Chapter 252 Road home: Klaus's POV

Chapter 252 Road home: Klaus's POV
The stone courtyard of the Red River gatehouse was loud with the sound of iron hammers and falling timber.

By noon, the blizzard had passed. A cold, clear sun hung over the eastern ridge, turning the snow drifts into blinding sheets of white.
Sixty of my warriors worked in the cold air, pulling broken timber off the gatehouse roof and replacing the shattered iron hinges on the main outer doors.

I stood on the stone ramparts above the main archway, looking down at the river pass.

Below, twenty spearmen had already stacked the timber barricades along the eastern bank. The river flowed black and fast around the wooden pilings, carrying the last traces of Vane’s blood out toward the eastern plains.

Valerius walked up the narrow stone stairs, his iron boots crunching on the frost-covered steps. He had a heavy leather scroll case tucked under his arm and a fresh wool bandage wrapped around his left forearm where a saber had grazed him.

"The lower storehouse is cleared, Alpha," Valerius said, stopping two paces away and offering a short nod. "We found fifty sacks of dried oats, ten kegs of salt beef, and three arm-racks of iron-tipped spears. Vane left enough supply behind to feed a garrison through three winters."

"Good," I said, keeping my gaze fixed on the eastern horizon. "Because thirty of your men are staying here."

Valerius didn't blink. He just straightened his broad shoulders. "Who leads the post?"

"You do," I told him, turning to look him in the eye. "I'm leaving you with Bram's second-in-command, Erik, and thirty heavy spearmen. You will keep twenty men on the stone gate at all times. Ten men patrol the pine ridges with Zoey's scouts."

I reached into my belt pouch and pulled out an iron seal stamped with the mark of the North Pack—a howling wolf over crossed broadswords. I pressed it into his gloved palm.

"If any eastern warlord brings more than five horsemen to the river, you close the iron gates and blow the high horn," I commanded. "No one crosses the Red River without my permission."

Valerius closed his fingers tight around the heavy iron seal. "The river won't fall while I breathe, Alpha."

"I know it won't," I grunted, resting my heavy hand on his shoulder. "That’s why I’m leaving you in charge."

I turned and walked back down the stone stairs into the noisy courtyard.

Zoey stood near the supply wagons, talking to Jax and three young ridge scouts. She had her thick wool cloak pinned back over her shoulders, her short bow slung across her back. Her leather face-mask was pulled down, revealing the sharp, clean lines of her jaw and the cold focus in her dark eyes.

Even covered in soot and trail dirt, she moved with the deadly grace of a hunter who owned every foot of the mountain ground beneath her boots.

Through the blood bond humming in my chest, I felt her attention snap to me before I even took three steps toward her. Her pulse vibrated against mine—calm, steady, and fierce.

"Jax has the ridge patrols set," she said as I stopped beside her.
"Three lookouts on the high crags, two teams rotating through the timber line every four hours. Nothing moves on the eastern road without us knowing."

"Valerius takes the main garrison command," I told her. "We head back to the main fortress before nightfall."

"The main camp needs us," Zoey agreed, looking west toward the high pass. "The elders will want to know the eastern threat is dead before the heavy mountain snows block the upper trails."

"Let them ask," I growled softly. "The dead wagons and Vane's body at the bottom of the river will answer them."

I turned to Bram, who was bark-stripping a heavy pine log near the outer wall to reinforce the gate post.

"Bram!" I shouted over the noise of the iron hammers. "Gather forty warriors and the supply wagons. We march back to the mountain fortress in ten minutes!"

"Aye, Alpha!" Bram shouted back, driving his hand-axe into the pine log and wiping his forehead with the back of his dirty sleeve. "The men are ready for warm soup and real hearth fires!"

Ten minutes later, the column formed up in the snow outside the timber archway.

Forty warriors walked in a tight double line behind the four supply wagons, their iron shields strapped to their backs. The forty horses we had taken from Vane’s camp were tethered in the middle of the line, their thick necks low as they pulled against the heavy snow.

I stood at the edge of the Red River bridge, looking back one last time.

Valerius and his thirty spearmen stood atop the stone gatehouse, their dark iron armor standing out against the white stone. Above them, the black banner of the North Pack snapped loudly in the freezing mountain wind.

"Hold the river, Valerius!" I called out.

Valerius raised his iron spear high in silent salute.

I turned my back on the east and set my boots onto the snow-covered mountain trail heading west.

Zoey walked right beside me. Her shoulder brushed against mine as we stepped into the deep shadows of the pine gorge. The cold mountain wind howled through the high crags above us, but inside my chest, the blood bond burned bright and warm.

The eastern warlord was dead. His army was broken and scattered across the snow. The eastern pass was locked behind iron doors and thirty heavy spears.

For the first time since my father died, the North Pack’s borders were quiet.

"How long until we reach the main fortress?" Zoey asked, her dark eyes looking up at the high ridge where the sun was beginning to drop behind the granite peaks.

"Six hours of hard marching," I answered, my fingers brushing against hers beneath our leather cloaks. The silver signet ring on her hand felt solid and cold against my skin. "We’ll reach the timber gates before the midnight watch."

"Good," Zoey said, a faint, rare smile touching the corner of her lips. "I want to see the look on the elders' faces when we bring Vane's horses through the main gate."

I let out a low, dark chuckle that echoed through the quiet pine trees.

"So do I, Luna," I grunted, tightening my grip on my broadsword hilt as we pushed deeper into the western pass. "So do I."