Page 1 of Snowbound with the Alpha Wolf
Prologue
Colorado,ten yearsago.
Cold.He was so damn cold and alone, the ice spearing his verybones.
I’m not going to die outhere.
Adrian Williams struggled against the blinding snow stinging his eyes. Drifts four feet deep covered this rugged terrain,with treacherous ice beneath. One slip and he’d tumble down the jagged mountain, becoming shattered bones and smashedskin.
I’m not going to die out here, he repeated silently. Adrian huddled deeper into the thinly lined parka they’d given him. The thin trousers and hiking boots were soaked in the last hour. Blisters formed on his feet from the too-big hiking boots. He’d already hiked fivemiles when the rain turned to ice and thensnow.
Real nice of his pack alpha, to let him have clothing that would provide little protection against the blizzard. Then again, his alpha wanted to send him naked into the storm. Into the land where no pack dared to venture, for the snow came here early. Winter wasbrutal.
This was the land where Lars, his alpha, sent Lupines todie.
Wind whistled through the pine boughs, tore at the hood of his parka as he struggled to reach the forest. Blinding snow made it hard to see more than two feet in front of him. If he could get to that mound of rock, find a cave and shelter, he’d makeit.
But weakened from seven days of starvation forced on him as punishment, he barely had the strength to walk. The pack alpha had deniedhim raw meat as well, so he could not shift into hiswolf.
Something lay ahead in the snow—a mound. Perhaps a shelter? He walked quicker, his heart racing with hope. Something glinted in the blinding white, a speck of gold. But when he reached the mound, he discovered it was acorpse.
A cheap gold necklace, once cherished, ringed the dead person’s neck. No, not a person—a human,or Skin, as Lupines called him. But an old wolf, sick and bedridden, unable to produce work forLars.
He reached out, stroked the frozen face, the sightless eyes staringskyward.
“Gran,” he whispered, his throat raw andscraped.
Grief consumed him. Adrian lifted his face to the sky andhowled.
His alpha detested the weak and the elderly, and those who could not workin the mine were sent out into the elements todie.
Alone and afraid, starving todeath.
Gently, he covered the frail bones with snow and said a silent goodbye. Tears trickled down his frozen cheeks. He scrubbed them away. No tears, butrevenge.
He kept plodding on, but the blinding snow confused him. No forest. Nocave.
Exhausted, at his limit, he slipped and fell.Adrian lay upon the snow, his body growingnumb.
I’m going to die out here. What a fuckingwaste.
He refused to howl or mourn. Refused to give up. Just a rest.A small rest and I’ll push on.But deep inside, he knew he wasdying.
He rolled over, closing his eyes against the stinging snowfall. Silently he made a vow.If I get out of this, my goddess Danu, I promise I will formmy own pack and shelter and protect any elderly Lupine who asks me forrefuge.
Something white fluttered nearby. Adrian forced his eyesopen.
A snowy owl perched on a jutting rock a few feet away. Unblinking, it looked at him, tilting itshead.
He gave a faint smile. “Figures. Would you be a vulture, you’d have fresh meat to gnaw on soon. I’m dying. Do me the favor of waitinguntil I’m dead atleast.”
The bird did notmove.
“I hate birds,” he muttered. Adrian looked at the sky. “Couldn’t you have sent a cute female instead? A last kiss instead of a damnbird?”
As if the goddess heard him, the owl changed. A woman sat on the rock, clad in a white snowsuit. Dark hair spilled from the hood she’d pulled over her head, whipped in the wind. She couldbe lovely, or ugly; he carednot.
“You’re not real,” he said hoarsely. “But since this is a hallucination, could you stop staring atme?”
