CHAPTER 5 — The Trap Beneath the Snow
The storm came before dawn.
Heavy snow buried the fields, turning the valley silent and white.
Mason woke to the sound of cattle screaming.
Not mooing.
Screaming.
He ran outside and saw the north fence wide open.
Dozens of cattle were running toward Black Ridge.
But they weren’t escaping.
They were being driven.
Snowmobiles cut across the pasture, black figures moving through the storm like ghosts.
Emily shouted from the porch, “Mason! Titan!”
The giant dog was already gone.
Mason grabbed his rifle and chased after the tracks.
Deep in the forest, Titan found them first.
Three men stood beside a steel cage hidden under pine branches. Inside the cage was a young wolf pup, crying weakly.
Titan froze.
The pup smelled like his bloodline.
His family.
One of the men smiled.
“Look at that. Even kings fall for children.”
Titan stepped forward.
The snow beneath him collapsed.
A steel snare snapped around his front leg.
Then another closed around his neck.
Titan roared, thrashing so hard that two men stumbled backward in terror.
But the trap held.
A woman stepped from behind the trees.
She removed her dark glasses.
Her name was Dr. Selene Voss.
A famous wildlife geneticist.
The same woman who had appeared on television days earlier, praising Titan as “a priceless discovery.”
She crouched in front of him and smiled coldly.
“You’re not a dog,” she whispered. “You’re a fortune.”
Titan growled, blood dripping onto the snow.
Selene looked at her men.
“Sedate him.”
Before they could raise the dart gun, Mason burst into the clearing.
“Get away from him!”
The men turned.
One pointed a weapon at Mason.
But then the forest moved.
Wolves appeared between the trees.
Dozens of them.
Silent.
Furious.
Selene did not panic.
Instead, she pulled out a small remote.
“If they attack,” she said, “the pup dies.”
Mason’s face went pale.
Inside the cage, the wolf pup whimpered.
Titan stopped struggling.
For the first time in his life, the giant guardian looked helpless.
Selene smiled.
“That’s right. You understand.”
Then she looked at Mason.
“Your grandfather protected a bloodline worth millions. But he was a sentimental fool.”
Mason slowly lowered his rifle.
“What do you want?”
Selene’s answer chilled him.
“Titan. The pup. And the entire pack.”
Behind her, one of the men opened a second cage.
Inside were more wolf pups.
Not one.
Not two.
Six.
Mason’s heart cracked.
They had already been stealing them.
Titan’s growl became something deeper than rage.
It sounded like grief.
And in that moment, Mason understood.
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Titan had not been restless because enemies were coming.
He had been searching for the missing children.
