Chapter 239 Whispers in the pass: Klaus's POV

Chapter 239 Whispers in the pass: Klaus's POV
The blizzard hit the lower creek settlement before midnight, turning the pine trees into silent white pillars.

Inside the storage shed near the river road, three wooden salt barrels sat open on the dirt floor. Jace stood over them with a small iron lantern, sifting through the coarse grey crystals with his bare fingers.

He pulled out a flat piece of iron no bigger than a coin, stamped with three notched lines.

"Triad intelligence mark," Jace said softly, handing the metal tag to me. "It was buried in the second barrel from Vane-Mark’s shipment. Someone in this village is receiving messages from Kaelen’s officers across the river."

"Who handled the wagon?" I asked.

"A local trader named Marlen," Zoey answered, stepping into the dim yellow light of the lantern. Her wool cloak was dusted with fresh snow, her bow held low at her side. "He runs the supply hut near the old hunter’s trail. He has been taking extra salt allotments for three weeks."

"Valerius," I ordered, turning toward the heavy warrior by the door. "Take three men and secure Marlen’s storehouse from the front. Zoey and I will cut off the back trail through the woods."

We moved out into the storm.

The wind was a howling wall of white. Within five minutes, the blizzard blew so hard that Valerius’s lanterns vanished behind us. The temperature plunged instantly, freezing the breath on my collar and turning the pine branches into sharp, cracking weapons.

We reached Marlen’s timber cabin on the edge of the creek woods.

The back door sat wide open, swinging wildly in the wind on rusted iron hinges. Footprints led away into the dark, already filling fast with fresh drifts of powdery snow.

"He ran," Zoey said, crouching low in the storm to touch the edge of a boot print. "He is heading up the old hunter’s trail toward the river cliff. He has a messenger bird cage."

"We move now," I said.

We pushed hard up the steep, icy incline. The snow was knee-deep in the cuts, pulling at our boots with every step. The wind blew so fierce that my vision narrowed to three feet of white darkness ahead of me.

Fifty yards up the ridge, a shadowy figure scrambled over a fallen pine log, clutching a small wooden cage against his coat.

"Marlen!" I roared through the storm.

The trader panicked. He tried to unlatch the tiny wire door to release his pigeon, but his hands were too stiff from the biting cold.

Zoey moved like a shadow through the snow drifts, cutting off his path against the sheer rock face. She drew her short hunting knife, catching him by the collar and shoving him hard against the icy granite wall.

I stepped up, grabbing the wooden cage from his shaking hands before he could open it. Inside sat a small grey bird with a leather capsule strapped to its leg.

"Please!" Marlen gasped, his face blue from the frost, his eyes wide with terror as he looked at my iron broadsword. "Kaelen’s men have my brother in the southern mines! They forced me to send maps of the crossroads gate!"

"How many messages have you sent?" I demanded, my voice cutting through the howl of the wind like a steel axe.

"Only one!" Marlen sobbed, sinking to his knees in the deep snow drift. "The sketch of the timber walkway! That is all! I swear it on my life!"

I pulled the leather capsule off the bird's leg, opening the small parchment inside. It was a crude drawing of our gate house, showing six guards and a weak spot near the eastern ditch.

"You are going to write a new note, Marlen," I said, holding his coat collar in my iron grip. "You are going to tell Kaelen that we have eighty broadswords at the gate, three barrels of powder buried under the bridge, and that the pass is impassable until summer."

"And if I do?" Marlen whimpered.

"Then you live to see the spring," I growled, shoving him toward the path. "Zoey, take his message pouch."

Before we could turn back down the ridge, the storm exploded into a blinding whiteout. The trail behind us vanished under a massive drift of snow sliding off the upper ledge, burying the track under five feet of packed ice.

"The path is blocked!" Zoey called out, her voice barely carrying over the deafening roar of the gale. "We cannot get back down to the village in this!"

"There is an old stone hunter's hut fifty yards up the rock cut," I shouted back, grabbing her right arm to keep her steady against the fierce wind. "Move!"

We dragged Marlen through the blinding white wall, pushing through the narrow rock gap until the low, stone walls of an abandoned shelter appeared in the darkness.

I kicked the heavy oak door open, shoved Marlen inside, and slammed the wood shut against the storm, throwing the iron bar across the frame.

The room went instantly quiet, though the cold inside was lethal.

The hut was small—six feet wide, built of thick granite blocks with a small stone hearth in the corner. Snow was blowing through the cracks in the roof, and the air was cold enough to freeze water in seconds.

"Marlen, sit in that corner and do not move," I ordered, throwing a heavy wool blanket from the corner shelf over the shaking trader.

I turned to Zoey.

She had dropped her hunting bow against the stone wall. Her hands were shaking violently, her lips pale blue, her dark hair frozen into thin white needles around her face. She tried to unbuckle her wet leather chest piece, but her fingers were too stiff to work the iron buckles.

"Zoey," I said softly, stepping directly into her space.

I did not ask. I reached out and unbuckled her wet leather armor, letting the cold steel and leather drop to the stone floor. I pulled off her soaked wool cloak, leaving her in her thin black tunic.

I sat down on the low wooden bench by the empty hearth, pulling her straight down onto my lap.

Zoey gasped as I pulled her chest flat against mine, wrapping my heavy, dry bear-skin cloak completely around the two of us, sealing out the room's freezing air.

"Klaus..." she whispered, her voice trembling as the overwhelming heat of my body hit her cold skin.

"Hold still," I commanded quietly, my arms locking tight around her waist, pinning her small frame against my chest.

She was shivering so hard her teeth clicked, but as my Alpha heat seeped into her flesh, her breathing began to slow. She did not pull away. She buried her face into the side of my neck, her small hands coming up under my cloak to grab the thick fabric of my shirt, holding on to me like I was the only solid thing in the middle of the storm.

"You are burning hot," she breathed, her warm exhalations brushing the bare skin of my throat, sending a sharp spark of heat straight down my spine.

"I am keeping you alive," I growled softly, my hand moving up to cup the back of her head, my fingers tangling in her damp hair, holding her close against my pulse.

"Is that the only reason?" she asked, her voice quiet, raw, and hesitant in the dark hut.

I pulled back half an inch, looking down into her dark eyes. She was staring up at me, her cheeks flushed red from the sudden warmth, her dark lips parted, inches from mine.

"You know it is not," I murmured, my thumb moving across her cheekbone with a slow, heavy pressure that made her breath hitch. "I told you yesterday. You belong at my side."

Zoey looked up into my eyes, her hand tightening on my shirt, pulling herself up until her lips were brushing against my jaw.

"Then do not let me go, Klaus," she whispered against my skin. "Not in this storm. Not in the spring."

"I am not letting you go," I said, my dark voice thick with a fierce, absolute promise.

I tightened my cloak around her, holding her against my chest as the blizzard howled outside the stone walls, waiting for the morning light.