Home alone, Olga woke from her cot and pulled down her wool blanket. She stretched her good leg, then lifted her bad one first, and maneuvered herself onto her wheelchair.

Her bones ached.

She felt old.

Maybe sixty, rather than the young twenty-three that she was.

Trying to get just her socks on was a challenge as her fingers were turning nearly purple. An unusual amount of light was shining right in her face. Blinding was what it really was having been reflected off the snow.

She gasped, the cabin door swung open against the morning breeze.

The fireplace was dead.

Out of habit, she looked wildly around for the culprit. "No!" Olga huffed.

Jax normally knew to shut it as funny as it was watching him do so. He was a smart dog. It didn't matter though.

Jax was gone.

Olga wheeled herself over to the door.

The frigid air woke her up more as she looked out into the front yard.

She couldn't believe her own eyes.

A wolf stood just a few feet away, its yellow eyes bore into her. Menacing and feral, the canine teeth smothered in the blood of some dead animal.

Her heart pounded. She eyed her uncle's gun close beside her by the coat hanger...a last resort.

"Get out of here!" she hollered hoping to scare it off.

However, she quickly wheeled backward and slammed the cabin door shut when it didn't run.

The owner of the humble cabin looked out the window just in time to see the animal wander off into the woods.

To make her morning even more eventful, promptly after, a lone red beat-up SUV emerged from the shade of the trees. It parked by the wood stack. A tall dark-haired man hopped out.

Olga was more frightened of him than the wolf.

In fact, she hoped it come back and eat him because he was carrying a handgun.

"Hello?" the man called out.

Olga watched him walk closer to the cabin. He was young and handsome with bright blue eyes.

He didn't belong in her yard or Frost Lock. Was he from the city?

She watched as he put the gun in his coat before approaching the door.

Olga wheeled herself over to her uncle's gun. She carried it more like a protective barrier rather than a wielded weapon. She listened quietly as he knocked. With shaky hands, she aimed the long barrel at the closed door.

"Hello? There's a wolf on the loose. A man-eater. Anyone home? Me and my boys want to take a little look around for it."

Olga rolled her eyes. She lived in the woods. How stupid did he think she was? He was carrying a handgun, not a hunting rifle. He was no hunter. He was some crazy dude, probably one of the Russian dog fighters looking to take over her land.

"I'm calling the cops!" she warned.

"Cops? What for?"

He sounded calm. It was off-putting. She had enough.

She opened the door with a kick, sticking her gun right out at him. "Get the hell off my property!"

The man's crystal eyes widened. He tried a charmful smile on her. It didn't work.

"The name's Jax-"

"Now!" Olga demanded.

She didn't care if he had the same name as her dog. She did though when he shifted into one. A big black dog just like the one she lost.

Olga screamed, the gun went off, its sound echoing across the acreage of frozen pines as it blasted through the windshield of his truck.

"Would you put that thing down!" the alpha barked out.

Olga hollered in panic, rapidly wheeling her wheelchair backward. Had she finally gone crazy after living out in the isolated cabin for so long?

"It's me."

She calmed, but only a little. "W-what?"

Jax's jaw opened and closed as though he truly was a talking animal. "I'm a werewolf. The alpha of our town's pack."

For a moment, the young woman thought she was hallucinating. A tall woman dressed in a pantsuit, not for the ice and snow, climbed down from the truck looking livid.

The sandy-blonde looked ready to throttle her throat. Well, she had shot at the car.

"And I'm his wife, Sashka. You must be his keeper."

Shaking badly, Olga tried to conceal her panic by crossing her arms.

"W-what?" she piqued.

"We're werewolves," Jax replied uneasily.

All his life, he hoped it would be her. It would have made things simple, not tear his heart in two.

His mate was nothing he'd thought she'd be.

Sashka wasn't interested in men or women. She was interested in herself. Her time was spent on social media and taking pictures in the pack house. She earned a living off it, branding herself as a mountain woman with a nice big old log cabin house.

She did love their pup a lot. Rachel. She was only a year old.

Jax knew he shouldn't have been living with Olga still, but he cared for the woman. He hated the moon goddess for it. Sashka understood his feeling of duty toward Olga.

She gave him a year to come forward and leave the woman.

The year was up.

"Werewolf..." Olga mumbled. Her eyes hardened on their clasped hands. He was married? Her dog was married...and had a whole other life. For years. "Well, thanks for telling me."

"Olga?"

"Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

His mate was gentle, "Because you're human."

Olga felt like her mind was slipping away. Jax looked like a model -- not remotely close to what she imagined her dog would look like as a human.

Her voice shook, "You're both crazy."

"Olga, please listen, I know you're confused and hurt-" Jax tried.

She shut the door on him.

A moment later, she heard them arguing on the other side of it.

What was he thinking coming around her home with a gun? Did he decide to tell the truth now only because she answered the door?

He came to kill something...or someone, her mind panicked.

Olga looked out the window. They both were getting up in the truck. He had mentioned a wolf. A man-eating wolf. Maybe, just maybe, she thought her 'dog' was the culprit, and he had come to kill her.

Wolves were rare to see. To think the creature she loved and cared for was truly one at heart. How many more of the freaks with fur were walking around?

She closed the curtains.

Aside from him swinging his gun around in her yard, they seemed like nice people. His mate had a right to be mad at her for shooting up their car.

Olga was still scared though. There was an entire part of her world she was completely unaware of. The young woman wanted to hide from it.

Jax had been a special part of her life. She depended on him and she couldn't depend on her uncle forever. He was getting old.

She would be alone.

Needing some form of human comfort, she turned on the TV. Soon, she'd separate herself from it all. Uncle Rollo would sell off the property, they'd split the money and she'd move to the city.

The buyer was coming tomorrow.

She would be gone then and keep her sanity by leaving the talking dog people behind.

❄