Chapter 24: First Snow

The first snow had settled on the valley by morning, a foot of it, soft and blue in the early light.

I woke alone in the big bed with the sheet pulled up to my chin.

My shoulder ached pleasantly where his teeth had been.

Through the window I saw a black wolf cross the white lawn below.

He stopped under my glass and looked up.

I laughed out loud.

I dressed in Darian's flannel and my own boots.

I went down the back stairs and out onto the porch.

The cold hit my face.

The wolf was waiting at the bottom of the steps with snow on his ears.

"Good morning," I said.

He pushed his head under my hand.

We walked down the drive together, with his flank against my leg and his breath smoking in the air.

I didn't plan where I was going.

My feet knew.

We went past the gate and the sentry hut.

We kept going down to the place where the valley road met the highway.

The bus stop was still there.

It was a small tin shelter with a bench and a faded schedule, and a drift of snow on the seat.

I had stood under it with a duffel bag eight days before.

A black wolf had watched me from the tree line across the road and would not leave.

I stood in front of it now and read the schedule.

The next bus to Harlow Creek ran at ten past nine.

The wolf sat down in the snow beside me.

He didn't whine or pull.

He only waited, with his grey-green eyes on my face, and let me look as long as I wanted.

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