“Yes, Liam. I went to the mall and grabbed you something from The Gap, but I had to order the other one from Amazon.”

The corners of Liam’s eyes crinkled and there were lines down each of his cheeks were he suppressed a grin. I knew this look well. It meant he was laughing at my awesome wit. Sadly, it was a look I saw on the rarest of occasions, so I allowed myself a moment to bask in its glow before bringing the focus back.

“Open them,” I demanded impatiently.

He tried to take his time. I imagine he is one of those people who carefully lift each corner of a wrapped gift, but since I only had empty potato chips bags to work with, it didn’t take long for him to unwind the top.

He spent a long time looking down into the bag.

“Your socks.”

Liam pulled them out of the bag. “I see.”

“No you don’t.” I leaned over and examined the toe of each before flipping one up for his inspection. “This is the one you hooked on that board by the front door. I darned it for you.”

“You darned my sock? You? Scout Donovan?” This time a full grin spread over his face. “Jase would be so proud to hear how domesticated you’ve become.”

“I cook. I clean. I darn socks. I’m a regular June Cleaver.” I clasped my hands together and batted my eyelashes. “Oh, Liam, do you think Santa brought me a vacuum cleaner? And maybe a new washer and dryer?”

Although, in truth, I would have loved a washer and dryer that would magically work in the forest without electricity. Breaking the ice at the creek where we got our water, hauling up a few buckets to the cabin, heating them in the washtub over our outdoor fire pit, and then scrubbing our clothes with one of the millions of bars of Safe Guard we had was the exact opposite of fun and easy.

“Actually,” Liam said, reaching under the bed. “I think Santa might have brought you something useful.”

When Liam pulled my gift out from under the bed I couldn’t stop the single tear that snuck out of my eye and trailed down my cheek. I wasn’t expecting any gifts from Liam, and the ones I wrapped for him - a darned sock and a bag full of nuts I gathered - hardly showed the same thoughtfulness and level of awesomeness as what he handed me.

“You made a bow?” I plucked the string. It was rustic, but it was a bow. A handful of homemade arrows were still clinched in his hand. “How did you know how to do this?”

You can’t see a Cole man’s embarrassment by looking at his cheeks, but if you pay close attention to the back of his neck, it’s obvious. “I just messed around until I figured it out. It doesn’t shoot exactly straight, and there’s a good chance these arrows will just bounce off the side of whatever you’re shooting instead of actually killing it.”

“I’ll never know if it’s the shoddy workmanship or my complete lack of skill.” I took an arrow, nocked it, shot it at the door, and watched it bounce off the wall, a full three feet away from my target. “I love it,” I said, hugging it to my chest.

Since it was Christmas, we didn’t do our normal chores. Instead, we spent the day eating nuts and taking turns with the bow. By nightfall, Liam could get it to stick into a tree, but not the one he was aiming at, and I could hit my target, but couldn’t ever get it to actually stick.

“Our powers combined,” Liam muttered after the third round ended with the exact same results.

That night we ate a stew Liam whipped up from a rabbit I trapped two days ago and some cans of vegetables. It was the best thing we had eaten in weeks, and had plenty left over for the next few days. Once the sun set, we sat around the fire and spouted lines from our favorite Christmas movies and belted out every holiday song known to man, including “Happy Birthday”.

When we finally went to bed, we lay there like we always did in the beginning, back-to-back, pretending the other didn’t exist. But unlike normal, I didn’t almost immediately drift off to sleep. Instead, I waited until I was sure Liam was out before I finally let go. The tears were hot as fire as they streamed down my face, but cooled quickly on my cheeks in the freezing night air. My heart ached for my family and friends. I thought of the celebration at Gramma Hagan’s house and wondered if Charlie was able to be there, or if he was still in the hospital. I wondered if my parents had gone over to Mrs. Matthews last night, as was our tradition, or if her hatred for all things Scout extended to my parents.

I missed the sound of my father’s voice, the smell of my mother’s perfume. I missed Angel’s unbound enthusiasm and the way Jase knew what I was thinking without so much as a look in my direction. I missed my bed and the under-appreciated joy of central heat.

And then, because I was in the mood to feel sorry for myself, I let my mind wander to Christmas night a year ago. It was the night I found out about the secrets Jase and Charlie hid from me, and the night Alex told me the truth about Shifters. But those things paled in my mind to the memory of a kiss beneath the mistletoe.

I don’t know how long I had been crying when the bed creaked as Liam turned over, but when his arm draped over me and pulled me towards him, I let the momentum roll me over, making a conscious decision to turn towards him for the first time. And while he continued to sleep, I let his shirt soak up all my tears until there were simply no more left inside me.

Chapter 19

After Christmas, the weather took a turn for the frigid. Even with our Shifter tolerance and layers upon layers of clothes, most days we couldn’t venture from the fireplace more than thirty minutes before worrying about frost bite. And even if we could tolerate the freezing temperatures, the snow, which engulfed my entire calf in the smallest of drifts, was hard to navigate. Thanks to Liam, we had enough wood to make it a few months, but he still went out when he could to cut more. I think we both realized what our fate would be if the fire ever went out.

My training continued through those cold, dark months, but it was different. We didn’t have room in the cabin to spar, so we focused on strength building and flexibility. We devised different routines for one another, combining our different styles of fighting to create what Liam referred to as the Mutt Method.

The majority of my training, however, wasn’t physical. Liam knew Shifters from all over the world who had suffered loss at the hands of the Alphas, and he told me each of their stories. I heard about beautiful, laughing girls who went missing out of the blue. Girls with devoted parents and amazing talents who suffered sudden, tragic accidents. I even heard about boys like Spence who hadn’t been able to suppress their powers and avoid unwanted attention. The list of sins the Alpha Pack committed was mind-boggling, and not limited to ridding itself of future competition. They eliminated potential threats wherever they saw them, using their absolute rule to cling to the power they abused most aggrievedly.