I felt the snow on my face as I came to.

It was cold and I could feel rough terrain beneath me. My head felt like densely packed cotton balls and when I opened my eyes, falling snowflakes forced me to close them again.

The first thing that hit me was the nausea, then the headache.

Where am I? What happened to me?

I couldn’t remember anything. It was like someone had wiped my short-term memory somehow. With a groan, I managed to twist onto my elbow and prop myself up into a half-seated position. Snow fell from my hair as I took a deep breath and tried to brush myself off.

Finally, I managed to open my eyes and look around. I was in the middle of the woods. It was nighttime and the snow was falling quietly. My vision blurred, and I rubbed my eyes with my thumbs to bring the world back into focus. Something enormous lay in front of me.

It was white, tall and wide and I tried to make it out through the snow.

“A water tower?” I asked to no one in particular. That must be what it was. I’d never seen one before and it was bizarre to wake up next to one. All of this was bizarre.

I racked my brain, trying to make sense of my situation. Fragmented images started to come back to me.

A black sedan…a pair of enormous hands…a gold watch…a dark room with a single light above…

The auction!

I’d been sold at the auction to someone…

Pablo!

That despicable monster of a man with the hands the size of dinner plates. He’d wanted me for my virginity, then lost his mind when he realized I had already given myself to another.

I’d been crouched in the shower and terrified when he came at me. But now, that fear had turned to anger and as the night came back to me, I felt my blood start to boil.

They’d drugged me, sold me, then drugged me again. And then they dumped me here.

I looked down and saw I was wearing a pair of gray sweatpants and a sweatshirt with nothing underneath. The bare minimum. I was surprised I hadn’t frozen.

I got to my feet and looked around, searching the air for scents. But there was nothing in sight and nothing in the air. I was so alone I could have been on the moon. Looking around, I realized I had no idea where I was or where I should go.

“Well,” I said to myself with a sigh. “One direction’s as good as the next, I guess.”

And with that, I started off down the hill. Despite my condition, there was something soothing about the falling snow. The world got quiet when it snowed and I liked that, especially right now. It gave me a moment to quiet my mind – or at least try to.

My arm ached and I remembered the needle going in with whatever they’d used to knock me out. I tried not to think about what they’d used or the potential side effects. Nothing I could do about it anyway.

Aiden…I thought, feeling my heart ache harder than the pain in my arm or the dull throbbing in my stomach where I’d taken a blow.

He must be worried sick.

If only I knew where I was, then maybe I’d be able to find him. I had to find my way out of here and back to civilization.

The woods were quiet as I made my way down a slope, ducking under the bare branches of trees. There weren’t as many pines here as I’d expected to find in the Maine woods, but as I got farther down the hill they started to crop up and I found it harder to get through.

But that’s when it hit me – a scent.

It was strong. An alpha shifter. It was a risk, of course, to follow the scent. In a place so secluded like this, there was probably a den nearby and that meant running into a pack who may or may not be happy to see a stranger in their territory. But as the snow fell and the cold continued to permeate my bones, I knew I had no choice.

Putting one foot in front of the other, I followed the scent through the trees as the snow continued to come down on me. The ground started to level out as the smell of the alpha got stronger, and as I emerged from a tight group of pines onto an open area, I saw a figure in the night.

I froze instantly, squinted and tried to make it out. When it moved, I saw it was a fox, and wasn’t the strong scent I’d been tracking. I bit my lip, wondering if I should just turn back. But before I could decide, the fox turned.

It saw me, and as the breeze blew I caught his scent. He was an alpha too, and his eyes were fixed on me.

He darted towards me with a speed I’d never seen. My wolf cried out to me to shift and defend myself, but I knew that if I did that it would only lead to violence. And right now I needed help, not a fight. So I stood my ground as the fox approached.

He was on me in an instant, and I braced myself for an attack, but to my surprise it never came. He slid to a halt in front of me and instantly shifted into human form.

He wasn’t too tall, and was slightly lanky but carried a stern coldness with him that let me know he wasn’t someone to mess with.

“Who are you and what are you doing here?” he asked, his fierce eyes looking me up and down. His body was warm and the snowflakes melted as they struck his skin.

“M-my name is Billy,” I stammered, realizing my throat was cold and dry and probably still responding to whatever drug they’d used to knock me out.

“And what are you doing here?” he repeated firmly.

“I—I was kidnapped,” I told him. Honesty was probably the best way to go right now. I was too tired and out of it to come up with a believable story, and I didn’t want to lie to someone who could possibly help me. He also didn’t look like the kind who would take an apology if he found out I’d been making things up.

“I was sold,” I went on. “At auction. When my owner realized I wasn’t…I wasn’t a virgin – he drugged me and left me here. I don’t know where I am. I have no money, no phone, no nothing. Just these clothes that aren’t even mine.”

He looked at me, and I could see him weighing the veracity of my story in his mind. This was a man who was good at detecting liars and I was glad I’d told him the truth.

The snow fell on us as he stared at me. It was almost confrontational, and I started to think he was waiting for me to speak, but finally he said, “You will follow me. I am part of a pack. We have a lodge nearby. We will help you.”

I almost died as my entire body relaxed and I breathed an enormous sigh of relief.

“Thank you!” I gasped. “Thank you so much. What is your name?”

“My name is Kitchi,” he told me. “Now come. It isn’t far, but the night is cold.”

Kitchi shifted back to his fox form, and I wasted no time shifting to join him, tearing out of Pablo’s sweatpants suit he’d put on me and leaving it behind me as I followed my new friend off into the night.