Snow Angel

by C. D. Gorri

  She could just picture herself all snuggled up on a sofa with a mug of cocoa and a warm blanket while fluffy, white snow fell softly outside. Heavenly. She sighed and hummed along with the radio. She was content to daydream about her surprise getaway weekend while she followed the directions on the GPS.

  A few minutes later and Rayne wondered if the Fates had heard her! Huge, fat snowflakes started to fall from the night sky. It was just beautiful! She giggled like a child, but that soon turned to a frown as the once pretty flakes became hard and icy.

  “Okay, this is nice,” her hands tensed on the wheel as hail began to mix with the fluffy, white snow, “Not so bad. Um, okay, look, I’ve got twenty more minutes so, lighten up there, okay?”

  She tried slowing down since the road in front of her was barely visible. There were only reflectors on the side where the trees were overgrown, but no lights. The lanes were very narrow, and there were no cars coming in either direction. Rayne was getting more anxious by the second.

  She swerved slightly to avoid a pothole and gripped the wheel as the car began to spin out. She landed headfirst in a ditch off the shoulder and cursed her luck or lack thereof. Her seatbelt was fastened, and she wasn’t injured in the least, but the smoke coming from the hood of her Jeep was not good.

  “Shit,” she muttered as she slowly exited the vehicle. It was tricky maneuvering herself out of the window since the door was busted, but she was a Werewolf after all. She was stronger than she looked.

  She hopped out of the vehicle stealthily onto the side of the ice-covered ditch and went over her options. None of them were any good. She sighed and zipped up her jacket. Crap. Some start to a weekend getaway!

  The temperature was dropping steadily. She might be a Werewolf, but she wasn’t immune to the cold. She donned the stocking cap and the pair of thin gloves that she kept in her pocket. Then she closed her eyes and used her elbow to break the glass of the backseat window.

  “Sorry,” she whispered to the car. She hated damaging it further, but she needed her things. She grabbed her overnight bag, stuffed the groceries she’d bought inside of it and after a second went back in for her medical bag.

  Better to be prepared, she told herself.

  It was forty miles back to town, and there was no way she’d make it in the snow, but she was twenty minutes to the cabin. She had a general idea where it was, and if she got lost, well, there must be someone close by.

  She sniffed the air and walked a few feet into the open road. It was late and fairly dark, but Rayne could see well at night, and the white snow made it a little easier. It did, however, make it more difficult to pick up a scent.

  There, her Wolf was present in her mind’s eye. She picked up something. Rayne grit her teeth against the wind and set off in the direction where the faint traces of smoke were coming from.

  CHAPTER 3

  Cael cursed under his breath as he limped, naked, across his kitchen. The mama bear had taken a good bite of his calf. His leg was mangled. He’d managed to keep himself in Wolf form until he got back home which helped staunch the bleeding, but the second he turned back into a human he started leaking like a faucet.

  Shit. He sucked in a breath as he looked at the mess that was his right calf. The largest wound was about six-inches long, but she’d got him deep, almost to the bone. With her massive claws, the mama had swiped the side of his head leaving him with a huge scratch. He felt his blood, warm and sticky, seeping into his hair.

  He’d let it grow to long again. It was gonna be a bitch to wash all the blood out. Cael wanted to curse his stupidity. He should’ve been paying attention to his surroundings, but his mind was caught up in the past. He needed to forget about it, forget about her. What good did it do to recall things he couldn’t change?

  He groaned in pain as he tried to stand. Fuck. The wounds weren’t healing as quickly as they should. Cael wasn’t an idiot, he knew it was his own fault. Not just running into the bear, but the reason he wasn’t healing as expected. He’d been low on supplies for more than a few weeks. This standoff with his brother about rejoining society had gone pretty far.

  David had refused to bring him any more food or supplies from town. He insisted Cael come back home, but he’d fought his older brother. He didn’t want anything to do with the Pack or the town. Not after they’d believed he could do something as foul as steal from kids.

