Page 28 of Snowed in with the Vampire Prince

Something had very obviously changed in me. Though I hadn’t even felt it the moment it had happened, the biggest wall around my heart had already come crumbling down the very moment his mind touched mine and I saw myself through his eyes. James had given me a gift that could never be repaid.

He had shown me myself.

He had believed in my goodness so much that he had gone with the wolves without a fight in order to protect me. Without a single moment’s hesitation, he was willing to give up his own humanity—his agency—so I could continue living.

More importantly, I knew without a doubt that he wanted me to believe what he’d seen in me from that first moment—that I was still a man, even if I was a vampire too. I already knew I would never deny James anything for as long as I lived.

So, I couldn’t deny him that, either. If he wanted me to recognize my own humanity, I would do it. I couldn’t help but do it.

And if I was willing to accept that I was still a man, it meant that I was also still fully capable of giving and receiving love.

And I couldn’t help but love James. He was the blazing comet that had lit up the eternal darkness of my life. Possessing him mattered less to me than ensuring he was safe, happy, and cared for, even if it wasn’t with me. He had saved me from a cold and barren eternity of isolation, where I had kept my heart safely out of reach of others.

But I didn’t want to protect my heart any longer. Certainly not with him.

And now, the only thing that mattered was finding and saving him from the wolves. And tearing that pack apart. Starting with the Alpha who had taken him and the warlock who had sealed me here.

I had exactly one option. When the barrier fell with the setting of the sun, I’d have a few minutes until the wolves turned James. That would be enough time if I moved at full speed, but only if I knew exactly where I was going. I didn’t have time to search the mountains for him.

I needed to use the blood bond to find James, even though he had closed his mind.

And if I failed, I was going to lose the one thing that mattered most to me.

Chapter 14

James

The wolves took me to their pack headquarters, which, as it turned out, was a forest commune situation, only a couple of miles away from Pierce’s cabin. It was a bunch of log cabins built in a semi-circle on the edge of a gently sloping hill. Down the hill, there was what was obviously their meeting space. It was a roughly circular patch of ground about fifty feet wide. There were a bunch of logs arranged around a massive firepit that they’d dug into the ground. Beyond it was the tree line.

The wolves took me to the largest of the cabins. Most of the pack waited outside, but two dark-haired men who looked so alike they might’ve been brothers came into the cabin with the Alpha and me, presumably to make sure I didn’t try to make a break for it. The warlock entered the cabin too. Without any prompting, he moved around the space, touching the door and each of the windows, muttering what had to have been a spell of some sort under his breath. No doubt it was another barrier spell. He only met my eyes once, by accident, then he quickly looked away, grimacing.

So, he understood that what he was doing was wrong, at least.

The two dark-haired wolves, however, stared at me openly from the other side of the cabin with nearly identical expressions of unease. That led me to think that this was not their standard operating procedure. Kidnapping someone and forcing him to become part of their pack wasn’t an everyday occurrence for any of them and they weren’t all that comfortable with what was going down.

It was a larger cabin than Pierce’s, and the furniture looked comfortable but way more worn-down and lived-in. There was an awful dumpy green and red plaid couch in front of a fireplace. Cushions that looked like they had been mended many times throughout their life were thrown haphazardly on top of it. A rickety-looking rectangular wooden table sat next to a window that overlooked the snowy forest. The threadbare rug on the ground had maybe once been a vibrant green but was now a faded and grayish sage color. A few paintings of forest landscapes at sunset had been properly framed and hung on the walls.

They were the only touch of real personality in the whole place.

“Thank you, Daniel,” the Alpha said to the warlock, a clear dismissal.

Daniel and the two dark-haired wolves cleared out without a word, leaving me alone with the Alpha.

My heart felt like twisted and sharp bits of metal that had been heated in a supernova, as though it might burn right out of my chest. Though I could throw up a wall between myself and Pierce, I couldn’t stop hearing his agonized voice all over again, on a loop, begging me to run.

And I couldn’t help feeling like I had abandoned him. And I wanted, more than anything else, for him to be back in my arms. I had been foolish. I should have explained to him about the wound my mother had left on me. I should have explained how scared I felt at the prospect of giving my heart over to someone else. Even though, if I was being honest with myself, I had already given it to Pierce. But now there was no time, and there might never be time again to tell him any of that.

But he had lived. The wolves hadn’t killed him. That was what mattered now.

Forcing myself to move through the haze of my grief, I wandered around the space, taking it all in. My gaze kept drifting back to the paintings, which had obviously all been done by the same artist. The rest of the space seemed neglected and barren. There was a thick layer of dust on the mantle above the fireplace. The rug on the floor was threadbare. There were dirty dishes piled in the sink. But the frames around each of these paintings were immaculate, as though they were cleaned every day. They were polished to a fine, gleaming sheen. They were the one thing in this cabin that the Alpha treasured.

He watched me in silence. I could feel his eyes boring into me.

“Who painted these?” I asked, gesturing to the one I was looking at. It was an image of Mount Rainier against a sunset sky that had been shot through with rich reds, purples, and golds.

If my question caught the Alpha off-guard, he didn’t show it.

“My former mate,” he replied. His voice thickened, losing its cocky edge. “He’s gone now. This is all I have left of him.”

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