The wastelands held a stillness that felt wrong—the kind of silence that comes when every living thing has fled or hidden, sensing a predator more dangerous than themselves.
Reign crouched between jagged spires of black ice, her breath misting silver in the frigid air as her enhanced senses swept the terrain around her. Three days had passed since her victory over the frostfang pack, and the rumors were spreading with wildfire speed through every settlement and trading post in the borderlands.
Alpha Queen. Ice Witch. The Usurper who commands winter itself.
Each whispered name carried more weight than the last, transforming her from exiled omega to legend to threat that demanded the attention of those in power. And the Council of Elders, she was learning, did not tolerate threats to thei
