The Winter Wolf's Secret Heir

Chapter 7: Freezing In The Dark

I didn't walk. I ran.

My bare feet slapped against the stone floor and it hurt but I didn't care. I felt like I was running from a fire. Or maybe I was running with the fire, because my skin was burning where his eyes had touched me.

He had looked at me.

Not like a servant. Not like a mistake.

He looked at me like a wolf looks at a rabbit he wants to eat.

I pulled the wool blanket he gave me tighter around my shoulders. It smelled like him. Of course it did. Everything in this house smelled like him. It was a torture I wasn't ready for.

I fumbled with the key to my room. My hands were shaking so bad I dropped the water bottle. It rolled across the floor with a loud plastic thud that echoed in the silent hallway.

S*it

I froze, listening.

Silence. Just the wind howling outside, muffled by the thick stone walls.

He wasn't following me. He was probably still in the kitchen, eating his apple, thinking about my legs. Thinking about my lies.

I unlocked the door and slipped inside, locking it behind me instantly.

The cold hit me like a physical slap.

It was freezing. Actually freezing. The air in the room was sharper than the hallway. I could see my breath in the dim light of the streetlamp outside the tiny window.

"Mama?"

The voice was small. Trembling.

I rushed to the bed. Leo was a lump under the pile of blankets. I had given him every towel, every spare sheet, and my own coat.

"I'm here, baby," I whispered. "I'm here."

I climbed onto the bed, still clutching the food. I sat cross-legged, creating a tent with the heavy wool blanket Kane gave me.

"Come here," I said. "Under the tent."

Leo crawled out of his cocoon. His nose was cold. His little hands were like ice cubes. He scrambled into my lap, burying his face in my chest.

"It's so cold," he whimpered. "My toes hurt."

My heart cracked. It made a sound in my chest, I swear it did.

"I know," I said, rubbing his back frantically to generate friction. "I know, Leo. I'm sorry. Look what I got."

I opened the blanket tent. It was dark, but I unwrapped a sandwich.

"Ham and cheese," I said. "And an apple. A magic apple."

He took the sandwich. He ate like a little wolf, fast and hungry. He hadn't had a proper meal since lunch.

"Did you see the monster?" he asked with his mouth full.

I froze. "What monster?"

"The big shadow," he said. "I heard a big voice. Outside the door."

He meant Kane.

"That wasn't a monster," I said, my voice shaking. "That was... the boss. Mr. Scrooge."

"Is he mean?"

"He's..."

I thought about Kane in the kitchen. I thought about the way he put the blanket around me. I thought about the way his eyes softened when he asked if I was hungry.

"He's sad," I whispered. "He's very sad and very grumpy. But we have to stay away from him. If he sees you..."

I didn't finish the sentence. I couldn't tell my three-year-old son that his father might reject him too. Or take him away. I didn't know which one terrified me more.

We sat there in the dark for a long time. I fed him the apple slices. I drank half a bottle of water.

The heater Kane had left in the hallway was trying, but the draft from the window was winning. The glass was covered in ice on the inside.

I checked my phone. 3:15 AM.

Battery at 12%. No signal.

I lay down, pulling Leo against my stomach. I wrapped my legs around his. I pulled the wool blanket over our heads, sealing us in.

It was intimate. It was desperate.

"Mama," Leo whispered. "Can we go home?"

"Soon," I promised.

"I don't like the cold house."

"I know."

He fell asleep eventually. His breathing evened out, warm against my neck.

But I couldn't sleep.

I lay there, staring at the darkness under the blanket. I was shivering. My silk pajamas were a joke. The cold was seeping into my bones, making my joints ache.

I thought about Kane.

I thought about the heat in the kitchen.

If I went upstairs... if I just told him...

No.

He rejected me. He said I was weak. If he knew I hid his son for three years, he would hate me. He would say I stole his heir. He has lawyers. He has warriors. He has power.

I have seventy-four dollars in my bank.

I would lose Leo. I knew it.

I squeezed my eyes shut.

The temperature in the room was dropping. I could feel it. The wind outside was screaming now, battering the house.

