RHEA’S POV The SUV moved higher into the frozen mountain pass until the dark pine trees gave way to massive stone gates that were almost torn to pieces.
As Garrett turned the heavy vehicle into the main compound, my breath hitched in my throat.
It looked like a war zone.
There were burnt guard posts, houses and everything stood out against the white snow.
The heavy, suffocating scent of blood, burnt fur, and fear hung thick in the freezing air.
Makeshift medical tents were at the frozen courtyard, filled with injured warriors groaning in pain.
Bloodstains painted the snow crimson, stark and horrifying beneath the gray morning sky.
Garrett brought the SUV to a sudden stop, letting the engine idle as he stared through the frost-dusted windshield at the sheer devastation.
His hands gripped the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles turned stark white, his knuckles popping in the quiet cabin.
“How did this even happen?” I asked softly, my voice barely carrying over the hum of the heater.
“What kind of monster could do this to the strongest territory in the North?” Garrett let out a long, heavy breath, his shoulders slumping under the weight of a memory that clearly haunted him.
“It wasn’t a random attack,” Garrett said, his tone dark and dripping with bitterness.
“It was a calculated massacre.
The Shadow-Fang pack, a ruthless border clan that’s been eyeing our land for decades, paid a forbidden shaman to break an ancient seal deep in the northern caverns.
They unleashed a creature born of ancient dark magic and pure, unbridled bloodlust.” He turned his head to look at me, his hollow, bloodshot eyes filled with lingering terror.
“It struck during the midnight shift.
The monster tore through our eastern perimeter in minutes, moving like a shadow through the trees.
Our steel weapons couldn’t pierce its skin, and its claws carried a black, rotting poison.
The Shadow-Fang warriors followed right behind it, slaughtering anyone in their path.” “And your Alpha?” I pressed gently, my doctor’s mind trying to piece together the mechanics of the disaster.
“He fought it alone,” Garrett whispered, a mixture of awe and raw grief lacing his voice.
“When our frontline collapsed and panic broke out, our Alpha ordered the women, children, and wounded into the deep mountain shelters.
He stood at the narrow mountain pass by himself, holding off both the beast and the enemy pack for two straight hours until reinforcements arrived.
He drove the beast back into the dark caverns, but not before its cursed claws ripped through his chest.” Garrett shook his head, staring back at the bloody snow outside.
“The Shadow-Fang pack retreated, but they’re waiting just past the ridge.
They’re waiting for us to bleed out.
If our Alpha falls, they will march back in and finish every single one of us.” “Stay close to me,” Garrett added, shutting off the engine and pushing his door open.
“My people are desperate, and desperate wolves react badly to strangers.” The moment I stepped out of the vehicle, clutching my medical kit tightly against my chest, dozens of hostile eyes snapped toward me.
“Garrett,” An elderly man with graying fur along his thick collar stepped forward, flanked by three heavily armed guards.
His eyes burned with suspicion as he looked me up and down.
“You were gone for days.
Did you bring reinforcements?
Did any of the border Alphas answer our call?” “The neighboring Alphas turned their backs on us, Elder Thomas,” Garrett said, his voice ringing hard as iron across the courtyard.
“They left us to rot.” Gasps of anger and disbelief echoed through the crowd of wounded warriors gathering around us.
“Then who is this?” Elder Thomas spat, gesturing toward me with open disgust.
“You brought a fragile, human female into our pack?
A wolfless doctor?
Have you lost your mind, Beta Garrett?
Our Alpha is dying, and you bring us a helpless human from the human city?” A chorus of angry chants broke out among the elders and guards.
“She has no wolf,” one warrior snarled, stepping forward with his fangs elongated.
“We don’t need humans in our home.” “Silence,” Garrett roared, his Beta aura flaring outward with enough suffocating pressure to force the complaining warriors back a full step.
“This woman saved my life when my chest was torn by that beast.
She will treat the Alpha, and anyone who raises a hand or voice against her will answer directly to me.” The crowd fell into an uneasy silence, though their glares remained cold, sharp, and full of distrust.
Garrett turned back to me, his tone instantly softening.
“Ignore them.
Follow me.” I nodded, keeping my chin up and my back straight as I walked beside him toward the massive stone fortress at the center of the compound.
As an emergency doctor, I was used to seeing blood, broken bones, and deep trauma, but the raw, unfiltered catastrophe here made my stomach twist into painful knots.
Yet, as we stepped inside the heavy wooden doors of the main hall, a strange, overwhelming feeling settled deep within my chest.
It wasn’t fear of the hostile pack.
It wasn’t anxiety over my father finding me.
It was a suffocating, magnetic pull deep within my soul.
My heart began to hammer violently against my ribs, echoing in my ears like a war drum.
My palms grew slick with sweat, my breath came in short, shallow gasps, and a sudden wave of intense heat washed through my veins.
It felt like I was standing on the razor-thin edge of a steep cliff in complete darkness.
Why am I so nervous?
I had treated hundreds of dying patients in high-stress emergency rooms.
I had seen gruesome and similar cases without flinching once.
But as Garrett led me down the long, dim stone corridor toward the Alpha’s private quarters, my legs felt heavier with every single step, as if pulling against an invisible chain.
My body was reacting to something ahead, something powerful, dangerous, and inexplicably familiar.
Garrett stopped in front of a pair of towering, carved oak doors guarded by two stern warriors holding silver swords.
“He’s inside,” Garrett whispered softly, turning the heavy brass handle.
“Please…
do whatever you can.” My fingers tightened around the leather handle of my medical bag until my knuckles turned white.
My mouth went completely dry.
An instinctive, primal voice in the back of my mind screamed at me to turn around and run as fast as my feet could carry me.
But I couldn’t leave.
I had already come this far.
I took a deep, steadying breath, pushed the heavy door open, and stepped into the room.