The courtyard of Winterborn Keep was suffocated by the biting chill of a merciless winter.
But the frost was nothing compared to the ice in King Cedric Valerius eyes.
He stood on the grand balcony of the Obsidian Fortress his broad shoulders cloaked in heavy direwolf pelt.
Below him the entire Valerius pack had gathered a sea of hundreds of shifting snarling bodies their breath pluming in the frigid air.
They had come for blood.
In the center of the cobblestone square rising above the snowdrifts was the pyre.
Tied to the massive oak stake was Genevieve Rousseau.
She was not a wolf.
She was merely a human healer from the border village of Oakhaven.
For months she had lived within the fortress walls brought in to tend the ailing elders when the packs own physicians failed.
But today she was no longer a savior.
She was a murderer.
Three nights ago Cedrics younger brother Gideon had collapsed during the winter solstice feast black blood pouring from his lips.
The scent of refined wolfsbane poison so potent it could fell an alpha in minutes had radiated from his goblet.
And it was Genevieve who had poured the wine.
Look at the witch someone spat from the crowd throwing a stone that grazed Genevieves pale cheek.
The thin line of crimson trailed down her jaw stark against her porcelain skin.
She did not flinch.
She did not cry.
She simply lifted her chin her heavy dark hair whipping around her face in the bitter wind.
Her eyes a striking piercing amber locked onto Cedrics up on the balcony.
Cedric gripped the stone railing until his knuckles turned entirely white.
A violent war raged within his cheSt. His inner wolf usually a disciplined commanding force was pacing frantically clawing at his ribs whining in a pitch that gave him a splitting headache.
Ever since Genevieve had arrived at Ironhold his beast had been restless inexplicably drawn to the scent of dried lavender parchment and an underlying unnameable heat that followed her.
But Cedric was the Alpha King.
He was governed by pack law not the whims of a confused beaSt. The evidence was damning.
Lord Alister the packs cunning beta and Cedrics most trusted advisor had personally searched Genevieves apothecary satchel.
He had produced a vial of liquid wolfsbane from its depths holding it up before the council as the ultimate proof of her treason.
The law is absolute my king Alisters smooth oily voice murmured beside Cedric on the balcony.
The older man leaned heavily on his silver tipped cane his eyes gleaming with a strange stark satisfaction as he looked down at the pyre.
She used dark arts to deceive us.
She sought to weaken the royal bloodline.
Gideons spirit demands justice.
Cedrics jaw locked.
He remembered the way Genevieve had looked at him in the dungeons her wrists bound in iron her voice steady despite the bruises on her arMs. I did not poison him Cedric.
I saw Alisters servant Bartholomew hovering near the casks.
You are looking at the wrong hands.
But Bartholomew had conveniently vanished the morning of the murder and Genevieve was the only one left holding the cup.
Bring in the torch Cedric commanded his voice a deep resonant baritone that carried over the wind silencing the howling crowd instantly.
Down in the courtyard Father Thomas the packs spiritual elder stepped forward with a heavy iron torch.
The rags wrapped around its tip were soaked in pitch burning with a ferocious oily black smoke.
Genevieve Rousseau Father Thomas called out his voice solemn.
You have been found guilty of high treason and the murder of Prince Gideon Valerius.
By the ancient laws of the lycanthropy you are condemned to the cleansing fire.
Have you any final words before the flames take you?
The courtyard held its collective breath.
Genevieve did not look at the prieSt. She did not look at the jeering crowd.
Her amber eyes remained fixed on Cedric.
There was no plea for mercy in her gaze only a profound devastating disappointment.
I am not a witch Genevieves voice rang out surprisingly strong and clear carrying across the silent stones.
And I am not a murderer.
The rot in this pack does not come from my herbs Alpha.
It stands right beside you.
Alister stiffened his hand tightening on his cane.
Silence her he barked.
Light the pyre.
Father Thomas hesitated for a fraction of a second glancing up at Cedric.
Cedric closed his eyes the memory of his brothers lifeless body flashing in his mind overpowering the frantic howling of his inner wolf.
He gave a single curt nod.
The priest lowered the torch to the base of the pyre.
The dried kindling and oil soaked logs caught instantly.
A ring of fire erupted around Genevieve.
