Chapter 2
Axel
The wind howled as I pulled the truck into the clearing in front of my cabin, tires crunching over fresh snow. The lone building stood solid against the storm. I glanced at Ella. She hadn’t said much since we left her car, but her grip on the door handle had loosened. That was progress.
The moment I saw her stopped at the side of the road, the beast inside had insisted I stop and help.
She was alone and stranded, the snow whipping around her tiny vehicle like it was trying to bury it from my view.
Then when she’d opened her window that tiny crack, her scent had hit me like a punch in the chest. Instinct took over, and I knew I’d found my mate.
Mine!
She was the one! I wanted to roar and announce to the world that I’d finally found her.
But the way she’d looked at me like she thought I might attack her had hurt. It made my beast growl. I wanted to hunt down whoever it was that had made her so wary and end his pathetic life.
I killed the engine and stepped out first, hoping to open her door for her, but she was already climbing out by the time I reached her.
I took her bags instead. The cold didn’t affect me much; I was immune to it, considering what I was, but the moment she was exposed to the chilled air and whipping snow, she started to shake.
Placing her bags down briefly, I removed my jacket and placed it over her shoulders.
“You d-d-don’t need to. I’ll be f-f-f-ine,” she chattered, clearly not fine.
“I don’t feel the cold,” I said honestly.
I picked up her bags again and started up the snow-covered path to my front door.
She followed, bundled in my jacket, eyes scanning the trees like something might lunge out at her.
I didn’t blame her. Trust didn’t come easily to people who’d been hurt, and I could tell that she’d been hurt. It was something our kind could feel.
“Cabin’s just up the path,” I said, nodding toward the porch. “Watch your step.”
She trudged behind me, boots crunching in rhythm with mine. I unlocked the door and pushed it open, the warmth spilling out like a hug. She relaxed the moment it enveloped her.
It was dark in the cabin, so the first thing I did was flip on some of the lights. Her eyes moved as she scanned the place, cataloging everything. The counters, the bookshelves, the worn armchair in front of the fireplace. Much of the cabin was open concept, except for the bathroom and bedroom.
I wondered what she thought of the place. It wasn’t much, but it was perfect for a yeti living on my own. Some people in these parts called me a sasquatch or bigfoot, but it was really the same thing, just words from different parts of the world.
As a species, we tended to stay at the fringes of society, though it was more a habit from centuries of hiding than a personal choice.
Since the fall of The Wall, I’d found myself spending more time in Darlington.
The city was special in that many monsters went about without any form of magical glamour.
It had been mostly a shifter and magic town before, so the switch had been natural.
The high concentration of magical creatures and monsters had been the reason my family had settled in the area to begin with.
“I need to grab my groceries from the truck, but make yourself cozy. I’ll start up the fireplace when I get back,” I said before closing the door behind me and stepping back out into the storm, which was quickly turning into a blizzard.
When I returned, Ella was still bundled up in my jacket.
It hung past her knees, almost swallowing her completely.
She removed her shoes, which were caked in snow, and left them melting on top of the entryway mat.
My boots joined them, and I marveled at how huge they looked next to her dainty ones. No wonder they called us Bigfoot.
Taking several large steps over to the kitchen counter, I placed my most recent haul down. Then I started unloading everything and putting it away.
“Hot chocolate?” I offered, after starting up the fireplace. “I know it’s just the mix, but with the marshmallows and some real chocolate added in, it’s almost as good as the real stuff. Almost.”
“You actually have that? It wasn’t just to get me to follow you into your truck?”
“Marshmallows too.”
“I’ll take it,” she said, grinning. She was relaxing a little already, though she still held herself stiffly, like she was ready to run.
I wouldn’t give her any reason to. While our kind were considered monsters, we weren’t really monstrous. More like gentle giants of the woods and mountains.
While I fixed the drinks, she parked herself in front of the fireplace, and I realized that I had one single armchair. I also only had one bed, but we’d figure out sleeping arrangements later, after she relaxed a bit more and didn’t look at me like I might grow claws and rip her to shreds.
I did have claws on my feet, but I’d never hurt her with them.
I handed her the mug of chocolatey goodness, and she took it with both hands, the oversized mug too large for her.
“Thanks,” she said, voice low.
“Sit,” I said, gesturing to my armchair.
She hesitated, but I grabbed my own cup and pulled up a chair from my kitchen table and sat down on it, leaving the armchair for her. She shrugged, put her drink down on the side table, then climbed onto the chair.
“This chair’s huge,” she said, feet dangling.
“I had it custom-made. Let’s see if we can get a call out to the garage.” I dug in my back pocket for my phone.
“Unless you’ve got a landline, I don’t think it’s going to go through,” she said.
Sure enough, I had no connection. “They’ll fix it once the storm slows enough to get someone out there.”
She picked up her hot chocolate again and took a sip. “My family’s waiting for me. I told them I was making a quick detour to Darlington when the weather started getting bad, but I promised to call them once I check in at a motel. They are going to freak out if I don’t call.”
Ah, so Darlington was just a pit stop.
“If the lines are down, they may not have a signal either. They’ll understand.”
“I hope so.” Her brows remained furrowed.
“They worry about you a lot? You look like they might send the National Guard if you don’t check in.”
That earned me a dry laugh. “Maybe not the National Guard, but yeah, they worry about me. It’s my first year making the drive on my own.”
She tucked away her phone, and I couldn’t help noticing the band of discolored skin on her ring finger, like she recently removed a ring she’d worn constantly for years.
“Recent breakup?”
Her suspicion spiked again. “How would you know?”
I gestured to her finger. “And it would explain why it would be your first time making this drive alone.”
Her shoulders dropped. “I guess so. But the breakup isn’t that fresh. Just the ink on the divorce papers. I’d figured out he was a cheating bastard last year, and he gambled away our savings. I’m more than over him.”
Good. That meant I didn’t need to make him disappear, though I still might if he ever showed up here.
She waved her hand like she wanted to shoo away the topic, so I let it go.
She placed her drink down on the side table again and started to remove my jacket.
I stood, helping her, then tossed the jacket over the back of the nearby couch.
Her coat came off too, since it was getting warm in the cabin. I tossed it over mine.
“Thanks.”
Her hair was damp from the snow, the orange-red strands clinging to her cheeks, framing her gorgeous hazel eyes.
Her cheeks were flushed from the cold, pink and round, and her nose had that slight upturn that made her look younger than she probably liked.
I’d never take her for someone who’d already gone through a divorce.
She had full lips, ones I’d love to kiss.
But they looked like they’d been frowning a lot more than smiling recently. I wanted to change that.
“I didn’t plan on company, but I bought plenty of supplies in case I get snowed in again.”
“Again?” she asked, unsure.
“They plow the main highway, but it takes them time to actually get to my road. Don’t worry though, it’ll be a day or two at most. You’ll be with your family in time for the holidays.”
She relaxed, and I felt the shift in the air.
Ella didn’t know it yet, but this storm had brought her to me for a reason. Storms always did things like that around my kind, and this time it had brought my mate. Our lives were about to change.