The air inside the Redmaw stronghold felt thick with ash and old secrets. Charollet had lost count of the days. Sunlight never touched the stone floor of the room they kept her in. Instead, a dull crimson glow filtered through the blood-tinted glass above, painting her skin with the color of dried wounds. The silence was deceptive, disturbed only by the occasional howl that drifted through the cracks in the mountain walls.She sat curled on a cot that was too thin to bring rest. Her wrists were bruised, not from chains, but from the cold grip of the warriors who came and went as if she were a relic. They touched her only when necessary, spoke little, and avoided her eyes. The few words they did speak were orders or prayers. They treated her not as a prisoner, but as something far more dangerous.As if she might unmake them with a single breath.The door groaned open again. Volgrin entered, his heavy boots leaving streaks of mud and frost across the stone floor. His presence filled the
The Redmaw stronghold was unlike Darkfang’s great stone halls. It rose from the mountain’s belly like a wound, a fortress carved into black rock and braced with iron spines. No moonlight reached its deepest corridors. No warmth lingered in its breathless chambers. It was a prison made not only of stone, but of silence.Charollet had not seen the sky in days.The chamber she was held in was low and narrow, a crescent of carved obsidian and dirt packed hard enough to scrape skin. There were no windows, only a thin vent of smoke through which the torchlight above flickered and sent ribbons of soot to collect on the uneven floor. Her arms ached where iron shackles pressed bone against stone. She had long since stopped struggling.But she had not stopped thinking.She had not cried, either.Volgrin had ensured that. Tears, he told her, were a luxury for the unbroken.Each day, he came down to see her. Never at the same hour. Sometimes with food. Other times, with threats.Always with inten
Before Kade was a warrior, before he was a Beta, and long before he ever dreamed of claiming the Darkfang throne, he was a child hiding behind stone pillars, watching wolves tear each other apart.He had not been born into power. His mother was a healer, soft-spoken and too kind for the cold stone halls that ruled the Darkfang Pack. His father had been a warrior, brutal and quick-tempered, killed in a border skirmish when Kade was five years old. After his death, Kade and his mother had been moved to the servants' quarters. Their rooms were narrow, their windows too small, and their words had to be chosen carefully. There were ears everywhere in Darkfang. Even the stone listened.In those early years, Kade learned not to speak unless spoken to. He learned how to walk without making sound, how to count the seconds between patrols, and how to disappear into shadows. He had to. Because the pack he belonged to was not merciful.Darkfang’s glory had always been forged in blood. That was wh
The world had become a cage of silence and snow.Charollet had lost count of the days since she had been taken. The cell she was kept in was dug into the side of a mountain, more stone tomb than prison. There were no windows, only the flickering light of a single torch that burned in intervals. When it went out, the cold came in waves, as if the walls themselves had breath.Her wrists were bruised. They had bound her with enchanted rope, something she didn’t recognize—made of leather threaded with iron and old bone. The knot bit into her skin, leaving a thin red ring around her hands that no amount of movement could loosen. Each time she struggled, it tightened.They did not beat her. Not at first. But cruelty wore many masks. The guards that brought her food would leave the trays just out of reach. Sometimes they would toss water at her face instead of letting her drink. Sometimes they whispered about her in the tongue of the mountains, that old Redmaw dialect she didn’t fully unders
Morning rose over Darkfang under brittle blue skies. The air felt clean, even hopeful, as if the tension between packs had eased after Silverpine pledged their alliance. Snow melted from the ridges, trickling down rocky slopes with a cheerful whisper. But within the fortress, unease lingered.Charollet wrapped herself in a grey cloak and moved among the ranks of the newcomers. She spoke softly to the councilors, offered guidance to warriors from Silverpine, and listened to their concerns as they adjusted to joint patrols and shared winter stores. All day she felt the Rune’s weight hidden beneath her shirt, a humming reminder of the responsibility she carried.In the morning strategy meeting, Kade stood at the war table. Maps showed Darkfang, Silverpine, and Redmaw territories, with Redmaw pushed back but still a lingering threat. Kade outlined patrol schedu