GARRETT’S POV (Beta) My lungs felt like they were filled with broken glass.
Every breath was painful and they felt like the last I would take.
The snow was relentless, biting through my thin shirt, but the cold inside my chest was far worse.
That cold was fear.
Pure, suffocating fear for my pack.
For three whole days, I had dragged my bleeding, broken body from one border pack to the next.
I had dropped to my knees in front of Alphas I used to look down on.
I swallowed my pride and begged for help.
“The border beasts broke our gates,” I had told them, my blood dripping on their polished marble floors.
“Our warriors are slaughtered.
Our Alpha is dying.
Please…
just send healers.” And every single one of them had looked at me with cold, crazy eyes.
“The snowstorms are too heavy, Beta Garrett,” Alpha Vance had lied to my face, sipping his wine while his guards watched me.
“We cannot send our people right now.
They are needed here in the pack.” “We have a food shortage,” another claimed.
Lies.
All of them were lying to my face.
They weren’t short on food or afraid of the weather.
They were terrified of the ancient monster the border pack had unleashed on mine.
They were content to let the Northern Pack, the strongest line of defense in the entire wolf world, fall to ashes, so long as the monster stayed on our side of the mountain.
My Alpha had stood alone against that beast.
He had thrown his own body into its jaws to buy time for the women and children to escape into the mountain caves.
He had saved his people, but the beast’s black, cursed claws had shredded his chest and his bones were visible through the wounds.
When I left the North, my Alpha was barely breathing.
His skin was gray.
His heart was slowing down slowly.
“Find help, Garrett,” my sister had sobbed, pushing me towards the edge of our pack.
“Don’t come back without a miracle.” Now, I was miles away from home and I had collapsed somewhere near the human border.
My SUV had died in a snowdrift miles back, its engine was frozen.
My body was too weak to stay in my wolf form so I had shifted into my human form and I was bleeding out in a silent, freezing alleyway.
“I failed you,” I thought, my vision going completely black as the freezing ground pressed against my face.
“I’m sorry.
I failed.
Warmth was the first thing I felt.
It wasn’t the fierce, burning heat of an Alpha’s aura, nor was it the sharp sting of a healer’s herbs.
It was gentle.
Like sunlight breaking through a thick winter cast.
My eyes were too heavy to open, but my senses slowly came back to life.
I was lying on something soft.
The harsh, biting wind was gone, replaced by the quiet hum of a small heater and the faint scent of clean linen and lavender.
Then, a sudden wave of energy washed through my chest.
It started where I had injuries.
A soothing, tingling warmth sank deep into my broken ribs.
The agonizing pain of the beast’s poison, a poison that had been eating my flesh alive for days, simply vanished.
What is this?
I forced my lungs to expand.
There was no pain.
No burning glass.
No blood choking my throat.
Through my half-closed eyelashes, the world was a blurry shade of gold and gray.
I managed to crack my eyes open slowly.
Standing over me was a woman.
She had dark hair falling over her shoulders and pale, golden eyes wide with shock.
But it wasn’t her face that made my breath catch in my throat.
It was her hands.
Her bare palms were pressed against my chest, and from beneath her fingers, a soft, brilliant white light was spilling out.
The light danced over my torn skin like a balm.
Right before my eyes, the deep, jagged cuts across my torso were closing up.
The gray, poisoned parts melted away, turning back into healthy, clear skin.
A healer?
No.
Pack healers used herbs, silver needles, and slow, painful magic that took weeks.
This…
this was instant.
This was divine.
As the light slowly faded, my wolf stirred deep inside my chest.
His nose twitched, catching the air of the small room.
My eyes widened in the dim light.
Beneath the smell of lavender and warm linen, a powerful, familiar scent hit my senses.
Pine.
Fresh snow.
Crushed cedar.
It was strong.
It was commanding.
It was the exact, unmistakable scent of my Alpha’s bloodline.
It was the scent of the man I served.
My head snapped toward the dark hallway leading deeper into the small apartment.
The scent wasn’t coming from the woman.
It was drifting heavily from a cracked door at the end of the hall.
“Alpha…” I rasped, my throat raw and dry as bone.
“Why…
Why do you smell like my Alpha?” The woman froze.
The white light vanished instantly from her palms.
She backed away from me so fast she nearly knocked over a bowl of water on the floor.
Her face went deathly pale, her gold eyes wide with pure terror.
“Get out,” she whispered, her voice shaking violently.
“You’re healed.
Get out of my house.” I pushed myself up into a sitting position.
My chest didn’t hurt.
The deadly wounds were gone, leaving only faint pink lines where the slashes were an hour ago.
I looked at her, then looked back down at my hands.
“You saved me,” I said, my voice trembling as the sheer realization of what she was hit me.
“Who are you?
What kind of magic is that?” “I said leave,” she yelled, picking up a heavy glass vase from a side table, holding it out like a weapon.
Her whole body was shaking, but her stance was strong.
It was fierce, like a mother animal cornered in a cave to protect her young.
“I don’t know who you are, and I don’t care about your pack.
Get out before I call the police.” I didn’t care about the vase.
I didn’t care about the threat.
I fell forward, dropping hard onto both knees right at her feet.
I pressed my forehead against her hardwood floor.
“Please,” I choked out, tears of absolute desperation burning my eyes.
“Please, lady.
I don’t know who you are or why you’re here among humans, but my pack is dying.” She gasped, stepping back, but I stayed on the floor, begging.
“Our gates have been breached,” I sobbed, the image of my fallen brothers flashing behind my eyes.
“Our warriors are slaughtered in the snow.
My Alpha took the claws of an ancient beast to save our children.
He’s bleeding out.
His flesh is rotting.
No healer can stop it.” I lifted my head, looking up into her terrified gold eyes.
“Every pack turned their back on us.
I walked through the snow until my heart almost stopped and my body almost gave out.
Your gift can save us, ma’am.
If you don’t come with me…
my Alpha will be dead before sunrise.” The room went dead silent.
She stared down at me, her hands trembling so hard the glass vase rattled in her grip.