Blood on the Snow
The Blackwood forest was a blur of freezing shadows and blinding snow.
I was in the passenger seat of Marcus's armored SUV, my fingers gripping the silver scalpel so tightly my knuckles were completely white.
The massive engine roared as the Beta pushed the vehicle well past its limits, tearing through the treacherous, icy mountain roads leading toward the Northern border.
But we weren't leading the chase.
Fifty yards ahead of our headlights, a massive, pitch-black shadow was tearing through the forest with apocalyptic speed.
It was Kade.
He hadn't stopped to grab a coat. He hadn't waited for his warriors.
He had fully shifted into the monstrous, legendary wolf of the Bloodbane King.
He was easily the size of a small horse, his dark fur blending completely with the night, his massive paws kicking up clouds of snow as he hunted down the scent of our stolen son.
"I see them!" Marcus shouted over the roar of the engine, his knuckles white on the steering wheel.
About a mile ahead, three heavily armored, black SUVs were speeding toward the Northern border pass. Vivienne's extraction team.
The feral, demonic howl that ripped from Kade's wolf shook the very earth beneath our tires. It wasn't a warning. It was a promise of absolute, unadulterated slaughter.
Kade didn't try to outrun their cars. He bypassed the road entirely, launching his massive wolf up the steep, snowy embankment to the left. He ran along the ridge, parallel to the convoy, a terrifying shadow of death waiting for the perfect angle.
"Hold on, Luna!" Marcus yelled, slamming his foot on the gas to close the distance.
The rear SUV of Vivienne's convoy realized they were being hunted. A heavily armed rogue leaned out of the back window, raising a silver-loaded assault rifle toward Kade's shadow on the ridge.
Before the rogue could even pull the trigger, Kade descended.
The Alpha King launched his massive, heavy wolf directly off the thirty-foot cliff. He crashed onto the roof of the rear SUV with a sickening, deafening crunch of metal. The heavy armored roof completely caved in under his terrifying weight.
The SUV instantly lost control, violently swerving off the icy road and crashing head-on into a massive pine tree, bursting into a ball of fiery orange light.
Kade didn't even pause to check the wreckage. He used the momentum of the crash to leap forward, his massive claws digging into the asphalt as he bolted straight for the lead car.
"They're not stopping!" I panicked, watching the middle and lead SUVs accelerate.
Inside the lead car, Vivienne must have realized her entire extraction team was about to be butchered.
Through the headlights, I saw the back door of the lead SUV violently kick open while the car was still moving at sixty miles an hour.
Vivienne leaned out, the freezing wind whipping her blonde hair. But she wasn't alone. She had one hand twisted brutally in the collar of Asher's dinosaur pajamas, dangling my four-year-old son terrifyingly close to the rushing, icy asphalt.
"Back off!" Vivienne shrieked, her voice barely audible over the wind, pressing a silver dagger directly against Asher's small throat. "Call him off, or I drop the mutt!"
My heart completely stopped. The blood froze solid in my veins.
"Kade, stop!" I screamed, rolling down my window, completely terrified.
Kade's massive wolf skidded on the ice, his massive claws tearing chunks out of the road. He stopped ten yards behind Vivienne's car, his golden eyes burning with a feral, chaotic madness. He was trapped. If he lunged, she would slit Asher's throat or drop him under the tires.
"That's right, you monster!" Vivienne laughed, a hysterical, manic sound. She yanked Asher tighter against her side. "He's coming with me to the North! The High Council will dissect him to figure out what kind of freak you bred—"
But Vivienne made one fatal, arrogant mistake.
She forgot exactly whose blood was running through the veins of the little boy she was holding.
Asher wasn't crying. His tiny hands reached up, grabbing Vivienne's wrist—the one holding the silver dagger.
"Let me go, bad lady," Asher's small voice vibrated with an unnatural, terrifying echo.
Suddenly, Asher's eyes snapped open. They weren't just glowing gold. They were blazing with a volatile, explosive mixture of Alpha dominance and lethal, emerald-green magic.
The moment his tiny fingers squeezed Vivienne's wrist, the pure, raw energy of the hybrid heir surged out of him like a physical shockwave.
It wasn't a healing touch. It was pure, concentrated magical radiation.
Vivienne let out an absolutely horrific, blood-curdling scream. The skin on her wrist where Asher touched her literally began to smoke and blister, as if she had grabbed a handful of burning coals.
The pain was so agonizing she instantly dropped the silver dagger.
Asher didn't wait. With a heavy, desperate shove, he kicked away from her.
"Asher, NO!" I shrieked.
He fell out of the moving SUV.
But he didn't hit the asphalt.
Kade moved faster than the speed of sound. The Alpha King lunged forward, his massive jaws gently, flawlessly snapping around the thick collar of Asher's winter coat mid-air, snatching his son safely from the fall just inches before he hit the deadly road.
With Asher safely dangling from his jaws, Kade skidded to a halt, turning his massive back to the fleeing cars to shield his pup.
