Elowyn gasped as two towering beastmen threw her out of the IronFang palisade. She skidded ungracefully across the icy sludge, the jagged stones tearing into her exposed knees and palms.
Behind her, the heavy wooden gates groaned.
"Stay in the dirt where you belong, runt!"
The voice came from Nysa.
She strode out of the Palisade, wrapped in a thick mammoth pelt that swallowed her shoulders. The light-brown ears atop her head stood rigidly forward, mirroring the fury twisted across her face.
She dug the heel of her boots into the snow and stopped precisely at the boundary line.
"You have until fourteen sunrises," she said, her words forcing Elowyn to look up. "That is more mercy than a traitor like you deserves."
She raised four fingers in the air. "You have until fourteen sunrises to fetch yourself a male. You wanted one so badly you tried to crawl into mine. As if refuge in this tribe wasn’t more than enough generous offer for a shiftless outcast, you tried to steal my mate, including my place as Chieftainess. But look at you now. Because I’m feeling merciful, I’m giving you a chance to go hunt down a stray, or anyone willing to accept a shiftless mate."
Nysa drew herself up, casting a long shadow over the fallen female.
"Bring back a mate within two weeks, and I might let you keep that pathetic little hut of yours. But, you’ll be dead to the IronFang tribe. Fail to return, and your hut will be ours. If you dare step over this line without fulfilling my orders, I’ll have the hunters skin you up for bedding. Your barren carcass isn’t worth the meat we feed you here anyway."
Behind her, a roar of savage agreement echoed through the IronFang tribe.
"The Chieftainess is so kind-hearted! Still letting her live after she tried to crawl into her mate’s bed."
"Shiftless runt tried to steal what wasn’t hers!" a scarred warrior snarled.
"Waste of blood!" a female beastwoman shouted. "After all the Chieftainess and her mother did for a worthless trash like her! Strip her furs and make her a village breeder!"
"Just kill her instead! Why let her poison our bloodlines with her rot?!"
A wave of filthy mockery and raucous laughter spilled past the open gates, crashing over Elowyn like freezing water.
Whore.
Runt.
Waste.
Shiftless.
Outcast.
Every word struck her harder than the stones beneath her palm.
Nysa raised a single, delicate hand. The crowd went dead silent instantly. She let out a low, dramatic sigh, her face twisting into a mask of sickly-sweet concern.
"Hush, my people," she purred, her voice carrying easily in the wind. "We are not savages. We must give even the lowest creatures a chance to redeem themselves. Like I said, you have fourteen sunrises, Elowyn. Bring back a mate to take full responsibility for you, or never step foot into my territory ever again."
Elowyn bit back a groan, driving her fingernails deep into the frozen earth as she forced her trembling body off the ice. Through the swirl of the wind-blown snow, a looming shadow suddenly moved.
Kaelen– Nysa’s mate.
He sauntered over the edge of the boundary, exuding the casual arrogance of a male who owned everything his eyes touched.
He hooked a heavy arm around Nysa’s waist, pulling her flush against his hip in a brutal assertion of ownership. Behind him, his tail swept the air in lazy amusement.
"Careful, my sweet," he said, a smirk gleaming in his eyes. "Don’t give the creature false hope. Who would ever claim a broken runt? She’s nothing but a useless dead weight."
"Oh, let her try, my love," Nysa purred, turning her back on Elowyn completely as she sank into Kaelen’s body heat, soaking in the idolizing gazes of her tribe. "A good Chieftainess always offers mercy. Plus, it’s a generous punishment for a runt who dared to forget her place, and prove to everyone that she was nothing more than a desperate, worthless whore. Coming onto MY mate."
"I... did not come onto your mate."
Those words cut through the wind, drawing every eye back to Elowyn. She was already up on her feet, her knees buckling under the lingering haze of poison still burning through her veins.
