Frostbite

Chapter One

VIOLET awoke with a sharp intake of breath. She tried to clear the horrid, bloodied imagery from her head. She wiped a pale hand at her damp cheeks and pulled herself upright into a sitting position, a blanket that had been placed over her during the night slipping from her shoulders, puddling in a heap on the floor. She desperately searched for the light switch next to her small bedside cabinet to illuminate the room in some comfort, her eyes racing from corner to corner to check for anomalies. She found none.

It was the same repetitive dream that had plagued her since the day of the terrifying attack. Almost two centuries had passed but the memories still lingered beyond her grasp of reality. And with the the benefits of a dramatically delayed ageing process, they would remain with her for a long time to come.

She traced the ugly twisted scars along her stomach that still stung with the memory of claws ripping through her flesh. Her gaze flashed to the chair across the room where she hoped to find Fallon watching over her as he did some nights when he thought she was asleep, but it was empty. His nightly visits were slowly decreasing as they grew older, but every now and then he would slip quietly into her bedroom when she least expected it.

Knowing she would be incapable of falling back to sleep without seeing a broken body lying in the snow, she climbed from the large four poster bed and changed into a top and shorts. It was never too early to begin her daily laps of the pack territory, no matter what unpredictable conditions the forest climate bestowed upon them. She left the room and raced through the long corridor, the marble floors warming beneath her bare feet. She momentarily paused to listen for any signs of life beyond Fallon's door. There were none.

Out in the cold dawn, she jogged towards the forest clearing before ditching her clothes behind the nearest tree. She took a few deep breaths and knelt to the ground, placing the palms of her hands flat against the solid earth. The familiar sound of cracking bones reached her ears and she flinched. It would take many more years before the stress of shifting into a complete new being became completely painless.

She wasn't at all surprised to see several vibrant eyes watching over her through the trees as she passed by. Fallon could be over protective but she understood his reasoning for having an increase in the amount of wolves guarding the territory. Over the past few months, news of a concerning nature had reached him that an alarming number of female wolves were being stolen without a trace throughout their neighbouring packs. And Fallon was taking no risks when it came to protecting the welfare of those he was responsible for.

As her paws pounded the familiar route through the forest, she let her mind wander. Lately, her thoughts seemed to be focused on Fallon. From the moment he'd rescued her from a fate worse than death, they'd been unbreakably bonded. She remembered the way he'd cradled her head against his arm and lifted her into his chest as he raced back to the mansion coated in her blood.

Later, when she awoke in an unfamiliar bed, she had learned he had made the decision to turn her into the creature she hated most on this earth. From that day forwards, he'd stood as a shadow in her footsteps; strong, silent and saddened by his own upbringing. Like her, she knew he had not grown up within the embrace of a loving mother and father. He had never told her the full story, only that it had fuelled his merciless massacres throughout the centuries, gaining many enemies in return and a fearsome reputation. Sometimes, she would catch him watching her stare at the happy families of the pack with jealousy, wanting what they had. Though she had experienced warmth and security while living with her grandmother, her earlier years had been spent scavenging and yearning after the brutal death of her parents. They'd catch each other's eye, exchanging their loneliness and sadness, before glancing away as though it had never happened. They understood each others pain, yet he still insisted in keeping her firmly placed behind his heavily guarded stone cold walls.