[BOOK ONE] When hunter-gatherer Adele Shepherd comes across an injured werewolf in the woods, it's up to her to take him in and save his life: in a remote town dedicated to killing the creatures, she's the only one left who wants to help no matter t...
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HAPPINESS WAS A long lie-in on a Wednesday morning, a gentle awakening by a warm ray of sunshine pouring through the window, light parting the trees as it tried in vain to melt the snow that had covered the forest floor for a week now. No matter how persistent the sun, the air was too cold to let it permeate the solid ground but the heat was welcome, no matter how weak.
Ainslie was still sleeping when Adele woke up, slipping out from under the covers as quietly as possible so as not to disturb her. She had got used to the girl's shuffling sleeping after a few nights of sharing a bed with her, but that didn't mean she had to like it: she missed being able to spread out in her own bed rather than hanging off the edge when Ainslie somehow managed to monopolise the space, cocooning herself in the blankets that Adele had given her.
Shrugging on her ratty dressing gown and shuffling into a pair of slippers, she didn't feel exhausted for once as she headed straight for her coffee. She had made a big batch the night before and now all she needed to do was to heat it up and enjoy, craving the tang of black coffee on her tongue, the jolt of a caffeine kick she had come to rely on. If a day went badly, it was invariably a day that she had foregone her caffeine boost.
Someone else was on coffee duty today. Caleb was up and dressed, if only in a pair of slightly tight flannel pyjamas. He turned around when he heard Adele slip into the room and he pulled the bubbling pan off the grate that sat over the fire he had made. He was proving to be quite handy. Incredibly strong and a fast learner, he was an asset out in the depths of the woods. Adele had shown him once how to properly skin and cut a deer, caving up the meat to be frozen, and he had copied her in earnest. He had taken care of the next one himself.
An earnest learner, he had taken to mimicking Adele as he figured out how to adjust to his new life, following her movements and even her patterns of speech. Any time he awoke before he, he made the coffee ready for when she got up, doing anything he could to put a smile on her face. Filling two mugs to the brim, he kept the chipped one for himself and handed the other to Adele.
