Winter's Dawn Read Free

being sad, to something else, a fury he had never experienced before welled inside him as he glared at his aunt, who was thrashing and screaming now. He cared little for her pain, which was strange for Max, because he was usually a tender-hearted wolf and he liked Aunt Susan. True, he wasn’t as close to her as he was with Aunt Emma, who lived with them and shared his father’s bed, but she was always kind to him.
    Somehow Aunt Susan became something else, a barrier of sorts that was blocking him from that hum of happiness that was stronger than anything he had experienced before. It was there in his father’s room Maxwell first experienced what would happen to those who tried to separate him from her, that unseen queen his aunt was laboring so hard with.
    The storm that had threatened before, when Max stared sadly out the window, angry about being kept out of the snow, now swirled around the estate. It changed quickly from a simple snow flurry to something sinister and deadly. An ice storm more powerful than anything that had hit the coast in more than a decade descended upon them. The crack of tree limbs breaking under the ice blended with his aunt’s screams.
    “Light some lamps.” Douglas looked up from what seemed to be his permanent spot at the foot of the bed to bark at the maids waiting nervously against the wall. “We’re going to lose power. What a time for an ice storm. The doctors will never make it in all this.”
    “Look, it’s dreadful out there.” Emma stood with Max to stare out the window. “Everything’s frozen. I’ve never seen so much ice.”
    “Queen,” Max wailed, his gaze still trained on Aunt Susan. He reached out to her, desperate to fill the gap Aunt Emma had made with her journey to the window.
    The wind swirled as Max cried, rattling the windows with the force of it and somehow everyone in the room seemed to figure it out at once. “Maxwell!” his father shouted. “Stop it!”
    “Queen.” He stared defiantly at his father with icy eyes that the maids would claim later had glowed like blue fire when more tree limbs cracked and the room went dark. “Now,” he whispered into the darkness.
    “Emma, Gods help me, put him next to Susan before the roof collapses,” Douglas said and then went back to the task at hand. “I need light.”
    Max settled next to Aunt Susan. He laid his hand against her stomach and then his face, closer now that she was bare. The nightgown had long since been tossed aside, not that anyone in the room cared, save maybe the maids who were human but still accustomed to them, because his people were comfortable naked—most animals were.
    Susan screamed louder than ever as Max nestled in against her side, at peace once more. No one noticed that the storm had passed as quickly as it had started. They were too consumed with the chaos of Susan’s labor.
    “I’m dying!” Susan screamed. “Get her out, Doug! Get her out now! She’s killing me!”
    “Susan, don’t say that.” Douglas placed one bloody hand against her thigh and squeezed it. “You’re not human. You are stronger than that.”
    “I’m not strong enough. I’m not an alpha. She’s taking all my strength,” she gasped. “She’s been taking it all along.”
    “You come from alphas.” His voice was panicked. “It’s in your blood.”
    “No, Doug.” She sobbed. “It isn’t. It hasn’t been, not for a long time.”
    “Emma, I need to know the time!”
    “Forget the time! I’m dying!”
    “Five minutes.” Emma leaned over to squeeze Susan’s hand. “Just five more minutes, Love.”
    “Oh, no,” Susan wailed as she dropped her head back against the pillow. “I can’t wait that long.”
    “You can do it.” Emma brushed sweat-drenched hair away from Susan’s face and neck. “I know you can. Five minutes and we’ll have a queen. Our people will finally have an alpha pair. Your sweet puppy and Maxwell are going to restore peace.”
    Susan nodded, taking a deep breath.