The flames leaping hungrily toward the sky.
The crowd erupted into vicious cheers the sound of their bloodlust echoing off the obsidian walls of the keep.
The heat radiated upward reaching even the high balcony where Cedric stood.
Thick blinding gray smoke billowed upward obscuring Genevieve from view.
The crackle and hiss of burning wood filled the courtyard.
Cedric turned away unable to watch the woman burn.
His chest felt hollowed out a heavy suffocating weight pressing down on his lungs.
He had avenged his brother yet the victory tasted like ash in his mouth.
It is done my king Alister said softly placing a hand on Cedrics shoulder.
The pack is safe.
But the pack suddenly fell silent.
The roaring cheers abruptly died in their throats replaced by gasps of shock and terrified murmurs.
Cedric frowned turning back toward the railing.
The smoke was beginning to clear carried away by a sudden unnatural gust of wind.
He braced himself to see the charred remains of the traitor.
Instead what he saw made his heart completely stop in his cheSt. The fire was raging but it was entirely wrong.
The flames which should have been a furious destructive orange and black had shifted.
They were now a brilliant blinding sapphire blue laced with threads of molten gold.
And they were not consuming the wood in a chaotic inferno.
They were swirling.
A massive vortex of blue and gold fire spun around the wooden stake creating a perfect protective cylinder.
The heat rolling off the pyre was suddenly immense driving the front rows of the werewolf crowd back making them shield their faces from the searing intensity.
What is this Alister hissed his eyes wide with genuine panic.
What trickery is she pulling?
Cedric could not speak.
His inner wolf previously whining in distress was now roaring in absolute triumphant reverence.
It slammed against the forefront of his mind demanding to be let out demanding to go to her.
Through the spinning veil of golden blue fire a silhouette moved.
The thick rope tying her to the stake turned to white ash and simply blew away.
She stepped forward right through the heart of the inferno.
The crowd shrieked stumbling backward over each other in sheer terror.
Wolves whimpered dropping to the snow their instincts completely overwhelmed by a predator far older and far more terrifying than themselves.
Genevieve emerged from the flames.
Her simple woolen dress had been completely incinerated but she was not naked.
Her body was clad in a shifting ethereal garment of living fire and ash.
Her porcelain skin was entirely unmarked glowing from within with a radiant pulsing heat like an ember just pulled from the hearth.
But it was her hair and her eyes that stole the breath from Cedrics lungs.
Her dark hair was floating defying gravity tipped with flickering flames and her amber eyes had turned into solid pools of liquid gold.
She was not a witch.
She was not just a human.
The air pressure in the courtyard dropped violently.
The scent of burning pitch vanished replaced entirely by an intoxicating overwhelming aroma of crushed spice melting gold and the warm electric ozone of a summer thunderstorm.
It was the scent of a mate.
His mate.
Cedric stumbled back from the railing gasping as the mate bond an ancient unbreakable tether slammed into his soul with the force of a battering ram.
The realization hit him so hard his knees nearly buckled.
He had just sentenced his true fated mate to burn at the stake.
Archers Lord Alister screamed spit flying from his lips.
His composed facade was entirely shattered.
Shoot the demon.
Shoot her now.
On the battlements a dozen pack guards trembling violently under the oppressive aura radiating from the girl knocked silver tipped arrows to their bows aiming down at Genevieve.
No.
Cedrics roar was not human.
It was the earth shattering bellow of the alpha king.
Before anyone could react Cedric vaulted over the stone railing of the balcony.
He plummeted forty feet toward the courtyard below.
Midair his bones cracked and reshaped muscles expanding clothing tearing away.
He hit the cobblestones not as a man but as a massive seven foot tall direwolf.
His fur as black as midnight his eyes glowing a lethal protective crimson.
The impact of his landing shattered the stones beneath his paws sending a shockwave through the courtyard.
He stood directly between Genevieve and the archers lowering his massive head and unleashing a snarl that vibrated through the chests of every werewolf present.
It was an absolute command stand down or die.
The archers immediately lowered their bows dropping to their knees and baring their necks in submission to their alpha.
Lord Alister leaning over the balcony looked completely unhinged.
Cedric have you lost your mind?
She killed your brother.
She is a monster.
