Sarah
In the end, it isn’t the Alpha of Shadowcrest darkening my doorway with breakfast.
Cosette comes into the sitting room, beaming, her arms full of clothes in colorful fabrics. Within a few minutes, I’m dressed in a perfectly tailored pair of comfortable khaki trousers and a shirt made of light pink cotton, and I’m sitting at the kitchen table, surrounded by an endless amount of food once again.
Cosette rambles about the clothing she ordered yesterday that some poor seamstress in Shadowcrest likely worked on all night to have ready so soon. When she offers me coffee, I shake my head, and she’s delighted when I ask for a cup of tea like she made for me last night.
Dalia sits in a sunny, frost covered window with my son in her arms, letting him curl his tiny fingers around her impossibly small pinky.
I remind myself how young Dalia is despite her expertise in newborns and allow myself to scarf down as much breakfast as I can possibly handle.
I’m not going to deny myself nourishment. Who knows? Tomorrow Alpha Sydney could come in here and show me his true colors and kick me out onto the street. I’ve learned that everything comes at a cost. This food, these clothes, a warm bed… he has to want something.
There has to be a reason he’s taken so much of an interest in someone like me.
I’m on my second plate of breakfast when a woman hurries into the kitchen dressed in a puffy blue coat that covers her down to her trim ankles.
Beautiful and spry, she introduces herself as Evelyn, a skilled healer, with a spirited shake of the hand while Cosette tries to get her to accept a cup of coffee, not that this woman needs it. She looks like the kind of person who wakes up every morning with a smile on their face and has never seen a rainy day.
She’s the nurse, I learn, and soon my shirt is completely unbuttoned, my breasts are exposed, and Dalia, Cosette, and the nurse are teaching me how to nurse the baby.
I’m not used to this. Even back when I had a gaggle of girlfriends to paint the town with, I was always the outlier. The quiet one, the reserved one, the one who pinched pennies and stayed away from the handsome men who always tried to pepper us with attention.
I never had this. People who cared. People who cared what I ate that day, whether I slept well, and what vitamins I was taking regularly. Hadley was the only one who could help me, and I did my best to push her away because of the trouble she could get in with her brother.
I try to keep track of the conversation between Cosette and the nurse as she packs her things. All the while, Blake is nursing happily, painlessly and I’m…
Blake.
I just called him Blake. In my head, I guess, but still. That’s the first time I’ve allowed myself to stake some kind of claim to him, to let myself fall into the delusion that I can do this on my own.
Dalia gently takes him out of my arms and cradles him with so much love and tenderness I almost burst into tears.
My heart is in my throat as I button up my shirt and scan the room, scan the faces of the two women who treat me like a person.
Two women who see me and care for me.
I shouldn’t have this.
I know better than to get too close.
“Are you up for a walk?”
I leap out of my seat and whirl to the doorway leading into the dining room. I’ve been so locked in my own head that I hadn’t noticed Dalia is gone with the baby, and Cosette has also left the room, clearing the plates and pouring me a third cup of tea on her way out.
“Me?”
Alpha Sydney looks around, his hands tucked in the pockets of a very casual pair of jeans. He’s wearing a bright red winter coat that makes the blue in his eyes and the faint streams of copper in his slightly unruly hair pop.
“Yeah,” he replies, shrugging. “How are you feeling? It’s warm today.”
I look out the window at the snow, which is still falling in spirals, but he’s right. It’s not nearly as cold as last week. A bit of sun peaks through the clouds in the distance, casting everything in a soft gray glow.
“On a walk?”
“You’ve never been to Shadowcrest.”
“How do you know?” I say, then bite my tongue.
His mouth quirks into a ghost of what I can only describe as a boyish smile. “I would have remembered seeing you here.”
I watch his throat bob as he smiles, as if he’s nervous. As if, which I’m probably imagining, he’s wondering if what he just said sounded too forward.
I can’t explain this blossom of warmth in my chest, but it’s definitely there.
“I guess I could go for a walk.”
“Great.” He checks his watch. “Cosette said she ordered you new clothes. You should have leggings and sweaters upstairs now.”
I nod, watching him turn on his heel and disappear into the dining room.
I wait a few minutes, then tear through the house, praying I don’t run into him again. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because seeing him makes my heart rate skyrocket and my mind feel all fuzzy.
I need to keep my head on straight, but the Alpha of Shadowcrest is apparently making it his mission to befriend me, and I don’t know how to feel about that.
“Don’t get too close,” a female voice echoes in my mind. “It’s dangerous.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I murmur, banishing my own internal dialogue as I close myself in my room and flip the light switch.
I hear a soft lullaby coming from behind the door leading to the sitting room. It must be Dalia, her voice lifted in the gentlest of sons as she rocks Blake to sleep.
I take a few deep breaths and go through the new clothes Cosette laid out on the bed, finding a pair of gray leggings lined with something so soft I could swear it’s cashmere. I pull a comfy red sweater over my head and whirl to the mirror above the vanity, braiding my hair.
