A/N: I present the final chapter of the novella. While I know it isn't what many of you were hoping for, I hope you'll like it anyway (at least a little bit). A great big thank you to all of you for reading and commenting. Love, peace, and may the New Year bring you everything you didn't know you needed!

~Blake

XVII

Off and on through the end of the year, it snowed. In the first week of January, ten inches of snow fell on the southern Poconos. A mild thaw followed, but by the time the full moon came again, temperatures dropped once more, freezing dripping water into icicles on every tree branch. Driving up the trail to the cabin, Kelsey felt like she was traveling through a tunnel of crystals, sunlight winking off each hanging icicle.

The driveway opened into the small clearing before the cabin. Kelsey parked the car—a silver Mazda this time—and sat still, looking out the window. The peaked roof of the cabin was draped in snow; it looked like a tiny lodge tucked into an Alpine wilderness. For a moment she felt uneasy amid so much... foreignness. The mountains, the trees, the snow, no one around for miles. It was nothing like the life she knew, city streets and taxis and sirens.

She waited. The uneasiness passed. "Okay." She sucked in a deep breath and opened the car door. "Okay, let's do this."

She left the car and walked around the side of the cabin, pausing halfway. Here she had seen the wolf; here the wolf had chased her down. Here her blood had darkened the flat gray stepping stones. And here she had lost her humanity.

She searched the stones for a stain and found none. What a strange thing to lose, humanity. She didn't feel any less human. She just felt... more. More emotional, more alive, more everything. She was human at the same time as she was wolf, and she regretted nothing.

She didn't need to delay any longer. She left the stone path and rounded to the rear of the cabin. Running her hands once over her hair, straightening her jacket, she knocked.

No answer.

Where would he have gone, with the sun shining and his truck parked in the driveway? She leaned close to the door. A familiar scent came to her, woodsy, a wolf's musk wrapped around a human male.

"Gideon?" She rapped again, fighting a sinking feeling. "I need to talk to you. Please let me in."

Would he just stand there in the kitchen until she left? Her heart ached. Maybe there were some things she regretted.

There was a soft click at last, and the door swung inward. Gideon stood on the other side of the screen, his hair and his flannel shirt rumpled. "Well, hey, Kelsey."

"I got your message." She’d worried more than she wanted to admit over the listless tone of his voice on her recording machine.

He shrugged one shoulder, eyes guarded. "I wanted you to know you have a place to come. I wasn't trying to pressure you."

"No, I know. I appreciate it." She hesitated, at a loss for words now that she was finally here. Her apologizes had sounded better rehearsed in the car.

"Is that why you're here?"

"No, not really. Well, partly." Why was she even doing this? She should just turn around. She could park her car in the woods somewhere farther south and face the full moon alone. Why had she ever thought Gideon would give her another chance? She shivered.

“Hell.” He sighed and pushed the screen door open. "Get in here before you freeze."

She followed him into the warmth of the kitchen, stiflingly hot after the cold wind outdoors. She slid out of her jacket and held it over one arm; this time Gideon didn't offer to take it from her. Her face flushed with embarrassment and nerves. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to just show up..."

"It's fine." Gideon leaned back against the kitchen counter, his hands tucked in the pockets of his jeans. "So you're not here for the moon. I already told you the article was fine. Do you mind telling me what you are doing here?"

"Right to the hard questions." She let her gaze wander the room. "Maybe you're the one who should have been a reporter."

"Kelsey." An edge crept into his voice.

"Okay, all right." Kelsey swallowed and turned her eyes back to him. "All right. I can't stop thinking about you."

He watched her without speaking.

"Look, I'm not going to apologize for leaving. There was a lot to think about, and just because I understand why you did what you did doesn't make it right."

"I never said it was right."

"You did say you'd be good to me, though." Fear made her hands tremble as she stepped toward him, and she held them out beseechingly. All her instincts told her Gideon was nothing like the men who’d hurt her, but the past was still there, taunting her, telling her she was just making the same mistake again. Falling for someone who wouldn’t catch her.

He reached out and took her hands lightly in his, his gaze bent to their entwined fingers.

"Gideon,” she said softly. “I know you're a good man, and any woman would be lucky to have you. But what I need to know is if you're willing to take a step back. I'm not a possession. You can't make my choices for me, just because you're afraid I won't choose what you want. I need to know if you can do that."

"Kelsey," he said quietly, not looking up. "I let you go. I could have kept you here. Maybe it would have been wrong, but I could have done it."

Silence wound through the kitchen. Kelsey could hear the nervous throb of her heart, the soft tick of the clock on the wall.

Finally, Gideon looked up, his eyes clear and frank. “I can do whatever you need me to do. But I need something for you, and that’s for you to stop hedging around and say what you mean.”

"I'm saying, if it's okay with you, I'd like to take you up on your offer and stay for the full moon. And maybe for a while after that. I don't want to give up my career. I've come too far for that. But... maybe I need some time to rethink that, too."

Gideon pulled one hand away and scrubbed it over his face. "Ah... I guess... I think that would be just fine."

"Gideon."

"Hmm?" Absently, he looked at her.

"What you said about love." She fidgeted, nervous, wishing he would say something else, wishing she could read his gaze. "I don't know much about it. Love, I mean. But I think—I feel like—I mean, I've never felt this way about anyone. I think about you all day, every day, every night. I worry about you, and if you're okay, and if you hate me—"

"No, darlin'." He shook his head, the gray of his eyes softening, silver beginning to shine through. "I love you too much to ever hate you."

"Then why aren’t you kissing me?”

Carefully, giving her time to change her mind, he leaned in. When she didn't move, he took her face wonderingly in both hands and tilted her up to him. "What am I going to do if you run away again?" he murmured.

"I won't." Kelsey lifted her arms to him, wound her arms around his neck and drew him down until their lips were nearly touching. "I'm going nowhere, Wolfman, and you'd better not either."

As his arms came around her, she felt an unfamiliar warmth fill her. She had never wanted Gideon, but he had found her anyway. For the first time in her life, she felt safe; she felt loved. It was a curious feeling. She thought she could get to like it.

Outside, the sun began to set.