1 It wasn’t until they saw the pregnant women and toddlers of the village torn open, their insides spilled across the frozen dirt, that the hunters finally believed me. The wolves hadn’t just stayed in the woods. They had come for us. As the men stood staring at the tufts of wolf fur matted with raw human flesh, these hardened survivors—men I had known my whole life—completely shattered. “Chief! You told us she was just being a jealous bitch!” one of them wailed, his voice cracking with a primal agony. “You said she made up the wolf sightings just to keep you from clearing the perimeter spikes! You said she wanted to ruin your moonlit hike with Serena! Now my wife is dead, and the wolves… they tore the baby right out of her!” Garrett Miller stood there, his entire body convulsing. He couldn’t even grip his hunting bow; it clattered onto the ice at his feet. I looked at the village entrance, now stained a deep, pulsing crimson, and I closed my eyes. In my previous life, during that brutal winter of the Great Hunt, Garrett—the man I called my husband and the leader of this ridge—had dismantled our only defense. He had pulled the iron wolf-stakes from the main trail just so his “golden girl,” his childhood sweetheart Serena, could walk to the overlook without scratching her delicate ankles. He had taken every able-bodied hunter to stand guard for her, leaving the village a buffet. In that life, I was the one who set our own house on fire. I used the blaze and my own scorched flesh to drive the pack back, saving what was left of the town. But Serena, startled by a stray rabbit during her romantic moon-gaze, tripped and fell down a ravine, scarring her beautiful face. When Garrett returned, he didn’t see a hero. He saw a monster. While I lay unconscious, my body covered in third-degree burns from saving his people, he systematically cut the tendons in my wrists and ankles. He dragged me to the edge of a wolf den in the deep woods and threw me in like trash. “You were so jealous of Serena’s beauty that you set that fire to lure the beasts and disfigure her,” he had hissed, his eyes cold as the permafrost. “If you love wolves so much, go ahead and feed them.” But the universe granted me a cruel mercy. I woke up. I was back at the beginning of that night. This time, if he wanted to tear down the walls for his mistress, I would let him. I wouldn’t be the shield anymore. The sound of a distant howl pierced through my consciousness, dragging me out of a nightmare filled with the scent of copper and wet fur. In my past life, the heavy doors of the community hall had been breached. The wolves had poured in, turning the sanctuary into a slaughterhouse. I had crawled to Garrett’s feet, begging him to help, only for him to sever my nerves and leave me for the pack. All because Serena had cried, claiming I had “lured” the wolves in to hurt her. I opened my eyes. I was back in our cabin. The hearth was still warm. I grabbed a torch from the wall and reached for my boot. Tucked inside was a short, serrated hunting knife. In my last life, I only remembered it was there as I was dying. This time, it felt like an extension of my own hand. I slipped a longer blade into my coat—one I’d hidden earlier that day. God hadn’t brought me back to be a martyr. He’d brought me back to survive. CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! I hammered an old brass pot with all my might. The village dogs started barking first, a frantic, rhythmic alarm. One by one, cabin doors swung open. “What the hell is going on?” “It’s the middle of the night, Cassidy! Put that damn thing away!” “Are you losing your mind?” My mother-in-law, Evelyn Miller, stormed out of her room, her coat draped haphazardly over her shoulders, her face twisted in a sneer. “What is wrong with you? People are trying to sleep!” I ignored her, holding my torch high toward the main trailhead—the artery that led from the mountains directly into our village. The light flickered over a gap in the snow. The iron wolf-stakes, the ones meant to impale anything charging down that path, were gone. A clean, empty strip of snow remained. That path led straight to the Starlight Pavilion. It was also the fastest route for a hungry pack. Sarah, the blacksmith’s wife, clutched her toddler to her chest. Her knees buckled, and she sank into the slush. “Where are the spikes? Who pulled the perimeter?” Silence fell over the women. From the dark