Page 14 of Christmas Wishes
Chapter Four
Rand stepped out onto the cabin’s small front porch. Snow had been falling all night and was still falling at a steady pace. It was easily four inches in some places, ten or more inches in more exposed areas.
It was cold, wet, and he was bored out of his skull. He’d spent hours pacing the cabin like a caged animal. There was nothing to keep his mind occupied, nothing to pass the hours. There were two and a half rooms and four outer walls. He was going stir crazy and it hadn’t even been twenty-four hours.
He was used to people. Elves, other shifters. He was used to conversation and noise and… laughter. He wasn’t used to silence and nothing but snow and trees and his own thoughts. He wasn’t used to being alone and he wasn’t used to loneliness.
A run. A run would do him good. It would dispel the melancholy hanging over him and energize him.
With shaking fingers, he pulled his sweatshirt over his head, followed by the undershirt. He hadn’t felt this chilled in… Well, ever. The North Pole was cold, but this type of cold was different and he didn’t know how to explain it.
His boots and jeans were next and he tried to ignore the shivers running up and down his spine.
Two steps off the porch and he was jogging, picking up speed with each stride. His blood pumped hard and his ears started ringing. A light sheen of sweat covered his body by the time he found what he’d been searching for.
A fallen tree.
A little more speed and he leapt into the air. When he came down on the other side, he was a full blown reindeer. Technically, he’d be considered a caribou, but he was a reindeer. A North Pole reindeer.
He was the stuff of legend, of holiday fairy tales, of myths.
He was part of every childhood, part of Santa, and stockings hung on mantels filled with goodies. Part of cookies left out with large glasses of milk. Like the cookies Blix baked.
He loved those cookies. She’d sent some with Tomas. She cared.
Too bad the magic she baked into them wouldn’t help him.
Truth was, Rand had always known she cared. But she never knew he did.
If he had regrets, that would be one of them. A big one.
The thought spurred him on. He ran faster, darted around the foliage, took leaps over fallen trunks.
For the first time in longer than he could remember, he was somewhat whole. At peace. Alive.
He didn’t know how far he’d run when he came upon a stream that hadn’t frozen over yet. No other animals seemed to be around and for a moment, he let his guard down, lowered his head, and lapped at the water.
It was icy going down his throat and quickly cooled the skin beneath his fur.
The crisp, clean air. The snow. The forest. It was a part of the human world, not far from home, but far enough that it was completely different than anything he’d ever known.
When he had his fill of water, he turned and slowly made his way back to the cabin, taking in the sights and sounds. He knew there were other creatures around, knew there were eyes on him. He felt everything,sensedeverything,
It was as though blinders had been lifted and he could see again. He was no longer existing in a fog. He was experiencing. Feeling more than he remembered ever feeling before.
Snow still fell as he stopped in front of the cabin’s porch. He put his front legs on the bottom step and waited for his breathing to slow, waited for his heart rate to calm, waited for the shift to take place.
His knees buckled with exhaustion as soon as he was human again. He crawled up, and pulled his sweats back on before the cold took hold. He needed to start a fire, get a hot shower. He needed to get warm.
The cold in the Yukon was a different, wetter kind of cold than what he was used to and it would take time for him to get used to it.
And he still couldn’t believe he’d been dumped in the middle of the woods.
What else did you expect? They don’t like questions. You’ve known that your whole life.
“I don’t know what I expected,” he murmured to himself.
Was that to be the way his life went? That he’d talk to himself until he was nuts? What about when his memories were gone? Was that even a reality? Tomas told him that his memories would eventually disappear, that his magic would, too, and that all he’d be left with was the ability to shift.
