Three
1318 Words
His eyes glowed again… bright, sharp, and not human. My heart hammered so hard I thought he could hear it.
He stepped closer, slow and controlled, like he was deciding if I was a threat or something he should crush under his boot.
“Start talking,” he said. “How did you get here?”
I swallowed, my throat tight. “I…I told you. I don’t know. One minute I was in my bakery, the next..”
“Lies.”
The word cut the air like ice.
My mouth fell open. “What? Why would I lie about that?”
He circled me once, silent, watching me like a hunter studying prey. Every crunch of snow under his boots made my skin crawl.
“You appeared in the middle of a sealed forest,” he said, voice low and dangerous. “No scent. No trail. No warning.” His gaze narrowed. “People like you don’t just appear.”
“I’m telling the truth,” I whispered.
His jaw clenched. “Impossible.”
His eyes scanned me from head to toe, not with interest…no, with cold judgment. Like he was trying to figure out what kind of monster I might be.
“I’m not dangerous,” I tried again. “I’m… I bake cupcakes.”
He stared at me like I’d spoken another language. “Cupcakes.”
“Yes,” I squeaked.
A muscle in his jaw twitched. Not amusement…annoyance.
“Enough.” His voice dropped, lower, colder. “Tell me your real purpose. Who sent you?”
I blinked. “What? f**k! No one sent me!”
He stepped in front of me again, so close I had to tilt my head back to meet his stare. His presence wrapped around me like a shadow….heavy, cold, suffocating.
“People don’t fall from the sky,” he growled.
“I didn’t fall from the sky!” I snapped, frustration cracking through my fear. “I fell out of…okay, I don’t know what I fell out of, but it wasn’t the sky!”
Silence.
The kind that makes your heart stop.
He leaned in the slightest bit. “You’re either a spy… or a problem.”
“I’m neither,” I whispered.
His eyes glowed again, brighter this time. I took a step back, but my foot slipped in the deep snow, and I stumbled. He didn’t help me. He didn’t move at all.
He just watched. Cold and still.
Like he’d already decided.
A low whistle cut through the woods.
I flinched, turning sharply.
Two large men stepped out from the darkness…broad, silent, dressed in heavy coats just like his. They didn’t look friendly. They didn’t even look human around the eyes.
But they looked at him like he was someone important.
“Alpha?” one of them said quietly.
My stomach dropped.
Alpha?
Like… wolf pack Alpha?
Like… leader?
No. No way.
The cold stranger didn’t look at me as he spoke.
“Chain her.”
My breath died.
“What….no, wait!” I stepped back, hands up. “Chain me? For what?! I didn’t do anything!”
Neither man hesitated. They moved forward like shadows, silent and sure.
The cold-eyed stranger…Alpha?…watched me with a face carved from stone.
“You appear in my territory unannounced,” he said, voice deep and final, “and you expect freedom?”
“I expect not to be chained!” I snapped, panic rushing up my throat.
One of the men grabbed my arm. I jerked away, but he was stronger…much stronger. Cold metal brushed my wrist.
“No…stop…please!” I gasped. “I’m not a threat!”
The Alpha stepped closer, his expression unreadable.
“You’re an unknown,” he said. “Unknowns are dangerous.”
The chains clicked shut around my wrists.
I stared at him, heart racing, snow burning my cheeks.
“Who are you?” I whispered.
His eyes met mine, dark and merciless.
“Your worst kind of luck.”
Then he turned away.
The chains around my wrists were cold, biting into my skin as the two men pulled me through the snow. I stumbled after them, trying not to fall on my face while the terrifying Alpha walked ahead, silent and unreadable.
I kept staring at the back of his coat, wishing…hoping he’d turn around and realize this was all a mistake.
But he didn’t even look at me.
My breath puffed into the air, turning white and thin in the freezing night.
“Where are you taking me?” I asked, voice shaking.
Neither guard answered.
The forest around us grew thicker, darker. Frost clung to every branch like silver claws, and the moon above looked too big, too bright. Everything here felt sharper, older… wrong and beautiful at the same time.
A world that didn’t belong to me.
When we finally stepped past the last line of trees, my breath caught.
The land opened wide in front of us.
And there it was…his kingdom.
FROSTFANG TERRITORY.
At least, that’s what one of the guards muttered under his breath when he saw the walls ahead.
I’d never seen anything like it.
Great stone walls rose from the snow, tall and carved with strange marks that glowed faint blue. Towers made of black stone twisted upward like frozen spires, their tops coated in thick ice. A long wooden bridge stretched over a frozen river, leading straight to an enormous gate covered in frost symbols.
Torches lined the sides, their flames blue instead of orange, making the whole place look like something out of a cold fairy tale. Wolves howled in the distance…low, powerful, echoing off the stone as if welcoming their king.
The guards pushed me forward, and my boots slipped again on the icy bridge.
“What even is this place?” I whispered, staring at everything, heart beating too fast.
The guard on my right grunted, “A land where intruders aren't allowed.
My stomach twisted.
As we crossed the bridge, the wind carried distant scents… pine, smoke, a hint of fur, and something wild and sharp that I couldn’t place.
Inside the walls was a whole village.
Cabins built from dark wood, snow-covered roofs, glowing blue lanterns hanging above doors. People… tall, strong, eyes bright like his… turned to watch us enter. Some paused mid-task, others sniffed the air as if they could smell my fear from across the space.
Their stares hit me like knives.
I felt small.
Cold.
Out of place.
One woman whispered, “What is she?”
A man answered, “Human scent… but weaker.”
My heart dropped.
Weaker?
Great. Even here I screamed “smell bad.”
The guards didn’t slow. They pulled me across a snowy courtyard toward a large building… bigger than the rest, dark stone, wide steps, and doors made of ice-coated metal.
Their Alpha stood at the top of the steps, waiting.
He looked even bigger up close.
Tall. Shoulders wide. Eyes hard.
Like winter carved itself into a man.
The guards pushed me to my knees in the snow before him.
I gasped as the cold shot through my legs.
He finally looked at me…. really looked.
No softness.
No pity.
Just cold calculation.
“Welcome to Frostfang,” he said.
His voice was rumbling ice.
“You will speak only when spoken to. You will answer every question. And you will lie to me only once.”
He leaned down slightly so his face was level with mine.
“If you lie…”His eyes flashed bright silver.“…you won’t leave my kingdom alive.”
My breath shattered in my throat.
I didn’t know where I was.
I didn’t know how I got here.
And the man staring at me like I was a threat…
He wasn’t going to let me go.
Not until he knew exactly what I was.
One thing is certain
I'm fucked.!
- Writer
