Iron Heart

Chapter 1 - Andre

 I was on my way to help interrogate the general of Ironfang, the infamous Cersy Ironflayer…I had heard many tales of her prowess in battle, and her namesake Chyrus, the God of Mountains blessed Cersy to be built like a mountain as well. At least that was what he had heard, he didn't realize how true that statement was until he opened the door into the interrogation room.

    The she-wolf in front of him was huge, she was kneeling on the ground and she must have come up to his chest. But she was easily wider than him, she was easily the size or even greater, of any Alpha he had met before. And the amount of power that radiated off of her…she was the sexiest thing he had ever seen…

Mate.

    They had said it at the same time, and the surprise that became apparent on her face after she had said it showed she had not meant to. He could almost laugh.

    Though he did have to admit she wasn't what he expected from his mate, he always thought he would at least be stronger physically than them. As that was usually how these kids of things worked out, even for same-s*x partners. The higher bloodline was usually stronger on principle.

    But he honestly had a hard time taking his eyes away from his mate, he had waited so long, being 24 it was unusual for his pack to be left without a Luna for this long. But he had sworn to himself that he would wait. And his wolf Val was ecstatic, bouncing happily in his mind. Just repeating 'mate, mate, mate' over and over like a giddy pup.

    In the meantime I asked Breny, Hawks new apprentice, to go get her and me a chair. I couldn't bear to see my mate, even one that I didn't even know, sitting on the filthy ground...I had to stop that train of thought there. Cersy had still led the warriors of Ironfang into battle against this pack, my pack. I couldn't let the mate bond cloud my vision so fully and so quickly.

    But Cersy was gorgeous, rippling muscle was shown off in her clothing, a very minimal set of leather armor, with what appeared to be a tank top and tights. And she had the scars to show for it too, bisecting her arms and across her body presumably. Presumably…he had to stop his thoughts there because his mind was already drifting to marking her and making her his. Though he did note the eight beads strung on her hair, colors showing her progression through the ranks as she battled.

    "Could you stop eye-f*****g our prisoner Alpha? I know she's your mate, but just hold on for like…five minutes." Hawks looked like he was about to burst at the seams with amusement at the situation, but his voice was level and actually quite serious.

    "Yes, sorry," My attention went back to Cersy and this time I kept my gaze on her face only and tried my best to not let my thoughts drift, even though that proved to be harder than I thought it would, "You said Alpha Cain was a coward and referenced a false banner, could you elaborate?"

    She nodded resolutely, "Cain does not deserve his title, he told us he had been scorned by the Pales at the Cycles meeting. Instead, he merely wanted more land," Oh her accent was the sexiest thing he had heard in a long time…northern? "We discovered this after we had already made the trek to your border, and we're honor-bound to continue. The morn' before my Drakai renewed their vows, and about half of Cain's wolves joined my Dogs ranks. They swore their fealty to me instead of Cain, the half that refused was the initial wave you slaughtered. I told them that if they wished to die under a 'muis' banner, they would do it alone." She seemed terrifyingly resolute about that, even though they had disagreed with her, they were just following their Alpha's orders. Though it was every wolf's duty to take care of their own honor, and dying for their Alpha's cause knowing that it wasn't honorable- laid that blame all on their own feet.

    But to think my mate was so callous about her own pack mates, was a shock for sure. But, at least I knew for certain she was honorable to her core and that I could at the very least be proud of.

    Val on the other hand had no quarrels with how Cersy handled things, hoping that her wolf had straightforward thinking as well. 

    She grew quiet, "How many of us did you capture?"

    I knew immediately she meant her warriors, did she really think we'd kill surrendered wolves? After that first wave, they pretty much immediately surrendered."We have 50 wolves in our custody, most surrendered when you turned in, what was it that you shouted?"

    "Cessare, I told them to stop." Her grey eyes were mournful as she spoke, though her tone did not show it.

    “Do you regret that?” After I said that her eyes became steel as she looked me in the eye,

    “It hurt my pride, yes, I haven’t felt the need to surrender before.”

    That confused me more, “Then why did you? Surely you weren’t afraid, I had never heard of the Ironflayer being scared.”

    “Well, I knew that even if we won my Dogs, Drakai, and I would be Rogues. I knew I couldn’t accept going back to Ironfang except to gut Cain, as that is really all a coward like him deserves. So I surrendered, in hopes of asking a favor of you Raven.” Her eyes turned rather pleading, though her tone was as hard as the mountains she was named for.

    “And what do you ask of me.” I crossed my legs intrigued, us both sitting in the chairs Breny had gotten. I was rather curious what was so important she decided it was worth sacrificing her pride for. Something I would guess she really didn't do often.

    “For you to accept me and my Kin into your pack.”