Learning to Love... Book 2: Winter
Penulis
M. L. Knight
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Winter keeps her heart guarded and her distance sharp. With complicated abilities and a past that taught her caution, love feels like a distraction she does not need. Fate disagrees and sends Ethan, warm, stubborn, and entirely unimpressed by her icy defenses. He believes connection is worth the risk and refuses to back down. As tension sparks and trust grows in small, surprising moments, old enemies creep back into Harvest Moon, bringing danger with them. Winter must decide if protecting herself means pushing love away, or if letting someone in could be her greatest strength. When the past stirs and the present demands courage, love becomes a choice, not a weakness.
The Ice Queen
Book 2: Winter
WINTER
I sat alone in the forest, perched on top of a tree that had recently fallen. I looked out over the landscape, my eyes scanning for inspiration. I had brought my sketchpad, hoping to get in a bit of drawing before I was forced to return to my life.
A life where I found little peace. The weight of the world constantly settled on my shoulders.
That was why I spent so much time on my own. Running away from the constant flooding of emotions from others.
It was unnatural for a wolf to prefer solitude. But it was also unusual for anyone, wolf or otherwise, to possess the gifts I did. Gifts that made it difficult to tolerate the presence of anyone, let alone an entire pack.
A difficult notion, especially for an alpha’s daughter.
“What do we have here?” A nasally voice I knew all too well rang out, cutting through the silence.
I sighed in disappointment. My peaceful reprieve, ruined.
“There’s plenty of forest out here, Hardy. You could’ve gone anywhere else,” I pointed out, my voice calm and even.
I was relaxed out here in the forest alone, far from the traditionally inhabited areas of our rather vast territory. In my unguarded state, I allowed myself to do what felt natural, and that was to lower my defenses.
Now that I was confronted by these two morons, Hardy and his shadow, Hagan, I had to quickly throw my walls up again. I didn’t want to know what these sorry excuses for wolves were feeling. I was certain it was nothing good.
“Maybe if you weren’t out here on your own like some kind of loner freak, then you wouldn’t have to worry about what we’re up to,” he sneered, as though being alone was some kind of insult to me. How could it be when I actively chose it?
“Winter, the Ice Queen!” he taunted. “Such a frigid bitch no one wants to be her friend.”
I growled under my breath. I knew he was trying to goad me into responding, and I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction.
I got up from my seat, sketchbook in hand, and pushed past them.
I wasn’t supposed to beat up members of the pack—no matter how badly I wanted to. My father made that rule when I was very young, and he realized I had a bit of a temper. A little too much alpha wolf flowing through my veins.
If we weren’t sparring in official pack training, then I was meant to keep my claws to myself.
I started to stomp through the forest on my way back to the pack house, doing my best to avoid further interaction. I was trying to be good. Trying to follow the rules.
Trying to do as my father asked. But Hardy simply couldn’t help himself. He just couldn’t leave well enough alone.
“Heard that your daddy’s going to announce which one of his pups gets to be the next leader of the pack. Surprised it took him this long. Everyone knew it wasn’t going to be you.”
“It should be Autumn,” I essentially agreed. “Autumn would make a great leader. I’m not bothered by that.”
And that was the truth. Not only was Autumn older than me by twenty minutes—a fact that she loved to remind me of when she thought I was being a brat—my sister was also kind, caring, and overly compassionate.
She loved this pack as much as my parents did. She was strong, intelligent, and impeccably trained. She would make a powerful and effective leader.
I had none of the qualities that a luna required. I cared about the pack, and I would never let an attack go unanswered, but I wasn’t good with people. I didn’t have the compassion required to act in that capacity.
My sympathy button burned out long ago—one of the many hazards of being an empath. You feel too much until you eventually stop caring.
On top of this, a luna needed her alpha. And I had no intentions of looking for my mate.
It was too difficult for me to be around the people in my family—those who I already loved. I didn’t need or intend to add to that mess.
If I had a mate, I would be around them all the time, and I just couldn’t see that future for myself.
“I hope he gives the role to your sister too. Because if she doesn’t find her mate soon, she’ll hold a choosing ritual, and I’m going to be all over that,” Hardy jeered.
I scoffed and rolled my eyes. The very notion was ridiculous.
My parents would never invoke a choosing ritual for my sister. My father was pressed into one, and while it helped him find my mother, he regretted the ritual from the moment he agreed. If my sister took a chosen mate—it would be on her terms.
And not because of some outdated traditions.
I paused in my steps, not liking where this was going. I didn’t need my gift to sense the pheromones rolling off him. They hung in the air, heavy and pungent.
It made me want to vomit—the stench causing my stomach to roil. I wanted to follow my father’s rules, I really did.
But if Hardy took this much further, I wouldn’t hesitate to act. He could say what he wanted about me. I could handle that.
But I wouldn’t tolerate any besmirching of my family. They were literal angels on earth, and I would defend them until my very last breath.
“I would stop while you’re ahead,” I warned through gritted teeth.
“Even if she didn’t pick me…,” he went on, digging his own grave, “all I really want is just one night. One night inside that sweet sister of yours. I’d have her under me, screaming my name…,” he continued, gyrating his hips suggestively as he spoke.
“Give her the night of her life, then break her heart. That’d be just as satisfying.”
That was my final straw. I turned around so swiftly he could barely process my movements before I was in front of him, nose to nose, a snarl escaping my lips.
