6. The Ruthless Alpha of the North

BELISARA’S POV

Sea water rushed into my lungs and burned my chest like liquid fire, the strong waves dragging me deeper into the endless abyss.

Why don't you give up, Belisara? You're tired.

Just rest and embrace the emptiness. A hollow whisper echoed in my head and my body went limp in the water.

I sank further into the darkest depths, letting everything go and the biting cold in my heart spread across my body.

"A Luna's worth isn't weighed by her size, but by her heart." My father's words suddenly cut through the darkness and I opened my eyes.

No, I couldn't die here. Not like this. Not while Uncle Maloch still wore my father's crown, not while Cressida tried to kill me.

With an agonizing burst of strength, I managed to kick against the heavy current, pushing over the water, and swimming upward till my head finally broke the surface.

Coughing violently, I spat out salty brine and I gasped for air, as the freezing wind tore at my soaked dress.

"Evander, please help." The current slammed my body forward, and threw me onto a jagged stretch of rocks.

I crawled forward on my hands and knees, the sharp stones slicing into my palms as I hauled myself out of the crashing waves.

"Evander." I cried out in a broken whisper, as my body trembled vigorously from the biting cold. "Evander. . . where are you?"

I looked around me with teary eyes, expecting to see the elegant spires of Silvermoon Pack in the distance.

But there was nothing.

The horizon was gray, the ground beneath me was covered in snow and my surrounding was lined with pine trees and frozen ice.

I was no longer in Silvermoon territory. I was completely lost, vulnerable, and bleeding out my hands and feet in a foreign land.

The pines trees at the edge of the reef rustled and I froze in fear as four mangy rogue wolves stepped out from the shadows of the forest.

"Please, no, no, no." I whimpered, scuttling away on my butt as they cornered me.

Their fur was matted with muddy, dried blood and their yellow eyes glowed with hunger.

They weren't like pack wolves, they carried no scent— only the foul stench of decay and death.

"Look what the sea washed up," the lead rogue, growled. "A fat, sweet and juicy morsel and she smells like royal blood."

Panic seized my breath as I struggled to stand, my bare feet cutting into the icy rocks.

"Stay away from me!" I turned and ran toward the safety of the treeline.

"Go after her!" The rogue wolf snarled and they chased me, their heavy paws slamming against the snowy ground.

My foot stubbed on a stone, and I tripped, face-planting into the snow as the rogues lunged at me, their sharp claws gripping into my heel.

"Arghhh!" I tried to fight back, using my legs to kick them away but they sank their teeth in my thigh and ripped my dress to rags.

I scrambled backwards, my back pressing up a stone wall, as I clutched my tattered clothes to my chest.

"You have nowhere to run to." One of the rogue wolves chuckled mirthlessly and I frantically glanced for anything to defend myself with as hot tears spilled down my face.

"Please, please don't hurt me." I begged them. "I don't have anything to give you. I got lost and washed up your shores. I. . . I didn't mean to trespass in your lands."

The lead rogue stepped closer, and his shadow loomed over me. "You have your soft, delicate body to give us." His upper lip curled in a grin, his yellow fangs dripping with saliva.

"No!" I reached for a block of ice laying next to me and threw it with all my might at his head but my weak muscles failed me and he dodged.

"You're a useless dog!" He snickered and raised his razor sharp paw to slash my face to pieces.

I squeezed my eyes shut and screamed till my lungs gave out. "Help me!"

BOOM!

The sound of a colossal impact cracked the wall behind me and I snapped my eyes open to see a a massive white wolf slamming into the rogue.

Oh Goddess. What. . . who on earth was this?

The white wolf was unlike anything I've seen. He was twice the size of a normal wolf, his fur was the color of snow and his blue orbs were dangerously narrowed.

A deafening, earth-shattering howl ripped from him, and the sound wave caused the remaining rogues to stumble in terror.

Without the slightest hesitation, the white wolf attacked the rogues despite being outnumbered.

It was no longer a fight; but a total slaughter as he locked his jaws around a rogue's throat, and snapped its bone clean.

The sickening sound echoed across the clearing and the white wolf threw aside the dead rogue like trash.

The remaining three rogues lunged at him the same time, their claws tearing at his flanks, but the white beast fought back.

He slashed his mighty paw at a rogue and sent it crashing to the ice ground, before digging his sharp claws into the chest of another.

I collapsed to the snow, losing my strength as blood oozed out a nasty gash on my thigh, my vision slowly fading into dizzying circles.

"Hey, are you okay?!" Footsteps ran over to me and a young woman knelt next to me, applying pressure on my wounds.

I watched the blurry shape of the white wolf, as he completely decimated the rogues, sending a sole rogue fleeing into the woods.

"You're going to be alright." The young woman said but the silence that followed was terrifying as the white wolf turned around, his blue eyes locking onto my broken, shivering body.

"Please, don't hurt me." I winced in pain as the white wolf walked toward me with slow, heavy strides, the blood of the rogues dripping from his jaws.

Closing the distance between us, the air shifted around him and his white fur receded into his skin as he shifted into a hefty man.

I tried to focus my eyes, I tried to see his face, but the darkness was rapidly closing in on my vision.

I could only make out his towering silhouette, a jagged scar trailing down his right eye, and the heavy black cloak on his shoulders.

"She's in shock and losing a lot of blood. I think she might come down with a fever." The young woman tied a cloth around my bleeding thigh.

But the man slowly genuflected beside me and tilted my chin up with his fingers, his blue eyes searching deep into mine.

His countenance was cold and expressionless, his unruly brows tensed and his lips pinned in a straight line.

Without uttering a single word, his calloused hands carried my drenched body, and held me against his hard chest.

His manly musk quickly infiltrated my senses, and he smelled like sea breeze and something darker, like smoke in a pine forest.

It didn't soothe me like Evander's cedarwood scent; but rather burned through my cold skin like an unyielding fire.

My trembling, blood-stained arms instinctively tightened around his neck and I buried my face into his chest, anchoring myself to his heat.

"Inform the healer of our arrival," He said, and I shuddered at his rough voice.

"Yes, Alpha Torin." The young woman walked ahead of us and his name echoed restlessly in my hazy mind, but I couldn't recall where I'd heard it before.

No. . . there was absolutely no way. I gasped in disbelief as the realization poured on me like a bucket of ice water.

I was in Winterfell Pack and the scarred, hefty man who just saved my life was no other than the ruthless Alpha of the North.