Cedric shifted back to his human form ignoring the biting cold against his bare skin.
He stood tall his muscular back acting as a shield for Genevieve who was standing quietly behind him.
The magical flames slowly receding back into her skin leaving her wrapped in a cloak of warm ash and smoke.
She is no monster Cedrics voice boomed echoing off the iron walls.
He turned slowly to look at Genevieve.
The golden glow was fading from her eyes returning to that beautiful piercing amber.
She looked exhausted swaying slightly on her feet the immense magical exertion taking its toll.
Cedric caught her just as her knees gave out pulling her warm soot stained body into his cheSt. The contact sent a shock of pure unadulterated electricity through his veins.
He looked up at the balcony his gaze locking onto Alister with lethal intent.
She is of the Ignis bloodline Cedric announced his voice carrying the heavy weight of ancient history.
The firewalkers an ancient race we thought died out centuries ago.
Magic that pure cannot be corrupted by dark poisons like wolfsbane.
No Alister scoffed gripping his cane.
A convenient excuse for a pretty face.
The vial was in her bag.
A vial placed there by Bartholomew Genevieve whispered her voice hoarse her head resting against Cedrics cheSt. Bartholomew?
Who I saw sneaking out of the fortress through the western tunnels this morning.
Cedrics eyes narrowed.
The western tunnels?
Only a council member had the keys to those gates.
Captain Leif.
Cedric barked looking at the commander of his royal guard.
Take ten of your best trackers hunt down Bartholomew and confine Lord Alister to the high tower until we have the truth.
You dare?
Alister roared drawing a silver blade from his cane.
I am your beta.
I practically raised you.
You raised me to be a king Cedric snarled his eyes flashing red.
And a king protects what is his.
If I find out you orchestrated Gideons death to frame her I will not need a pyre to turn you to ash.
Cedric scooped Genevieve effortlessly into his arms holding her tight against his cheSt. He turned his back on the chaotic murmurs of his pack and carried his mate away from the smoldering ruins of the pyre straight into the heart of Ironhold Keep.
The fire had not destroyed her.
It had unleashed her.
And the real war for the Valerius pack had just begun.
The heavy oak doors of the alphas private quarters slammed shut sealing them away from the chaotic uproar of the keep.
The kings bedchamber was a cavernous room of dark stone tapestries and a massive hearth where a fire crackled fighting a desperate battle against the winter draft.
Cedric gently laid Genevieve on the center of the massive furs that draped his bed.
She looked impossibly fragile against the dark pelts her skin smeared with gray ash her breathing shallow.
Yet beneath the soot that undeniable pulsing warmth of her Ignis bloodline still radiated into the room.
Cedric backed away his hands trembling violently.
The adrenaline of the shift and the sheer terror of what he had almost done were crashing down on him.
He the alpha king the most feared predator in the northern reach dropped to his knees at the edge of the bed burying his face in his hands.
A raw guttural sound of anguish ripped from his throat.
I almost killed you he choked out his voice entirely stripped of its royal authority.
He was just a man completely broken by the horrific reality of his own blindness.
I looked at the pyre and I gave the order.
My mate I ordered the death of my own soul.
A soft rustle of furs sounded.
Genevieve shifted pushing herself up on her elbows.
She did not look at him with hatred nor with the blind adoration typical of a wolf to their alpha.
She looked at him with the centuries old weariness of a woman whose bloodline had been hunted to the brink of extinction.
You acted as a king must Cedric she said her voice raspy from the smoke but steady.
You were presented with irrefutable proof but a king must also learn when his eyes deceive him.
Cedric lifted his head his crimson eyes locking onto her amber ones.
The mate bond hummed between them an invisible wire pulled taut vibrating with every breath they took.
Why did not you tell me?
Why hide what you are?
Because the last time the Ignis revealed themselves the wolves hunted us for our warmth she replied softly.
You know the histories the great purges of the fifteenth century.
We were branded as demons by the Church of the Silver Moon.
My family survived by blending into the shadows posing as simple apothecaries and midwives.
We traded our crowns of fire for mortar and pestle.
She paused coughing lightly before continuing.
Alister knew.
I do not know how but he found out.
He cornered me in the library three weeks ago demanding I use my blood to forge a weapon against the neighboring packs.
