It was Halloween night. I know it's a cliché, but it really was dark and stormy, with not a trick-or- treater to be seen. My husband was away on business and I was completely alone in the house. I'd shut the drapes to block out the storm, but there was no escape from the thunder that rattled the windows and the rain that pelted the roof. I like rainy nights by the fire with a good book, but not stormy ones like the one that Halloween.

The power went out. Typical. I decided to go to bed and hopefully sleep through the worst of the storm. It took me forever to get to sleep. The bed seemed huge and the sheets glacial as I huddled underneath them and tried to ignore the storm right on the other side of the windowpane.

I fell asleep only to wake suddenly at the sound of glass breaking. We live out in the middle of nowhere, so I wasn't especially alarmed. It was more likely to be a tree branch than an intruder. Besides, what kind of brazen thief invades in such a noisy fashion?

Figuring I'd better go see the damage, I got out of my nice warm bed and padded barefoot down the hall. I saw almost immediately what had broken, evidenced by the drapes of one of the windows blowing inward with the storm as rain pooled on the floor. I could see whatever it was that had broken the glass, standing in the middle of the hall. It was large and dark, about waist-height. I felt an odd sensation of recognition mixed with fear that confused me and sent tingles up my spine.

Lightning flared at just that moment, illuminating the hall for a few seconds. It was long enough for me to get a look at the thing that had come through the window. It was a wolf – no, that was impossible, I told myself. It was a stray husky looking for shelter from the storm. A huge husky that had broken through my window without getting so much as a scratch that was looking at me with near human intelligence.

It was a stupid thing to do, but I turned and ran back up the hall. If the dog pursued, I didn't know it. I made it to my room and firmly slammed the door shut behind me. Cursing my old insistence that phones do not belong in bedrooms, I wondered what on earth I was going to do. What were the odds of the dog leaving again once the storm passed?

While I was wondering this, the doorknob turned and the door opened. In walked a man, completely nude. There was something wolfish about him, in the wide set of his gray eyes and the silver that streaked his long brown hair despite his seeming youth. Besides my natural distress over the fact that he was naked, I felt the same tingle of fear mixed with recognition that I'd felt earlier in the