“Sorry,” she said as she stepped around the bar. “But we’re actually still closed. The grand reopening isn’t until the evening. Come back at—”
She stopped, a chill going down her spine.
The man standing in the middle of the room, gazing around curiously, didn’t look at all threatening. He was tall but thin, sinewy muscles strung along his lanky frame. His gaunt, lined face looked tired under his bristling white hair.
But his eyes, when they met hers, burned like frozen stars. Cold hung in the air around him.
“Hello again,” said the wendigo.
“Ash!” she yelled.
He’d been upstairs, getting changed from his work shift. He must have been in motion from that first startled jolt of her heart, though, because he burst into the room in mere seconds. His unbuttoned uniform shirt hung askew from his shoulders, the bitter scent of smoke rising from the stained fabric.
He caught sight of the wendigo, and froze. “Ice?”
The wendigo’s thin smile widened, warming. He held out his hand. “Ash. It’s been too long.”
Rose beamed as the two clasped forearms, warrior-to-warrior. “You got Ash’s message, then. He wasn’t sure it would reach you.”
“I did. But I thought I would come myself, rather than send back word.” He released Ash, turning to her. “I wanted to personally thank the woman who finally put an end to Corbin.”
“That was more the Phoenix than me.” Nonetheless, Rose shook his hand. His fingers were, unsurprisingly, ice-cold, but his pale blue eyes were warm. “And I wanted to thank you, for watching over my mate when I couldn’t. Ash told me about your years hunting the warlocks together.”
“It seems I will be hunting them once more,” Ice said, with a hint of a growl. Rose shivered as the temperature dropped noticeably. “I grew complacent. But this time, I and my pack will make sure no seeds of evil remain to take root again.” He cast a sly sideways glance at Ash. “I would invite you to join us on the hunt once more, Phoenix, but I think you have other concerns now.”
Ash’s arm slid around her waist. “I left my mate once. I have promised her that I will never do so again.”
The wendigo’s eyes glinted. “So you came to your senses at last.”
“Will you join us this evening?” Rose asked him. She gestured around at the gleaming, polished interior of the Full Moon. Even though she’d kept as much of the original design as possible, it was still strange to have it all fresh and new. “We’re throwing a party tonight, to celebrate reopening. We only just finished rebuilding.”
Ice hesitated. “I…am not the sort of shifter that many would welcome.”
“Nonsense,” Rose said firmly. “Everyone is welcome here.”
“Stay,” Ash put in, smiling. “Please.”
Ice shook his head. “If it was just myself, I would. But…my mate is not comfortable in crowds. Particularly not crowds of shifters.”
“Your mate?” Rose exclaimed. “Ash didn’t tell me you were mated!”
“I was not, when we last parted.” A deep, quiet pride lit Ice’s haggard face. The chill in the air around him faded. “It turned out that we had nearly crossed paths many times, but we found each other at last. She is outside now.”
“Well, call her in!” Rose urged. “I’d love to meet her.”
Something crossed Ice’s expression—a shadow, a memory. Whatever it was, it was gone too fast for Rose to interpret. Even to her empathic sense, the wendigo was as hard to penetrate as an iceberg.
“You already have,” he said.
The door creaked again. A woman slipped through, soft-footed as a cat. She was a little older than Rose, maybe in her fifties, with a diffident, shy manner. Her silver-streaked hair shadowed her face, but there was something familiar about her…
“Oh,” Rose gasped. She hurried forward, opening her arms. “Oh.”
Tears gleamed in the woman’s startling green eyes. Without hesitation, she stepped into Rose’s embrace, hugging her back tightly.
“I always wondered what had happened to you,” the former ocelot whispered into her ear. She stepped back, holding Rose at arm’s-length, beaming despite her tears.
“And I you!” Rose could barely speak, she was so choked up. “At least, I did when I remembered—when I got my memory back—oh, I’m glad, I’m so glad!”