When I refused he warned me that an apothecary was easily replaced but a scapegoat that was invaluable.
Before Cedric could respond a frantic pounding hammered against the heavy oak doors.
My king the muffled urgent voice of Captain Leif bled through the thick wood.
Cedric was on his feet in an instant his features hardening back into the merciless mask of the alpha.
He strode to the door and threw it open.
Leif stood there his usually pristine silver armor stained with mud and a dark fresh splat of blood.
His face was entirely devoid of color.
We tracked Bartholomew sire.
He never made it out of the western tunnels.
You have him?
Cedric demanded.
We have his corpse Leif grimaced.
His throat was cut from ear to ear with a serrated blade.
A professional kill.
But that is not the worst of it my king.
We found a missive stuffed inside his tunic a signed contract.
Leif handed Cedric a thick bloodstained piece of parchment.
Cedric unrolled it his eyes scanning the elegant razor sharp calligraphy.
His blood turned ice.
The Sterling Brotherhood Cedric whispered the name dropping like a lead weight in the quiet room.
Genevieve sat up sharply.
Even as a human she knew that name.
The Sterling Brotherhood was no myth.
They were a ruthless highly organized private syndicate of human mercenaries and dark market alchemists led by a man named Arthur Pendleton.
They were real.
They were heavily armed and they answered to no crown only to gold.
Alister did not just hire them to kill Gideon Cedric growled reading further down the parchment his fangs elongating in pure unadulterated fury.
He promised them the iron mines of the northern reach.
He promised them unfettered access to our lands in exchange for a coup.
Sire Leif interrupted his voice shaking.
When I went to the high tower to officially detain Lord Alister the cell was completely empty.
The four guards stationed there were found dead poisoned.
Alister is gone.
A low terrifying rumble began deep in Cedrics chest vibrating the very stones of the chamber.
He had been betrayed by the man he considered a father.
Suddenly a loud agonizing scream echoed from the courtyard outside followed by another and another.
The frantic ringing of the keeps warning bells began to toll shattering the winter silence.
Cedric rushed to the balcony window throwing open the heavy shutters.
Down in the courtyard where the ashes of Genevieves pyre still smoldered absolute chaos had erupted.
But it was not an invading army.
The pack members dozens of them were dropping to the cobblestones clutching their throats violently retching black blood.
The feast Genevieve gasped hobbling to the window to stand beside Cedric.
Gideon was the only target.
Alister did not just poison one goblet.
He poisoned the entire winter reserve of the mead vats.
The realization was a physical blow.
The refined wolfsbane was not meant to be an isolated assassination.
It was a mass culling.
Alister was wiping out the loyalists to seize a weakened terrified pack.
I will tear him apart Cedric snarled his eyes bleeding into a luminous deadly red.
He turned to Leif.
Rally the unpoisoned guards.
Lock down the gates.
No one leaves.
You cannot fight an invisible poison with swords Cedric Genevieve said grabbing his arm.
Her grip was startlingly strong her skin burning hot against his cold flesh.
Wolfsbane of that concentration they have minutes before their hearts stop.
Then what do I do?
The king pleaded looking at his mate not with command but with desperate hope.
Genevieves amber eyes flickered the golden hue bleeding back into her irises.
Fire purifies she whispered.
Bring me to them.
The great hall of Ironhold was a scene from a nightmare.
Over two hundred wolves the strongest warriors the elders the mothers lay thrashing on the cold stone floor the scent of death and toxic black bile suffocating the air.
At the far end of the hall standing upon the raised dais near the alphas throne was Lord Alister.
He was no longer leaning on his cane.
He stood perfectly straight surrounded by twenty rogue guards whose armor bore the broken gold insignia of the Sterling Brotherhood.
It did not have to be this way my pack Alister shouted over the groans of the dying.
He held up a large crystal flask filled with a glowing green liquid.
I hold the antidote swear your loyalty to me reject the weak boy who sits upon the throne and you shall live to see a new prosperous dawn for Ironhold.
The heavy oak doors of the great hall shattered inward with an explosive crack that deafened the room.
Splinters of wood rained down as Cedric stepped over the threshold his direwolf form partially shifted.
He was massive his claws digging deep into the stone his fangs bared his eyes radiating a murderous predatory light.
