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We’re losing too much weight.
Wolf, who used to find humor in the darkest conditions, now barely speaks. His offensive jokes, once our only source of laughter, faded away with the daylight. He still tries to engage us in mind games, but the hunger is always there, an uninvited guest in our conversations.
On the bright side, Kody is healed and walking without a limp. He still aches in places—mainly his thigh and hand—when he overuses those muscles or spends too much time in the cold. To keep busy, he set up a makeshift shooting range in the workshop and practices with his crossbow.
He says he’s ready to hunt again.
If only there were something to hunt.
Each of us is fighting to hold onto what makes us human—our memories, our skills, our determination, and the faint glimmer of hope that we’ll survive to see the sun return.
Most importantly, we endure every second of it together, the four of us bound by the one thing this place can’t take from us.
Our love.
A deep chill crawls through me despite the heavy heat of Leo’s body. I shiver on an exhale, surprised by the white cloud that puffs from my lips.
Kody sleeps in the other bed beneath a pile of blankets. But Wolf is watching, his gaze steady on mine.
He rises from his spot on the floor and sets his saxophone on the desk. He plays it sometimes. When Denver goes outside, he blows those dark, dysphoric notes until the bedroom feels alive again.
But not today.
Today, he set the instrument on his lap and methodically cleaned it as if he might never touch it again.
Stealing one of Kody’s blankets, he drapes it over Leo and me and curls up against us. Sharing body heat. It’s the best way to keep warm.
“Feels colder than normal.” He slips a hand under the covers and grips one of mine.
“Jesus, your fingers are freezing.”
“Yeah.” He reaches his other hand toward Leo’s shoulder.
“No. Don’t wake him. He needs the sleep.”
We’re putting Denver in a cage tomorrow, and I’m terrified. What if something goes wrong? What if the confrontation erupts into fighting and chaos, and one of them gets hurt?
Or worse.
“We need our strength.” I pull Wolf closer, tucking him against us as tightly as humanly possible. “Go to sleep.”
“Mm.”
He’s out within minutes, releasing warm breaths against my neck.
I stare out the frost-rimmed window, listening to the subtle shifts in the wind, the distant howl of a lone wolf, and the sound of snow.
Inside, the cold is searing, unforgiving, each breath a sharp reminder of the things I miss. A warm cup of cocoa. The magic of holiday cheer. A hospital buzzing with healers and life-saving machines.
But more than that, it makes me appreciate what I have, like the comfort of a thick blanket and the taste of warm, masculine lips.
If the endless darkness has taught me anything, it’s to find my own light, to cherish the quiet moments, and to hold on to those I love with every breath in my body.
66
Frankie
—
I awaken to find Leo and Kody looming above me, their breaths visible in the chilly air.
Fur coats, boots, weapons, deep scowls, tense silence—I catalog their appearances in a blink and sense the danger.
“What happened?” I sit up, instantly losing my little pocket of body heat.
Wolf, lying next to me, grumbles about the biting cold.
The temperature is painfully, shockingly low. Feels like I woke inside the walk-in freezer.
Panic surges as I tremble in the tension of their silence.
“The power’s out.” Kody levels me with a look. “The pipes froze.”
His words echo in my head, tightening the knot in my stomach.
“Does Denver know?” I reach for the heavy clothes that someone piled on top of me.
“He disabled it. Shut it all down.” Leo taps his fingers on his handgun.
I’m worried about what he plans to do with that. “How do you know?”
“He made a comment yesterday.” Restless, he shifts his weight. “Said I know where to find him when it gets too cold.”
“He says shit like that all the time.” Shivering, I drag on snow pants over my leggings.
Wolf joins me, pulling on wool socks and thermal underclothes.
“There was something in the way he said it.” Leo’s exhale fogs the air. “Something in his eyes. I fucking knew he was up to something. I looked for a switch, a missing part, anything that might power it back on. Fuck, I’ve been studying the mechanics for weeks. I can’t work it out and—”
“This isn’t your fault.” I work my shaking arms into a fur coat with Kody’s help. “Have you confronted him yet?”
“No.” Kody shoves a hat on my head and strokes a gloved finger across my jaw. “Leo woke me a few hours ago. We finished the hinges and hung the door in the workshop.”
“The workshop?” My brows bunch. “I thought we were putting him in the cellar?”