  I should’ve just went shopping, he thought to himself. If he hadn’t waited so long, he’d already be on the mend. He knew damn well that he hadn’t been eating enough protein. He didn’t need his doctor brother to remind him of that.

  Werewolves required about triple the daily caloric intake of any normal. He was managing on less than half of that for months. He’d dropped about forty pounds and was feeling a little empty as the wounds zapped all his energy. Oh hell.

  Of course, now he was suffering for his lack of care. He ground his teeth together as he opened a bottle of peroxide and dumped the whole thing on his leg. David would come help him in a flash if he knew he was injured, but Cael hadn’t charged his cell phone and besides, he’d need to walk three miles to the road to get any service.

  “Fuuuuckkk!” he growled as puss and blood ran from the bite marks. She’d gotten him more than once. Good for you, mama. There was nothing as fierce as a mother protecting her young. He remembered that from his youth.

  CHAPTER 4

  His father was a mean bastard. He’d had Werewolf parents but never made the Change himself. He was bitter about it and cruel. David, as the older brother, had to find out the hard way that he was a Werewolf. He almost went crazy at the time. Cael’s Change soon followed.

  Their mother knew and understood immediately what was happening. Werewolves were kind of an open secret in Maccon City, seeing as how so many of them lived there. Right after Cael’s change, their mother took them both to meet with their current Alpha.

  Rafe Maccon was the biggest damn man Cael had ever seen. He would never forget the way the power of the Alpha had swept over him and filled him from the second he saw him. It was like nothing he’d ever felt.

  “What you are feeling is the peace and sense of fulfillment that comes from being enveloped in our Pack. It is the bonds of our connection that are weaving themselves around you. Don’t fight it. We are your family.”

  Cael would remember those words always. Rafe Maccon was a powerful Alpha Werewolf, but he was also kind. He was formidable and commanded authority without ever saying a word, but unlike his father, he was interested in progress. David and Cael were barely out of high school when they met him, and they immediately worshipped the guy.

  It felt good to be part of something. Rafe had arranged for them to be taught the rules and how to cope. Those were some of the happiest times of Cael’s life. His father had died later that year, and his mother remarried a kind man. He was glad for her, but he’d never formed a relationship with his step-father.

  David, the Pack, his job, had been everything to him. The allegations against him had left him wounded and angry. When he realized his situation threatened not only himself but his brother too, he’d given in without a fight. David had been his protector for years growing up. He couldn’t hurt him now.

  Cael wanted to rip those thoughts right out of his head. What use was thinking about all this when he was bleeding all over the damned place? He blotted the area with a clean rag and growled when a sudden knock at his door brought his head up.

  He didn’t like being seen like this. He was vulnerable. The Wolf was still at the front of his mind, and he wrestled with the beast for control.

  Cael had been alone too long. He felt wild and untamed. It wasn’t good. He knew that. But he had no desire to rejoin society. He’d been out there for a year now. Living in his old hunting cabin, having sold off his house and all his financial holdings.

  Sure, he’d made the payment to the hospital, and yes, he had some left over, but he didn’t care about money. Not anymore. Not since he’d b
een robbed of his pride. He’d loved his job, and he’d been good at it too.

  When Fred MacAvoy, his boss, mentor, and friend had believed him capable of such a heinous act as to steal from kids with cancer, Cael stopped trusting people. He thought he could count on Fred to believe in him and help him fight the allegations, but the man had given him up just like that. How could he rely on his instincts when they’d been so wrong?

  Of course, after the first few months out here alone, he’d missed town and his old friends. But it had been too long. He didn’t know how to go back. There was nothing there for him anyway.

  He looked down at his wound then back up at the door. The knocking became more insistent. He stood up leaning heavily on a chair and made it to the door very, very slowly. Blood trickled down his leg and across the hardwood floors. That was gonna be a bitch to clean.