Vivienne's driver, completely panicked by her screams and the blinding flash of magic, lost control of the wheel. The lead SUV violently spun out on the black ice, crashing heavily into the snowbank on the side of the road, the airbags instantly deploying with a loud POP.
Marcus slammed on our brakes, bringing our SUV to a screeching halt mere feet from the wreckage.
I didn't wait for the car to fully stop. I kicked my door open and sprinted through the snow.
Kade had already set Asher down gently on the snow. He didn't shift back to his human form yet. His massive wolf stood protectively over the boy, heavily panting, his golden eyes scanning his son for any injuries.
"Mommy!" Asher sobbed, the adrenaline finally wearing off, making him look like a terrified four-year-old again.
I fell to my knees in the snow, grabbing him and crushing him to my chest. I buried my face in his dark hair, inhaling the sweet, safe scent of him. I was crying so hard I couldn't breathe.
Kade's massive wolf nudged his wet snout against my shoulder, a low, rumbling whine vibrating in his chest to make sure I was unhurt.
"I've got him," I sobbed, reaching out to bury my hand in Kade's thick, dark fur. "He's safe, Kade. We're safe."
But the nightmare wasn't completely over.
The sound of a car door groaning open drew my attention to the snowbank.
Vivienne stumbled out of the wrecked SUV. Her expensive clothes were ruined, her face bleeding from the crash, and her right hand was severely blistered and smoking from Asher's magical burn.
She looked at the massive black wolf, and then at me, her eyes wide with absolute terror. She tried to turn and run into the dark woods.
Kade let out a demonic snarl, his muscles bunching to leap and tear her head clean off her shoulders.
"No."
My voice was dead calm. It was a tone I had never used before.
I slowly stood up, letting go of Asher and pushing him gently behind Kade's massive, protective front legs.
I looked down at the silver scalpel still gripped tightly in my right hand.
"She is mine," I told the Alpha King, my green eyes completely devoid of mercy.
Kade froze. His massive wolf didn't argue. He slowly stepped back, sitting on his haunches over our son, giving me the floor.
I walked slowly through the snow toward the ruined car.
Vivienne tried to scramble backward, but she slipped on the ice, falling flat onto her back.
I didn't run. I took my time, stopping right over her trembling, pathetic form. The cold moonlight reflected off the razor-sharp edge of my silver scalpel.
"Freya, please!" Vivienne shrieked, holding her burned hand to her chest. "The High Council ordered me to do it! They know about the boy! If you kill me, they will slaughter this entire pack!"
I stared down at the woman who had made Kade believe he was a monster. The woman who had poisoned innocent wolves. The woman who had held a knife to my baby's throat.
"The High Council doesn't scare me, Vivienne," I whispered, kneeling directly over her. I pressed the flat, freezing edge of the silver scalpel against her cheek, making her whimper in terror. "But you should have been terrified of me."
I didn't slit her throat. Death was too quick, too merciful for what she had done.
Instead, I reached into the hidden pocket of my coat and pulled out a small glass vial filled with a thick, iridescent purple liquid.
Paralytic Night-Terror root.
I popped the cork with my thumb and forced the liquid directly down Vivienne's throat before she could scream.
She gagged, her eyes widening in absolute horror as the potent herbal toxin immediately hit her bloodstream.
Within three seconds, her limbs went completely rigid.
She couldn't move a single muscle. She couldn't even speak.
But her eyes were wide open, and her mind was completely, terrifyingly awake.
"You are going to be locked in the darkest, coldest dungeon in the Bloodbane territory," I whispered, leaning close to her ear as the poison trapped her entirely in her own body.
"You will feel every cold stone. You will hear every rat.
But you won't be able to move or scream for exactly one month.
Consider it my medical prescription for your treason. "
I stood up, wiping the unbroken scalpel on my jeans, and turned my back on her paralyzed, terrified body.
"Marcus," I called out to the Beta who was standing a few feet away, watching me with a mixture of absolute awe and sheer terror. "Take out the trash."
"Yes, Luna," Marcus bowed deeply, not hesitating for a second before he and his guards dragged Vivienne's rigid body toward their SUV.
I walked back to where Kade and Asher were waiting.
Kade finally shifted back. He didn't care that he was completely naked in the freezing snow, or that he was covered in the blood of the rogue assassins.
He dropped to his knees, wrapping his massive, heavily scarred arms around both me and Asher, burying his face in the crook of my neck. He was shaking violently, the adrenaline and terror of almost losing his family finally breaking the invincible Alpha King.
"You're okay," Kade sobbed, the sound muffled against my skin. "Goddess, you're both okay."
"We are," I whispered, wrapping my arms around his broad, freezing shoulders, holding him as tightly as I could.
We were a broken, bloody, chaotic mess of a family, kneeling in the snow surrounded by burning wreckage.
But as I looked out into the dark, silent forest, I knew the real war hadn't even started yet.
Vivienne was right about one thing. The High Council knew about Asher. And they were coming.