Chapter 51

"Adele?"

Startled, he tapped her soft cheek, and the corner of Adele's mouth curved up, her breathing settling into the even rhythm of sleep.

She had slipped into deep sleep without his noticing.

Falling asleep this defenseless, in front of a wolf.

Christine propped his head on one arm and watched her sleep.

The bedroom was hushed and still, filled with the soft sound of her breathing. Now and then a log popped in the fire, and outside the window, snow fell.

It had, in fact, been snowing hard outside all this time.

Seventeen years old.

Their first kiss.

It had snowed like this that day too.

The day he'd first felt desire for a woman, and realized the wolf's blood ran in him.

Was that why? Even out on some distant battlefield, a night like this, with the snow coming down, had always brought her back to him. Whenever…