LOGINHe barely had time to raise his sword before the creature's massive hand crashed down.Alvar threw himself sideways, but not fast enough—the impact clipped him at the shoulder, and the force of it sent him flying clear across the plaza, tumbling hard over shattered crystal and broken stone before finally skidding to a stop against the base of a fallen spire. Pain bloomed white-hot along his side, sharp enough to steal the breath from his lungs entirely.Through the bond, Caierre felt it a half-second later, and the shared agony nearly buckled his knees where he stood."ALVAR!" Caierre's voice tore raw from his throat, and he took a stumbling step toward him before Lucien's arm caught his shoulder, holding him back."Grant has him," Lucien said, urgent. "You cannot go to him right now—that thing hasn't taken its eyes off you for a single second since it opened, and if you break formation, you give it exactly the opening it's waiting for."~~Grant was already sprinting across the plaza
The shadow tore free of the plaza in a single, violent motion, and the whole city seemed to buckle beneath its rising weight. Chunks of crystal spire sheared off the surrounding towers, crashing down into streets that had survived a thousand years untouched, shattering the moment the creature's shape finally cleared the broken dome overhead."MOVE!" Grant's voice tore through the chaos, and Alvar's hand closed hard around Caierre's arm, dragging him back several steps before he could resist it.Caierre didn't want to run. Every instinct in him screamed to stand and face whatever was rising, some deep certainty telling him retreat would only delay the inevitable rather than prevent it. But his legs moved anyway, carried more by Alvar's grip than his own will, until the sheer scale of the thing finally registered clearly enough to stop him cold on his own.It was enormous—vast beyond any measure the human eye had ever been built to comfortably hold. Not a beast, not a wolf, not any shap
Crystal rained down from the towering spires, shattering across the ancient streets as the ground lurched hard beneath their feet. The roar that followed seemed to come from everywhere at once, rolling through every building until even the frozen air itself seemed to tremble with it.Lucien didn't hesitate. "Move!"He was already sprinting through the city's ancient streets, and the rest of the group scrambled after him, boots pounding against stone that had stood untouched for a thousand years and was now cracking wide beneath the strain of whatever had just woken at its heart. Overhead, ancient barriers flickered in and out of existence, and the glowing runes lining every road dimmed one after another in a slow, spreading wave, like a candle being snuffed room by room through a house too large to save all at once."Whatever's down there," Grant shouted, breathless, "it's draining this whole city dry."Alvar couldn't stop himself from staring, even mid-run. Every building they passed
The frozen basin held its breath. Nobody moved, nobody spoke, every eye fixed on the two hands still pressed flat against the ancient ice, their outlines barely visible through the enchanted layer sealing the gate. The stranger's voice had stopped echoing minutes ago, but its calm certainty lingered in the cold air anyway, impossible to shake.Grant stepped in front of Caierre first, silver blade drawn once more. "Everyone stays back."The old man shook his head slowly. "It won't matter.""What do you mean?""If whoever stands behind that gate wanted us dead," the old man said, "we would never have reached Frostfang at all. Not through the Dead Pass. Not past the guardians. Every step of this journey would have ended us long before now, if death was the plan waiting for us here."Alvar glanced back at the kneeling guardians. They hadn't shifted since the gate began waking—if anything, they'd lowered their massive heads further, silver light pulsing slow and steady through their crysta
The echo of the opening gate rolled through the mountains like distant thunder, deep enough that Caierre felt it in his teeth before the sound had fully finished traveling. Snow shook loose from the surrounding cliffs, cascading in white sheets into the valley far below, and for several long moments nobody in the pass spoke at all, the sheer scale of that sound leaving no room for anything but stunned silence.The kneeling guardians remained exactly as they'd been, heads bowed, silver light steady and calm through the cracks in their crystal frames.Grant recovered first. He sheathed his sword slowly, exhaling hard, and looked toward the lead guardian with the particular weary resignation of a man who had simply stopped keeping count of how many impossible things he'd survived this month."I've seen enough impossible things these past few weeks to stop questioning them," he said. "If the gate's already opening, then we're already too late, aren't we?"~~The guardian lifted its massiv
The guardians closed the last gap without haste, their heavy footsteps shaking the ground with every stride. Six of them in total, Caierre counted, each standing twice the height of the tallest among them, crimson light pulsing steady through the cracks webbing their crystal bodies, ancient runes glowing faint along armor that looked carved rather than built. Grant stepped in front of the group first, silver sword raised despite the obvious futility of it. "No one gets past us." The lead guardian lowered its massive head toward him. "This is not your trial." It swung before Grant could answer, a stone fist crashing into him with enough force to send him flying clear across the pass. He struck the cliffside hard enough to crack the rock behind him, then slid down into a crumpled heap at its base. "Grant!" Morwen's voice tore through the chaos, and she was already moving, sword drawn, the rest of the group surging forward on instinct despite every warning screaming that steel alone
“State your name, barbarian”Caierre stared at them with hatred in his eyes. Barbarian that’s what they call him but who turned him into this? It was on his thirteen birthday when the Wulfren plains were invaded. The brightest light he has ever seen spread across the trees that surrounded the ashb
Did he just speak?The thought ran through him like a wildfire spreading through the shagani forest. He stared at those crimson eyes that stared back, confused yes.Who wouldn’t be? Caierre just blunted out the word mate to a stranger that he knew nothing aside from the fact that he was supposed to
‘It smells like sewers’That was the first thought that came to Caierre’s mind as he slowly opened his eyes. The room was almost pitch black except the little light that found its way through the half sized window.He touched his head that was spinning, his body felt like he was hit with a brick. A
“That was the last of them, Alpha.”Another lifeless wolf dropped to the ground just like the rest that has been in this tavern. The smell of blood was heavy in the air, mixing with the burnt scent of spilled ale and broken wood. It wasn’t the first time his attackers had tried to assassinate him,