But I can’t find the coat or hat I arrived in yesterday.
When I reach the foyer, wearing nothing but heavy socks, the leggings, and the sweater, Alpha Sydney is waiting for me.
“I can’t go,” I tell him, coming to a stop on the bottom step.
“Why not?” He steps toward me, a hint of concern edging his tone.
“Cosette must have thrown out my coat and boots… and my hat. I made it myself.”
“I know,” he says with a bit of a chuckle that makes my cheek blaze with sudden heat. “Not that it was a bad hat, by any means.”
“It was terrible,” I say, and now his cheeks are going pink and I’m… smiling.
I banish the smile as quickly as it comes.
He clears his throat, glancing at me as I take the final step into the foyer and rest my heels on the ornate rug warming the room. “Cosette did throw your coat out, I guarantee it. I’m sure she has one on order for you. She has a particular taste when it comes to dressing us for the weather, I’m afraid.” He points to the red jacket he’s wearing. “But I have a coat you can borrow. I did get new boots for you this morning.”
“Oh, thanks,” I mumble, choking a bit on the words out of sheer surprise. Why? Why buy me new boots?
The question lingers in my head as I follow him to the garage. Sure enough, a pair of black snow boots sit in a box on the steps.
He walks toward a rack of clothing on the far wall, moving through several coats and parkas. I eye him as I slip into the boots. A perfect fit, of course. Everything here has been too perfect for words. I’m starting to think I’m going to wake up any minute now and find that this was all a dream.
I pinch myself just in case before he turns with a coat draped over his arm. “It’s going to be too big on you.”
“I wore your pajamas to bed last night,” I tell him.
“Again, I’m not used to having guests. Especially not female ones.”
I arch a brow as he helps me into the jacket. “I find that hard to believe. Aren’t you Crescent Fall’s most eligible bachelor? You probably have women falling all over you everywhere you go.”
He steps away, handing me a basic gray knit hat that I promptly pull on.
“You’re thinking of my brother Ryan.” He holds a side door open for me. “If anything, I’ve been called the stuck up, lonely heir that resides in a castle as far away from Crescent Falls as he can get.”
“Are you a stuck up, lonely heir?”
He smiles softly, leading me around the side of the garage toward the driveway, but we don’t stop there. A small trail leads into the woods–a wolf trail. Narrow and well packed, like he uses it often.
“It depends on who you ask. The tabloids like to think so.”
He walks in front of me, and I take a moment to glance back at the house as it falls away from view.
“I don’t think you're stuck up,” I offer, turning back to look ahead, where the forest thickens as it heads downhill. In fact, I’m following him down a network of zig zags, the town below slowly coming back into view.
He looks at me over his shoulder skeptically, saying, “This morning you seemed dead set on chewing my head off. What changed?”
“I was just hungry,” I murmur, but my mouth pulls into a smile as his eyes dance with something light and teasing.
“I’ll remember not to bother you until you’ve had something to eat, then.”
Again, that warmth spreads through my chest despite the chill.
We walk for a few minutes in companionable silence, and eventually, the trail evens out again. Soon, we reach a well paved road. I can see what I assume is downtown Shadowcrest from here. Steam rises above the terracotta colored roofs in little puffs, mingling with the falling snow.
He turns away from downtown and walks across the street to another set of trails, these ones wider and coated in gravel.
“Why do you live so far away from the city center?”
“I prefer it out here. It’s quiet.”
“Won’t you have to return to the castle one day, to rule?”
“A few decades from now, I suppose.”
We turn to the left, passing a few stately cottages. A man waves at us, leaning on a snow shovel. Sydney waves back as we pass the man’s front steps.
I can tell Sydney doesn’t want to talk about it and find that odd. He’s old enough to be thinking about being mated and settling down, popping out a few heirs.
But his short, rather curt response to my question sends a prickle of unease down my spine.
I open my mouth to press him further anyway, but he comes to a stop.
I nearly run into his back as my boots slide over a patch of ice.
I grab his jacket for support, yelping in surprise as my feet slide out from under me. He grabs me around the waist and hoists me upright.
“Thank you–”
My mouth drops open. That warmth in my chest erupts, sending a shockwave through every fiber of my being.
A stone cottage rises before us, small and cozy, its front steps recently shoved free of snow and windows glistening in the faint sunlight.
It has a pink front door. The same color as the one at my shop.
“That paint is still wet,” Sydney says, his arm wrapped protectively around my waist.
“Who lives here?” It’s a stupid question that I already know the answer to. But I can’t fathom a world like this one, a world where someone, somewhere, notices something as small and insignificant as my favorite color.
“You and the baby.”
“Blake,” I tell him, looking up into his eyes.
For a moment, I swear time stands still.
I tear myself from his arms, my cheeks going bright red.
“Blake,” I repeat, nodding to myself while Sydney scans my face. “You were right. Blake is his name.”