Cael jumped over the frost-bitten wilderness on four enormous paws. His winter coat was a thick and lustrous black. It shielded him from the bitter February wind. 

Fuck, he should have never gone into town. Too many people. Too many eyes staring at him. Wondering if he did it. Was he really guilty of stealing the desperately needed money that was supposed to fund the pediatric oncology wing at Macconwood Memorial?

Fucking sheep. They believed everything they’d read about him. And why shouldn’t they? He’d walked away without a fight. He’d lost everything. His whole life.

He wanted to flee to run even further, but he had to stay behind to make sure his brother was not blamed for any of this mess. Cael did his best to go unnoticed. He stayed in their small hunting cabin year-round.

He avoided town like the plague, but this trip couldn’t be put off. His supplies had gotten dangerously low. He’d run out of damn near everything, and the rabbits and squirrels he’d been trapping had grown dangerously thin on the ground. It was no good to let his beast go hungry for too long. He’d lost weight and muscle mass the past few months. He looked like shit. Nope, Cael had had no choice but to go into Maccon City.

The last thing he wanted; however, was to run into her. Dr. Rayne Davis was small of stature, she had wavy, brown hair that she wore in a bun at the nape of her neck. Her clothes were always irritatingly disheveled at the hospital as if she couldn’t care less what she looked like when she was working.

It made him grin in the beginning, to see this accomplished doctor with her sweater misbuttoned. She’d been shy with him and uncertain at first. He could tell she was attracted to him. Hell, most women were. That wasn’t conceit, it was fact.

Cael was a Werewolf. His physical attributes were heightened as a result of his supernatural side. But even without that added bonus, he came from good-looking stock. He’d been told on occasion that he had the face of a dark angel.

His skin was clear and unblemished, it had a nice, deep, olive tone to it. His dark hair was thick and curly when it got too long, as it was now. Part of his Greek ancestry. His most notable feature was a pair of eyes as green as emeralds. Rayne had once told him that she could fall in love staring into his eyes…

He growled now at the thought of her. Love had never been in the cards for Cael. Besides, that woman was more mouse than Wolf! Their relationship had ended as abruptly as it began. If only he could’ve avoided going into town!

He’d been entering a small grocery store on the end of Main Street. He’d carefully chosen the tiny establishment instead of the larger chain stores where he’d run into more people. And he wound up running straight into her.

She was just leaving with a small grocery bag in one hand, while the other searched for her car keys. He hadn’t meant to knock into her, but he was a big man, and once he got going, it was difficult to slow down or stop. The collision was unavoidable.

The second he scented her his heart had thudded in his chest. She made him remember things he only wanted to forget. He recalled the shock on her face and the way she quickly dropped her eyes. His Wolf had been showing. His eyes went pale whenever his beast was near, and his Wolf leapt forward as soon as he scented her.

Cael had quickly and quietly picked up her damn groceries. A million emotions ran through him at the meeting, but he held them all inside. The touch of her soft body against his for that one instant before they’d both tumbled to the ground was engraved in his mind. It would certainly teach him not to look where he was going.

Her big brown-eyes seemed shocked when he’d mumbled his apology. She’d nodded absently. Her expression was curiously wounded. He couldn’t believe it when she asked him a few questions. How are you, and that kind of small talk that he hadn’t had in a long while. Cael didn’t answer her.

It was all he could do not to stand up and leave the city limits right then and there, but he really needed to shop. He’d run out of the necessities, and the idea of wiping his ass with some dried leaves was not tempting in the least.

He stood up and walked away. Cael forced himself to leave her there in front of the store with her purchases safely stuffed back inside the brown paper bag she’d been carrying. He couldn’t help the sorrow and regret that welled up inside of him. Her purchases had been pitiful, to say the least. Surely, she’d moved on by now?

It was in his nature to be attentive to detail, and he took note of her groceries. She might as well wear a sign that said she was sleeping alone these days. One ribeye steak, one potato, a small head of broccoli, a quart of orange juice and a small, red tomato. Yes, the doctor was very clearly single. Just like him.

He closed his eyes and pushed his Wolf body forward through the snow trodden earth. He thought of the past when he’d been whole. She’d come to work for Macconwood Memorial almost two years ago now, fresh from her residency from some big city hospital. She was petite and shy, despite being a Werewolf like him.

He’d been instantly attracted to her, though he fought it tooth and nail. He was a Junior Financial Analyst for the hospital. He worked ninety-hour weeks and had had no time for commitment.

