Chapter 1 - The Blood on the SnowThe wolf did not roar; it moved like a ghost across the frozen crust of snow.
When the giant beast lunged, Alex reacted out of raw, cowardly instinct. He didn't shield Victoria. He didn't throw himself in front of his sleeping wife. Instead, he shoved her unconscious body straight toward the oncoming jaws, using the woman he had sworn to protect as a human shield while he scrambled backward into the darkness.
The heavy thud of Victoria’s body hit the icy drift. Alex fell onto his hands and knees, hyperventilating, his blood running colder than the sub-zero air. He waited for the tearing of flesh, the sickening crunch of bone, the helpless screams of his wife being torn apart.
It was the outcome he had wanted anyway, wasn't it? If the wolf ate her, he wouldn't even have to worry about her frozen body being found by the police. Nature would erase his crime.
But the screams never came.
Alex squeezed his eyes shut, his breath coming in ragged, white plumes. Silence heavy as lead settled over the forest. Slowly, trembling uncontrollably, he opened his eyes.
What he saw shattered his sanity.
The massive gray wolf—easily standing four feet at the shoulder with eyes like burning amber—was kneeling in the snow. Its massive snout was resting gently against Victoria’s cheek. And Victoria...
Victoria was opening her eyes.
There was no confusion in her gaze. No panic. No grogginess from the heavy dose of liquid sleeping pills Alex had secretly poured into her chamomile tea just two hours ago.
She sat up smoothly, brushing the snow from her coat with calm, deliberate fingers. She reached out a bare hand and ran her fingers through the thick, coarse fur of the wolf’s neck. The terrifying predator let out a low, vibrating purr, closing its eyes under her touch like a loyal hound.
"You really are a coward, aren't you, Alex?" Victoria’s voice cut through the freezing night, crisp, clear, and devoid of any warmth.
Alex’s mouth opened, but no sound came out. He backed away on his hands and knees, his boots slipping against the ice. "V-Victoria? You... you were asleep..."
"Asleep?" Victoria let out a quiet, melodic laugh that sent a shiver straight down Alex’s spine. She stood up, tall and unbothered by the biting wind. The gigantic wolf stood beside her, its amber eyes fixed entirely on Alex’s throat.
"Did you really think I didn't notice the bitter taste in my tea?" she asked, stepping toward him. Each of her footsteps crunched softly in the snow. The wolf mirrored her pace, step for step. "Did you really think I didn't see the way you looked at your phone every time Elena texted you?"
Alex felt his heart stop dead in his chest. Elena.
"You... you know?" Alex stammered, his voice cracking.
"I’ve known for six months, darling," Victoria whispered, leaning down until her face was inches from his pale, sweat-slicked forehead. "I watched you plan this trip. I watched you buy the sedatives on the dark web. I even watched you check the weather forecast to make sure it would be cold enough to freeze a human body in less than two hours."
"Victoria, please—" Alex wept, tears instantly freezing on his cheeks. "It was a mistake! I was confused! I love you, I swear I love you—"
"Liar," she hissed gently.
She tapped the wolf’s flank. The beast let out a low, guttural growl that vibrated through the frozen earth beneath Alex’s palms.
"This is Fenris," Victoria said smoothly, stroking the wolf's ears. "He doesn't belong to the wild, Alex. He belongs to my family's estate. Did you really think you were the only one with secrets? Did you really think you married a helpless, naive heiress?"
Alex remembered then—bits and pieces of stories Victoria’s late grandfather used to tell about their family's vast private hunting grounds deep in the northern wilderness, stories of trained attack beasts bred for aristocratic protection. He had dismissed them as fairy tales.
"What... what are you going to do to me?" Alex choked out, urine soaking through his thermal pants as absolute terror took hold.
Victoria smiled. It was a cold, cruel expression he had never seen on her face in their seven years of marriage.
"I'm not going to kill you, Alex. That would be too easy. The police would find your car abandoned by the road. They’d investigate. They’d question Elena. It’s so... messy."
She reached into her heavy coat pocket and pulled out a small, metallic device—a satellite tracker—and dropped it into the snow near his knee.
"In twenty minutes, a group of men will arrive here," Victoria continued. "They work for my family. They specialize in making people... disappear from public records. You will sign over every share of your company, every bank account, and the title to our house. And then?"
She leaned in, her breath smelling faintly of mint and iron.
"And then you will live in a cage on the estate, right next to Fenris’s pack. Until I decide what to do with Elena."
Alex’s eyes widened in horror. "Leave Elena out of this! She has nothing to do with—"
SNAP.
Victoria kicked Alex hard in the collarbone, sending him sprawling flat onto his back in the freezing drift. The wolf instantly pinned him, placing one heavy, razor-clawed paw directly onto Alex’s chest, pressing down until his ribs groaned under the weight. The beast’s hot, carnivorous breath fanned over Alex’s trembling face.
"Elena was the one who gave me the idea, Alex," Victoria whispered, looking down at him like he was an insect under a glass.
"W-what?" Alex gasped, struggling to breathe under the wolf's immense pressure.
Victoria pulled out her phone, tapped the screen, and held it out for him to see.
On the screen was a video recorded just three days ago. It showed Elena sitting in an upscale restaurant, sipping wine, talking directly to Victoria.
“He’s planning to get rid of you in the woods this weekend, Victoria,” Elena’s voice rang out from the speaker, sharp and calculating. “He thinks he’s so smart. Once he’s locked up for your disappearance, you and I split his fortune fifty-fifty, just like we agreed.”
Alex’s mind shattered. The world spun out of control. The mistress he was willing to kill his wife for... had been working with his wife all along.
"You see, Alex," Victoria murmured, tucking her phone back into her pocket as headlight beams flickered through the dark trees in the distance. "You thought you were the hunter. But in this forest... you were always the bait."
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The sound of heavy SUV doors slamming echoed through the dark woods. Heavy footsteps approached on the snow.
CLIFFHANGER HOOK FOR CHAP 2: As the armed men surround Alex, a deafening gunshot echoes through the trees—and Victoria collapses onto the snow, blood blooming across her fur coat. But who fired the shot? And what secret was Victoria keeping that even her own men didn't know about?
