Order of Protection
Cold as Ice

Alpha Sven’s POV

Beta Peter had already given the order to attack, then he waved for me to join while he ran for the cars. “What’s going on,” I asked the warriors flanking me as we ran at full speed towards the cabin. My escorts were in wolf form, one huge silver-grey wolf and a smaller white and grey wolf.

“Two hostile vehicles approaching so he had to move now,” the man said as we made the turn into the driveway from the road. Wolves were swarming the cabin, jumping through windows and crashing through doors. A werewolf tried to run, but one man was biting his rear leg while another jumped for his neck. They had him beat, but he kept struggling and his throat was torn out. We ran around to the front where I could still hear shouting. As I rounded the corner, I saw something that made my blood run cold.

My mate, my Linnea, was being dragged out of the house in the arms of a huge man. She was helpless, her legs chained, and her hands bound behind her back. A large knife was at her throat and it was already cutting in as he moved her. A thin line of blood ran down to her chest where it was absorbed by her blouse. I dropped to my knees, we weren’t fast enough.

“Let her go,” Peter said. “You’re surrounded, your men are dead. If you release her, we will turn you over to the American Council where you will get a trial and a chance.”

He laughed as me pushed her forward to the edge of the deck. “Foolish Americans. You think I fear you? Fear dying? The only one I fear is Yuri.” He glared at me. “If you don’t want your mate to die, back off now. We’re taking a car, and if anyone tries to follow us I’ll kill her.”

I looked over at Peter, he was frustrated. All these men, and he had nothing. If one of his men had a clear shot, now was the time to take it. When he lifted his hands and started to back off, I knew he didn’t. “Back off,” he ordered. His men backed away from the lake, retreating with us towards the south.

He was so busy staring at Peter that he didn’t see what was happening. A mist started to rise from the lake, forming a trail as it came up to the deck behind him. The mist moved until it covered the knife, and there I saw ice starting to form. It only took a few seconds before the knife was encased in a block of solid ice and the mist was moving to his hand.

He looked down in shock as his hand cooled and ice formed around it. He pulled the knife back, trying to cut her neck but only the edge was still exposed, and it barely cut her skin. I ran forward, Peter reacting at the same time, and we crashed into them. I pulled Linnea out of his arms and rolled away, letting my body take the impact with the deck and the cabin. When I looked up, Peter was crouched, facing off against the large Russian who now had an ice club for his left hand.

We watched in fascination as the mist grew in intensity, now swirling around his feet as he swung the ice-covered knife against the cabin wall to try and break it. He looked down, his feet were frozen to the deck, the ice holding him fast as he struggled. “WHAT IS THIS?”

Beta Peter stepped back, watching him get more and more frustrated as the ice held him fast. “Where is Beta Shura?”

“Fuck you.” I watched fascinated as the mist changed; looking back to the lake, I could see ice blocks forming in the water. Once they became the size and shape of bricks, they floated up to the deck and started placing themselves around his feet. He bent down, trying to stop them, but as soon as they were in place they fused themselves to the others, making a solid wall of ice blocks up to his shins. “What sorcery is this?”

Peter just smiled. “The kind you can't fight. We need information, and you have it.” More bricks flew up from the lake, the box-like structure was now up to his knees. With one good hand and his feet frozen in place, he couldn’t stop them from building the wall higher. “You will die if you don’t tell us, but there are different ways to die. There is the death of a warrior, a death you chose not to take and one you do not deserve. There are clean, painless deaths, and then there is what awaits you.”

He tried beating his club hand against the outside of the wall which was now to his thighs, succeeding only in breaking his arm just above the ice line. He screamed in pain as it hung at an angle; it was useless at his side now. The ice blocks continued to stack and fuse together, now enclosing the knife. “I’ll never tell.”

“Perhaps. And perhaps as this ice coffin closes above you, as we watch you struggle to breathe through the clear ice, perhaps then you will regret not speaking while you had the chance. Being buried alive is a bad way to go. Being buried in ice? The air just on the other side, you can see the sun and watch the wind blow the snow the whole time? All of us watching you struggle? That is going to be a bad death for you, but a fitting death for a man who hides behind a woman instead of fighting like a warrior.” The blocks continued to fly in and stack themselves, now it was up to his waist.

“Wait,” I said. The bricks stopped flying, hovering in the air. “Restrain his arm.” A few men moved forward, grabbing his arm and pinning it behind him. “Get the keys.” One reached into his pocket, pulling out a key ring. He brought it over, and I unlocked the silver handcuffs from Linnea’s wrists, then unlocked the padlock that held the chain on her legs. “Put them on him.”

