“Brant!” Before he realized what had happened, she was taking him in her arms. “Are you hurt? Are you okay?”
He wanted to answer her but couldn’t speak. His arms came around her as he buried his face in her neck, caught in a storm of emotions he couldn’t control nor wanted to. If this was an illusion, a trick of his mind, he didn’t care. She was back, and it was all that mattered.
He cradled her even tighter. Emotions swirled so hard inside him at that moment when he’d heard her say his name, he tried to engulf her with his body, so that no harm or evil would touch her again.
When he could finally draw a full breath and make himself look at her face, he saw that a milky shadow still masked her gorgeous eyes.
“You came back.”
Kat seemed to ponder his words for a moment. “I... I don’t understand what’s going on. You aren’t making sense. I don’t remember coming to the cabin.”
Brant was about to answer when he heard rustling in the wind. There was still some distance between those incoming and them, but immediately, he pushed Kat behind him, and crouched in preparation for an attack. Ian appeared in wolf form followed by a bear. His friend transformed back, naked in the soft falling snow.
“You should have told me you were going out.”
“Ian, you have to see this, Kat...” And as soon as he turned, Kat seemed frozen in place, her eyes white again, her beautiful face expressionless. His heart broke when he realized she was gone again. “She was back. For just a moment she was here with me, talking to me, laughing, smiling.”
The naked werewolf slowly walked up to him and put a hand on his shoulder. “It’s great news, Brant. Don’t despair. That means that something is finally moving. That she’s fighting to come back. Whatever you did, it pierced a hole in her wall.”
Ian was right. He had to be right. Brant couldn’t think of anything else, or even think about the possibility that she was lost to him.
“What did you do to make her come back? You have to do it again...”
“It was snowing, and I remembered her telling me that she loved Christmas. I thought I would go and choose a tree with her. Maybe bring it inside and find some decorations.” Brant shrugged. “I don’t really know how it works, but I’ve seen enough movies to have an idea about it.”
“Good idea! I heard the girls planning to put a tree up at Sanctuary. I’ll get in touch with them and see if I can get a box of spare ornaments. Do you agree?”
“Yeah.” His spirits lifted a little. “I think going for the fun and familiar will be helpful.”
Ian hesitated, looked at an unseeing Kat and back to him again before speaking in a low voice. “Also, we saw cars slowing on the road leading to the cabin. The place is hidden because of the trees and there is no letterbox indicating a house here, so that makes me suspicious. I’m probably wrong, but I wanted you to know. Anyway, I’m checking in with the next Sentinels who are replacing us for the day shift and I’ll inform them too.”
Brant clasped his friend’s wrist in a sign of bonding and gratitude. “I trust you.”
And he took Kat’s hand to return to the cabin.
* * *
Something wasn’t right. It was like floating in a sleepless dream, where everything was blurry and out of reach. It felt like the time she had taken painkillers. Her entire being had felt disconnected, slow, and foggy.
What was happening? Her brain remembered Brant taking her in his arms, squeezing her so tight she couldn’t breathe. But before that?
The bakery. That she remembered. Orders for Christmas ... but what had happened after that?
And more importantly, how to get out of the fog?
