The Winter Solstice: A Cassandra Blake Mystery

Chapter 3.1

Malekai held Cassandra’s hand as they made their way to where they would shift and allow their wolves to take over. Malekai had a large backpack slung over his shoulder for their clothing, allowing them to take them with them until they had finished. The plan was to shift, then run and play until they reached the cave. They would then climb inside and rest until they needed to begin the trek back to where they would shift back into their human forms. Then get dressed before walking back into town and finish preparing for the Winter Solstice Festival.

They reached the large cedar they always used for cover as they undressed and shifted. The tree was talked about in the old texts and records kept by the founders of the pack and was described as enormous hundreds of years in the past. The branches swooped downward, allowing them to duck underneath and be concealed entirely from anyone outside the tree’s perimeter.

Malekai looked at Cassie before he took off his coat and quickly disrobed. He knew something was off with her but could not put his finger on it. He hoped his wolf, Sebastian, could figure it out. Even if he couldn’t, he knew Sebastian had been begging to run and play with Cassie’s wolf, Freya. Perhaps Cassie’s wolf would confide in his wolf and tell him what was going on with Cassie.

“Why do you keep staring at me?” Cassie asked, snapping Malekai out of his thoughts.

“What?”

“You keep staring at me. Is there a reason?”

“I can’t shake the feeling that something is wrong, and you are doing everything you can to keep it from me.”

“I am exhausted,” Cassie told him as she moved to him, cupping his face in her hands. “I am exhausted in most ways that a human can be. Physically and mentally, I am drained from working so many hours on cases involving things that I never thought a human being could do to another voluntarily. I need a break. This run and the nap that I know we will take in the cave is what I need right now.”

“If you say so,” Malekai replied, unzipping his pants and pushing them down while Cassie was still right in front of him.

“No shame! Even in this weather,” Cassie laughed.

“Hey, don’t laugh. It’s cold, and things shrink,” Malekai told her, trying not to laugh.

He took two steps back and shifted into his wolf, a massive black wolf with white tips on his fur, making him look as if he were covered in frost. Cassie stepped forward and rubbed his head gently as the massive animal wagged his tail and allowed his tongue to loll out of the side of his mouth.

“You are as handsome as ever, Sebastian,” Cassie said as she leaned forward and kissed him on the end of his nose. “Let me get undressed and put all our clothes in the backpack since Malekai seems to have forgotten about that.”

Sebastian whined softly before Makelai’s voice popped into Cassie’s head. “Sorry about that. Honestly, they would probably be safe here if we didn’t pack them and take them with us.”

“That’s true,” Cassie said aloud as she finished putting Malekai’s clothes in the bag and began placing hers on top of them. “But just in case something happens along the way and we need to be in human form, I think we should probably have them with us. Right now, it is cold enough to freeze certain things and make them fall off.”

“She has a point,” Sebastian told Malekai.

“I know she does. She always does. It is one of the reasons I love her so much,” Malekai said.

“Then why don’t you tell her that?”

Malekai thought before he answered as he and his wolf watched Cassie remove her clothes and prepare to shift. “Because I’m scared.”

“You shouldn’t be. She is our beautiful Cassie, inside and out,” Sebastian told him as they watched Cassie shift into her wolf. “But our Freya is even more magnificent.”

Cassie’s wolf, Freya, shook her fur out and stood in front of Sebastian. She was the opposite of him. Freya was white with black tips on her coat, making her look like liquid silver when she moved. Her eyes were nearly identical to Cassie’s hazel eyes, with flecks of emerald green in them, making her even more captivating. The only difference in the eyes was a gold ring around the outside of the iris.

“Grab our bag, big boy, and let’s go,” Cassie told Malekai.

“Seb wants to know if Freya can come out and play,” Malekai laughed in her head.

“Sure, as long as he doesn’t forget where he put the backpack like he did that one time.”

Malekai said, “I think I have a solution for that. Why don’t we race to the cave and drop the backpack off before we play in the snow? We can stay near the cave, so if we need them, they are close.”

“Perfect!” Cassie nearly shouted as her wolf pranced in anticipation. “Lead the way, Alpha.”

That was all that needed to be said. Malekai’s wolf grabbed the backpack in his mouth and bolted out from under the cover of the tree. Cassie’s wolf dashed after him before she lost her footing, tumbling into a heap and smacking into a tree trunk. Malekai whirled around at the sound of Cassie’s crash and raced back to where she sat, shaking her head.

“Cassie!” Malekai screamed in her head so loud it hurt. “What happened? Are you hurt?”

“I will be better when you quit yelling in my head,” Cassie groaned. “I slipped in the snow and crashed. I should have been more careful because I haven’t run in the snow since the last time I was here.”

“Let’s go to the cave. We can run and play on another day before you go back home,” Maleki told her with sadness in his tone as he nuzzled her neck to confirm she was uninjured.

“I like that idea,” Cassie answered, standing on wobbly legs. “Please just go slow until I can get used to being in wolf form in the snow again.”

“Of course, Cass.”

The pair slowly and steadily approached the cave they considered their secret place. It was far from a secret but far enough out of the way that most never bothered to hike to it. In human form, it was grueling, but in wolf form, it was enjoyable. As Cassie became more steady, they picked up their pace, making it to the cave in good time. Malekai led the way into the narrow entrance that opened into a sizable chamber with a flat floor. Cassie entered and saw blankets in a pile a few feet into the cave.

“What is this?” she asked Malekai.

“I asked Aaron to drop them off yesterday. I thought it might be nice to have them to cuddle in after playing in the snow.”

“Thank you,” Cassie answered, shaking the snow off her soft fur and settling into the pile. “Would you join me like we used to do before I left?”

“Of course I will, Cass. Seb likes that idea too. He missed spending time with Freya,” Malekai answered.

Maleki settled in with Cassie, tucking his paws under her head and laying his head on top of hers. He could feel her begin to relax, and her breath became slow and steady as she dozed off. He lay motionless with her, listening to every sound and analyzing every smell, trying to understand what was wrong.

“Any luck Seb?” Malekai asked his wolf, hoping that he had discovered something to help them understand what was wrong.

“Nothing, and Freya refuses to tell me anything. She told me that if Cassie wanted us to know, she would have told us.”

“So, something is wrong.”

“It would seem so. Freya is tired as well. Whatever is happening is happening to both of them,” Sebastian said with a whimper. “I am worried about our girls.”

“So am I, Seb, but there is nothing we can do until Cassie is willing to tell us what is wrong.”

Malekai lay quietly while Cassie slept. After he had shifted, he smelled that Cassie had a slight difference in her scent. It was so minuscule that he had not noticed until he had changed into his wolf form. The more he lay with her and thought, the more he worried about what that could mean. It was still her but different. Could she be sick? Did she have an injury of some type that had not healed correctly? His mind kept returning to Cassie being ill and not telling him. That idea broke his heart.