2. Chapter

Rowan’s POV

I fucking hate snowstorms.

Not because the cold bothers me. It doesn’t—not the cold, not the wind, not anything that forces ordinary people to their knees. The cold is home to me. The mountains are my home.

The problem is that snowstorms always bring trouble. People. Tourists. Curious idiots who think nature will bow before them.

It doesn’t.

And it won’t today, either.

The sentries howled through the wind that something was moving along the eastern road. I headed out immediately, because in storms like this, I don’t get to choose. I’m the Alpha. When something happens, I deal with it. I save, protect… or erase the evidence.

The wind whistled in my ears with a sharp, metallic pitch as I trudged through the drifts. The wolf inside me paced restlessly, alert, as if it already sensed something coming.

Then I saw the car.

Slammed straight into a tree, tipped to the side, glass scattered like ice crystals across the snow.

“Fantastic,” I growled under my breath. “Exactly what I needed.”

The others followed behind me, silent and tense. I stepped forward, tore the door off its hinges, and saw her.

The girl.

At first, all I registered was that she was alive. Her skin was cold, but not death-blue. Her lips were slightly frostbitten, but still moving. Her chest rose and fell in a weak, steady rhythm.

And then her scent hit me.

Sweet. Warm. Faintly pine-like, but not quite. Something else—something that made the wolf inside me bare its teeth in recognition, whispering: we came for her.

Fuck.

That reaction wasn’t normal.

I tried to block it out. She was just a girl. A human. Some city woman too reckless for the mountains.

But when she looked at me…

Even half-conscious, her eyes—clear, blue, startling—made me freeze for a heartbeat.

The wolf clawed at me from the inside.

Pick her up. Protect her. She’s ours.

“She’s ours, my ass,” I snapped back internally, leaning down toward her. “She’s just a girl. A problem. A responsibility.”

I touched her—and the second shock hit.

Heat.

Her body was freezing on the outside, but behind her scent pulsed something warm, something alive, something that made the air around me vibrate. As if opposite forces tangled inside her.

The others shifted impatiently behind me.

“Boss, do we take her?” one asked.

“We’re not leaving her,” I replied. “She’ll freeze before the storm eases.”

Going back to the pack because of a strange girl?

Perfect. My mother was going to tear my head off.

The girl groaned softly, her voice raspy but alive. Fragile. Human.

But when her eyes met mine again, something inside me cracked—just a hairline fracture, but enough to piss me off.

Don’t feel this. She’s not yours. You don’t know her. You don’t want her.

I forced the irritation back, the anger that always followed emotions I didn’t understand.

What the hell is this?

“You’re staying awake if you know what’s good for you,” I growled, lifting her into my arms. She weighed next to nothing. Too light. Too delicate. It pissed me off how easy it would be for her to just… vanish.

She needed to be strong. She needed to survive. Otherwise—why the hell was I reacting like this?

She slumped against my chest, fitting there far too perfectly, and I had to twitch my shoulder just to shake the sensation off.

The wolf rumbled quietly.

Hold her. Warm her. She’s ours.

“Shut up,” I snarled internally.

Of course, the others noticed—maybe not the words, but the energy. Packmates always sense when something shifts.

“Rowan,” Calder said carefully. “Her scent…”

“I don’t care,” I snapped instantly. “Humans smell strange sometimes. Perfume. Detergent. Who the fuck knows.”

A lie.

And everyone knew it.

Her head dropped against my shoulder, a soft sigh escaping her chest. I flinched. I should’ve handed her off to someone else. Anyone else.

But no one dared come closer.

This was how wolves reacted to an Alpha’s claim, wasn’t it?

Shit. This was going to get messy.

The walk back to camp was long. The snowstorm thickened, wind whipping around us, my wolves forming a protective chain along the path. The cold bit through my coat, but I was used to it. The girl, though—she trembled.

I felt every shiver.

I couldn’t ignore it.

And I hated that I couldn’t ignore it.

Halfway to the village, she whispered weakly:

“Who… who the hell are you?”

“The guy keeping you from freezing to death,” I grunted, harsher than necessary. “Shut up. It’s cold.”

Laughter echoed behind me.

Calder muttered, amused,

“The boss’s romantic side makes another appearance.”

“Shut it,” I barked.

But the girl…

She smiled.

Just a little. Barely there. But she smiled.

And I wanted to shake her.

Why the hell are you smiling?

You almost died, you idiot.

Yet somehow, that tiny smile felt more dangerous than the storm surrounding us.

The camp lights finally flickered into view over the ridge. The wolves behind me loosened formation, one sprinting ahead to alert the others. The snow eased slightly, but the girl’s lips were turning faintly purple.

When I stepped through the great wooden doors of the lodge, my mother was already waiting.

Of course she was.

“ROWAN BLACKTHORN!” she roared the moment she saw me. “TELL ME YOU DIDN’T BRING ANOTHER PROBLEM INTO MY HOUSE!”

The girl jolted in my arms.

I felt tension ripple down my spine.

“She…” I began.

My mother stormed over, assessed the girl with one glance, then smacked my arm with a deceptively light tap that only I could hear crack bone.

“You stupid boy,” she hissed. “This is not just a girl. You feel it too.”

“I feel nothing,” I growled, too quickly, too defensively.

My mother’s eyes narrowed.

“You’re lying to me, Rowan,” she said quietly. “And if you’re lying… that means we’re in very, very big trouble.”

Yeah.

I felt it too.

Fuck.

We were in massive trouble.

All because of one fragile, freezing city girl.