RHEA’S POV Silence fell upon the clearing, heavy and suffocating.
The howling mountain wind seemed to die down for a single, frozen second as every guard, warrior, and Elder stared in absolute, paralyzing horror at the broad back of their Alpha.
Fated Mate.
The words reverberated in my skull like the tolling of a heavy bronze bell.
No.
No, no, no.
My lungs locked up, refusing to take in air.
He didn’t just say that.
He couldn’t have.
He didn’t know who I was—he couldn’t know.
It had to be a lie, a quick decision to pull his Alpha authority over the Elders and stop them from executing me on the spot.
Or worse, a calculated trap to lock me here in his pack forever.
It couldn’t be real.
I was a wolfless disgrace, a runaway doctor from the human city and most importantly, a mother hiding a massive secret.
I couldn’t be the fated mate of the most powerful Alpha in the North.
Before I could part my icy lips to say it was a lie, the traditionalist Elder’s face contorted into a mask of wild, crazy rage.
The veins in his withered neck bulged blue against his pale skin.
“Lies,” the old man shrieked, his voice cracking with absolute fury.
“She has bewitched him.
This is sorcery.” Abandoning all decorum and pack hierarchy, the Elder lunged directly at me through the deep snow.
His fingers curled into razor-sharp claws, reaching out to rip open my throat.
“What dark spell did you cast on our Alpha, witch—” A shadow blurred before my eyes.
Before the Elder’s claws could come within inches of my skin, Kael moved with terrifying, monstrous speed.
The sheer force of his movement kicked up a cloud of white powder.
He caught the old man’s wrist in mid-air with a sickening, heavy crack.
Kael’s wolf surfaced completely.
His gray eyes blazed a glowing, terrifying silver, and a guttural, primal growl tore from his chest, a sound so violent it vibrated through the very stone beneath our feet.
“I said stand down,” Kael growled.
The sound was no longer entirely human.
It was two voices layering over each other, man and the beast speaking as one.
With a brutal, effortless flick of his arm, Kael shoved the Elder backward.
The old man flew through the air and hit the frozen earth hard, clutching his fractured wrist.
His face shifted through sheer shock, disbelief, and finally settled into pure malice.
Kael stood tall over him, his dagger still planted in the ground, staring down at the kneeling guards with an icy, lethal glare that promised instantaneous death.
“If another one of you dares to lay a single finger on her,” Kael promised, his voice dropping into a deadly whisper that carried across the entire forest, “I will rip your arms off where you stand.
Escort the Elder back to the fortress.
Now.” I took a sharp, frantic step back into the deep snow, my breath hitching in my chest as my heart hammered against my ribs like a trapped bird.
Looking at the Elder’s contorted, rage-filled face as two guards scrambled to help him up, a cold spike of familiar fear ran straight through my body.
I knew that look.
I knew that exact shade of disgust and hatred.
I had seen it five years ago, burning on the face of Darius Voss when he stripped me of my dignity, wiped my name from the pack registry, and branded me a useless, wolfless disgrace.
Memory hit me like a physical strike, the freezing stone floor of the Voss dungeon, the harsh metallic stench of my own blood, my father’s ruthless voice echoing through the darkness.
“A useless, wolfless filth has no place in my pack.
Throw her into the gutter where she belongs.” I gasped for air, hyperventilating as the ghosts of my past violently clawed their way back to the surface.
The forest seemed to spin around me, the snow turning into a blinding blur of gray and white as the buried trauma suffocated my chest.
Suddenly, a massive wall of radiating warmth stepped into my space, blocking out the memory, the Elder, and the freezing wind.
Kael stepped directly into my field of vision, shielding my body from the remaining warriors.
Without asking for permission, he wrapped a thick, warm arm around my waist, pulling me effortlessly against his side, and began marching us back toward the Northern fortress.
“Let go of me,” I protested frantically, snapping out of my panic and shoving my hands against his broad chest.
Halfway up the mountain path, I dug my boots into the deep snow, fighting his unbreakable grip with everything I had left.
“Alpha Kael, put me down.
I am not your mate, and I am not staying here.
I want to go home.
You can’t force me to stay and heal your pack members.” My hands were getting clammy, slick with cold sweat inside my thick gloves.
My chest felt agonizingly tight, as if bands were wrapping around my lungs.
Every single second I wasted trapped on this frozen mountain was a second Darius’s men were drawing closer to Maya’s house.
Elias.
My sweet, five-year-old boy with his bright gray eyes and his gentle smile.
What if Maya couldn’t make it to the safe house in time?
What if those men had already broken down the front door?
What if my son was terrified, crying out for his mother while I was stuck here about to get killed by the members of a werewolf pack?
The worst-case scenarios played like a horrific, looping video behind my eyes.
“Clara, stop fighting me,” Kael said softly, though his voice held a firm, underlying strength that cut through my spiral.
He didn’t let go, but his touch softened slightly, his large hand resting warm and steady against my trembling spine.
“Calm down.
Look at me.” I glared up at him, tears of frustration and terror stinging my freezing eyes.
“How can I calm down?
You don’t understand.
I have to leave.” “I am not going to force you to do anything,” Kael said, looking down at me with an intensity that made my breath catch in my throat.
The silver in his eyes was slowly changing back to stormy gray.
“I will never force the person that saved me to heal anyone against her will.
I swear it with my life.
But look at the sky.” He nodded toward the mountain peaks above us.
The dark clouds were spinning violently, turning a dark shade of purple as a massive blizzard rolled down from the northern ridges, completely blocking out the stars.
“A severe ice storm is hitting the pass,” Kael warned, his tone stern but grounded.
“Running into those woods right now without a guide or proper clothing and equipment is suicide.
You will freeze to death before you reach the human border line.
I am bringing you back where it’s safe until the storm passes.” “I don’t care about the storm.
I have to—” Before I could finish my sentence, the firm, towering build beside me suddenly went completely rigid.