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"Aw, don't say that." Aiden got his elbows underneath him and struggled to leverage himself upright, but Mia pressed a hand to his chest and forced him back down.He resisted—valiantly, he thought—but a soggy cowboy was no match for the prettiest medic in the county.By the time she got him flat on his back, his stomach was churning."I think I'm going to?—"
He managed to roll onto his side just in time, and Mia shoved a plastic bag under his nose.He retched so violently that he was shocked his stomach didn't end up in the bag along with the gallons of lake water it felt like he'd swallowed.
"You're lucky," Mia said once she'd laid him back down, a sweaty, shaking mess.
He croaked out a laugh. "Yeah, I feel it."
"You could've drowned out there," she said solemnly."It's a miracle someone spotted you.It could've ended a lot worse than a concussion and some mild hypothermia."
Aiden lifted a hand to the side of his face that didn't seem to be working correctly, wincing at how tender and swollen the flesh felt around his temple.Instantly, the afternoon came flooding back: the hum of the ATV, the wind biting at his cheeks, and the cool, blue scent of frozen water.He remembered the crack of ice and a plummeting sensation, but not much after that.
"How's the little critter?" he asked, heart sinking."Did he make it?"
"I heard the trapper hauled him out after rescuing you.The guys saw tracks heading off into the woods." She gestured over her shoulder toward the two firefighters talking out on the cabin porch.
"What trapper?" Aiden batted away the blood pressure cuff she was strapping around his bicep and sat up, swinging his legs over the side of the bed.The room whirled, but he clenched his teeth and rode it out.He stood, clutching the rickety bed frame for support, and surveyed his surroundings.
Besides Mia and the bored uniforms by the door, the cabin was empty.There wasn't much by way of furniture or supplies, just a utilitarian space to sleep or ride out bad weather.If he squinted and looked beyond the open door, Aiden could barely make out the speck of his ATV sitting on the bank of a frozen lake.
"We're in the old hunting cabin near Copper Lake?" he asked.
Mia nodded.
Memory rushed him—the man with the bare back.Now that he could think clearly, he realized what had upset him so much in the first place.The man's skin had been smooth and sun-dark, even in the dead of winter, except for one jarring flaw.His left flank, where his lats curved around the ribcage, had been raised, white, and puckered.Aiden's vision had been too blurry to make out much detail in the dark, but he was sure he'd seen the trace of five individual gashes scoring his flesh—claw marks, old and faded.
Aiden only knew one man with scars like that.
"He just left?" he asked incredulously."He dumped me here and left?"
He'd been mostly talking to himself, but Mia answered."Probably didn't want to get caught with whatever game he was poaching," she said with a shrug."No other reason for Mr. Anonymous to go through all the trouble of hauling your ass out of the drink, warming you up, and calling emergency services, but not sticking around until we got here."
She had already begun repacking her gear.Aiden figured she'd worked on so many cowboys that she could recognize the signs of a man unwilling to be fussed over.
If he'd been in a bettermood, he might have sat back down and allowed her to play doctor.There was nothing wrong with a little harmless flirtation, especially when it felt like someone had been playing a rousing game of tetherball with hishead.He was already buck-naked, and she was newly divorced; maybe she could kiss it and make itbetter.
He might've taken a shot if it weren't for the hollow pain right below hisribs.Pain that had nothing to do with his close call on theice.Pain he'd forgotten, or at least tricked himself into believing he'd put behindhim.
But the tragedy of Seth McCall was hard toforget.
Chapter Two
AIDEN
Silence.
Nothing but the drum of his heartbeat.There was no Waylon on the radio, no laughter, not even the worried cries of the teenagers clustered around the bonfire.
Aiden was staring down a long, dark tunnel, and at the end of it loomed a hulking beast with dripping fangs and razor-sharp claws.It was a dream, of course. In reality, the black bear had been a curious adolescent, big enough to reach mid-chest on all fours, but not a monster.That was part of the reason Aiden felt confident enough to toy with him; booze was the other part.
He knew he was dreaming, but part of him hoped that maybe he'd become a spirit and traveled back to the past.It would be different this time; he knew better now.
But when it finally happened, he couldn't move.He hovered at his dream-self's shoulder like a ghost, watching as he flailed like a fool and drunkenly shooed the bear from their campground.He knew the precise moment the bear's demeanor changed—and so did the man who stepped in front of him.No, not a man—a boy. Barely older than Aiden, but unshakeable in a way that usually only came with age or experience.Vanishingly few people were born with such confidence, and for better or worse, they drew attention wherever they went.
"Seth, don't?—"
Seth couldn't hear him; no one could.Aiden watched, agonized, as the older boy cautiously lured the irritable bear toward the edge of the camp.It lumbered after him suspiciously, bewildered to find itself among the circle of trucks and camp chairs in the first place.Firelight played over the bear's fur, more brown than black—and also over Seth's long, tousled hair, more black than brown.Flames carved deep shadows in Seth's harsh features.He'd always looked half-feral but never more than facing off with a wild animal.
Aiden stood rooted to the spot as the bear lifted a paw and took a lazy swipe at Seth's flank.Claws the size of a man's palm sliced through Seth's flannel and scored his flesh.Aiden could only stare at the blood in horror.