Behind him flanked by Captain Leif and a small vanguard of loyalists walked Genevieve.
Alister.
Cedrics roar shook the iron chandeliers hanging from the vaulted ceiling.
Your treason ends tonight.
Alister sneered stepping behind a line of Sterling mercenaries who raised crossbows loaded with silver bolts.
You are too late boy.
Half your pack is already dead.
The rest will follow in minutes.
Surrender the crown or watch your kingdom rot from the inside out.
My kingdom does not kneel to cowards Cedric snarled.
With blinding speed Cedric lunged forward.
The mercenaries fired.
Silver bolts tore through the air.
Two struck Cedric in the shoulder burning into his flesh with a sickening hiss but the alpha king barely flinched.
He crashed into the front line of mercenaries like a battering ram snapping bone and throwing grown men across the hall as if they were rag dolls.
Leif and the loyal guards engaged the rest the hall erupting into a violent clash of steel snarling wolves and screams of pain.
But Cedric was vastly outnumbered and the silver in his wounds was slowing him down.
Alister watched with a cold smile drawing his own silver laced sword waiting for the king to fall.
Genevieve did not wait.
She walked into the center of the great hall right among the thrashing dying bodies of the wolves who had cheered for her death just an hour prior.
She closed her eyes taking a deep shuddering breath.
Fire purifies.
She reached deep within her chest past the human frailty past the fear and grasped the ancient dormant spark of the Ignis bloodline.
She ripped it wide open.
A shockwave of absolute blistering heat exploded from her body.
The battle around her instantly halted.
Mercenaries and loyalists alike fell to their knees gasping for air as the oxygen in the room was superheated.
From Genevieves feet a ring of brilliant sapphire blue fire erupted racing across the stone floor like spilled water.
But this fire did not burn the tapestries.
It did not scorch the wood.
The blue flames washed over the dying wolves.
Where the fire touched them the black veins on their necks vanished.
The wolves gasped their eyes snapping open clear and bright.
The magical flames were literally burning the toxic wolfsbane from their bloodstreams leaving them completely unharmed healed by the searing kiss of the fire walker.
Alister watched in absolute paralyzed horror as his ultimate weapon was undone in seconds.
No.
Kill her.
Kill the witch he shrieked shoving a mercenary forward.
But it was too late.
The wolves who had just been dying on the floor were now rising and they were furious.
Hundreds of golden and yellow eyes locked onto Lord Alister.
A low collective growl of a betrayed pack filled the room drowning out all other sounds.
Cedric bleeding but completely unbowed stepped out of the fray his eyes fixed on his former beta.
Alister scrambled backward tripping over the steps of the dais his sword clattering away.
Cedric please.
I did it for the pack.
The humans are encroaching.
We needed the Sterling gold to build an army.
Cedric picked up Alisters silver sword.
The kings face was devoid of mercy.
You brought human poison into my home Cedric said his voice terrifyingly calm.
You murdered my brother.
You tried to burn my mate.
There is no trial for you Alister.
Only the end.
With one swift brutal arc Cedric swung the heavy blade.
Silence fell over the great hall.
Sterling mercenaries seeing their employer dead and surrounded by hundreds of furious fully healed werewolves immediately dropped their weapons falling to their knees in absolute surrender.
Cedric dropped the bloody sword.
He ignored the kneeling mercenaries.
He ignored the cheering of his revived pack.
He walked straight to the center of the hall where Genevieve stood the blue fire slowly receding back into her skin leaving her breathless and trembling.
The alpha king dropped to one knee before her right in the center of the bloodstained hall.
He took her soot covered blistered hand and pressed it to his forehead bowing his head in total submission.
My mate Cedric spoke his voice carrying the absolute devotion of his soul.
My savior.
My Luna.
Slowly the rest of the pack followed.
The guards the elders the warriors one by one they dropped to their knees bowing their heads to the woman they had tried to burn.
Genevieve looked out at a sea of kneeling wolves then down at the powerful king at her feet.
She traced the jawline of her mate feeling the fierce protective thrum of his heartbeat.
She had stepped into the flames a condemned human but she stepped out of the ashes a queen.
And in the harsh unforgiving lands of the Northern Reach a new era had just ignited.