  He opened the door so that his body was somewhat shielded from whoever it was who’d been brave enough to knock. He hadn’t thought about clothes. Anyone out here would have to be crazy or stupid anyway, and they could kiss his ass if they were prudish to boot!

  His eyes locked in on the small form in the thin jacket and stocking cap. The snap buttons were done up all wrong, and the gloves didn’t match. Cael couldn’t believe what he was seeing. After a year, what were the odds he’d run into her twice in one day?

  He blinked and found himself getting angry. She was the reason he’d been negligent during his run in the first place! Well if it was him she wanted to see, he was happy to oblige. He opened the door fully and ignored the blast of cold air on his naked body.

  “Well?” he asked noting how her eyes widened in surprise as she realized whose door she knocked on. She dropped her eyes quickly and gasped softly as she got an even better look at him.

  “Uh, hello Cael. Um, my Jeep is in a ditch. About seven miles or so back that way.”

  “So?”

  “So?! I need a phone or an outlet to charge mine?”

  “Look, I’m busy-”

  “Busy? You’re bleeding! Move inside,” she pushed past him into the house and took him by the arm leading him away from the cold.

  She was a doctor and taking charge of situations like this was in her nature. She overlooked his nudity as she went into healer mode. He gritted his teeth, whatever points for embarrassing her that he’d won when he opened the door in his birthday suit were lost as she dropped to her knees to get a better look at his leg. Cael hissed out a painful breath as she shrugged out of her coat, hat, and gloves and probed the injury with efficient, yet tender hands.

  Her clothing was soaked through, she must have been walking for miles. Cael was concerned, and that bothered him. Must be freezing, little bitty thing that she is. He winced when she poked and prodded the center of the wound and almost refused when she pushed him gently onto a chair.

  “The wound is deep but relatively clean. Was it a bear or coyote?”

  “As if a coyote could do this,” he mumbled and ignored her smirk.

  “Hmm. Bear then. Couldn't you smell her?”

  “I wasn't paying attention. I was out for a run when I came across the mama bear. Her cubs were with her. That's why she attacked.”

  “A run? You were a Wolf when this happened? Can you, can you Change at will?” She looked more than a little bit interested.

  He understood it all too well. Until very recently, all Wolves were cursed to be separate from their other halves until and only on the full moon. Most Werewolves needed to be taught that connection again. He was one of the lucky ones.

  “Yes, I can Change at will, little one.”

  “Is it wonderful?”

  “It is. At times,” he smiled ruefully and looked at his leg. Being this close to her was like hell on his nerves. He missed her. The revelation was something of a shock.

  “I, I’ve been trying, but there are so many distractions back home. Work, you know,” she lifted a shoulder as she said and turned around. Her body was neatly outlined in her tight thermal shirt and black jeans. She had some body. Full breasts and a flat stomach with wide, curvy hips and long legs.

  He’d always liked that she was not as muscular as most she-Wolves. Of course, she usually wore scrubs, and on her days off she’d been a jeans or sweats kind of gal. It was easy to overlook her beauty, but he’d noticed.

  He couldn’t help but stare as she took out some supplies from her medical bag with deft fingers. Her nails were short and clean. Functional instead of pretty. He liked that about her too. Damn. He needed to stop thinking down those lines considering his state of undress. He squirmed on the hard wood seat of the chair he was in.

  “Want me to get you a towel?” She grinned, and Cael couldn’t help but laugh.

  He wasn’t an exhibitionist, but he was pretty used to his own company. Like most Werewolves, he was lean and fit, his body was liberally muscled and developed, and he had no qualms about being naked in front of the female doctor.

  “The chair is cold. Do you want me to get a towel?”

  “I’m a doctor, Mr. Evangelos, I’ve seen nude men.”

  “Only in the professional sense?”

  “Now, that is none of your business. Hold still, please,” she said as a warning before she stuck him with a needle. He read the bottle and recognized the name of the strong antibiotics.

  He gritted his teeth to ignore the stinging pain. She seemed to enjoy that! He narrowed his eyes and watched her dispose of the needle and medicine. She took out some sutures and bandages, but he was to busy noticing her parted lips and erratic breathing.

