Chapter 10: The Icy Pass

The mountain wind howled like a dying wolf, whipping through the iron bars of my cage and slicing straight to my bones.

Frost clung to the rusty metal grates. It crept across the floorboards, crystallizing on the edge of my thin, blood-stained nightgown. Every time the heavy wooden wheels slammed over a frozen rut or jagged boulder, a violent jolt shot through the cage, slamming my battered frame against the iron bars.

Agony flared through my lower back and abdomen. My womb, torn and empty from the forced, premature labor only hours before, felt like a mass of raw, open wounds.

I curled into a tight ball in the corner of the cage, pressing my chest to my knees in a desperate attempt to trap what little body heat I had left. My hands, locked in thick cold-iron shackles, were entirely numb. The magical metal bit into the raw flesh of my wrists, its anti-magic properties acting like a slow, dulling poison that smothered the faint embers of my inner warmth.

I couldn't even shiver properly. My body was too hollowed out, my energy thoroughly drained by Vanessa’s dark magic and the blood loss.

Just breathe, I told myself, staring through the narrow gaps between the bars at the dark, looming pines passing by. In and out. Don't close your eyes.

If I closed my eyes in this freezing mountain pass, I knew I would never open them again. Hypothermia was already creeping up my limbs, dulling the sharp edges of my physical pain into a terrifying, heavy drowsiness.

Up on the driver's bench, the scar-faced Lycan slaver—whose name I had gathered was Vorak—cracked his heavy leather whip over the warhorses. Beside him, a second Lycan, bundled in thick wolf pelts, grunted as he pulled his fur collar higher against the blizzard.

"The storm is building, Vorak!" the second slaver shouted over the roaring wind. "If the pass freezes over before we reach the spire, the horses will break their legs on the ice!"

"We don't stop!" Vorak growled back, his voice deep and raspy. "The King expects the debt shipments brought in before the first heavy snow. If we're late, it’s our heads on the battlements."

The second slaver turned around on his bench, squinting through the flying snow into the back of the wagon. His cold grey eyes swept over my crumpled form in the cage.

"Is the mute still alive?" he called out, spitting over the side of the wagon. "She hasn't made a sound in two hours."

Vorak didn't even turn around. "Doesn't matter if she's unconscious, as long as her heart is still beating when we cross the border. The Shadow Moon debt release only holds if she arrives breathing."

"She looks like a frozen corpse to me," the other scoffed, reaching into a burlap sack beside him. He pulled out a hard, stale crust of black bread and tossed it through the iron bars.

It landed in the dirt near my knee with a dull thud.

I stared at the bread. My stomach twisted with a hollow, sickening ache, but my throat was far too swollen to swallow food. I couldn't even produce enough saliva to wet my lips. I pulled my eyes away from the crust, refusing to give them the satisfaction of watching me crawl for scraps like a starving animal.

"See?" the slaver laughed, a cruel, mocking sound that was swallowed by the gale. "Too proud or too dead to eat. She won't last until tomorrow."

They turned back to the road, ignoring me once again.

I squeezed my eyes shut, pressed my forehead against the freezing metal frame of the cage, and dragged a shaky, ragged breath into my lungs. Every breath felt like inhaling liquid ice, burning my ruined vocal cords.

A hot tear slipped down my cheek, freezing into a tiny bead of ice before it even reached my chin.

They think I'm going to die here.

Ethan thought I was a monster who had murdered our child. Magnus thought he had erased his pack's dark secret by throwing me to the slavers. Vanessa was likely sleeping comfortably in the Alpha suite, wearing the Luna ring that should have belonged to a true mate.

They had taken everything from me. My home, my dignity, my voice, my mate... and my son.

My son.

The image of those luminous silver eyes flared instantly behind my eyelids. They shone bright and terrifying through the darkness of my mind—a radiant, ancient light that no mountain blizzard or cold-iron cage could ever put out.

He was out there somewhere in the vast, cold world. A mother’s heart doesn't lie. I could feel the thin, invisible thread of life still tethering my soul to his. He was scared. He was alone. And he was waiting for me.

I am not going to die in this cage.

The thought flared within me, hot and defiant.

I forced my frozen fingers to tighten around the cold iron bars. The metal stung my skin like burning embers, but I welcomed the pain. Pain meant I was still feeling. Pain meant I was still alive.

Slowly, agonizingly, I dragged myself upright against the side of the cage. My knees wobbled, bruised and weak, but I forced my back straight. I sat up in the freezing wind, staring directly at the snow-covered mountain peak ahead.

A sudden, violent jolt rocked the wagon as the wheels crested the summit of the pass.

Below us, stretching as far as the eye could see through the swirling mist, lay a vast, jagged valley of dark pine forests, frozen lakes, and towering black stone mountains. At the far end of the valley, jutting out from the sharp cliffside like a jagged crown, stood a gargantuan fortress made of solid black rock.

The Obsidian Spire. The heart of the Lycan Kingdom.

"There it is," Vorak muttered, slowing the warhorses slightly as they began the steep descent down the icy mountain road. "Welcome to the end of the world, little wolf."

I stared at the distant black castle. A wave of intense, burning fever suddenly spiked through my blood, making my head spin wildly. My vision blurred, white spots dancing across the dark landscape as sickness finally began to overpower my raw willpower.

My hands slipped from the iron bars. I collapsed back onto the freezing floorboards, my body shivering uncontrollably as darkness closed in around the edges of my mind.

I couldn't hold on to consciousness any longer. But as the shadows swallowed me whole, one final thought burned in my chest.

I survived the mountain. Now, bring on the kingdom.