The scream cut through the quiet town, and Victoria’s breath caught in her throat. She knew what had happened, what they’d done. Desperate to save the failing resort, her Alpha had meddled with forces no one understood. Now a girl was stumbling in the snow near the Christmas tree, face white as death, mumbling about her friend being frozen in a cave, like a statue.
Victoria knelt beside her, already planning damage control. The human witnesses couldn’t believe a word. Not a single soul could know what was real. Three years later, Jamie was working the bar when the news report played the same clip they always did.
The disappearance of Stephanie Burke. Her best friend. She’d been told so many times that she’d hallucinated it all, that Steph had just left, that the stress and the cold had broken her mind. Her family called it her episode.
Her sister called her a Grinch. Her mother asked if she was still taking her medication. Jamie lied and said yes. She’d flushed the pills down the toilet long ago.
The face of her friend, frozen in terror, never left her. That night, a stranger stumbled into her life. He was tall, unfairly tall, with dark hair and amber eyes that seemed to glow. A journalist had cornered her near the bar, pushing for answers about the disappearances, and the stranger had shoved him into a snowbank.
He was drunk, bleeding from a wound on his thigh, and babbling about a girl made of ice. Jamie helped him to her apartment. She told herself it was just kindness. It wasn’t.
Something about him pulled at her. He fell asleep on her couch, but before he did, he hummed a song. That melody. The exact melody that had led her through the snow the night Steph vanished.
Jamie froze, terror crawling up her spine. It had to be a coincidence. It had to be. In the morning, he was gone from her couch, but not from her apartment.
He was in her bedroom, on her phone. He was Edward, an Alpha wolf from a rival pack, and he was certain the grants had drugged him. He was investigating the disappearances on their territory. His brother’s mate was missing.
A teenage girl was missing. And he was sure Jamie had seen something real that night. Her family arrived for Christmas, unannounced and overbearing. They saw Edward in her bathroom, and before she could explain, her mother was already planning a wedding.
Edward saw an opportunity. If he was dating a local, he could stay in town without raising suspicion. They agreed to fake it. Just until he found answers.
The fake dating was clumsy at first. Edward was arrogant, formal, and completely unaware of how normal people lived. He talked to her like she was an asset, not a partner. But Jamie watched him with her family, the way he let Stella braid his hair, the way he listened to her mother’s stories, the way he learned to make waffles she loved even though he hated cooking.
And she saw something else. A man carrying the weight of an entire pack, trying to save people who didn’t even know they needed saving. She started falling for him. She tried not to.
She knew it was a lie. But he believed her. He was the only one who believed her. They found evidence of a nymph, a mountain spirit that froze lonely souls in ice.
Edward went searching for it, and Jamie went searching for him when he didn’t come back. She made a wish to a magician to save him, trading away something precious without knowing what she was losing. The nymph released Edward, but the cost was steep. No one remembered the truth.
Her family forgot they ever believed her. They forgot the nymph existed. They just saw her as the same fragile girl who broke down three years ago. Edward left.
He said he had work to do. He said his world was too dangerous for her. Jamie felt the hollow ache of his absence, but she kept moving, because that was what she did. She smiled through Christmas.
She worked the bar. She pretended she was fine. Her family kept trying to comfort her. Stella, with the innocent confidence only a child can have, told her she needed a Christmas miracle.
Jamie tried to explain that miracles didn’t work like that. She tried to tell them she was fine. She wasn’t. Then a throat cleared behind her.
Jamie turned, and Edward was standing there. Snow dusted his coat, his hair was mussed, and his eyes looked desperate. He said a little bird told him you should spend Christmas with the people you love. He asked if he could stay, if he could celebrate with them.
Jamie didn’t let him finish. She kissed him, and the cheers of her family filled the room. She pulled back, tears in her eyes, and whispered that he was her present. Edward’s smile was genuine, full of joy.
He kissed her again, grounding her in the present moment. Above the chaos of her family and the holiday music, Stella’s small voice cut through with satisfaction. What did I tell you?
Christmas miracle.
