I Married The Alpha Who executed Me.

The Day Death Let Me Go

I woke up gasping, my lungs on fire, my chest hammering violently like it wanted to split me in two. My hands scrabbled at the ground, snow biting my fingers. I was alive. I was alive, but where the hell was I?

Snow crunched under my boots—wait, boots? I looked down at the snow-covered forest road. Trees all around. This was frostbite territory, but not the arena: no chains, no blade, and no blood.

I was standing on a snow-covered forest road. The trees pressed up like walls, their branches heavy with ice. The wind whispered in my ears, sharp and cold. The same snow. The same path and the same moment I had first set foot in Frostbite territory five years ago.

My throat went dry. My heart pounded so hard it felt like it might explode through my chest. My head spun. My hand went to my chest. The memory of his steel piercing my heart. The cold, sharp bite of Jerek’s sword flared up like fire under my skin.

It shouldn’t be possible. I should be dead.

I staggered, catching myself on the trunk of a tree. Snowflakes melted against my face. I blinked, trembling. Was this a hallucination? Some cruel trick? I reached out, pressed my fingers into the snow. It was cold and real. I ran my hands along the rough bark of a tree, and dirt got under my nails. It was also real. My wolf stirred. Confused, afraid, pulling at me. Every nerve in my body screamed. Don’t be seen, don’t get caught, don’t die again.

I swallowed hard, chest heaving, teeth chattering. My boots sank into the snow with each step. The crunch seemed deafening in the silence of the forest. Then I heard it: the crunch of boots on snow. Not random. The same as before. The guards, Frostbite soldiers. Coming down the path. Weapons in hand. Eyes scanning sharply, sharp enough to slice through the cold.

Timeline reset. I understood it before the thought even finished forming in my mind. I had survived death and survived Jerek’s sword. And now, I had a chance—a chance to change everything.

But change meant decisions. Dangerous, terrifying, impossible decisions.

Step one: Avoid Jerek Bloodpelt at all costs.

I leaned forward into the trees, pressing against the rough bark, my ears straining. Each step forward made my wolf whimper inside. Danger. Mate. Danger. I ignored it, forcing my boots through the snow. Branches snapped above me, loose snow raining down like tiny shards. My heart jumped violently, lungs searing with each ragged breath.

The guards moved faster than before. Every crunch of their boots on snow sent a jolt through my nerves. I pressed myself harder against the tree, held my breath, praying my shadow would blend. My wolf shivered beneath my skin, mate instincts tugging, trying to pull me toward the danger I couldn’t risk.

I stumbled over a root, cursed under my breath, and barely caught myself before face-first into the snow. My wolf whimpered again, frustrated, urgent, desperate. Every nerve screamed. Mate. Danger. Mate. Danger.

Through the trees, the fortress appeared—grey stone, sharp towers, windows like dark eyes. Frostbite gates loomed, wide, imposing, eternal. My chest tightened, every instinct screaming to turn back, to run, to vanish. But I couldn’t. I had to see. I had to know.

And then I saw him.

Jerek Bloodpelt. Arms crossed, tall, unshakable. Hair whipping in the wind. Eyes piercing, cutting through me like ice and fire at once. Watching. Waiting.

I froze. The snow that clung to my hair melted against my cheeks. My breath came in jagged bursts, lungs screaming. My wolf growled beneath my skin, twisting, clawing at my nerves. Mate. Danger. Mate. Danger. The bond surged, violent, irresistible.

A shiver ran down my spine. My chest felt hollow and full at once. Panic twisted my stomach, clawing upward. My throat went dry again. The forest around me felt too quiet.

And then I realized.

He wasn’t waiting for me.

He was expecting me.

Every instinct screamed danger. Every fiber of my being screamed, "Fight or flee." But my feet refused to obey. I was trapped in the frozen space between fear and fascination.

Snow swirled around me, brushing my face, drifting into my hair. I tasted iron, sharp, coppery, though I wasn’t bleeding. My pulse hammered deafeningly in my ears. My wolf raged beneath my skin, growling low, frantic, twisting every nerve.

I forced myself to take a step forward, then another. Snow crunching under my boots, announcing my existence to the world. He didn’t flinch. Didn’t signal. Just watched. Patient. Calculating. Predator-perfect. Every movement measured, every inch of him radiating danger.

Every instinct screamed: he remembers everything. He knows. He sees.

Branches snapped behind me. I spun, my heart hammering, fists clenched. Nothing. Just snow, trees, wind, and him. Watching. Waiting.

The gates loomed. The balcony loomed. And above it all, he loomed.

I pressed my back against the bark of a tree, breath ragged, chest heaving, wolf snarling beneath my skin. My heart threatened to burst. I had survived death once. Twice. But this was different. Surviving him now? I wasn’t sure I could.

Wind whipped across my face, smelling of pine, sharp, clean, cutting through the memory of fire, blood, steel. Snow melted in my hair, dripping down my neck. Every sound amplified. Pulse deafening. Wolf desperate. Mind screaming. Body frozen.

I forced another step forward. And another. Crunch. Crunch. Snow shifting, echoing through the forest like warning bells. He didn’t move. He didn’t look away. Dark, unyielding, perfect. He saw me. Every detail. Every motion. Every beat of my heart.

And then it hit me like ice to the chest:

The game had already begun.

And I had no idea if I would live to play it.