treeline, another howl echoed. This one was closer. Much closer. The women huddled at the edge of the clearing, their faces pale under the orange torchlight. “Where are the men? Where’s Jackson?” Sarah whimpered. “I just had the baby. He said he was on patrol tonight!” I caught a scent on the wind—a cloying, sugary sweetness. It was sickly, metallic. It wasn’t perfume. I recognized it from the moment I died at the mouth of the wolf den. Back then, I hadn’t understood it. Later, an old trapper told me about “Apex Lure”—a pheromone mix that smelled sweet to humans but acted like a dinner bell for predators when mixed with fresh blood. I looked at the gap in the defenses and let out a cold, hollow laugh. “Garrett cleared the path,” I said, my voice cutting through the wind. “Serena wanted to see the moon from the pavilion tonight, and he didn’t want her tripping on the spikes. He took the entire patrol, the crossbows, and the lamp oil to play bodyguard for her while she looks at the stars.” Sarah’s mouth hung open. She looked down at her child, her fingers trembling. “He pulled the spikes? For her?” Evelyn lunged at me, grabbing my arm. “Don’t you dare lie about my son! You’re just bitter because he’s actually showing Serena some affection for once!” I looked down at her hand, then back at her. “Believe what you want, Evelyn. The wolves will be here in a minute to settle the argument.” Her grip loosened just a fraction. She turned toward the mountain and began screaming into the dark. “That little tramp! I knew she was trouble, dragging Garrett around like a lost puppy! She’s going to get us all killed!” Maddie, Garrett’s younger sister, ran out with only one boot on. She was barely fifteen. In my last life, she died under the community hall altar, her face half-gone. “Cassidy, is it true? Did he really take everyone?” I looked at her. “Yes.” She bit her lip, her eyes wide with terror. At the edge of the woods, a dozen pairs of glowing green eyes emerged from the shadows. Someone screamed. “Wolves! Run!” “To the Town Hall! The doors are the thickest there!” I grabbed Sarah by the shoulder. “Don’t just run!” I raised my voice, commanding the panic. “Elders and children inside first! Younger women, start moving the heavy tables against the doors! Get every heater, every log, every drop of cooking oil we have! Line the back windows with fire! And for God’s sake, do not go back to your houses for supplies! If you’re alone, you’re dead!” The crowd was a mess of sobbing women and wailing children. I slammed my brass pot onto the ground with a deafening crack. “Listen to me if you want to live!” The chill in my voice finally cut through their hysteria. They moved. Pregnant women were ushered in; grandfathers were hauled over shoulders. I led a group of women to barricade the main entrance with heavy oak dressers and water barrels. We lined the back windows with basins of burning oil. When the first green eyes approached the glass, the heat pushed them back—for now. I knew this wouldn’t be enough. In my last life, they hammered at the doors for hours until the wood splintered. But this time, I was going to buy us every second I could. Once the bolt was thrown, the air in the hall became thick with the smell of fear. Women were praying, muffling their children’s cries. Evelyn gripped my arm so hard she left bruises. “You have to go out there,” she hissed. I looked at her, incredulous. “You’re the Chief’s wife! Go find him! He’ll come back for you!” I peeled her fingers off me, one by one. “Three months ago, he brought Serena back to this ridge. Since then, every time I open my mouth, he calls me a ‘jealous shrew.’ You think he’s going to listen to me now?” Evelyn stammered, then puffed out her chest. “You have to try! You married into this family! You eat our food! You’re going to let us all die while you sit here safe?” I looked at her, the irony tasting like ash. “Funny, Evelyn. Two days ago, when I brought extra grain to the hall, you called me wasteful. Yesterday, when I begged Garrett not to pull the spikes, you told the whole town I was ‘cursing the ridge.’ And now, suddenly, I’m the Chief’s wife again?” She flinched. “Stop bringing up the past! Garrett is just… enchanted by her. He still cares about you.” I adjusted the knife at my hip. “Save that speech for the wolves.” A scratching sound started at the door. Scritch. Scritch. The room went silent. Every heart stopped. I turned to Maddie. “You’re fast, and you know the side trails. Go to the overlook. But do not go into the pavilion.” Maddie froze. I pressed a tuft of bloody wolf fur into her hand—something I’d snatched from the snow earlier. “Show this to Garrett. Tell him the perimeter is breached and the pack is in the village. If he doesn’t believe you, come back immediately. Do not argue with him. Do not plead.” Maddie’s eyes welled up. “He loves me, Cassidy. He’ll come back.” I looked at her with a pity she didn’t yet understand. “Just remember: don’t kneel, don’t beg, and don’t die for a man who isn’t there.” She nodded and slipped out the high back window, her slight frame disappearing into the white void of the storm. A moment later, the scratching at the door stopped. Then came the first heavy, bone-jarring thud. 2 The first hit was so hard a portrait of the town’s founders fell off the wall and shattered. A mother pressed her infant’s face into her chest, her own shoulders heaving with silent sobs. I pointed to the women who looked the most composed. “You, watch the back windows. Keep those oil basins high. Sarah, get the kids behind the stage. Block them in with the pews. Mrs. Gable, pour the oil three feet from the door. Not all of it—wait until they get through the first layer of wood.” Someone whispered, “Cassidy, can we really hold them off?” I didn’t lie. “Not all night.” The silence that followed was suffocating. “That’s why I’m going to the neighboring settlement for help,” I said. Evelyn immediately shrieked, “You can’t leave us!” I turned on her. “I thought you wanted me to go find your son?” She shut her mouth. I grabbed a backup crossbow from the wall and tucked the long knife into my belt. “Maddie went to the overlook. I’m going to Miller’s Creek. If either of us makes it, you have a chance.” Sarah grabbed my hand, her eyes red. “Cassidy… please.” I squeezed her hand and climbed toward the window. Fifteen minutes later, there was a thud at the back window. “She’s back!” “Did she bring them?” “Help her up!” Maddie tumbled back inside, covered in slush, one boot missing. Her left cheek was swollen, a dark purple handprint clearly visible against her pale skin. The cheering died instantly. Maddie looked up, her voice breaking. “I’m sorry…” She buried her face in her hands. “He won’t come.” Evelyn staggered back. “That’s impossible.” Sarah grabbed Maddie’s shoulders. “Why? Why won’t he come? His own family is in here!” Maddie shook as she spoke. “He said… he said I was in on the ‘prank.’ He said Cassidy told me to lie to him just to ruin Serena’s night.” She opened her hand to show the bloody fur. “I showed him this. Serena laughed. She said Cassidy probably killed a dog just to get the fur to trick him. She told Garrett that I was being ‘manipulated’ by a jealous wife.” Maddie’s voice turned into a sob. “Garrett hit me. He told me to go home and tell Cassidy that she’s pathetic.” The room felt like it had lost all oxygen. “He said the overlook is ‘tactically sound,’” Maddie choked out. “He said he has sentinels on the ridge and if there were real wolves, they would have fired the red signal flares by now.” I closed my eyes. The flares. In my last life, I found out too late. Garrett had confiscated all the signal flares and took them to the pavilion because Serena “hated the smell of sulfur” and didn’t want the “noisy tubes” near the village. The door bolt splintered. A shard of oak sliced Sarah’s cheek. “The door is giving!” someone screamed. I turned to Mrs. Gable. “Light it!” She tossed a torch into the oil. A wall of fire erupted just inside the door. The snarling on the other side turned into yelps of pain as the wolves backed off. But I knew the oil wouldn’t last. I slung the crossbow over my shoulder. “I’m going to Miller’s Creek.” Sarah nodded, her jaw set. Evelyn’s lips trembled, but when I looked at her, she finally looked away. “If you try to stop me again,” I told her, “you can go find your son yourself.” I climbed out the back window. Behind the hall, an old mare was tethered in the shed. In my last life, I hadn’t taken her. I had tried to run to the overlook on foot, only for Garrett’s men to catch me and break my limbs. Not this time. I swung onto the horse and kicked her into a gallop. We charged into the black, snowy night, heading for the only people who might still have their humanity. 