CASSANDRA

2 DAYS LATER.

The snow wanted to kill me. Every step felt like a goodbye.

It swallowed my legs with every step, slipping into my boots and creeping up my skin like ice-fed poison until I couldn't tell where my body ended and the cold began- only that I was disappearing, inch by inch, into the freeze. My fingers felt carved from ice, stiff as bone, useless except to cling to the pendant like a lifeline while the wind clawed at my skin, ripping through my hood and biting deep until my cheeks stung and burned. I hadn't tasted anything in two days, just snow and blood and regret.

But I couldn't stop.

I wouldn't stop.

Because every time I closed my eyes, I saw him- Aiden. I couldn't escape the heart-wrenching image of him lying there lifeless, torn from me.. It crawled behind my eyes and dug into my brain. I saw it when I blinked. I saw it when I didn't. It spurred me on when everything else screamed to give up. When I'd offered to go, Alpha Kane and the council looked past me like I wasn't there. I hoped to prove them wrong and show Alpha Kane that I'd walk through death itself if it meant saving Aiden. So for two days I've walked through frozen rivers, jagged hills and across the endless stretch of wide plains. 

And somehow, I'd made it. 

Through the blur of snow and tears, I saw it at last- stone walls black as storm clouds peeking down from the horizon. The Lycan King's fortress. It loomed at the summit like something carved from the nightmare of gods. Black walls. Jagged edges. No banners. Undeterred by the raging blizzard.

Hope punched through my ribs as I fell to my knees, whispering through cracked, blue lips as if he could hear me across the miles of ice and silence.

"Hold on," I breathed, my voice shaking with cold as I forced myself up and trudged on. "I'm coming back with help." 

I barely made it to the gates before they opened with a heavy groan, and two massive, towering guardians dressed head to toe in black steel stepped out, wielding halberds longer than I was tall. 

"Halt," The booming voice was chillingly cold, deep. Final. The kind of voice that didn't expect to be questioned. "You cannot go beyond this point."

"I-I need to see the King," My lips split with every word, sharp stings that opened to blood. "Please. It's urgent. My mate- he's dying. I came alone. I crossed the ice- I've come so far-"

A guttural voice cut me off. "Everyone who begs thinks their cause is life or death. But not everyone bleeds worth."

"I have a keepsake," desperation had me nearly yelling the words out as I pulled the blood-stained token from beneath my fur coat with trembling, gloved fingers. "He gave it to me. Many years ago. I saved him, he'll remember-"

The booming voice shot back. "If the King remembered every wolf who sniffed his boots, this fort would be a shrine. Turn around and leave, woman, before you freeze to death. The blizzard will only get worse."

I begged, fell on my knees, my voice hoarse and raw. The prospect of failing, of being left out here in the unforgiving freeze scared the wits out of me. "Please-- just  let me try! Just let me see him!"

But they wouldn't budge. One stepped back, slamming the butt of his weapon into the snow like a final word. 

"Please!"

And that was it. A moment later, the gates groaned shut. The sound echoed through my chest like a shattering as a bitter sob scraped my throat.

No, no, no!  If they didn't let me in, I'd die out here. Alone. Aiden, too. And the Pack would be right about me being nothing more than the wolfless freak they always said I was.  Every bit of hope I had left was withering, fast! Maybe they were right, maybe I was a failure and a freak, maybe I shouldn't have come all the way here. I hadn't realised until now how jarringly foolish it was to assume the Lycan King would let an anomaly like me into his fort.

My reverie of self-loathing shattered as the air went still, and the iron gates groaned open again. The silence that followed was deafening, and I had to look up because I felt it in my bones and blood that something was coming. Even the blizzard held its breath. 

And then he stepped through the storm. No- the storm parted for him. A few seconds later, the biggest man I've ever seen resurfaced.

He was too tall for a mortal, a wall of muscle and might; power and poise. His long silver hair spilled over broad shoulders and a breath-hitching pair of molten gold eyes that seemed to see right into the soul of whoever they were lasered upon. 

And his face... oh goddess... I forgot how to breathe.

His beauty hurt. Not soft, not sweet- it was ethereal, dangerous. High cheekbones, sharp jaw, full lips curled into something between amusement and disdain.

My heart gave a jolt. 

I hadn't seen him in eight years but nothing had changed. He looked exactly the same- as if time knew better than to touch him. 

"Snap out of it, Cassandra."  I berated myself.

I tore my gaze away, heart pounding. I was here to save my mate - not eye-fuck the Lycan King and unearth emotions I buried eight years ago. But my body wouldn't listen, partly because his presence made the cold vanish. My stomach fluttered despite knowing he was danger, carved into that regal, otherworldly form.

"Cassandra," There was a subtle rasp to his low baritone voice, like the growl before a bite. It came with an edge that made my skin prickle. "Why are you here?"

How did he know my name?

He was easily a couple heads taller than me. "I-I've come for the Nightshade," I rasped. My voice barely carried, raw from cold and begging. I held up the pendant with trembling fingers, as if it might speak for me. "The Alpha of my Pack. He was poisoned. The healers said-"

The surreal eyes narrowed and the thick brows slanted suspiciously. "Don't lie to me. Not with that in your hand." He meant the pendant.

I couldn't meet his searing gaze.

"You didn't crawl across snow, bleeding and starving, through Ice and death for a man like Kane," he said. "Say it, Cassandra. Why are you really here?" 

My mouth opened. But nothing came out. My body was shaking.

"Say it."

I hated the way the words slipped out in desperation and helplessness. "For Aiden. My mate. He...H-he's dying."

He didn't speak right away but the heat in his gaze cooled. "The boy?" He said finally, voice colder than the wind. "That's what this is all about."

"Y-yes," I whispered, unable to keep the stutters out of my voice. 

A low, mirthless laugh I never thought I'd hear started across his chest. It felt like thunder cracking through a frozen lake. "You vanished for eight years without a word and only showed up so I can save your mate?"

"I didn't know," I said quickly in defense. "I didn't know the pendant meant anything. You said nothing to me that night. I thought-" My voice wobbled again. "I thought I was just helping a dying stranger. I really need this. I had no choice, I came here alone. I walked through hell to get here and-"

"I will return the favour by making sure you return to your Pack, alive. You should've walked the other way, Cassandra." 

The words chilled me to the bone, more than the cold ever had. 

Then he turned his back on me and started walking away.

"No!" My body was already trembling again. "Please... please don't turn me away." I stood and ran after him but it was impossible to keep up as he ate up the distance between me and the gates in a few strides. The cold came back all at once like it had waited for him to leave. And with it came crippling fear. The fear I'd kept locked behind Aiden's face, behind duty and desperation and the lie I could be strong enough. I was breaking, not from the cold- but from hope collapsing inside me. Every mile I'd walked, every bruise, every insult from the Pack. Every time they called me cursed. I'd carried it all here. And for what?

Nothing. The word stood out in its stark enormity now. Nothing.

My head was a full blown mess. Thoughts clashed and tore at each other like beasts in a pit. Shame. Rage. Fear. Terror. They screamed over one another until I couldn't breathe. Until I didn't know which pain was worse- the frost biting my flesh, or the pain of living the rest of my life knowing I couldn't save the one person who loved me.

I couldn't think. I wanted it to stop. I wanted out of my own skin. Everything I'd held together with sheer will- every thread of strength I'd knotted together tight over the past two days- snapped one by one.

My knees gave out first and my body tipped forward as the snow rushed up to meet me, but it never touched me.

Strong arms caught me. I barely registered the motion, only the scent of pine and stormclouds.

"Foolish little wolf," the deep sigh rumbled against my ear. "What am I going to do with you?"