Chapter 2 It Begins

The snow was already knee-deep by the time Evangeline cleared the eastern postern gate.

Her lungs burned like she was inhaling fire as her boots crunched loudly through the snow. Behind her, high up on the mountain ridge, the first chorus of howls tore through the midnight air.

They were wild, hungry, and eager for the chase.

"Keep moving," she snapped to herself, shoving past low-hanging pine branches that dumped loads of wet snow onto her head and shoulders. "Don't look back. Just keep moving."

She didn't possess a wolf's night vision, nor did she have a wolf's effortless speed over rough terrain. But she had spent eighteen years wandering these woods gathering firewood and foraging herbs. She knew where the ground gave way into hidden ravines, and she knew where the winter winds blew snow thin over the treacherous black ice of the upper creek bed.

It was safe to say she knew these grounds like the back of her hand.

But before she could think of what next to do, hurried, rhythmic thuds crunched through the underbrush behind her, approaching at a terrifying speed.

"I've got her scent!" a man's voice bellowed through the trees, sounding no more than a hundred yards back. "She’s heading toward the granite ridge!"

"First strike gets her badge!" another voice yelled back, accompanied by maniacal laughter that sent shivers straight down her spine. "Remember, don't kill her right away! Let's see how long it takes that little bitch to scream and beg for her life."

Evangeline cursed under her breath, veering hard to the left as she quickened her speed. She broke into a steep incline, heading straight toward a wall of dark grey granite that towered over the trees. Running flat across the forest floor was a death sentence; any low-tier wolf could catch her in seconds. But wolves were built for speed on four legs, not vertical climbing.

She slammed into the base of the rock face just as two shadows burst through the treeline behind her.

It was Coyle and Jax—two lower-tier hunters from Garth’s squad. Their eyes glowed a murky amber in the moonlight, their mouths were drawn back in wild, predatory grins as they stared down at her like the prey she was supposed to be right now.

"End of the line, rabbit!" Coyle yelled, slowing his pace to a cocky walk as he pulled a thick hunting blade from his belt sheath. "Drop the badge and make it easy on yourself! Maybe we'll make it quick!"

Evangeline spun around, backing against the cold stone wall. "Come and take it, you miserable mutt!" she shouted back, her voice echoing all around them.

Before Coyle could react, she turned around, grabbed a narrow ledge of stone, and furiously began scrambling upward. Her fingers dug desperately into tiny, icy cracks, her boots slipping against the flat surface as she pulled her body weight up inch by inch.

"Hey! Get back down here!" Jax snarled, rushing forward and reaching up to grab her ankles.

His fingers snapped shut around the heel of her boot, but Evangeline didn't hesitate to kick him in the face when he tried pulling her down.

A loud, wet crunch echoed through the glade.

Jax let out a choked roar of pain, staggering backward into the snow with blood gushing from his smashed nose. "My nose! The bitch broke my nose!"

"You crazy little human!" Coyle roared, dropping his knife and lunging for the base of the rock face to start climbing after her. "I'm going to rip your throat out with my hands!"

"Try it!" Evangeline yelled down, hauling herself up onto a narrow stone shelf roughly fifteen feet above the snow.

She collapsed onto her knees, panting heavily, her heart hammering against her ribs like a trapped bird. She reached into her sleeve, her bloody fingers coiling tightly around the handle of her sharpened nail.

Before Coyle could get his hands onto the lower footholds, the air in the clearing transformed.

It wasn't just the bitter chill of the winter wind. The temperature plummeted so fast that the moisture on the trees instantly turned to ice. The deep shadows beneath the pine trees seemed to detach themselves from the wood, pooling together across the snow like living, breathing ink.

The wind died instantly and suffocating, unnatural silence fell over the glade.

Jax stopped groaning. Coyle froze mid-reach, his arm hovering over a rock ledge as his amber eyes widened in sudden terror.

"No," Coyle whispered, his voice cracking into a frightened squeak. "No... why is he out here?"

"He doesn't hunt prey badges," Jax choked out, wiping blood from his chin as he backed away from the rock wall, his knees shaking. "He... he never comes out for the seasonal Hunts!"

A massive silhouette stepped quietly out from the thick shadows of the pine trees revealing one of the last people Evangeline wanted to see right now.

Lucian. The Midnight Pack’s Chief Enforcer.

He moved across the deep snow without making a single sound, his towering frame blocking out the moonlight. His long, black leather military coat snapped softly against his boots. Unlike the murky amber eyes of the lower warriors, Lucian’s eyes burned with a bright, terrifying crimson.

"You two are making a tremendous amount of noise," Lucian drawled, all low and seductive, though it still carried that sense of absolute authority that made the very air around them feel thick with sickly tension.

Coyle dropped to both knees instantly, slamming his hands into the snow. "Lord Lucian! We... we were just pursuing the prey badge! She’s trapped up on the ledge—"

"I have eyes, I can see Coyle," Lucian interrupted with a roll of his eyes before his gaze drifted slowly upward, locking directly onto Evangeline’s crouched form on the high rock shelf.

Evangeline held her breath, her hand frozen inside her sleeve. She had seen Lucian from a distance in the main compound, though he was usually standing beside the Elder’s throne like a silent, terrifying shadow, but she had never been this close to him. He was the pack’s top killer, the executioner who put down rogue Alphas and crushed territorial rebellions without showing a single shred of emotion.

"Clear out," Lucian ordered the two warriors.

Jax blinked, looking up nervously. "My Lord? But... her badge—"

"If you are still standing in this glade when I count to three," Lucian said, his voice dropping into a dangerous murmur, "I will take your badges instead. One."

Coyle and Jax didn't wait to hear two. They scrambled to their feet, turned around, and sprinted back through the deep snow as fast as their legs could carry them, smashing through the underbrush in a frantic panic until the sound of their boots completely faded into the night.

The glade was silent again.

Lucian stood at the base of the cliff wall, looking up at her with a completely unreadable expression.

"Are you planning to freeze to death on that ledge, little rabbit?" he asked smoothly. "Or are you coming down?"

"If I come down, you'll kill me," Evangeline called down, keeping her voice as steady as she could manage despite her racing pulse.

Lucian let out a short, low chuckle that sounded like grinding bones to the human. "If I wanted you dead, girl, you wouldn't have made up that rock."

Before Evangeline could process his words, Lucian moved almost as fast as lightening because one second he was as on the ground and the next, his gloved hand had caught the edge of the stone shelf and before Evangeline could draw her weapon, his other lage hand shot forward like a steel trap and snatched her tightly by the collar of her tunic and lifted her clean off the ledge into the open air.