3 The mare’s hooves had barely hit the main fork in the road when a tripwire snapped taut beneath the snow. The horse shrieked as her legs were swept out from under her. I was launched into the air, my forehead slamming into the frozen ground. Warm blood began to trickle down my brow, stinging my eyes. A group of men stepped out from behind the pines. Leading them was Jackson, Garrett’s right-hand man. He held a hunting rifle, looking down at me with a mixture of pity and disgust. “The Chief was right,” Jackson said. “He knew you’d try to run to the neighbors to spread your lies.” I pushed myself up, dizzy. “Jackson! The pack is in the village! Your wife and your newborn son are barricaded in the Town Hall! Get back there now!” Jackson’s face flickered. The mention of his son hit a nerve. “Jackson,” a younger hunter whispered, “maybe we should check?” Jackson’s grip on the rifle tightened. “Your son is exactly one month old today,” I hissed. “He’s wearing that little cedar charm you carved for him. The one with the ‘J’ on it.” Panic finally flared in Jackson’s eyes. But then, the man behind him held up a signal flare tube. “Jackson, look. The overlook sentinels just checked in. No red smoke. The Chief said she’d use the baby to manipulate you.” I stared at the flare tube. It was pristine. The seal hadn’t been broken. “It’s a lie,” I whispered. “Look at the tube, Jackson. If they had fired a flare, there would be carbon scoring on the rim. You’ve been a hunter for fifteen years—you really can’t see that it hasn’t been fired?” The hunter holding the tube instinctively looked at the tip. Jackson, embarrassed and angry, kicked out at me. I rolled, but his heavy boot caught me in the ribs. I gasped, the air leaving my lungs. My fingers brushed the snow, searching for my knife. “I’m not lying!” I wheezed. “The fire barricade won’t hold forever! If you don’t go back, you won’t even have a body to bury!” Jackson grabbed me by the hair, hauling me up. “Shut up!” His eyes were bloodshot. He was terrified, and that terror was turning into rage. “The Chief has been hunting since he was ten. You think he wouldn’t know if a pack was down? He saved my life three times. I trust him. I don’t trust a wife who can’t handle her husband looking at another woman.” I looked him dead in the eye. “Garrett saved you, so you’re going to let him murder your son?” Jackson’s hand shook. “Jackson, come on,” the other hunter urged. “The Chief said if she makes a scene at the next settlement, it’ll ruin Serena’s reputation. We have to bring her in.” I laughed, a wet, bloody sound. “You men are fascinating. Your families are screaming for help behind a wooden door, and here you are, protecting the ‘reputation’ of a mistress.” Jackson’s face turned purple. He pressed the barrel of his rifle against my forehead. “The Chief said if you caused trouble, we should bring you to the overlook so you can watch Serena be ‘honored’ by the village.” I looked down at the snow. “Go back, Jackson. Maybe you’ll get there in time to find a piece of your son’s blanket.” “You bitch!” He raised his hand to strike me again. I reached for the long knife in my coat, but the other hunter tackled me, pinning my arms. “She’s armed, Jackson!” They stripped the long blade from me and tossed it into the woods. Jackson didn’t find the short serrated knife hidden in my boot. It stayed pressed against my ankle—my last resort. He tied my hands behind my back with rough hemp rope, pulling it until the skin broke. “Load her up,” Jackson barked. I was tossed onto the back of a horse like a carcass. “Jackson, if the village really is…” the younger hunter started. Jackson turned and backhanded him. “You doubting the Chief now?” But Jackson’s voice was an octave lower than it had been before. He climbed onto his horse and looked at me with cold spite. “You’re going to sit in the snow and watch, Cassidy. You’re going to watch Serena sit by the Chief’s side, and you’re going to realize you’ve lost.” I turned my head toward the village. Through the wind, I heard a sickening crack. The sound of a door bolt failing. Or a bone. 4 The bonfire at the overlook was roaring. By the time the smell of roasting meat reached me, the blood on my forehead had frozen into a dark crust. Garrett was sitting by the fire, draped in a white fox-fur coat that he was currently wrapping around Serena’s shoulders. Serena huddled into him, sipping warm cider. When she saw me being dragged in, her eyes went wide and tearful. She covered