Shadows in the Snow
1324 Words
Holly drifted awake slowly, caught between the warmth of blankets and the fading haze of dreams she couldn’t quite hold onto. For a moment she had no idea where she was. The ceiling overhead wasn’t the one in her Denver apartment, the soft glow by the fireplace wasn’t the lamplight she’d fallen asleep to for years, and the scent....
Oh.
That scent.
The warm pine and storm smell she’d noticed the moment she’d seen him.
Rowan.
Her heart kicked against her ribs as her eyes adjusted. The fire was low but still burning, washing the cabin in a soft amber glow. Her body felt heavy, comfortable… and strangely safe. She blinked again and saw movement near the door.
Rowan was just stepping back inside, shaking the snow from his jacket, the cold air briefly swirling in behind him. Even in the dim light, he looked larger than life, broad shoulders, jaw tight, eyes sharper than the winter outside.
He froze when he realized she was watching him.
“You’re awake,” he said, voice low. “Good.”
Holly pushed herself up on her elbows. “How long was I out?”
“A few hours,” Rowan replied. “You fainted. Shock does that.”
Her cheeks heated. “I’m not usually that dramatic.”
A corner of his mouth lifted, barely, but it was enough to make her stomach flip.
“I don’t think crashing your car in a snowstorm qualifies as dramatic,” he said gently. “You’re lucky you weren’t hurt worse.”
Holly rubbed her hand over her face. “I… I didn’t mean to be out here, you know. I wasn’t running away from the entire world.”
Rowan tilted his head. “No?”
Holly hesitated. She didn’t want to lie. But she also didn’t want to hand her pain to a stranger she’d met hours ago, even if that stranger had eyes that could unravel her.
“I just… needed space. From everything.” She paused. “From someone.”
Rowan’s gaze sharpened, though his expression stayed controlled. “Someone who hurt you?”
Holly swallowed. “Yeah.”
He stepped farther into the room, but carefully. Controlled. Like he was aware that if he got too close, something would snap inside him.
Inside them.
And he wasn’t wrong.
FLASHBACK
It struck her suddenly, like the memory had been waiting for her to be vulnerable enough for it to pounce.
Snow falling outside her old apartment window.
A bouquet of red roses she hadn’t expected.
Her boyfriend, ex-boyfriend now, holding them.
“I made a mistake, Hol,” Ethan had said, stepping inside like he still had permission. “It meant nothing. She meant nothing.”
Her stomach had twisted, the truth burning like ice under her skin.
“You slept with her for three months.”
He’d looked irritated, not guilty. As if she were being difficult.
“It was a lapse,” he insisted. “We can fix this.”
“No,” she whispered. “You broke this.”
His voice had risen. “You’re really throwing away three years over a stupid mistake?”
She remembered the way her heart cracked in that moment, like something deep inside her had finally given up on letting people close.
So she’d packed a bag.
Grabbed her grandmother’s cabin key.
And left.
Ethan’s final words chased her all the way into the storm that would nearly kill her.
“You’ll come back. You always do.”
But he was wrong.
She wasn’t going back.
Not this time.
“Holly?”
Rowan’s voice pulled her back into the cabin’s warmth. She blinked up at him, steadying her breathing.
“You spaced out on me,” he said gently.
“Sorry,” she murmured. “Just… remembering.”
Rowan walked toward the fireplace and crouched to add another log, the muscles in his back flexing under his shirt. Holly shouldn’t have noticed. She shouldn’t have felt anything.
And yet...
“Thank you,” she said softly. “For helping me. For… all of this.”
His jaw tightened, and for a heartbeat he didn’t speak. Asher stirred behind his eyes, Holly couldn’t know that, but Rowan felt it like a shove in the ribs.
MATE.
The word echoed through him, rough and wild. Asher pushed harder, wanting closer, wanting contact, wanting Holly...
Stop, Rowan snapped mentally. She’s injured. Human. Scared.
OURS, Asher growled.
Rowan clenched his teeth. The tug of the bond was maddening, soft and relentless, pulling him toward Holly with every breath she took. The Moon Goddess was cruel sometimes. Or maybe she was smart in ways Rowan didn’t understand yet.
“It’s nothing,” he finally said aloud, though the words sounded rough. “Anyone would’ve helped.”
Holly studied him, something unreadable in her gaze. “But you did. And I’m grateful.”
Rowan stood slowly, forcing distance between them, because Asher was pacing inside him like a caged storm.
“You should eat something,” he said, nodding toward the kitchen. “And drink water. You lost a lot of adrenaline out there.”
She nodded but didn’t move. “Rowan… why were you outside just now?”
He stiffened.
He hadn’t meant for her to notice.
“I thought I heard something,” he answered.
“What kind of something?”
He hesitated. “A wolf.”
“A wolf?” Holly repeated softly. “Out here?”
Rowan nodded. “This is their territory as much as ours.”
Not a lie.
But not the whole truth.
“It didn’t come close,” he added. “Probably just passing through.”
Asher snarled inside him, not at the rogue, but at the idea of anything getting near their mate.
“You’re sure it’s not dangerous?” Holly asked, worry creasing her brow.
Rowan shook his head. “If it wanted trouble, we’d know. Rogues usually avoid humans.” Then, unable to help himself, his voice dropped lower. “Besides. I’d never let anything hurt you.”
Holly’s breath caught.
For a second, just a second, she saw something flash in his eyes. Something fierce. Protective. Possessive. Like she mattered to him in ways she couldn’t understand.
But Rowan blinked and the moment was gone.
“Still,” he said briskly, “it’s best to stay inside tonight.”
Holly nodded, rubbing her arms. “Do wolves normally howl this close?”
Rowan froze.
“You heard howling?”
“I… thought I did,” she admitted. “Before I woke up. It sounded lonely.”
Lonely.
Rowan stared at her far longer than he meant to.
Most humans would’ve said scary.
Threatening.
Wrong.
But Holly had heard loneliness.
Asher’s voice rumbled softly inside him. She sees us.
Rowan exhaled, the fight inside him growing heavier. He shouldn’t feel pulled to her like this. He shouldn’t want to wrap her up, shouldn’t want to climb into the bond that demanded he claim her, protect her, never leave her side.
She was human.
This was impossible.
But the Moon Goddess did not deal in impossibilities.
“Try to rest,” he said instead, stepping back before he did something reckless. “I’ll keep an ear out.”
Holly nodded, though her gaze lingered on him longer than was safe. “Rowan?”
He paused in the doorway.
“Thank you. Really.”
He swallowed hard. “Get some sleep, Holly.”
As he turned away, he didn’t see the way her fingers curled into the blanket, or how her expression softened.
But he felt it.
The bond humming.
The universe tightening around them.
Outside, a lone rogue wolf padded quietly along the ridge, nose lifted to the wind, unaware of the storm, emotional and otherwise, brewing inside the cabin.
And Rowan knew one thing with terrifying certainty:
He wasn’t going to be able to fight this bond much longer.
- Writer
