That night, a huge fire was spreading warmth, its little flames dancing a slow rhythm.I found very quickly that the Frostbites were a very close-knit community, and, almost every week, after a group of expeditions made their rounds in the forest that surrounded the territory, they would gather around a campfire to make offerings.These offerings were usually to Athelia, and that night everything was a little surreal. Many werewolves came to bring fruit and spices, but they offered them directly to me. Facing down and with hopeful gestures, they brought me baskets of gifts and repeated the words that Pandora had said to me during our training session: my blood is on your behalf.They were doing it with sincerity, each with a strange curiosity. Hope.Part of me felt wrong."Why do they keep giving me things?" I told Pandora. I wanted to go back to my hotel room, because I was starting to feel cornered. I couldn't bear the feeling of everyone throwing glances my way."If you're not Athe
That night, something happened to me.When I slept, my dreams took me to the frozen forests. I sat in the snow, and my hands had a different skin color, a paleness just like the rest of me. White, and crystal clear and glass. My nails had long claws and thorns. And on top of my head, I could feel a hard and cold crown that I somehow knew contained real ice. I could feel it without touching it.There was blood in the snow. A crimson red staining the remnants of a winter storm, and right in front of my eyes was the corpse of someone I'd once known, unrecognizable, their whole face torn apart. Limbs disconnected, throat ripped.Bile gathered in my stomach and rose up to my mouth. I knew that person, I saw the hideous remains of flesh and I was sure that I knew who had once lived in them; even though I couldn't even understand where his face was, even though I had no memory of who he was.He was someone important, and I couldn't remember a thing, except this emptiness and despair inside m
"It was her memories."Huh?"That can't be possible.""Possible? You occasionally glow like the fucking sun and that is something you still can't believe? Come on."That was absolutely terrifying."But— I've never experienced this before! How do you know that's a memory and not just... anxiety?"He stared at me like I was a clueless child."A frozen forest, a betrayal and being split in two are pretty obvious hints. I could pretend it was just your anxiety but the split in two parts and the frozen forest aren't mentioned in the books Pandora lent you. It's just something in the original stories from many centuries ago."Oh, no. I think I'm gonna throw up.I breathed in deeply, trying to control my heartbeat, and covered my face with my hands. It was too much for me to swallow."Viktor," I asked in a shaking tone, "where did you hear about the split-in-two thing?"Viktor cleared his throat. "I... Arlo was obsessed with this story. He had the original edition and read it in old English.
I ran.I've been through a lot in my life. Humiliating things, failed plans, broken ideals; perhaps more mistakes than successes. But even so, when Gregor looked into my eyes and proclaimed his contempt for me, it was as if my whole body shattered.Things hadn't been going very well. For a while, maybe."You're pathetic," he told me. I felt pathetic too. For lowering my head to him, for always letting him have his way with me.I don't know where it all went wrong.The next thing I knew, one day, he was no longer who I thought he was.Gregor was my predestined mate from childhood. We've lived through generations like that, with the Alphas of the pack choosing the prettiest girls for their sons, testing how the combination would look.I grew up with an idealization of what a mate meant anyway.My mother used to bring human literature home in secret. I'm not sure how she got hold of those books, but they fascinated me: they all described men who were strong and respectful, powerful but f
When I was eighteen, my clan performed the ascension ritual for Gregor to take his father's place as alpha. We were the same age, and I remember how excited my mother was that I had been chosen as his partner, and that, until then, nothing had proved otherwise.Gregor and I got along as well as we could. I never thought that one day I would run away from him and that, for a millisecond, would rather that rival alpha just put an end to it.I took another step back. The heavy shadows of the trees stopped covering my body, and I felt exposed, bathed in moonlight, trying to hide my arms as if they were too intimate.He took another step towards me. I closed my eyes. Of course, this was the moment he would attack me. I wouldn't survive an aggressive bite from an alpha.His eyes, a war-yellow, shone with some kind of curiosity as he analyzed my body. From head to toe, he judged me mutely, his eyes lingering on the marks on my skin.The other wolves were getting closer. I could hear their fo
The walk was silent and awkward.The Frostbites surrounded me as if I were a prisoner, which I feared I really was. Gregor could sniff me out if I was in danger, but as much as I wanted to deceive myself and tell myself it wasn't true, I knew deep down that he wouldn't come after me. Maybe he'd be relieved that I'd gone off on my own, maybe it'd be the highlight of his day. I don't know.In any case, they didn't seem aggressive.Viktor's companions whispered among themselves. They watched me, attentive to any movement on my part, as if I were planning to plunge a knife into their alpha's neck at any moment. I understood the caution. I would also be wary if I met a Frostbite in my condition; I would think it was a trap, a set-up.One of them was in her wolf form. It looked like a female. She walked beside Viktor, and I wondered if she could be his mate from the way they communicated non-verbally, and how his fingers brushed against her hair at times.She and he were the only ones who d
There wasn't much to do there.There was nothing in the drawers, the windows were closed and the door remained locked for a long time until the woman at reception delivered a plate of food.She just slid it into the room and closed the door, but I could still see her shadow in the gap underneath.I took the plate and sat down on the floor, placing it on my lap. I stared at the door."What are you planning to do to me?" I asked, doing my best to keep my voice steady knowing that she was listening.The shadow moved away. I couldn't even be offended at being ignored, considering my situation.I sighed, staring at the plate. It was kind of them to feed a prisoner (or as kind as one could be to keep a prisoner in the first place), especially with such well-made food. It must have been the same dinner served to the other guests of what I was assuming was a hotel.Why would Viktor care about my comfort, knowing who I was? Knowing that I, an Ashenfur, bore Gregor's mark on my skin?I picked u
VIKTORIt didn't make sense. Gregor was a disappointing guy. This was something everyone knew in a way that set aside the difference between our banners—this wasn’t about clan rivalry when it came to Gregor, not entirely. All the Frostbite knew it was impossible to fit him into a single positive adjective.First, I thought it might be an ambush, but it didn't seem like it. The bruises, her behavior... the way we found her, with blue lips, alone. Gregor should have noticed her absence by now, but perhaps he didn't know that she was distancing herself from him on purpose. He certainly had no way of knowing that she was with the enemy."We reinforced the main gate," Pandora said, crossing her arms and leaning against the thin wooden boards of the trim. I had spent the whole day answering worried questions from the panicked villagers, questioning what was on my mind to bring an Ashenfur like that straight to our quarters."Thanks, Pan," I said without looking back at her. Even so, I could