her mouth with a delicate hand. “Oh, Cassidy… what happened to your face?” She leaned closer into Garrett. “This is all my fault. If I hadn’t wanted to see the moon, she wouldn’t have gone to such lengths to ruin it.” Jackson shoved me onto my knees in the snow. My kneecaps hit a buried rock, and I bit my lip to keep from screaming. Garrett looked down at me, his brow furrowed in deep, performative disappointment. “Cassidy. To think you’d stoop so low as to try and provoke the neighboring settlements just for a little attention.” I spat blood onto the snow. “Garrett, the Town Hall is being breached. If you take the men back right now, you might save some of them.” Garrett stood up and walked toward me. He tilted my chin up with the toe of his boot. “Still playing the part? You’re committed, I’ll give you that.” I stared up at him. “Send one man. Just one, to look down the ridge.” Garrett hesitated for a split second. Serena immediately started coughing—a frail, racking sound that made her shoulders shake. “Garrett, please don’t fight with her because of me,” she sobbed, tears spilling over. “I know I shouldn’t have come back. I shouldn’t have asked for this. I’ll just go. If a wolf catches me on the dark trail, then at least Cassidy will be happy.” Garrett’s face hardened. He turned and delivered a stinging slap across my face. My head snapped to the side. My ears rang. “I am sick of your theatrics, Cassidy! The more you lie, the more disgusted I am by the sight of you!” I looked at him, my vision blurring. “Your mother is in that hall.” Serena grabbed his sleeve. “Garrett, your mother has the whole village with her. She’s fine. And like you said, if anything was wrong, the sentinels would have fired the red smoke.” That was all it took. Garrett’s lingering doubt vanished. “Jackson, tie her to the windward tree,” Garrett commanded. “Use the thickest rope. No one unties her tonight. Let her sit in the cold and think about how malicious she’s become.” Jackson didn’t meet my eyes. “Yes, Chief.” He dragged me to a lone pine at the edge of the cliff. The wind whipped across the ridge, biting into my skin. The rope bit into my shoulders, grinding against the bone. I looked at Garrett one last time. “You chose this spot because it’s sheltered from the wind and the sound, Garrett. The mountain blocks the screams from the valley. Do you really not know that, or do you just not want to hear them?” “Gag her,” Garrett barked. Jackson stuffed a strip of cloth into my mouth. Near the fire, two young hunters were laughing, holding their mugs. “The Chief’s wife has finally lost it. Imagine being so jealous of Serena that you’d claim there’s a wolf pack.” “Serena’s got soft feet,” another laughed. “The Chief cleared the spikes for her—so what? Nothing’s happened in this village for ten years. Cassidy’s just looking for an excuse to be the victim.” I closed my eyes and listened to the wind. They thought the disaster was miles away. They didn’t realize it was already closing its jaws around the throats of everyone they loved. In the dead of night, the wind shifted. Faint sounds began to drift up from the valley. High-pitched whistles. Screams. The sound of wood splintering. But the wind was too strong, and the bonfire was too loud. Garrett’s “Starlight Pavilion” worked exactly as intended: it was a bubble of ignorance. Only I knew that those sounds were the ends of lives. As dawn began to grey the sky, the fire died down. Serena rested her head on Garrett’s shoulder. “Garrett, I wish every day could be like this.” Garrett kissed her forehead. “It will be.” I almost laughed behind my gag. In the future. They were actually talking about a future. Jackson finally untied me when the sun broke the horizon. My wrists were blue, and my feet were numb. Garrett didn’t even look at me. “Back to the village,” he ordered. Serena leaned on his arm. “Cassidy’s been out here all night. I’m sure she’s learned her lesson, right?” I said nothing. Some lessons are only taught by corpses. The group began the hike down, laughing and sharing stories from the night before. But as we rounded the final bend into the village entrance, the laughter died. The sight waiting for them was a landscape of blackened wood, shattered furniture, and overturned basins. And the bodies. Oh, the bodies. They were everywhere—disemboweled, torn apart, and half-eaten in the snow.
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