There was another knock on my door.
“Stay here. I’ll go let him know I’m all good.” I gave her shoulder one last squeeze.
I opened the door to find Levi standing there, snow crusted on his jacket and a cocky grin on his face. He hadn’t even gone into his wolf form despite the storm.
“Axel,” he said, brushing snow off his shoulders. “I know storms don’t bother your kind, but I’m still supposed to check in.”
“Got lots of food stocked up, and I’ve even got a fire going,” I said. “And I appreciate the check-in even if I don’t need it.”
This whole winter storm check-in thing started after an old couple died a few winters ago. Froze to death in their car just a mile away from home. So tragic, and it could’ve been easily prevented.
Levi wrinkled his nose and sniffed. At first, I thought he’d scented the brownies, but then his gaze flicked past me, landing on Ella, who had paused mid-sip of her wine. She froze like a deer in headlights, and I could feel the tension from across the room.
“Hey there. Didn’t know Axel had company.”
Ella managed a polite smile, but her fingers tightened around the glass.
“You look familiar.” He stepped into the cabin and peered at her more closely.
She shrank back against the couch as if willing herself to disappear into it. It had my beast gunning to protect her, even though I knew that Levi was harmless. I stepped in front of him, blocking his view, a low growl starting in my throat.
Levi put his hands up in surrender.
“S’okay, I mean no harm.” He stepped back. “Anyway, storm’s supposed to keep up through the night,” he said. “We’ve got eyes on the ridge and the creek. If you need anything, howl... or whatever.”
I gave him a nod. “Thanks, Levi.”
He turned to go, boots crunching through the snow again. I shut the door behind him and turned back to Ella.
“You okay?” I asked.
“Yeah.” She put her glass down on the coffee table.
When I realized she wasn’t going to offer any answers on her own, I asked, “Is there any reason you don’t want to be recognized? Is someone after you? If you don’t tell me, I can’t protect you.”
She looked shocked for a moment. Then shook her head. “It’s not like that. Well, at least not exactly.”
I waited for her to continue as I took the brownies out of the oven.
“My ex is a wolf shifter. He used to live in Darlington.”
I frowned. Used to? Usually, wolf shifters lived in packs, and they tended to stay in the same territory unless they joined another pack through mating or other big life decisions.
“Did you have a bad experience with his current pack?” I asked.
“No. He’s a lone wolf.”
That was rare. There wasn’t necessarily anything wrong with lone wolves; some of them were decent folk who just happened to find their “pack” and family outside of the wolf shifter dynamic. But some ended up alone because they’d been outcast from their pack and no other would take them in. I thought of the troublemakers they’d had to deal with after the change in leadership.
“Was he exiled?” I asked.
She shrugged. “I guess. He never talked about it. I didn’t even know he was a wolf shifter until I kept asking to visit Darlington on our way to my parents’ every year, and I demanded to know why he kept avoiding it.”
I gawked at her. “And this was after the fall of The Wall?”
“Yeah.” She rubbed her arms.
“How the fuck could he keep such a secret from his wife? That’s ridiculous!”