He tossed the chain to one of his men, who put it around his legs. He then put on gloves and picked up the silver-coated cuffs. They didn’t bother with his broken arm, the ice covering his hand and the knife had already fused with the bricks and it wasn’t going anywhere. His remaining wrist was secured to the chain now locked around his waist. I stood Linnea up, holding her shivering body to my side. “Proceed,” I said, and the blocks started flying in again.

“We know Shura is building an army.” The man shook his head no, the bricks continued to stack.

“Tell us where Shura is, and where the rest of the men are. You’ve already lost, have you not heard the news from back home?” Peter grinned as he saw the man had no idea.

“What?”

“Here, I’ll show you.” Peter pulled out his phone and brought up the story on the Russian media. Walking up to the now-helpless man, he let him read for himself about Yuri’s empire being raided, his Alpha now a wanted fugitive. “If Yuri pokes his head out, he goes to jail, and the Sicilians or his many enemies kill him. If the European Council gets him, he gets executed. It’s over. You’re going to die a horrible death for a man who is already a dead man walking. Many more of your friends are going to die if I can’t stop this now.”

“You’ll all die as well.”

“I don’t think so. Do you think Shura was the only person to bring in reinforcements? I have almost two hundred trained warriors back home, waiting for an attack. I have electronic surveillance, booby traps, explosives, snipers, wolfsbane gas bombs, reinforced fighting positions and air support. When your boss attacks, he is going to lose, and lose badly. All of your friends will die, and for what? Money? Ego? Pride?”

The wall was up to his shoulders now. “You know better than this. Kidnapping a pregnant Luna and threatening to kill her? What would your mother think if she knew what you had done?”

“Leave my mother out of this!”

I looked at the mark on his shoulder. “Your own mate, what do you think she will be thinking of when she sees the video of your death at the trials? Will she think you are a good wolf, a good mate? Or will she wonder why Luna hated her so much as to give her a mate like you?” The bricks were stacking to his eyes now, they were wide with fear. “You don’t have much time left. The bricks are almost done.”

He looked out to the water, where the last bricks were forming. They stacked above his head, and soon would close his frozen sarcophagus airtight. “Last chance.” He looked up in horror at the only spot left.

The last brick moved down towards the opening.

“WAIT!” The brick froze inches above the others. “He’s in Grand Rapids, at a hotel,” he said. “Country Inn and Suites, room 287. He’s got the whole place rented out for his men and the rogues he’s hired.”

“What is his plan?”

“I don’t know much. He said I was to bring her to the south border of your land at six tonight, that he would meet us there for the transfer. He was going to use the transfer as a distraction, the men would attack as soon as he had the money and the body.”

“Anything else?” He shook his head no. Peter looked at me, I nodded and tapped the shoulder of the white and silver wolf by my side. The ice wall shattered around him, falling to the ground. “Tie him up good and stuff him in the back of my car,” he said.

The wolves left my side, and she walked around the group of warriors, healing the wounds that they had. None were serious, the men were good fighters and had the element of surprise. In a few minutes, they were back at my side.

Beta Peter came up and stood before me. “Orders, sir?”

“Put him in the cells back home, and clean up the mess here,” I said. I handed him a stack of cash. “Take the men out for a good meal, you’ve earned it. When you are done, stage yourself ten miles south of my border and out of sight. I’m taking the Luna home.” The men cheered as we walked off, and you couldn’t fit a piece of paper between us until we got to the helicopter and buckled in.

There were only three seats, so Beta John shifted and pulled on clothes before buckling in, and the silver-grey wolf sat on the floor in back between our feet. We all put on headsets to block the sound, with a microphone that was voice-activated so we could talk to each other. The pilot was on a different channel, so we could speak freely. I looked down at the young shewolf and smiled. “Thank you Jessie, I’m glad you talked me in to letting you come, even if it was only for healing the wounded after the fight.”

She chuffed and licked my hand. Linnea started scratching her ears as we took off and headed back north. “I was strong, and you DID come for me,” she said over the noise of the engines. “How?”

“Jessie unlocked more of her power, she was able to locate you and send an astral projection,” John replied. “You heard what she said?”

“Yes, and I needed to hear that, I was giving up hope,” she said as her free hand covered her belly. “What now?”

“We’ll have to talk about that. We know where Shura is, but they will have already left Grand Rapids by the time I can get any men there, and I don’t want this fight to happen around humans.”

“He’s going to figure out we got Linnea back at some point before six, and then he’s lost his leverage. His only option will be to attack us and try to at least get the money.”

“We’ll be ready for him then.” I looked out over the frozen ground as we flew north. This ends today.

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