His face twisted into a grimace, pain spreading throughout his nether regions, as I gripped the pathetic tool between his legs much tighter than it was ever meant to be squeezed. He groaned in discomfort as he reached for my wrist in a desperate attempt to loosen my grasp. Nothing he did would work, though.
I would let him go when I was ready. Until then, he was at my mercy. He’d brought this on himself, after all.
“You go anywhere near my sister with this sorry excuse for a pecker, then I’ll see to it that it’s removed from your possession myself. Autumn is far too good for the likes of you. She’s saving herself for her mate, and when she finds him, he will be a real wolf. You think my father would pass the alpha title onto someone like you?” I sneered.
“You have a better shot of getting me into your bed than getting him to agree to that. And we both know hell would freeze over before that ever happened.”
I released my hold on his junk, and he took in a much-needed breath—gasped for air as though I’d been strangling his neck instead. He reached for himself, holding his injured crotch delicately as he looked at me with hatred burning in his gaze. A sentiment I returned tenfold.
“You’re going to regret that,” he grunted.
“Bring it,” I dared.
“Hagan, get her,” Hardy commanded of his constant shadow, the muscle to his smart mouth, Hagan Ancelm.
Hagan was the size of a mountain and weighed just as much. He was as slow as a sloth, but he packed a punch. If he took a swing and it landed, it could knock the strongest wolf out cold.
Not something I desired when I was in the middle of the forest with wolves who had no respect for me.
“B-but…she’s the alpha’s daughter…” Hagan hesitated, proving that he had more brains than I’d given him credit for.
“So…what?! You saw what she just did to me!” Hardy snarled.
Hagan heaved a heavy sigh as he lumbered toward me. It was apparent he was reluctant, and for that I would grant him a small mercy. I wouldn’t use my full strength on him.
I would reserve that for his little friend. Hardy was going to learn a difficult lesson…again. I guessed some wolves just never got it right.
I cracked my knuckles, rolled my shoulders, and stretched my neck. This was going to be fun. My grin grew wide, unnaturally so, and my eyes gleamed with mischief before I lunged.
***
A short time later, I exited the woods, sketchbook in hand. My hair was a mess, and there was dirt on my clothing, but otherwise I was little worse for wear.
“Winter!” a cheerful voice called out as she noticed me from the steps.
My twin sister, Autumn, was bounding over, excited to see me. That was until she took in my state. She observed me carefully with her keen gaze.
She knew I’d been up to something, but she wasn’t certain what. I was going to make up an excuse. Claim I took a nap in the woods or something along those lines.
Seemed believable enough. However, moments later, Hagan trudged out of the trees behind me, an unconscious Hardy in his arms.
He shot me a hateful glare that I merely shrugged off. He grumbled something under his breath before he headed toward town where he and Hardy stayed with their families.
“Winter…,” Autumn scolded, her hands on her hips as she watched the exchange. “What did you do?”
“Those guys are dicks and deserved everything they got.”
“You’re lucky that everyone is too excited about Ben coming home tonight. They probably won’t notice what a mess you are if you hurry to your room and wash up,” she encouraged as she linked her arm through mine, escorting me the rest of the way.
Autumn had a smile on her face, not a care in the world, as if she hadn’t just seen two grown wolves come out of the woods after I’d given them a sound beating. Sometimes it astounded me how different we were. We may have been twins, but we were night and day in personality.
She was all things light and beautiful while I was all things dark and dreary. The pack loved Autumn; they adored her. They were afraid of me.
None of them would say it out loud, but we all knew it was true. I brought it on myself mostly, so I didn’t hold it against them.
Autumn and I didn’t really look much alike, either. We might have been twins, but we weren’t identical. I was the carbon copy of our mother except for bluer eyes and darker gray hair.
Otherwise, there wasn’t much of my father in there. Autumn, on the other hand, was the spitting image of him. If you cloned him and turned him into a woman—Autumn would be exactly what you’d get.
Her long brunette hair was the same milk-chocolate color, and her bright hazel eyes mimicked his exactly.
Since Autumn and I were the eldest of their pups, the pack would be handed to one of us and our mate. My parents’ hope was that we would find our mate within the pack. So far, that hadn’t happened.
However, we’d turned twenty-one only a few months prior, and there was a small contingent of pack warriors who’d been gone since before that time. Including Ben, the son of Uncle Dillon and Aunt Taffy.
Just so there was no confusion, they weren’t really our aunt and uncle, not by blood anyway. Which was one reason that everyone was so hyped up about tonight. One of our mates might be among the returning warriors—it could even be Ben.
Though that thought gave me an instant ick factor as a shudder of disgust racked its way through me. I could hardly imagine mating with Ben. He was like a brother to me.
He’d been my best friend since we were small, and I didn’t know if I could see him any other way than that. For a long time, I’d thought Autumn felt the same way, but when we were sixteen, she revealed that she’d harbored a crush on Ben for years, and it had only grown stronger as we’d gotten older.
I was positive that was part of the reason she was so excited for tonight’s welcome home dinner. She was hoping Ben was her mate. And I was rooting for her.
Ben was a good man, and he’d make a good mate. I could trust him to protect her and care for her as he should. If it wasn’t Ben, then I hoped it was another warrior who was equally worthy.
And I desperately hoped that my own mate wasn’t among them.
