his waist and grasp him for dear life. He pulls his arm away, untwisting it from its awkward angle, and leans forward in the saddle.
Now I know I must be dead or on the verge of it, because there is no way I’m riding a galloping horse across the Nebraskan prairie having just been lifted onto said horse by Tall, Dark, and Irksome as we’re being chased down by a herd of stampeding bison. As if to prove to myself that none of this is real, my fingers splay over his muscular abdomen, the fabric of his flannel shirt soft against my skin. His back presses into my chest when he adjusts his weight as we veer around a pile of stones. Thing is, he feels too warm and real for this to be a hallucination.
The sound of thunder grows louder still and I peek over my shoulder to find the stampeding bison bearing down on us. With their pointy horns and foamy mouths, they look furious. I lock my arms even more tightly and whimper.
Colton tips his head to glance behind us. “Shit, they’re following us.” He lets out a low growl that I feel all the way down to the tips of my toes. “C’mon, Chance. Fly.”
We race across a dry creek bed, littered with pebbles and small stones. Chance’s rear hooves slip and for a moment, I think we’re going down, but somehow he manages to find his footing.
Colton’s arm wraps around mine to keep me from lurching back and we burst forward, scrambling up the dusty wash. The bison are closer—near enough that I can hear their heavy breathing over the sound of their hoofbeats. I shudder and press myself as close to Colton as humanly possible.
We come upon a racing brook, at least fifteen feet wide and deep enough that you can’t see the bottom. We speed alongside in a straight path as the water snakes along its banks. A bison pulls alongside us and Chance veers away as the giant beast tips his head in our direction. I swear I feel the whisper of its horn pass by my elbow.
I suck in a shaky breath, my lungs tight with fear, exertion, and the musky scent of the shaggy, sweaty beasts out for blood. Colton’s hand wraps around mine and he leans us to the left as we race toward the brook.
“Hold on,” he says as Chance darts down the embankment and straight for the rushing water.
With a giant splash, the horse dives in. Droplets rain down over us, trickling down my face. I brush my forehead on the back of Colton’s shirt and glance down. The water comes up to our ankles and soaks into my hiking boots. The shocking cold of it has me gasping for air a moment later.
I’m alive.
Blood pounds through my veins and I shiver, tightening my grip on Colton. When I look back over my shoulder, I see that the bison have opted to stay on dry land. Some of the herd flow away from the water and back toward the prairie, while a few others stand along the edge of the embankment and toe the ground while they keep a watchful eye on us.
Turning to face forward, I slump against Colton. He’s warm and steady. His thumb traces a slow circle over the back of my hand as he coaxes Chance across the brook. “Good boy,” he says.
Chance slows in the current but plods forward until we reach the bank on the other side. The minute we’re on dry land again, Colton tosses one leg over the horse’s head and slides off. He reaches up to help me down, and I brace my arms on his shoulders as he guides me to the ground. My knees wobble and Colton tightens his grip.
“Are you okay?” he asks, running his worried gaze over me from the top of my head to the toes of my boots.
I nod because I can’t find my vocal cords.
Colton pats my arms like he’s looking for broken bones or reassuring himself that I’m really standing here in front of him. His palm cradles my face while the fingers of his other hand tuck a strand of hair behind my ear.
“I lost my baseball cap,” I say.
For a moment, we just stare at each other, and then Colton lets out a giant laugh. The look of relief in his eyes sets something loose in me, and I join him. The laugh pulls at my sides and sends tears to my eyes.
I puff out a trembling breath. “Did that really just happen?”
Colton’s forehead rests on mine as he takes a step closer. “Yeah.”
“You saved me.”
He shrugs. “I was just in the right place at the right time.”
CHAPTER 36
Colton
“WALKER TWO, THIS is Mack. Go ahead. Over.”
I take a deep breath and run my free hand over Chance’s flank. “Mack, we have a situation. Over.”
“Go ahead, Walker Two. Over.”
“We have a bison problem. Over.”
I move to Chance’s other side and take a quick glance back across the brook, where the bison are still milling around, eyeing us suspiciously. They don’t look to be in any rush to move on, which isn’t great, especially since the day is already half over. If we could wade across the brook in the next hour, we might be able to make it back to Fort Bellows before dinner. But with the bison on edge and keeping a wary eye, we’d have to follow the water upstream or downstream for a ways before finding a narrow enough crossing point, and then we’d have to pick our way across the prairie, soaking wet and exhausted. Chance has already been pushed to the limit today. I don’t want to risk a serious injury.