Still, she’d gotten under his skin. He’d run into her in the cafeteria, getting coffee in the lobby, and at the odd staff meeting. His Wolf had taken to her immediately.

Cael was smitten for the first time in his life. That this small, quiet woman should affect him so was a novelty. He inevitably asked her out, drawn to her as he was. They’d gone on no more than a dozen dates before it happened.

It was the day after they’d almost made love for the first time. Cael had been patient and kind, tender in ways he’d never been before. He hadn’t wanted to rush her. She’d gone in headfirst, just like him, but he’d managed to stop before they lost control.

Rayne was innocent. Untouched and precious. He wanted to wait, though he couldn’t explain why. For the first time in his life, he was thinking about commitment and the long-term. Then his whole world went upside down.

The hospital had been raising funds for a cancer ward for children. When the funds showed up missing, Cael had been fingered as the obvious culprit. The money was gone.

His boss, Fred MacAvoy, a normal and decent kind of guy, explained to him that forensic accountants had found evidence that Cael had been the last to touch the funds. It was obvious he was guilty. Just pay it back, Fred had told him urgently. His brown eyes had misted with the pain of being betrayed by his protege.

Cael didn’t know what to do. Fred had taught him everything he knew, but he was hurt that the older man thought him capable of such a thing. He never stole anything in his life, but he had no opportunity to defend himself. He was offered the chance to simply repay the money and walk away, or federal charges would be filed. Worse, his brother, a doctor at the hospital, would be investigated as well.

Cael would never hurt his brother. That cinched it for him. Under the advice of his attorney, Cael paid everything he had to Macconwood Memorial. Almost three quarters of a million dollars in cash. He’d sold his car, his home, all his stocks, and bonds. Everything.  Naturally, he’d walked away from the hospital, the town, his family, and her. He lost his entire life in one afternoon.

So, yeah, he ignored her soft voice and warm chocolate eyes and went inside the store. Better to get it over with quickly. Especially, since his brother had stopped bringing him supplies. David recently told him that he refused to be a part of Cael’s withdrawal from society. He was not going to enable him any longer. That was what he’d said at any rate.

Cael had little choice but to return to the small grocery store every few months or so to replenish his pantry. The cabin where he now lived was secluded and remote. He went weeks sometimes months without having to see a single soul.

He’d been horribly embarrassed and hurt by the accusation and the assumption that he was guilty. His pride was thoroughly savaged. He simply couldn’t live in town when people thought him a thief. He was only glad his brother hadn’t been hurt by the accusations.

David was actually doing very well. He was the one bright spot in Cael’s life. He’d recently been promoted to ER Chief at Macconwood Memorial. He was a damn good doctor.

He should have been the one to date Rayne. When all this happened, he couldn’t face her. He’d told David to break things off with her and explain that he simply couldn’t see her anymore. He was so ashamed. He knew he couldn’t bear it if she thought he was guilty too.

This had been the first time he’d run into her in almost a year. He still couldn’t shake the memory of her luminous eyes as she’d looked up at him. He towered over her by more than a foot. It was one of the things that drew him to her.

She was small and deliciously feminine. Most she-Wolves he knew were as tall and, sometimes, as big as he was, but not her. She looked reserved and elegant, but she had a wicked sense of humor and brains to match anyone he’d ever met. He had resigned himself to bachelorhood early on in life, but he’d changed his mind when he met her. Cael had cared about her.

He still thought about her from time to time. He was certain that she’d have moved on by now, but her groceries said otherwise. His skin still itched from where he accidentally touched the softness of her palm when he’d handed her the single potato.

The wind whipped right through his thick fur, but he pressed on. He had to get her out of his head. She was the reason he was out there running himself to death through the frozen woods behind his cabin. True, he relished the closeness of his Wolf and the newfound gift of being able to call him forth at will, but as the saying went, it was cold as a witch’s tit.

Werewolves across the world were re-learning how to get along with their other halves. His brother, David, had stayed with him a time or two to try and learn to reconnect with his own Wolf. He was still working on it with Cael’s help. Cael had gotten it immediately.

He’d always been a quick study. He pushed himself farther into the dense stand of bare oak trees. His back fur was damp with sweat, and he felt the cold keenly. Damn that doctor with her soulful eyes! He couldn’t shake himself free of the memory of her.

That was how he’d missed the scent of the mother bear and her cubs. One second he was jumping over exposed roots and mounds of snow and frozen earth, the next second, a huge black bear had his hind leg locked in her jaw.