Page 25 of Winter Unleashed

My tightknit world was comfortable, familiar, and Liam Fraser had fucked that up.

“I don’t know, Stell, but I think I need a little more time.”

“Okay. I get that,” she said, slipping her arm around my waist. “Let’s go back to sleep. You’ll think more clearly after a good night’s sleep.”

I let her lead me back to my bed where we both slid under the covers and drifted off. This time I slept peacefully and dreamlessly until morning.

After breakfastI went for a walk in the woods behind my house… by myself. Since we could both sense the vamps deep in the trees, Stella hadn’t been happy about it, but she’d let it go when she realized how much I needed it.

I wandered over the path until I got to my favorite thinking spot. The old tree had fallen before I’d even been a twinkle in my mother’s eye. It hadn’t decayed nearly as much as it should have. I never questioned why; I just loved it. It made a great natural bench in the middle of the forest.

I settled myself onto it and let my thoughts run wild. All of them had to do with Liam and the feelings I had for him. They were convoluted and some from earlier in my life were hurtful, but others were tender and full of longing. The nightmares made little sense to me.

And while I knew the woman in them was Celeste and had a feeling the dreams were her doing, there was still something holding me back from fully believing what Liam had told me. What everyone had told me.

The something holding me back was that pesky fear of mine. Accepting that I was worthy of love was one thing. But having a fated mate was an entirely different animal. I was only twenty-four. That’s extremely young to have found my mate. A mate I’d be with for the rest of my life. Myimmortallife. That’s an insanely huge amount of time.

I’d only had one serious relationship in my short life, and I’d ended it almost as soon as it had begun. Isaac and I were together for a little while before I realized how attached I’d become, so I ended it. I’d told him it was because one or both of us would eventually find our mates and that would hurt the other person and ruin our friendship. In all honesty, I was just scared of falling in love with him.

For an independent, tough as nails, superb ass-kicker, I really could be a huge coward.

“All right, Steele, it’s time to put your big girl panties on,” I said to myself as I took my phone out of my pocket.

Before I could back myself out of it, I sent Liam a text asking if he could come by to talk more. It surprised me how nervous I was while I waited for him to respond.

After what felt like an hour, but was really only five minutes, he replied:I’d be there in a heartbeat but have never-ending meetings. I can come by after. Or I’d still love for you to come here for dinner.

I stared at his reply. We had agreed to having dinner, but that was before my latest nightmare. It had been so real. Then the kiss we shared by his lake flashed through my mind, and the urge to see him again was almost painful.

My thumbs hovered over the screen, ready to say no when another text came through:Isaac and Stella are both here if that helps with your decision.

A surprised laugh escaped me. No matter what the deal was between the two of us, he clearly knew me better than I’d expected. I replied telling him I’d be there and smiled at his thumb’s up emoji.

I had some time to kill before heading to his house, so I went back to mine to get some writing done. Stella had taped a note on my new sliding glass door, letting me know she’d gone back to Liam’s.

There was something different when I sat at my desk. I couldn’t put my finger on it but there was something off about the space. My eyes passed over my laptop, lamp, the framed picture of my mother, my glass of water, and the mug full of pens and pencils.

My head snapped back to the framed picture. I hadn’t put that there. I’d been meaning to buy a frame for it but never got around to it. With vampires and fairies trying to kill me on the daily, I hadn’t had time to go shopping for picture frames.

I picked up the frame and stared at my mom. She had her head thrown back as she laughed at something. I’d never seen her until Aunt Celeste had shown me some snap shots of her. My mom looked so happy and confident in the picture, I hadn’t been able to take my eyes off it, so Celeste had given it to me.

My stomach twisted when that thought passed through my brain. I couldn’t envision the memory of Celeste giving me the photo or telling me about my mom. But I somehow knew her name had been Ariana Steele-Becker. It had made my day when I’d learned Steele had been my mom’s maiden name. Brent had wanted nothing to do with me, so he’d given me her name. He may have done it to insult me, but it was actually the nicest thing he’d ever done.

I made a mental note to mention the ‘memory’ of Celeste giving me the photo of my mom when I spoke to Stella and Isaac. As I thought, I ran my fingers around the frame. I couldn’t figure out how it had gotten here. Had I done it and forgotten like I supposedly forgot Liam? When I turned it over, a white triangle stood out against the black felt backing. I pulled on it and a note slipped out.

Red,

I hope you like the frame.

Yours,

Mr. Fraser

“Damn,” I whispered, “he’s going to win me over one way or another.” I smiled down at the note. “Bastard.”

With my eyes still on his note I patted my hand around my desk for my phone then realized I’d left it in the kitchen when I’d stopped to get a glass of water. As I jogged down the stairs, I sensed another presence and froze halfway down. No one was supposed to be there, and the only people who had keys were Isaac and Stella. Stella had just left, and if Isaac had come over, he would have called out to me.

The rhythmic sound of a knife hitting a cutting board came from my kitchen.What the fuck?I wondered who would break into my house to cook. Figuring it couldn’t be anyone sane, I crept back upstairs for the knife I kept hidden in my desk. Once I had it in hand, I slowly made my way back down and crept into the kitchen.