Page 126 of The SnowFang Storm

No! I caught the scream, frozen by the wind and snow, but my brain shrieked. No! No! No! Sterling, you don’t know what you’re doing!

FrostFur howled and roared in a din as loud as the helicopter.

Hai! Hai! Hai!

“You will surrender the deeds to this land!” Alan shouted.

“You had your chance at the deeds, but silver is death! You are a coward and if you survive all you will claw from me is your miserable life!”

Sterling swept his hand downward. The steel-claw tips raked through Alan’s shirt. The fabric spilled into ribbons whipped away into the swirling air. Three fine bloody lines welled up on Alan’s chest. Blood droplets pearled over his torso.

Sterling backed up a step. “See I get the invite to the Meeting, Alan.”

Alan grinned as he smeared his naked palm over the blood. He held up the bloody palm. “Blood has been shed, FrostFur! Blood for a Luna! Blood for the future!”

He smeared his bloody palm over Mercedes’ face. She threw her arms up and howled, and the pack answered.

Hai! Hai! Hai!

The pack howled for war and death and destruction.

Hamid’s eyes widened, and he paled, stiff all over like he was about to bolt into the trees. Garrett hooked me with his arm. “Time to go.” He gestured with his other hand to the two pilots in the nose of the helicopter.

Sterling walked towards us, his coat and hair swirling in the snow and wind.

Hai! Hai! Hai!

Asunder

I crumbled onto the floor of the helicopter. My body burned with agony. My mind burned with the memory of Sterling challenging Alan. I vaguely remembered Garret (or had it been Hamid?) stabbing some needles into my good arm and warm fluid spilling into my charred veins. Someone bandaged my arm. The noise and jostling was too much to deal with, even as some painkillers and some weird nut paste tucked into my cheek revived my interest in life.

By the time we got to Fairbanks, I was… coherent. Although I didn’t want to be.

We landed in the dark, two sleek jets on the tarmac reflecting the lights of the airport.

Sterling steadied me with a hand on my good arm as we stood on the tarmac, and I tried to get my bearings. The pilots of the helicopter each raised a hand to Garrett.

“Who are they?” I asked stupidly as we moved away from the whirling blades.

Garrett shrugged. “They owed me a favor. Won’t say a thing about this to anyone, and will scrub everything clean so there’s no trace this happened.”

I did not understand any of this. “Who the hell are you? What are you doing here?”

“Dead and burning rule.” Garrett clapped Sterling on the arm. “You can take it from here.”

He held onto Sterling’s arm a little too long, a heavy look passing between them.

Garrett tugged, expression somber. “I’ll explain this to your mother. As best I can.”

Sterling nodded.

“You,” Garrett pointed at Hamid. “With me.”

Hamid balked, then thought better of challenging Garrett, and did as he was told.

My mind still spun, and kept spinning as we each got on our respective jets, and until I was out of my filthy, torn clothes and in a plush-lined silk robe after using wet naps to scrape off a thick layer of dirt in the jet bathroom.

The reflection in the small mirror was gaunt, gray, battered, dark circles under my eyes, and everything sucked inward and dried out like FrostFur had stolen years off my life.

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