Chapter 189 Ultimate Sacrifice

Chapter 189 Ultimate Sacrifice

Calix Pov

The dark green line pulled my wrists down until my palms pressed flat against Maddie’s shoulders, and the cold mountain drain hit my chest bone with a heavy shock. I could feel my own tracking light moving out through my skin, running down her linen sleeves and sinking straight into the iron pillar. Maddie's chin dropped toward her chest, and her breath came out in small, wet gasps that rattled the gray frost on the quarry floor.

"Take my frames instead, Vespera," I shouted across the limestone ring and I planted my heavy hunting boots into the wide rock cracks. My jaw muscles locked together so tight that my teeth split a small piece of loose skin inside my lip, and the taste of salt hit my throat. "The contract requires a leader line to anchor the low land lease. I am the true Alpha of WolfTrail, and my chest has the valley strength to feed your iron post until the autumn moon ends."

"The mountain ink belongs to the female anchor, boy," Vespera answered and she lifted her iron staff, her fingers shifting down the smooth metal shaft. The purple ash in the stone dishes gave a sudden, low hiss as the green light grew wider around our arms. "The contract does not switch names because a valley mate is shaking on the stone. If you hold her frame for another minute, the sinkhole will suck your own marrow down to the gravel."

"The mate bond is one anchor now."

"The anchor is breaking your ribs."

"It will not break our line," I muttered.

"Calix, let go of my sleeve," Maddie whispered.

She tried to push her elbows back against my chest, but her fingers were still stuck fast to the iron post, and the thick black scars on her forearms were glowing with a dull purple heat. Her face looked very white in the gray morning mist, and her legs were trembling so hard that her knees knocked against the base of the pillar.

"I am not letting go, Maddie," I vowed and I shoved my shoulder closer to the metal post, forcing my left hand down until my palm touched her cold fingers. "We did not survive the famine months just to leave our bones in a quarry hole. We share the land, and we share the anchor."

"The contract will take both of us."

"Then it takes both of us together."

"The pups are safe," she murmured.

"The pack needs their leaders," I insisted.

I squeezed her small hand against the rough iron, and the second our skin locked together over the black ink, the green drain stopped moving downward. A sudden yellow flare shot out from the gold spear mark between my ribs, meeting the purple tracks on her collarbone right at the center line. The two colors did not fight this time; they mixed together into a bright white heat that ran straight into the iron pillar like a heavy hammer blow.

The tall iron post gave a loud, metallic crack that split the stone block right down the center line. The deep limestone sinkhole behind Vespera burst with a sudden cloud of white dust, and the six flat stone dishes shattered into small pieces that scattered across the quarry yard. My hands tore free from her shoulders instantly, and Maddie dropped sideways into the soft moss, her breath coming out in one long, shaky rush as the black scars on her arms turned back to pale skin.

Vespera stumbled back three paces, her heavy iron boots sliding across the broken glass until her back hit the silver shield line of her warriors. Her helmet tilted sideways where the white flash had scorched the front plate, and her yellow eyes looked down at her empty crystal vial with a dark, heavy stare.

"You broke the ancient lease," Vespera growled and she raised her iron staff to steady her frame against the guard line.

"The lease is paid in full," I reported and I lifted Maddie up from the moss, keeping my right arm wrapped tight around her waist to hold her steady. "The iron post is split, and your gold ink is lying in the dirt path. Take your hundred warriors back to the high ridge before my hunters use their spears."

"The valley belongs to us now," Maddie added.

"You cannot hold the low land without a contract."

"We are holding it today," I stated.

The hundred peak warriors did not step forward to fill the gap. They lowered their silver shields and looked toward the broken stone table, their iron boots shifting back toward the northern trail as the gray fog began to clear from the pine branches. Rex stepped out from the brush with his hunting spear held high, and the seventeen wolves of WolfTrail formed a solid line behind our shoulders, their feet planted deep into the dirt path.

Vespera read the clearing carefully, her thin lips pressing together until her mouth formed a flat, gray line under her metal nose piece. She turned her horse toward the logging gap, but she stopped right at the white edge of the salt border and looked back down at my face.

"The three months mean nothing now, valley Alpha," Vespera warned and she lifted her left hand toward the highest mountain peak. "You think you won a small victory because you split our iron post with your mate bond. The true king still sleeps beneath the mountain rock, and his lungs will take the first breath before the winter ice touches your cabin roofs."