My Fated Mate is the Alpha King

EDDENA'S POV

The heater in the rattling taxi did absolutely nothing to fight off the chill pressing against the windows. I kept my arms crossed tightly over my chest, my fingertips numb inside my cheap wool gloves. Outside, the world was nothing but a blur of white and charcoal. The winding mountain roads of Valtheris were completely swallowed by snow, flanked by dense, towering pine trees that seemed to stretch up and scrape the gray sky.

“We’re almost to the end of the line, miss,” the driver, a gruff older man whose ID badge read Neil Snider, called out from the front seat. His accent was thick, the syllables harsh and clipped. “Road gets too narrow past the ridge. I’ll have to drop you at the edge of the property.”

“That’s fine,” I said. My voice came out scratchy, dry from the long flight and the two-hour bus ride before I’d finally found a cab willing to drive me this far up the mountain. “Thank you.”

The tires crunched loudly as the cab rolled to a slow stop. Neil put the car in park and turned to look at me over his shoulder. His pale eyes were clouded with something that looked a lot like pity. Or maybe it was concern.

“You sure about this, kid?” he asked, tapping his thick fingers against the steering wheel. “Sun’s dropping fast. It gets down to freezing out here in about twenty minutes. And there ain’t any neighbors for miles.”

“I’m sure,” I lied. My stomach twisted into a tight, cold knot, but I forced a polite smile. “It’s my grandmother’s place. I have the key.”

Neil didn’t look convinced, but he grunted, popping the trunk. I pushed the door open, and the cold hit me like a physical blow. It punched the breath right out of my lungs. The air here didn’t just chill your skin; it bit into it, smelling sharply of ozone and crushed pine needles.

I grabbed my two duffel bags from the trunk. They were heavy, packed with everything I owned in the world, which honestly wasn’t much. Neil slammed the trunk shut and leaned out his window.

“Keep your doors locked, hear me?” he said, his voice dropping an octave. “The woods up here… they aren't like the parks back in the city. Things wander when the sun goes down.”

Before I could ask him what the hell that meant, he rolled his window up, shifted into gear, and drove away. The red taillights faded quickly into the swirling white snow, leaving me completely alone in the deafening silence of the mountain.

I stood there for a long moment, the snow gathering on my shoulders, cold seeping through my coat. I drew a breath that stung my lungs and turned to face the cottage.

It sat fifty yards back from the dirt road, tucked dangerously close to the edge of a massive, dark forest. The house itself was small, built of dark, weathered logs and a slanted tin roof heavy with snow. The front porch sagged slightly on the left side. It looked abandoned. It looked exactly how I felt.

I forced my frozen legs to move, dragging my bags through the knee-deep snow. Each step was exhausting. By the time I reached the wooden steps of the porch, my thighs were burning, and my lungs ached from the freezing air.

I dropped the bags on the wooden floorboards with a heavy thud. Pulling off my right glove with my teeth, I fished the rusted brass key out of my coat pocket. My hand shook so badly I dropped the key twice before finally sliding it into the lock. The metal groaned in protest, but it turned with a sharp click.

I pushed the door open and stepped inside. The hinges creaked softly, and the cold air wrapped around me, carrying the faint smell of dust and something unfamiliar.

The air in the cabin was stale, smelling faintly of dust, old wood, and the lingering scent of dried lavender. My grandmother’s scent. A lump instantly formed in my throat, thick and hard to swallow. I shut the door behind me, locking the deadbolt purely out of habit, and leaned my forehead against the freezing wood.

I was here. I had actually done it. I had run away.

The panic that had been in my chest for the last three weeks finally began to slow down. Back in the city, there was nothing left for me but empty rooms, unpaid bills, and the suffocating memory of a life that had completely fallen apart. When the lawyer called to tell me my grandmother had left me this cabin in Valtheris, I didn’t even hesitate. I packed my bags the same day. I needed quiet. I needed to disappear.

I opened my eyes and looked around the dim room. The late afternoon light was weak, filtering through the frosted windows and casting long, gray shadows across the floor.