"I did not come onto anyone’s mate," she rasped, sickness rising in her throat as the horror returned. Her memory was a blur, but she remembered Kaelen’s heavy hands, the bitter tincture forced down her throat, and the artificial, suffocating heat that hijacked her body before her mind went blank.
"Oh, is that so?" Nysa cooed, taking a slow, predatory step toward the boundary line. "Then, who did, Elowyn? Because from what the whole tribe witnessed, you were practically all over him.You poisoned him to force yourself on him, unless you’re trying to tell everyone that my devoted mate poisoned you?"
Elowyn pressed her lips into a tight, bleeding line, her cold hands balling into trembling fists at her side. She kept her jaw locked, refusing to swallow the bait Nysa so eagerly offered.
She knew the rules of this game.
If she accused Kaelen, the entire tribe would call her a liar and tear her apart on the spot. But the suffocating hypocrisy of it all made her blood boil— because were these people blind?!
They sneered at her, calling her a fragile, shiftless runt. They mocked her lack of strength every day. Yet not a single brain among them questioned how a supposedly helpless runt could have ever subdued a towering warrior and forced him beneath her. If that had been the real case, Kaelen would have snapped her neck with one hand. How come he gets to entertain the idea while she gets called the disgusting names only he deserved??
"What happened?" Nysa purred, tilting her head with taunting curiosity. "Why so quiet, hm? You sounded so bold a moment ago. Guess your ideas aren’t working for you, are they? Since you have no proof to back up your pathetic little lies, my judgment still stands. Leave my territory this instant."
Elowyn forced her chin up, locking eyes with Nysa through the blur of snow. A sudden, sharp ache pierced her heart as she remembered looking up to Nysa. She worshipped her like an older sister whilst doing her best to earn her acceptance and support the tribe anyway she could.
"Why... why are you doing this to me?" Elowyn’s voice broke, her throat tight with unspilled tears. "I have done nothing to deserve this injustice from you, Nysa. You know I’ve never shown you anything but respect. You know I would never betray you like this so why don’t you just listen to me?"
She swallowed hard, desperately fighting the moisture burning her eyes, but the betrayal cut too deep.
Ever since Nysa’s mother, the late Chieftainess, had plucked her from the wilderness and brought her into their tribe, Elowyn had poured her soul into proving her gratitude. Even as Nysa grew bitter and treated her like scum beneath her boots, Elowyn had stayed faithful. She had endured every insult, holding onto the fragile hope that Nysa might eventually open her heart to her the way her mother once did.
But now, shivering alone in the slush, the bitter truth finally crystallized. She had been an utter fool to believe Nysa had a heart to open.
She was the victim here. Not Nysa. Not Kaelen.
Glancing over her shoulder, Elowyn stared into the vast, unforgiving expanse of the tundra. Nysa wasn’t giving her a challenge, she was clearly executing her.
How could a shiftless female without a beast form survive the bite of an arctic winter with no shelter? How would she defend herself against the rogue predators prowling the dark, waiting to pick off weak stragglers like her?
Out there, death was certain.
But staying meant dying here, skinned alive or left to freeze in the boundary line. If she was doomed either way, she would choose the death that kept her dignity intact.
Elowyn dragged a ragged breath into her aching lungs and turned back to face the gates. She balled her hands into tight fists, ignoring the sting of her raw palms.
"Fourteen sunrises," Elowyn stated, locking her eyes onto Nysa’s. "If I return with a mate, my hut remains mine. Is that your vow?"
"It is," Nysa cooed, resting a hand on her hip, looking down her nose like a queen addressing a stray dog. "Bring back a male to claim you, and you keep your hut. Someone has to be held responsible for your existence, afterall."
"Fine," Elowyn spat, her voice steadying against the howling wind. "I’ll leave. But I will return with a mate, a male who sees my worth, no matter what lies you whisper to this pack."
Nysa sneered, a lazy flick of her hand sweeping toward the blinding snowstorm.
"Then run along, runt. Go and prove it."