2

"Well then, see you. In what? Six months?" I looked at my brother Colin, who had brought me here with fewer words than I said to him now and yet sat silently next to me in the car.

"Nine months then," I grumbled when he didn't answer and walked away. Rather sit as he didn't even get out of the car to say goodbye. It was his way of showing that he didn't approve of my being here and I respected it.

I was stuck in the coldest place wolves could be for the next few months, and I wondered what was really driving them to this freezing place, other than the supposedly wonderful education.

I hated this boarding school.

I hated my family for sending me here.

I hated myself for causing it myself.

It was my self-created nightmare that would haunt me at night when I wasn't here and my personal hell when I was here.

I slammed the car door behind me and a small cloud of snow rose up to my ankles, it didn't get any higher. Hell could actually freeze over.

This boarding school full of alpha yuppies and beta wannabe's. Daughters who were overlooked in the hierarchy because they were mostly second born and had more confidence than me or some alpha here.

Still, that wasn't what bothered me. I was disturbed by their ignorance and the rejection they had towards me. I was nothing in their eyes, someone who didn't need to be considered unless you wanted to offend someone.

I was half a wolf. Something that was ridiculed here at the university. At first I thought that by withdrawing and trying not to attract attention, the taunts would quickly subside. Unfortunately I was wrong about that.

More than that, it seemed to draw me into the center of everyone's attention. I'd been looking for a new strategy all summer and couldn't find it.

I ended up delaying the trip here by running away from home once again. It didn't take long for Colin to find me. It got me a few days less here. That was at least something in my eyes. No one had asked where I was staying and certainly wouldn't for the next few days.

I stood in the parking lot long after my brother dropped me off. Desperation welled up in me and I asked myself for the hundredth time how I could escape from him.

Once someone was here, there was no escape, an advantage for my family and a disadvantage for me. I had tried many times in the past semester and failed again and again.

A lucky guy resembled me as much as a snail resembles a butterfly, and neither existed in this frozen landscape. There was only snow as far as I could see.

I looked around and saw snow-capped mountains and the narrow road we had come down, the patrols who guarded this road and let no one in who didn't belong here. They should have rejected me. I didn't belong here.

I was looking at one of the mountains I was training for and seeing it made my heart ache. I kept trying to weigh my escape options, but that feeling that I didn't belong here struck again.

A feeling that had hit me weeks ago and now seemed to be catching up in my memories. Curious, hungry eyes returned to my mind and when I tried to take a deep breath, my legs gave out.

I sank into the white snow, but all I saw were deep blue and alert eyes. Eyes that came between the wolves that had circled me. Eyes that followed me every morning, watching my every step, as well as the ones I wasn't doing right now.

I tried to sort my thoughts. To pretend he's not in my head. I let the cold air through my lungs and yet it didn't stop. That feeling like something in my chest was trying to rip me to pieces.

I tried to sit up and focus on my next steps, but something inside was holding me. Something inside me was waiting, wanted to wait, and made me kneel where I was in the snow.

Like

Two.

Three.

I started counting for strength, but it only made it worse. The more I focused on escaping that feeling, the more it held me.

Four.

Five.

And I noticed someone behind me. Someone I didn't think about a day, at least that's what I told myself every morning, before I could stop thinking about him, for the rest of the day, until the nights came and he with them, in my dreams.

"This is St. Vincent of Ice." six words. Six words made me freeze more than the landscape around me.

For a moment I tried to focus on other sounds than his footsteps coming dangerously close behind me. Everything seemed to freeze inside me. The muscles in my legs, the attempts to escape in my mind, everything froze with six words I heard a few hundred yards behind me.

"What are you doing here?" I whispered against the snow that was getting closer to my face, before he could lift me to an upright position, he was beside me.

No, he passed me. It kind of helped me get back on my feet. Although nothing should have a scent in this icy landscape, that was exactly what hit me and I realized it too late. Sandy and earthy mixed with the scent of the forest after a rain shower.

I straightened up and finally allowed myself a look at him. Deep black hair curled on the back of his head, some strands of blue and violet shone in the evening sun.

He stopped even though I didn't ask. Not a single muscle moved, like the words that wouldn't come out of my frozen lips.

"Are you coming?" the wind carried its voice hoarse and rough to me. It was like he wanted to caress my ears extra with it.

His backpack slung casually over his shoulder and every step he took exuded more confidence than I had in years.

What strength I still had in me, what I had saved to get through the coming year here, had evaporated. It was gone as quickly as the snowflakes his feet kicked up in front of me.

I looked at my own shadow lying in front of me and not moving and at him quickly moving away from me.

"Why are you here?" The question was more for me than for him, but he stopped his steps and turned to me.

Long, slender, strong legs came to a halt and turned to face me. My gaze had stopped somewhere between his face and his chest. The muscles under his leather jacket twitched slowly, as if he were laughing.

"Not because of you, Tara." He quietly walked towards me. Meter by meter he got closer to me. The warmth he radiated mixed with the freezing air around me.

It was as if he could melt the snow beneath his every step, just like my feelings that drew me to him. But I didn't want that.

I didn't want to be by his side, not after I knew who he was. His hand reached out to me questioningly and slowly. I followed her movements until I met his eyes. They were cold like the sky above us and yet I couldn't help but look at him.

His fingertips brushed my cheeks for just a moment, if they ever did. It was as if a butterfly had brushed me and that didn't exist here in this place.

His hand fell again before I knew if it had even touched me. I wanted to look after her, but his eyes held me captive. Icy blue, cold, and every shade the sky above offered.

"If you feel like chasing me, don't, Tara. If you feel like apologizing to me, don't. If you feel like you have regrets, of that what you've done, don't do it."

Why couldn't anyone have warned me that nightmares can also become real.