Cold Mountain Novel Novels & Stories

Chapter 13: White Silence, Black Truths The summits jagged like shattered blades into the atmosphere. NOVA-7 was not just hidden in secrets—it was hidden in a region where nature itself resisted penetration. Snow pounded sideways in thick white sheets, and the path to the plant was little more than rumor etched into ice. Damien, Asher, and Bishop trudged through snow that reached their knees, their breathing foggy clouds in the chill air. Every step grated with the urgency of the moment.

"The heater in the cabin of the heavy silver truck purred with a low, predatory hum, filling the space with the scent of expensive leather, ozone, and Julian’s suffocating masculine presence. Outside, the world was a violent canvas of blinding white and jagged gray. The tires chewed through the un-tracked snow of the northern mountain passes, climbing higher into the isolated peaks where the laws of the United States became nothing more than a distant suggestion.

My phone buzzed in my pocket, a burner I’d hidden in a seam I’d stitched myself, buried deep enough that even Misha’s dogs wouldn’t sniff it out. It was a text message from Chernov but I didn’t bother reading the text. Hours passed and we arrived at Yakutsk. The cold here was a living thing, a beast that clawed at your skin and whispered death in every gust. It’s no wonder it’s the coldest city in the world. As cold as it’s ruler. The Bratva compound loomed before me once more, cold steel wrapped in endless snow, as unyielding and merciless as the man who dragged me back here. I never thought I’d return. After everything, I truly believed I’d vanish with Gabriella the moment Yuri was buried

At least this deep in the valley, there’s hardly any snow on the ground, although that doesn’t keep it from being cold as fuck. As I cross an open clearing toward the mountain stream we passed on our search for a cave, I huff out a frosty breath, missing the warmth of the New Mexico desert. Not only the warmth, but the calm, almost boring existence I had before running into Kian and ending up with Frost in my motel room. Things were simpler before the men barreled into my life like black smoke. I mean, sure—my whole goal in life was to find them and end this once and for all, so at some point, our paths were bound to collide.

I slammed both hands flat into the snow. A thick, blinding wall of localized, ink-black smoke erupted from the frozen ground, expanding outward in a massive shockwave. It wasn’t a physical barrier, but a sensory vacuum, completely swallowing our scents, our heat signatures, and the light around us. Through the dense fog, I grabbed Dominic’s heavy arm, throwing it over my shoulder. He groaned, his massive frame nearly crushing me under his dead weight, but the newly awakened bond between us hummed, giving my muscles a desperate surge of adrenaline. I dragged him backward, slipping down the steep, jagged precipice of the frozen mountain canyon just as the first wave of Malakai’s scouts tore th

After I finished with the desk I planted another small bug under the edge of the wooden surface where it would not be seen easily, then I checked the hidden safe behind the painting but it stayed locked tight this time, I knew I could not push my luck any longer so I slipped out the same way I entered. The walk back to my hidden motel felt longer than usual, every shadow made me nervous and every sound made me look over my shoulder, the tabloids had dragged my name through the dirt for days and now I was taking even bigger risks by going back into Mr. Havisham’s territory, but the children needed me to be strong, Chloe’s silence hurt but it also reminded me why I had to keep fighting, I reac

The ride into the North-Crag was different this time. There were no digital waypoints flickering in my peripheral vision, no predictive telemetry telling me the exact lean angle for the hairpin turns. There was only the visceral feedback of the Norton’s suspension and the biting chill of the mountain air. As we climbed toward the coordinates on the deed, the lush coastline gave way to the brutal, jagged beauty of the high country the birthplace of the original Iron Wolves. The Coldwater facility sat in a deep basin, shielded from the wind by towering granite walls. In the moonlight, it looked like a sleeping giant. The brutalist concrete structure was overgrown with ivy, and the massive stee

“Zayn MacQuoid, you can’t be this selfish! I’m working hard right now. I can’t have kids!” I compromised to quell her anger. I valued her career, but she resigned so that she could take care of Charles and Caleb better. Besides, she used the money I had saved for retirement for Caleb’s wedding. My leg hurt terribly during that winter, but I was too poor to see a doctor. Moreover, the temperature at home was freezing. It made me shiver. I tried calling Layla for money, but she hung up on me repeatedly. I could not hold on since I was old. In the end, I froze to death.

~ONE YEAR LATER~ ANDERI SNOW FELL IN heavy, slow drifts as I lit a cigarette outside the compound gates. The cold bit at my skin, the smoke curling from my lips like fragile frost in the gray morning air. Security cameras blinked red above me, glass eyes catching the dull sky, watching everything that moved inside. Guns. Orders. Loyalty. It was supposed to feel like home. It didn’t. I crushed the cigarette beneath my boot and stepped inside. My boots were soaked, gloves cold, but I didn’t care. I didn’t knock when I reached Nikolai’s door. It opened under my hand like it always did.

From the naked eye, you couldn’t tell it wasn’t from the forest. Her fingers turned red and almost stopped working correctly before she finished, the snow already collecting on her shoulders and the top of the device holding a secret weapon. She looked up one more time at the ancient house, deciding that even in a blizzard, it had a beauty. Not that she would ever admit it to anyone for fear of being whipped. She turned and left the future to it's fate. The snow covered the house and surrounding forest like a chrysalis, incubating the events of what was to come. As soon as she was done, she left just as she had entered. Quietly, swiftly, and with lethal focus. The blizzard was already coveri