AdenVayene
Christian Veyne moved through the deepening snow like he owned every flake of it.
The storm had teeth tonight-wind howling between the pines, the cold sharp enough to bite through fur-but the Alpha of the strongest pack in the northern territories barely felt it. Red hair whipped across his face, blue eyes cutting through the white haze as he tracked the faint, trembling scent that had pulled him off the main trail.
Weak. Starving. Alone.
And something else beneath it, something that made his wolf go still.
He shifted mid-stride, snow crunching under bare human feet as he crouched. One gloved hand reached out, fingers curling under a narrow chin, and he tipped the younger man's face up into the weak moonlight.
Black hair plastered wet against pale skin. Silver eyes-startling, almost luminous-flickered open, wide and wary and far too pretty for someone left to freeze in the woods.
Christian's thumb brushed the edge of a sharp jaw. A slow, considering smile curved his mouth.
"Well now," he murmured, voice low and rough from the cold. "Look at you. Pretty little thing, aren't you?"
The silver-eyed wolf-Angel Vale, though Christian didn't know the name yet-tried to pull back, but there was nowhere to go. The Alpha's grip was gentle and absolute.
His decision was already made.
"You're coming home with me," he said, simple as law. He released the chin only long enough to shrug out of his heavy coat and wrap it around the smaller frame, then scooped Angel up against his chest like he weighed nothing. "Don't argue. You'll freeze out here, and I don't leave pretty things to die in the snow."
The wind howled louder as Christian turned back toward pack territory, red hair bright against the dark trees, blue eyes fixed forward. Angel's silver gaze stayed locked on the Alpha's face the entire way, something cautious and hungry and newly awake flickering behind it.
Whatever everyone else thought Angel Vale was, Christian Veyne had just decided he was his.