Rowan's POV
My heart stopped beating.
I felt it happen. Felt that final thump in my chest and then... nothing.
Silence. Stillness. Death.
I was dead.
The freezing water had finally killed me. Marcus had won.
But then why could I still think?
Dead people didn't think. Didn't feel. Didn't know they were dead.
Unless this was what dying felt like. Floating in darkness. Aware but not alive.
That's when the burning started.
Not fire-burning. Ice-burning. Cold so intense it felt like heat.
It started deep in my chest where my heart should have been beating. Where my stolen wolf used to live.
Something was there. Something I'd never felt before.
It was waking up.
"No," I tried to say, but no sound came out underwater. "I'm dead. Leave me alone. Let me be dead."
But whatever was waking up inside me didn't care what I wanted.
It was coming whether I liked it or not.
Power exploded through my body.
My back arched. My mouth opened in a silent scream. Energy pure, cold, ancient energy flooded every cell.
The water around me started freezing. Not slowly like normal ice. Instantly. Like someone had pressed a pause button on the entire river.
My skin began to glow. Soft white light that grew brighter and brighter until I couldn't see anything else.
And then my body started changing.
My bones cracked. Not breaking reshaping. Growing longer. Thicker. Stronger.
"Stop!" I screamed inside my head. "Stop, it hurts!"
But the transformation didn't stop. Couldn't stop. It had waited too long. Been buried too deep.
Now it was finally free.
My muscles tore and reformed. My spine lengthened. My hands twisted into paws with claws made of solid ice.
Fur sprouted across my skin. Not normal fur. This fur looked like it was woven from snow and starlight. Each strand was white and seemed to glow from within.
My face pushed forward into a snout. My teeth grew sharp and long. My ears moved to the top of my head.
I was shifting. But not into a regular wolf.
Into something that shouldn't exist. Something from legends and nightmares.
The pain was unbelievable. Like every part of me was being ripped apart and put back together wrong.
I wanted it to stop. Wanted to go back to being dead because at least death didn't hurt this much.
But the transformation kept going.
My heart my dead heart suddenly kicked back to life. One powerful beat that sent ice-cold blood racing through my new veins.
And with that beat came awareness.
I could feel everything. The frozen water around me. The rocks beneath me. Every fish and plant and living thing in a mile radius.
I could feel the forest above the water. The trees. The animals. Even the wolves searching for my body.
I could feel it all.
The ice that had formed around me shattered.
I burst upward through the frozen river with explosive force.
Water and ice chunks flew everywhere as I broke the surface. My massive new body launched into the air and landed on the snowy shore with a crash.
For a moment, I just stood there. Breathing hard. Trying to understand what had happened.
I looked down at my paws.
They were huge. Easily three times the size of normal wolf paws. And they were made of ice. Actual ice. I could see through them slightly, like looking through a frozen window.
Claws curved out from each toe. Long and sharp and glowing with that same white light.
I lifted one paw experimentally. Where it had touched the ground, perfect ice crystals remained. Like frozen footprints.
"What am I?" I whispered.
The words came out as a growl. I couldn't make human sounds anymore.
I tried to remember how to shift back. How to become human again.
But I couldn't. I didn't know how. This form felt permanent somehow. Like it had replaced everything I used to be.
Panic started rising in my chest.
I was stuck. Stuck as this monster. This thing made of ice and magic.
"No, no, no." I paced back and forth. Each step left frozen footprints. "Change back. Come on, change back!"
Nothing happened. My body stayed wolf-shaped. Huge and powerful and wrong.
A branch snapped in the forest.
I spun around, teeth bared, ready to fight.
Someone was there. Watching me from the shadows between the trees.
A man stepped into the moonlight.
He was tall with broad shoulders and a face covered in scars. His hair was dark and messy. His clothes looked worn and patched.
But his eyes. His eyes were what caught my attention.
They were gray. Storm-cloud gray. And they looked at me without any fear at all.
Just recognition.
"You're real," he said quietly. His voice was rough. Like he didn't use it much. "The Frostborn. I thought it was just a legend."
Frostborn. That word again.
I growled low in my throat. Warning him to stay back.
He held up both hands. "I'm not going to hurt you. I promise."
Promises meant nothing. Marcus had made promises too.
The man took a slow step forward. "My name is Thorne. I've been living in the Forbidden North for eight years. Waiting for... well, for you, I guess."
Waiting for me? That didn't make any sense.
I took a step backward. Ice formed beneath my paw, making the ground slippery.
"You're scared," Thorne observed. "That's okay. You should be scared. What just happened to you what you became it's terrifying."
He understood. Somehow this stranger understood exactly how I felt.
