Chapter 9 The hunt

Behind her, the sound of the hunt intensified. “I see her tracks,” Kael's voice came through the skeletal frozen trees, filled with sickening excitement. “Look at the stride, she is staggering. The little rabbit is running out of air.”

“Don't kill her with the first strike, Kael.” Torin's voice answered his heavy crush on put on the snow. “The alpha said to make it look like a beast killed her.”

“I want to see how she can crawl with a hamstring leg.”

Astraea pushed through a wall of frozen barrier, the thorns ripping her already torn tunic. She burst out of the bush and into a clearing and stopped dead.

The ground simply ended. She stood at the edge of a massive cliff of blue ice. Below her, a river of slush, there was no bridge, no path. Just the big frozen mouth of the cliff.

“End of the line, Star Maiden,” a voice said from behind.

Astraea turned around and almost slipped. The three enforcers, Kael Torin and Silas came out from the tree line. They didn't shift into their wolf form yet. They wanted to kill her as men.

Silas leaned against a dead pine tree, casually throwing a silver tiipped dagger into the air and catching it by the handle.

“You made us walk a long way, Astraea,” Torin said, his breath a mock sigh. “My boots are ruined. Do you know how much Jaxon pays for this? More than your life is worth, that's for sure.”

“Why?” Astraea whispered her voice cracking. She clutched her arms over her chest, her fingers digging into the raw branded X on her shoulder.

“I grew up with you, we ran in the same field as pups. How can you do this for a man who does not care if you live or die?”

Kael let out a harsh loud laugh, coming closer. He was a large man with a scar running through his eyebrow, the scar from a border fight that Astraea had helped him heal.

“Jaxon is our Alpha, Astraea.” Kael said, his eyes mocking. “He provides… he gives us meat, he gives us war, he gives us a future. What did you give us? Bad luck.”

“I never did anything but love that pack,” she cried, her voice rising in desperation.

“And look where it got you,” Torin snorted. “Begging for your life at the edge of the world. You are a defect, Astraea, a mistake of the moon. Verena used to tell us how you used to cry in the dark because you were scared of your own wolf. Well, you don't need to be scared anymore, because after today, there won't be anything left for you to be afraid of.”

“Is it true?” Astraea said, turning to Silas as the next in command after boyce. “Did Jaxon really tell you to kill me or was it Verena?”

Silas stopped throwing the knife. He looked at her, his face growing cold. “Does it matter? In the south, their world is law, and their law says you are a mistake, they want to remove from their pack. Jaxon wants to start a new era without the presence of your failure hanging over his shoulder.”

He began walking towards her, his heavy boots crunching over the snow. “But don't worry, we'll tell them you went out brave. We'll tell them a group of feral northern wolves tore you apart. It will be a nice little story for the evening fire.”

“Stay back,” Astraea warned, her feet slipping on the edge of the cliff.

A few ice fell over the side, disappearing into the dark water below.

“What are you going to do, Omega?” kael mocked removing his blade. “Jump? The fall won't kill you, but the ice water would turn your blood to slush in ten seconds. Or you can stay and let us make this quick. What do you say?”

Astraea shook her head, her eyes wide and filled with tears that froze before they could fall. She reached out a shaking hand, a silent plea for mercy, but the gesture only made them laugh louder.

“Oh look, she's begging,” Torin laughed, clapping his hands together. “Where is the special connection to the Alpha? Oh wait, Jaxon is probably in bed with your sister right now. He's forgot you even exist.”

“I bet she taste like, ice,” kael Mocked. “Let's see if our blood is as red as a real wolf.”

He came forward with a sharp jab of his spear, the tip grazing Astraea's thigh, tearing her tunic and opening a fresh wound.

Astraea let out a silent gasp, her body moving backward.

“Oops,” Kael grinned, “my hand slipped. It is the cold, you see, it makes the hands unstable.”

“My turn,” Torin said he didn't use a weapon, he came closer and gave Astraea a heavy brutal kick in her ribs. The sound of the impact was sickening.

Astraea fell to the ground, the world spinning. The snow on the ground felt like a soft bed. She was so tired, she no longer felt the cold anymore. She just felt a heavy sensation whispering to her to stop fighting and embrace the darkness.

“Come on, Astraea, fight back,” Silas taunted, leaning over her. He grabbed her by the hair, forcing her to look at him. “Give us a growl, give us something.”

He threw her head back on the ice. Astraea laid there her vision, tunneling. She could see the three of them standing against the white sky. They looked like giants there. They looked like death itself.

“Finish it,” Kael Torin said, his voice getting bored. “The Alpha would be expecting us back for the second feast. I don't want to miss it because we're playing with a corpse.”

Kael nodded his face hard, he gripped his spear with both hands, raising it above his head. The tip of the spear aimed straight for Astraea's throat.

“Goodbye, Astraea,” Kael said. “Tell the ancestors the Shadow fang pack sends their regards.”

Astraea looked up at the descending spear, she had no voice to scream, no strength to move. She was a broken girl at the frozen cliff, surrounded by the laughter of men who had once been her brothers.

But as the spear began to come down, the north exploded. The enforcers stopped, their laughter dying in their throats.

Kael's spear hesitated. “What was that?”

“The wind,” Silas said, though his face had gone pale. “It's just the wind.”