To Thaw A Frozen Heart (2020 - ON HIATUS)

Three.

Aspen is awake a little past noon, wishing that she can sleep longer. There is still so much to do in the house. There is always going to be something she has to do to maintain the perfect image her stepmother wants to keep.

Clean the living room; do the dishes; vacuum the house. Scrub the floors; do the laundry. All the chores in the Olwen house are Aspen's job while Elaine and the boys never have to lift a finger. With all the upkeep that Aspen does, it is still expected to be all done before her brothers get back from school.

She has set them out a snack--some fruit and cookies--before making her way to the main house to pick up the mail. She has to keep up with the routine she has made for herself. She can't worry about the male and what had happened the night before. She doesn't have a mate and whatever had happened is to never transpire again.

Aspen cannot worry herself with such matters, there are more important things to worry about--like what she would be making for dinner. Elaine is very specific about what she wants and will find every chance to find fault in Aspen's work. With her hands in the pocket of her winter coat, Aspen wonders what she could make tonight. Elaine likes shrimp, she could make her a nice shrimp scampi. That should work, and hopefully, she won't get any backlash from Elaine.

The walk to the main house is a familiar path, one that she has been traveling her entire life. It is less than a ten-minute trek through the main compound. Many of the little stores downtown are on the way to the main house, along with several of her peers hanging out.

She is nineteen, having graduated the year before. She has a lot more time on her hands. A lot of the people who graduated have already found their mate and were settling down or were enjoying the singleton life. Through the windows, she can see her peers enjoying their lives, something that she rarely has the chance to do.

Aspen focuses on her task, not interested in those around her. She has to compartmentalize and not worry about Cypress and what having a mate might mean for her. She has spent most of her life being told that she isn't worthy of having a soulmate. That halfbreeds are not worth anything.

Aspen is never quite sure how she is supposed to feel about her life in Alaska, always so focused on avoiding her peers and Elaine. She never gave fitting in a shot because they would have never allowed her such. She has spent so much of her life trapped in the small box she calls a room and it's the only place she can feel truly safe.

All she can do is focus on the task at hand not worry about the boy who made her feel welcome. That he is the only one who seems interested in her. Not that he will feel the same as he did last night. Last night will be the only time in her life that Aspen would know what happiness is. She knows she is a "dirty hybrid" and she doesn't need to be reminded of that. The only time someone has given her the time of day is when she is in her wolf form.

Her mate won't care about her when he realizes who she is and it will be how it is with everyone else.

Aspen shakes her head and wipes at her eyes, knowing that Elaine is right--she will never have a mate. Aspen has been told this since she was eight and there is very little going on in her life challenging Elaine's notion. Aspen knows that she is never going to have her happy ending and that the gods don't care for hybrids. That they're a disgrace to the community and everything that went wrong in her life is her fault.

Aspen enters the main house, making a beeline for the mailroom, she can't be bothered to look at those around her. The ones who were having such a fun time together. The teens and young adults who don't have a care in the world. The young mated couples can barely let go of one another. She is never going to have a relationship like that--have a mate that will want her. He is no doubt going to reject her the moment he finds her. All she has to hold onto is the night before, the only time her soulmate will care for her.