"I know what it's like," Thorne continued softly. "To have your whole life ripped away. To become something you never asked to be."
I stopped backing away. Something in his voice made me listen.
"You were betrayed," he said. Not a question. A statement. "Someone you trusted hurt you. Took something from you. Left you to die."
How did he know?
"I can smell the dark magic on you," Thorne explained. "Someone used cursed chains. Stole your wolf spirit." His expression darkened. "Marcus."
I flinched at the name. Even as this ice monster, hearing Marcus's name made me want to run away.
Or maybe attack something.
"He did the same thing to me," Thorne said. "Not the chains. But the betrayal. The stealing. He took my pack. My title. My life. Then he framed me for crimes I didn't commit and had me exiled."
He'd been betrayed by Marcus too?
"The difference is, you're special." Thorne's eyes traveled over my glowing ice-wolf form. "The power Marcus tried to steal? He didn't get all of it. The really important part the Frostborn magic was buried too deep. And now it's yours."
I tried to speak. To ask questions. But only growls came out.
"You can't talk yet," Thorne said. "The transformation is too new. But you'll learn. I can teach you."
Why would he help me? What did he want?
"I know you don't trust me." Thorne sat down on a fallen log, making himself less threatening. "Why would you? Trust is what got you killed. Or almost killed, anyway."
He was right. I'd trusted Marcus. Look where that got me.
"But here's the thing," Thorne continued. "You have two choices right now. You can run back to your pack, try to get revenge while you're still learning how your new body works, and probably get killed for real this time."
I didn't like that option.
"Or," Thorne said, "you can come with me to the Forbidden North. Let me teach you how to control your power. How to fight. How to survive. And then when you're ready—when you're strong enough that Marcus doesn't stand a chance—you can take your revenge properly."
Both options sounded terrible. But the second one at least meant I'd live long enough to make Marcus pay.
I took a step toward Thorne.
Then my legs gave out.
I collapsed into the snow. My huge ice-wolf body was too heavy. Too new. I didn't know how to control it yet.
Everything hurt. My bones ached from reshaping. My muscles burned from growing. Even my fur felt wrong.
And I was so tired. Exhausted from dying and coming back and transforming.
"Easy," Thorne said, moving closer. "The first shift takes everything out of you. It's okay to rest."
I wanted to tell him to stay away. That I didn't need help from anyone ever again.
But I couldn't even lift my head.
Thorne knelt beside me in the snow. Up close, I could see more scars. They covered his arms and neck. Old battle wounds.
This man had survived a lot.
"Sleep," he said gently. "I'll keep watch. Make sure the guards don't find you."
Guards. Right. Marcus's guards were probably still looking for my body.
They'd find something very different instead.
My eyes were closing against my will. The exhaustion was too much.
"When you wake up," Thorne's voice seemed to come from far away, "we'll start your training. I'll teach you everything I know about surviving in the Forbidden North. About controlling power you never asked for."
His hand touched my ice-fur carefully. Like he expected me to bite him.
I should bite him. Should trust no one.
But his touch was warm. Not hot-warm. Just... safe-warm.
The first safe thing I'd felt since Marcus's betrayal.
"You're going to be okay," Thorne murmured. "I promise. We're going to make him pay for what he did."
We. He said we.
Like he planned to help me get revenge.
But why? What did he get out of it?
I tried to ask but only a small whimper came out.
"Sleep," Thorne said again. "Questions later. Sleep now."
My eyes finally closed all the way.
And for the first time since Marcus had wrapped those cursed chains around my wrists, I felt something other than pain and fear.
Hope.
Tiny and fragile and probably stupid.
But hope nonetheless.
Maybe this scarred stranger really would help me. Maybe I could learn to control this ice-wolf form. Maybe I could become strong enough to make Marcus regret ever hurting me.
Or maybe Thorne would betray me too. Maybe everyone betrayed everyone eventually.
But right now, lying in the snow with this stranger keeping watch, I chose to believe in maybe.
Just this once.
I drifted into darkness. Not death-darkness. Sleep-darkness.
And in my dreams, I saw Marcus's face.
Saw the moment when he'd realize I was alive. That I'd survived. That I'd become the monster he'd been trying to steal power from.
Saw his fear.
That image made me smile, even in sleep.
Marcus thought he'd destroyed me. Thought he'd taken everything.
But he'd made a mistake.
He'd left me alive.
And that mistake was going to cost him everything.
I was the Frostborn. The ice wolf. The legend.
And I was coming for my revenge.
But first, I had to wake up.
And learn how to walk in this new body without falling over.
Baby steps.
Even monsters had to start somewhere.