  “You okay, doc?”

  “Don’t worry about me, you’re the one in pieces here,” she bit her lower lip as she worked.

  She was still pretty as hell. Her cheeks were flushed a lovely shade of pink from the cold, the skin beneath that blush was clear and smooth as ivory. Her hair was a deep, dark brown. She kept it long, he liked it that way. He remembered running his hands through the thick, shiny locks. It was still wet from the snow. He wanted to reach out to where it hung down her back in soft damp waves having come out of its rubber band when she took off her hat.

  Fuck. He’d been alone too long. He was starting to get goofy about women. He inhaled to clear his head and almost sighed out lout. Damn, she still smelled of lavender and honey. Her scent was fresh and clean, deliciously feminine. It drove him crazy. He opened his eyes and found her watching him with an odd expression on her face.

  “Um, you need stitches,” she arched one perfect eyebrow and nodded to the clean wound.

  “Have at it then, doc.”

  “You sure you don’t want a pain killer?”

  “Would it even work?”

  “In your current state, I’d say yes.”

  “Nah, I’m fine,” he didn’t know whether to be insulted or not that she recognized his physical weakness. He waited for the rage to come, but his Wolf seemed fine with her witnessing him in such a state.

  “Okay,” she mumbled and got to work. He could tell by her tone that she thought he was being foolish. He didn’t bother explaining. She would understand all about Wolf pride.

  In the end, it took seventeen stitches to put his leg back together. Rayne kept the sutures small and close together. She covered her handiwork with a large, wide bandage then stood to look at the wound on his head.

  “She swiped you with her claws here then?”

  “Yes.”

  “Come on over to the sink. This could have been a lot worse, you know,” her concern made it difficult for him to breathe for a second. He allowed her to lead him to the sink and bent his head as she gently bathed the wound and held him upright.

  “I know,” he answered once she sat him back down with a clean dish towel wrapped around his head.

  “I’ve cleaned it out and applied some antibacterial ointment. You don’t need stitches there, but looking at you, I’d say you need some food. It will help you heal.”

  “Yes. I’ve, uh, been putting off going into town.”


  “Why?”

  “You know why,” he growled the words and stood up. He wasn’t a modest man, but he felt he should dress. Especially now that the wounds were cleaned. He wobbled on his feet and hissed in a breath when she stepped next to him and put her arm around his waist to support him.

  His fingers curled around her shoulder, and he involuntarily pulled her closer. She was strong for all her petite stature, as a Werewolf should be. Her lavender scent invaded his nostrils, and it was all he could do not to bury his nose in her hair. It’s just the loneliness that’s making me vulnerable, he told himself.

  Wolves were Pack animals, social creatures. He’d been denying that part of his nature for a long time. Physical contact was important for Werewolves, but he’d been out of touch with most everyone for thirteen months. Suddenly, having Rayne so close to him was like being hit by lightning.

  “I’m sorry you have to do this,” he said.

  Her huge brown eyes looked up at his, and he knew the exact moment when she made up her mind to speak. He braced himself for the hard words he knew were coming. She had every right to tell him off. What he didn’t expect was her soft question or the pain behind it.

  “Why didn’t you come to me for help? Couldn’t you trust me, Cael?”

  “I, I didn’t want to burden you,” he said through tight lips.

  “I waited for you, but you didn’t call. You know, I never believed you were guilty of what they said.”

  Cael allowed her to help him to the wall. He hated being vulnerable, but he was glad it was her and not someone else to witness him in this state. He hopped the rest of the way to his bedroom with one hand on the wood-paneled wall and sat down heavily on the unmade bed.

  He spared a moment to think about the state of the cabin. He was fairly neat, but lately, he hadn’t seen the point of it. It was only him out there. David hardly came by anymore. Still, had he known he was about to be invaded by the small whirlwind in front of him, he might have made the bed.