The Winter Wolf's Secret Heir

Chapter 13: The Iron Birds

Kane’s POV

The satellite phone was a brick of black plastic in my hand. The only thing that could punch a signal through the wall of white static surrounding the mountain.

"I don't care about the visibility," I roared into the receiver. "Get them in the air."

"Alpha. It’s suicide," the voice on the other end crackled. Commander Riker. The head of my elite enforcement squad. "The wind shear alone will tear a chopper apart. We should wait for a break in the storm."

"There is no break," I snarled.

I stared out the war room window. The snow was horizontal. It looked like the world was being erased.

"The rogues are testing the perimeter. I have a lodge full of civilians. I have... guests."

My voice caught on the word guests.

I wasn't thinking about the dignitaries. Or the staff. I was thinking of the scent of Vanilla. That underlying sweetness that drove me mad.

Noelle. Huddled under a duvet.

"If the rogues breach the fence, we are outnumbered," I said. My voice dropped to a low, dangerous register. "I need the Iron Guard. I need twenty men. Weapons grade. Tonight."

There was a pause on the line. Static hissed.

"We fly low," Riker said finally. "We hug the tree line. ETA forty minutes. Have the landing lights on full power. If we crash, Alpha, the cleanup is on you."

"Just get here."

I ended the call.

I threw the phone onto the map table. It skidded across the surface. It hit a marker that showed the blocked pass.

"You’re gambling with their lives, Kane," Marcus said. Quietly. From the corner.

"I’m gambling with all our lives," I shot back. "If the North-Wind pack gets in here... you know what they do. They don't just kill. They take."

They wanted the heir.

My blood ran cold.

They didn't know I had an heir. Nobody knew. I didn't have one.

But Noelle had a son.

If those savages found a child in my house. Any child. They wouldn't ask for a DNA test. They would snatch him. Just to hurt me. To use him as leverage.

The thought made my wolf go berserk. Shadow clawed at my ribs.

Protect cub. Protect mate.

"Turn on the floodlights," I ordered Marcus. "Clear the north lawn. I’m going out there."

"You’re going out to the landing zone?" Marcus asked. "In this?"

"I need to see them land. I need to know we are secure."

I walked out of the room. I grabbed my heavy fur-lined coat from the rack. I didn't zip it. I needed to feel the cold. The bite of the wind would distract me from the fire in my veins.

I walked through the lodge.

It was 1:00 AM. The halls were dim.

I passed the East Wing.

I stopped. I couldn't help it. My feet knew the path better than I did.

The guard was there. Sitting in a chair by the door. He jumped up when he saw me.

"Alpha."

"Is it quiet?" I asked.

"Silence, sir. I think they are asleep."

I looked at the heavy oak door of the Blue Room. I imagined her in there. Was she sleeping? Was she dreaming of the human? The weakling who touched her? The man I hated with every fiber of my being?

Or did she dream of me? When I rejected her and threw her out of the pack three years ago.

No.

I turned away. My jaw clenched so hard my teeth ached.

"If the helicopters wake them," I told the guard. "Tell her it’s just supplies. Don't tell her it’s warriors. I don't want her panicked."

"Yes, Alpha."

I went to the back exit. The mudroom.

The memory of her standing there earlier. Shivering. While I stood naked and furious. It hit me like a physical blow. The way her eyes had tracked water down my chest.

The way her scent had spiked.

She was terrified. But she was aroused.

She still wanted me.

But she wouldn't admit it. She would rather read fables about my cruelty than admit that her body still called to mine.

I pushed the door open. I stepped into the hellscape.

The wind hit me instantly. A physical force. Screaming in my ears. Whipping my hair into my eyes. The cold was brutal. It was the kind of cold that killed things that weren't made to survive.

Noelle had survived this. For three years.

How?

How did she keep that softness in a world this hard?

I thought how Elara wanted to semd out in these conditions, for some stupid orchids and wine.

I walked to the center of the north lawn. The floodlights clicked on. Bathing the snow in a harsh, blinding white glare. It looked like an operating table.

I waited.

Ten minutes. Twenty.

My hands were numb. But I didn't put them in my pockets. I stood like a statue.

Then. I heard it.

A rhythmic thwup-thwup-thwup. Cutting through the howl of the wind.

Shadow pricked his ears.

Steel birds, he growled.

Lights appeared in the sky. Swinging wildly. Two black shapes materialized out of the blizzard. Hovering low over the trees. They looked like giant insects fighting a gale.

The first helicopter banked hard. The rotors screamed as the pilot fought the downdraft. Snow swirled up in a massive, blinding cloud. Hitting me like buckshot.

The skids hit the frozen ground with a heavy thud.

The door slid open.

Men poured out.

They were big. Armored. Carrying assault rifles loaded with silver bullets.

They didn't run like panicked civilians. They moved with military precision. Forming a perimeter instantly. Their eyes scanning the tree line.

Riker jumped out last. He ran toward me. Hunched over against the rotor wash.

"Alpha!" he yelled over the noise. "We made it!"

"Barely," I yelled back. "Get your men inside! Secure the perimeter! I want two men on every entrance. Four on the East Wing!"

"The East Wing?" Riker looked confused. "Is that where the breach is?"

"No," I growled. "That is where the priority is. Just do it."

"Yes, sir!"

The second chopper landed. More men. More guns.

I watched them. I counted them. Twenty-four warriors.

My chest loosened. Just a fraction.

With these men. I could hold the lodge. I could hold the line.

Noelle was safe.

The boy. The human’s son. He was safe.

I turned to walk back inside. The wind was biting through my thermal shirt now.

As I reached the door. I looked up at the second floor. At the window of the Blue Room.

The curtains were twitching.

Someone was watching.

I saw a pale face pressed against the glass. Noelle.

She must have heard the noise. She must have seen the black helicopters. The armed men. The weapons.

She looked terrified. Even from here. I could feel her fear. She probably thought I was bringing in an army to hunt her.

I wanted to wave. I wanted to mind-link her and say. It’s for you. It’s all for you.

But I didn't.

I just stared at her for a second. A dark figure in the snow. Surrounded by soldiers.

Then I turned and walked into the house.

Let her be scared. Fear kept people alert. Fear kept people alive.

And right now. Keeping her alive was the only thing that mattered.