Excerpt: Wilder

The wind was bitter, biting into his cheeks and slicing through the thin material of his jacket. He clutched it tighter around himself, mentally cursing the weather and trying not to notice the low-hanging clouds that were beginning to lumber across the sky. They were heavy and pregnant with snow and ice, and as they moved in, they seemed to droop lower and lower until their great, full bellies rested on the tops of the lower buildings and obscured the highest floors of skyscrapers. He only hoped he could make it home before the iron and glass monstrosities could slash those clouds wide open and douse the city grid with their cold contents.

He’d been searching for a week now, canvassing the streets and alleys for that face he knew he’d recognize the moment he laid eyes on it, but he still hadn’t found her. He was losing hope and motivation, and he was looking forward to just going home and curling up in front of the space heater and pretending it was a roaring fireplace. He missed roaring fireplaces. He wanted to be in out of the cold, and preferably with another warm body. The memory of the rabbit’s heat, curled up against his wolf belly, was still fresh in his mind, and he longed for that again. He wanted to hold the one who knew his Name so tight that she became an immovable part of him, something that fate and life couldn’t take away from him no matter how hard they tried. She was his, and he was hers. He knew her Name, and she knew his. You couldn’t get any closer than that.

The first of ten thousand snowflakes plummeted from the sky, sticking to his eyelashes. A quiet curse escaped his lips, and he slid into a sheltered alley to cut through and shave a few minutes off of his walk home. But three feet into the suffocating space reeking of refuse and rotting food, and he drew to a halt. His feet wouldn’t move, and his instincts insisted that he look around. What he saw nearly made his heart stop.

She was huddled beneath a tattered old blanket, wedged between two dumpsters to escape the cutting wind. Her face looked worn and haggered, her eyes sunken and lined beneath with deep purple bags. His heart shattered for what must have been the millionth time in his long, endless, desperately lonely life.

Shedding his jacket and ignoring the frigid air leeching the heat from his skin, he stepped forward and dropped hard to his knees in front of her. He draped his coat over her and met dull blue eyes when they fluttered open.

“Hi,” he croaked, his voice barely squeezing past the huge lump in his throat. “My…” He swallowed hard and tried to dispel the ache of tears beginning behind his eyes. “My name is Wilder, and I—”

The old woman blinked up at him for a moment, her nearly lifeless eyes taking in his face. There was no familiarity, no recognition as she freed one knobby hand and lifted it to gently touch his cheek. The intimacy of that action silenced whatever else he’d been planning to say.

“…I know you,” she said. Her voice was hoarse, and he had to strain to hear it over the shrieking of the wind. Her eyes barely changed when she watched him blink back tears. “I know you. Where have you been?”

He couldn’t stop the shivering anymore, and he wrapped his arms around himself. “I’ve been looking for you,” he said. And right then, every moment out in the freezing cold, and every frustratingly lonely night was worth it for relief that spread itself across her face, softening lines and creases and smoothing away the look of despair. “Come with me. My apartment’s warm.”

By the time he was able to lever her to her unsteady feet, the snow was falling in a dense blanket, muffling the city sounds until almost all that was left was a faint hum barely heard over the soft hiss of falling snow. He draped his jacket over their heads and, with an arm around her shoulders to keep her upright, hurried them the remainder of the three blocks to his apartment. The blast of heat that hit them as they slipped into the lobby of his building was heavenly, and they slowed their pace.

Wilder hit the button for the elevator and relished the awkward sense of familiarity as they huddled together in front of the doors, waiting for them to open. “I’m sorry I didn’t find you sooner,” he said.

“I wish you had,” she said. “But I’m glad to have you here at all.”

They shuffled into the elevator and leaned back against the wall. “It’s nice to be known.”

She smiled up at him, and her for a brief, shining moment, her dull blue eyes lit up with pure joy. “Yeah. It is. It’s been a long time since I’ve been with anybody who knows me.”