Chapter 1: The Frozen Flame.

The cold wasn’t just cold anymore.

It was quiet. It was unforgiving. It was nothing.

Estelle Winterbourne lay chained to the freezing snow at the heart of the Deadfall, and the snow had already buried her to the ribs. Silver burned under her skin where the traitor’s mark had been carved by her own father and lover.

She felt empty. She felt numb.

“ Finally got to get rid of you, Estelle. You have done well, you are no longer needed.” She still remembered the words that her mate, Darius said before plunging a dagger into back when she was unaware.

What hurt her the most wasn't the knife that stabbed into her back for she was already used to that kind of pain. Rather it was the person behind the it.

' No longer needed.' Those words made her shiver harder than the cold.

“ Darius..." She muttered. Estelle had lost count of how many times she said that name.

Her breath came out in shallow, useless puffs.

Her golden eyes stared listlessly at the night sky. The crescent moon hung there, waiting for her to call, but the fog obscured it, making the light it gave too weak for her to call her wolf forward. Too weak to heal. Too weak to do anything. Even if the moon shone directly on her, she wouldn't be able to shift. Because of the wolfsbane they injected her with.

This was how Silvervale dealt with some 'Traitors'. They let plunge one thousand feet into freezing snow. And if you survive? The cold finishes you off.

But Estelle knew she wasn't a traitor. She was had been framed by her mate and her father. Who later stabbed her in the back.

Her face was already ridden with frozen tears. If not for her constantly blinking her eyes they would have frozen shut long ago.

The sound of crunching snow entered her ears.

She didn’t lift her head. Hallucinations went as fast as they came her. Wolves made of wind. Her mother’s voice. Darius promising he’d come back for her. Or even her late comrades who died in battle.

Those were the hallucinations she saw and heard. But she didn't care as she would soon die of severe hypothermia.

The sound of footsteps grew closer and closer. causing Estelle's almost lifeless eyes to now turn the source of sound.

“Still breathing.” a deep voice said. prompting Estelle's eyes to widen slightly, she recognized it very well. “Either your pack overestimated the cold. Or underestimated you.” The deep voice was laced with dark amusement.

She knew that voice. Every pup in Silvervale was told stories about about the man behind it. The Ice Devil of Frostveil. The wolf who tore through three alphas to take his mountain. The man even her father called a monster.

Adrian Lykas.

Estelle forced her eyes open again and stared in his direction. He stood six feet away, snow to his shins, the wind tearing at his dark, furry cloak. He stood there alone, staring down at her. His eyes the color of a frozen lake — pale, depthless, and almost listless, even.

Estelle's frostbit lips curved into a weak smirk. That action alone caused the skin on her lips to crack. The wound froze not long after.

“Come to gloat?” Her voice was shredded and weak. “Or to finish what my family started?” She was already prepared to die. Even if she wasn't certain this Adrian was real, she spoke with it, regardless.

Adrian tilted his head, his frosty blue eyes scrutinized the chain, the brand on her chest and the blue already creeping up her fingers.Then he averted his gaze with disinterest and dusted off the snow that accumulated on his shoulder.“Your father has announced your death and your stupid mate is running around, claiming that you are a traitor and a coward.“

Darius. Her throat closed. Her eyes which were already dry watered with hatred again.

“So I ask you, Estelle Winterbourne,” Adrian continued, stepping closer. His boots were right beside her head now. “Which one are you? Dead, or a coward?”

Staring into the blue eyes in front of her, she whispered, “Neither.” a tiny cloud of breath left her lips. Her body was slowly losing it's strength.

Something flickered in his eyes. The way Adrian looked down on her, she loathed it. Be it an illusion or not, she wasn't going to tolerate his existence anymore.

She tried to get up or at least crawl away, but the wolfsbane in her system made every movement agonizing.

“ Don't move. " Adrian said in low tone.

Estelle wanted to defy that order, but she no strength to do so. She coughed dryly and stared at the gray clouds hovering in the sky. It seemed like the tenacity she was so proud of was going to cause her some trouble today.

Letting out a sigh, she slowly turned her head towards Adrian and opened her mouth to say something.

But before she could speak Adrian crouched. His large hands gripped the silver chains that bound her. Ice formed where his fingers touched. And with one forceful pull, the chains shattered. Then at that moment, she knew it wasn't a hallucination. It was real.

Pain lanced up Estelle’s arms as blood dripped out of body. She bit down on a scream. The silver chains had already bit into her flesh before, and Adrian forcefully yanking it had caused her a great deal of pain.

She wanted to scream at him and curse at him. She didn't know what he wanted to do to her, but she was sure it was anything but help.

“ You sick-“ Estelle paused when she felt Adrian slipping an arm under her shoulders. She stared at Adrian in shock.

“ You know... leaving you here to die would please me very much.“

“Then why—” The words died as carried her like she weighed nothing, he gently pressed her against his chest. He was solid, and impossibly warm for a man called the Ice Devil.

Adrian's eyes blue eyes glinted with the dark mischief she was familiar with. But his face remained stoic like a monolith's.

“ It would be quite a shame for you... A woman who caused me so trouble... to die like a stray mutt in the cold. Quite unbefitting don't you think?” he said, turning his back on Silvervale’s territory. “Sleep Estelle, sleep. You would need it for what is to come.“

The last thing Estelle saw before the darkness took her was Adrian's devilishly handsome face staring at her with a cold expression.

Her enemy was carrying her out of hell.

And she wasn’t sure if she wanted to live or die to spite him.

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