Leo shivered in his sleep. He coughed. That dry, rattling cough that I hated more than anything.

I touched his forehead. He wasn't feverish, but he was clammy.

We couldn't stay here.

If we stayed in this basement for two more days until the plows came, we would get sick. Or worse.

I had to get him out.

But where?

The main house was full of wolves. Full of Kane.

But the van...

The rental van was parked around the back, near the kitchen entrance. It had a heater. It had gas.

If I could get us to the van, I could turn the engine on. We could sleep in there with the heat blasting until morning. Then, maybe I could try to drive down the service road. Maybe the back way wasn't as blocked.

It was a stupid plan. A desperate plan.

But listening to Leo cough again, feeling his little body shake against mine, I knew I had to do something.

I wasn't weak anymore. I wasn't the girl who just stood in the snow and cried.

I waited until 5:00 AM. The house would be dead silent. The night shift guards would be tired.

"Leo," I whispered, shaking him gently. "Baby, wake up."

He groaned. "No."

"We're going on an adventure," I lied. "We're going to the spaceship. The van."

"Warm?" he asked sleepily.

"Yes. Very warm."

I dressed him in everything we had. Two pairs of pants. Three shirts. His coat. My scarf.

I put on my jeans over my pajamas. I put on my thickest sweater. My boots.

I opened the door.

The hallway was empty. The heater was humming, but it was fighting a losing battle.

I picked Leo up. He was heavy, dead weight with sleep. I carried him against my hip, his face buried in my neck.

"Quiet mouse," I reminded him.

We crept down the hall.

We went up the back stairs. The kitchen was empty.

I held my breath as we passed the pantry. I didn't want to think about what happened there three hours ago. I didn't want to think about Kane’s mouth.

I made it to the back door.

I unlocked it.

The wind howled instantly, pushing against the door like a hand trying to keep us in.

I pushed back.

We stepped out into the storm.

It was white chaos. The snow was up to my knees instantly. The wind stole the breath right out of my lungs. It was colder than I could have imagined. It felt like needles stabbing every inch of exposed skin.

"Mama!" Leo cried, his voice whipped away by the wind.

"It's okay!" I yelled back. "The van is right there!"

I could see the shape of it. A white lump in the darkness, maybe fifty feet away.

Fifty feet. That was nothing.

I trudged forward.

One step. The snow was heavy, wet cement.

Two steps. My boots were soaked.

Three steps.

I didn't see the ice under the snow.

My foot slipped.

I went down hard.

I twisted my body to land on my back so I wouldn't crush Leo. I hit the ground with a thud that knocked the air out of me.

Leo screamed.

I scrambled to sit up. The snow was in my eyes, in my mouth. I was blind.

"Leo?"

"Cold! Cold!"

I grabbed him. I stood up. My ankle screamed in protest. I had twisted it.

I looked for the van. It seemed further away now.

I looked back at the house. The door had slammed shut behind us. Locked.

Panic, cold and sharp as a knife, sliced through me.

We were locked out.

In a blizzard.

In negative twenty degrees.

"Help!" I screamed. But the wind just ate the sound.

I limped toward the van. I had to get to the van.

But the snow was getting deeper. It was up to my thighs now. A drift.

I was stuck.

I couldn't move my legs. The cold was paralyzing me.

I looked down at Leo. His lips were turning blue.

No. God, no.

I curled around him, turning my back to the wind. I was going to die here. We were going to die in the backyard of the man who rejected us.

Then, I heard it.

A roar.

Not the wind.

A roar that shook the ground.

I looked up through my frozen eyelashes.

A massive black shape was tearing through the snow toward us. It was moving so fast it was a blur of shadow and muscle.

A wolf.

A giant, black wolf with eyes like burning gold.

Kane.

He didn't look like a savior. He looked like a monster. He was snarling, his teeth bared, his fur bristling with rage.

He reached us in seconds.

He didn't stop. He didn't shift.

He grabbed the back of my coat in his massive jaws.

And he dragged me.

I screamed, clutching Leo to my chest, as the Alpha dragged us through the snow like we were misbehaving pups, pulling us back into the heat we never should have left.