Northen tyrant

Chapter 5: The Northern Tyrant

Ezra

The Northern Wastes lived up to their name… a frozen hellscape of ice, rock, and wolves who would rather gut you than say hello.

I had been tracking the bond for six days through terrain that seemed designed to kill travelers. My supplies had run out two days ago. My fancy royal cloak was shredded from climbing through thorn forests. And the black mark on my chest pulled me north like a fishhook lodged in my sternum, dragging me toward something I couldn't see but desperately needed.

Whoever my first mate was, they lived in the armpit of the world.

The snowstorm hit without warning… one minute it was all clear skies, the next moment everywhere was covered in a blizzard that made visibility to be poor. I pulled my ruined cloak tighter and kept walking, trusting the pull of the bond more than my eyes.

That's when I heard the growling.

The hairs on my skin immediately stood at erect. The sound came from every direction at once, circling me in the whiteout.

I stopped walking. Drew the short sword I had stolen from a bandit three days back. "I am just passing through."

A shape lunged from the snow.

I twisted, blade up, and caught it across the ribs. Hot blood sprayed across ice. The wolf… corrupted, like the ones at the palace, with those same black veins and tar-dripping jaws… collapsed at my feet.

Three more appeared at the edges of the bushes.

“Has anybody not taught you it's rude to gang up on strangers.”

No one answered. Without wasting time they lunged at me.

I fought like Damon had trained me… efficient, brutal, no wasted movement. Slash. Pivot. Duck under snapping jaws. Drive the blade through an eye socket.

But there were too many.

A corrupted wolf hit me from behind, jaws clamping onto my shoulder. I screamed, drove my elbow back into its skull, but it held on with the single-minded hunger of something that used to be a person.

The black mark ignited.

Power flooded my limbs, hot and uncontrolled. I grabbed the wolf by its scruff and physically threw it fifteen feet into a tree trunk.

The sound of bones breaking echoed followed by silence. It didn't get up.

But that was not the end of them. More took the place of their dead, as they came at like an endless tide.

The bond mark burned hotter. I could feel the familiar power building toward that dangerous edge. I had lost control and detonate everything around me like I had at the palace.

Then someone else entered the fight.

A blur of motion… faster than anything i have ever seen… and the nearest corrupted wolf's head separated from its body. I could barely see the figure, but it moved through the storm like violence given form, cutting down infected wolves with brutal precision.

I caught glimpses between the snow. Scarred hands gripping twin blades. Dark hair whipping in the wind. A face that was almost pretty except for the three jagged scars running from temple to jaw.

The last corrupted wolf died gurgling. Silence fell, broken only by wind and my ragged breathing, as I tried to regain myself.

The scarred wolf turned to face me fully, and I almost had a heart attack at that instant.

He was younger than I expected… maybe twenty-five at most. Lean and compact where I was tall and broad. His clothes were practical furs and leather, weapons strapped to every available surface. But it was his eyes that stopped me cold.

Pale gray. Sharp as broken glass. And looking at me like I was something disgusting he would scrape off his boot.

"You are an idiot," he said. His voice was rough, like he didn't use it often.

The spell broke immediately

"Excuse me?"

"Wandering into the Wastes in a snowstorm. Wearing a cloak that screams 'rob me.' Fighting corrupted with a sword you clearly don't know how to use properly." He wiped black blood off his blade with casual efficiency. "Idiot. Or suicidal. Which is it?"

“I…”

The black mark on my chest pulsed with recognition. Heat spread through my veins… not painful this time, but intense. Magnetic. Every instinct I had screamed at me to close the distance between us.

This was him. My first mate.

And he was glaring at me like I had personally offended him.

**************

"Wait…" I jogged to catch up. "Who are you?"

"Someone who doesn't answer stupid questions."

"It's not a stupid question!"

He stopped so abruptly I nearly crashed into him. Up close, I could see more scars… dozens of them, crisscrossing his exposed skin like a map of violence. "You want introductions? Fine. I am the wolf who just saved your pampered ass from becoming corrupted chow. You are the southern idiot who walked into my territory without permission. Now move before the storm gets worse."

“Pampered ass…?” I kept on repeating his words, but he was already on the move.

Leaving me with no choice,

I followed.

We walked for what felt like hours. The storm gradually cleared, revealing a landscape of ice cliffs and frozen waterfalls that would have been beautiful if I wasn't exhausted, bleeding, and increasingly pissed off.

That was when I saw it.

A fortress carved into the mountainside. Not elegant like the palace… but the aura was like anything I have seen. Guard towers bristling with archers. And wolves were everywhere, moving through the courtyards below with military precision.

"Home sweet home," my scarred companion said without affection. "The Frost Keep. Try not to embarrass yourself."

"Who lives here?" I asked, absent minded, still shocked that such a civilization can be found in this wasteland.

"Rogues. Exiles. Wolves the southern packs threw away." He glanced at me, those gray eyes sharp. "We don't like southerners much."

"I gathered."

We descended toward a massive iron gate. Guards moved to intercept, then saw my companion and immediately stepped aside, their expressions shifting to something between respect and fear.

"Lord Kade," one guard said. "We weren't expecting you back so soon."

Lord? I almost had a heart attack.

Kade ignored them, striding through the gates like he owned the place. Because apparently he did.

I followed, my mind refusing to follow up. This scarred, rude wolf was a lord? Ruled this entire fortress? And he was my mate?

The universe had a twisted sense of humor.

Inside, the fortress was organized chaos. Wolves of all ages moved through stone corridors… warriors training, children playing, healers tending to injured. It looked less like a military stronghold and more like a... community.

Kade led me deeper into the complex, down stairs that spiraled into the mountain itself.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"Somewhere you can't cause trouble."

"I haven't caused any trouble!"

"Yet." He pushed open a heavy wooden door, revealing a small stone cell. Empty except for a bench and a bucket. "In."

I stared at him. "You are joking, right?”

"Do I look like a joke to you?"

"You are putting me in a cell?"

"You are an unauthorized southern wolf in my territory during a corrupted outbreak." Kade's expression was carved ice. "I am being generous by not killing you outright. Now get in, or I will make you get in."

The black mark pulsed hot against my chest. My wolf surged, power flooding my limbs with aggressive energy. Before I could think better of it, I stepped into his space, using my height advantage to loom over him.

"I would like to see you try."

Something flickered in those gray eyes. Surprise. Interest. Then it was gone, replaced by cold calculation.

His hand shot out, catching my wrist in a grip like iron. He twisted, using leverage and technique to flip me over his hip. I hit the stone floor hard enough to knock the air from my lungs.

Before I could recover, he was on me… knee on my chest, blade at my throat.

We froze like that. His weight pressing me down. His scarred face inches from mine. The black mark on my skin was burning so hot I thought it might actually catch fire.

"You fight like a pampered prince," Kade said quietly. "All strength, no strategy."

Our eyes met. I watched recognition flicker across his face… the same pull I was feeling, the magnetic inevitability of the bond snapping into place.

His pupils dilated. I felt his breath quickening.

"What…" he started.

The mark ignited fully.

Black light exploded between us, searing and absolute. The bond slammed into place like a physical thing, connecting us with threads I could almost see.

Kade jerked back with a choked sound, hand going to his own chest. When he pulled his shirt aside, I saw it.

A black crescent mark. Identical to mine. Glowing with the same dark light.

"No," he breathed. "No, that's not… that's impossible…"

“Its just a freaking mark…”

I felt something heavy slam on my head.

My vision blurred. The last thing I saw before darkness took me was Kade's scarred face, expression caught between horror and rage.

Then nothing.