Winter had always been my least favorite season. It covered the beautiful green land in a thick blanket of snow that killed almost everything it touched. All my flower friends were gone, waiting to be born again as the cold months wore on. It was such a lonely time of year. Lone wolves still wandered the land, but they were all competing for food that it made meeting new companions… difficult. I was still nursing a small cut on my lip I received when I accidently got between a female and her dinner. I just wanted to say 'hello' and ask her if I could join. I didn't even get close enough for a sniff before she snapped at me, catching my lip with her canines and scaring me off.

With a sigh, I stared out of my little makeshift den as a few snowflakes fell lazily from the clouds above. My stomach gave a grumble, but I ignored it. I couldn't remember the last time I hunted anything for myself. I had taken to savaging the remains of other hunts and it had been working out well until now. I was hungry, tired, and lonely and the last thing I felt like doing was anything at all. My thoughts moved to my scattered family as I wondered what they were doing now. Had they even missed me? This line of thinking, of course, reopened the hole in my heart where Xerxes had been. He was gone, murdered by some crazed wolf. But no tears came at his memory. So many had been shed that the wells were dry now, but the pain did not cease.

Curling myself into a tighter ball, I wished dearly for sleep to come again. However, a new feeling washed over me like a waterfall. My heart thundered in my chest yet a sense of calm eased my every anxious mind. Like a fog being lifted, I could see him as clearly as the day our eyes first met. My very soul yearned for him and he was here, searching for me. At some point, I had left my den as my paws carried me over the snow towards his call. Like a flower drawn to the sunlight, moved towards him until, at last, I saw him.

His coat reminded me of a sunrise, his eyes the color of a sunset. He was the light I needed now and I didn't hesitate as I closed the gap between us. Tears I had thought long dried up swelled to my eyes again as I collided with him, burying my face into his golden gray fur. My worries, my fears, all vanished in that moment as I took in his scent. I don't know how long I stood there face first in his chest, but when I was able to speak, I stood back and gazed up at him with my pure, white eyes. "What took you so long?" I said with a playful smile as tears soaked the fur under my eyes.