The Alpha's Cursed Mate

Chapter 25

I leave my keep with Tabitha's book safe in my sidesack. The wind is strong and the snowfall hasn't lightened, but once I hear the gate bang closed, I tell myself there's no turning back. I can't sit in my chambers alone, reading all night about the monster Tabitha insisted I'll become. I'll be riddled with fear and tormented into upset, and without Alexei there, the God may materialize to lick my tears.

I run for what feels like hours down the wooded mountain. Until I make it out of the heavy snow, Alexei remains far. The forest grows repetitive, and my footwork, sloppy. My muscles strain on every climb and beg to go limp on decent, and I fight to maintain good form, but the snow bests me.

Everything is white — fogged, and I step off an edge without knowing.

The snowdrift swallows me whole, but my blind tumbling stops only once my back leg lodges into the ground, scraping against rock and refusing to come free. I writhe and pull but my paw is too big. The snow settles around me, hugging my neck and not covering my head. Though I'm able to breathe, the cold quickly distracts from my relief; it seeps into my coat so I thrash again, causing my leg to scratch and bleed.

I loll to slow my gasping. The only way to get free is to shift, release my foot, and shift back before my body goes into shock.

I have a deep breath then force a shift, but the second I begin to shrink, the snow collapses in on me. My foot comes free, but there is no air, no room to move. I turn my head then shake it to create a pocket in the snow, and I sip this air like fine western wine before I suffocate in panic. My human body is entirely bare — compacted in the snow — yet warmer than my wolf.

My brother said freezing men feel warm when death is near. We were out in the snow — six or so winters ago — and we couldn't wait for our proper clothes to be brought from storage before playing outside the keep. I was shivering so badly that I wanted to return inside, but my brother wouldn't let me, not if I wasn't near death. That was the only acceptable excuse, but I never felt even an inkling of heat.

My body now doesn't feel warm; rather, I feel how I do on the perfect summer day. The snow isn't cold. I bend my fingers and squeeze it in my palm, but there's no time for play. I struggle to shift back while buried. My warping limbs push against the snow until it loosens and my wolf shakes free. The snow packed in my coat hardens and pulls my hair, but my body will reach its normal temperature and melt it soon enough.

Brown leather sticks out of the snowdrift some feet away. My sidesack was torn from me during my fall, so I scamper out of the pile and pull the leather with my teeth. The sidesack emerges with the flap still tied closed, and I look to the black sky.

Thank you, Goddess.

I carry it the rest of the way, clamped in my mouth. The snow on the ground lessens after my fall and the ground itself evens into a final stretch. I run until every last bit of vigor is used up, and then I walk; my back leg likes it better this way.

By the time I reach Alexei's northern gate, I haven't the strength to stand. My wolf sits and waits for the gate to open, and thankfully it does. The gate sweeps the bit of fallen snow out of my path and presents a guard.

"Alpha Pryor?"

I nod and drag myself and my bag into the courtyard. Two housekeepers throw a wool blanket over me, and I shift right here, refusing to trudge to the stalls now that my legs are resting. The first thing I say once my voice returns is, "I'm sorry — for the trouble."

Alexei appears, and the housekeepers part. He storms from the entrance inside and doesn't stop until he's in front of me. I grab my bag and hold it under the blanket as I get up to face him.