Alpha Queen: First of Her Name

Chapter Nineteen

With a bitter shiver, I crack open my eyes. All around me is deep darkness, almost suffocating. The cold numbness is bone-deep. My fingers burn when I try to move my hand. The pain is terrible. Sucking in a breath, I cough with a shudder. My lungs feel like paper.

Again, I try to move my arm and end up dislodging it from under the frozen snow. When I lift it to my face I choke on a gasp. My entire hand is dark blue. Fingertips are purple, while my hand is steadily becoming a darker shade of violet.

Hot tears slide down my cheeks, leaving a burning trail in their wake. My throat constricts around a broken wail. Using my frozen hand, I paw at the snow encasing me. A hole forms above me from my efforts. Air slaps me in the face when I finally poke my head out from under the feet of snow trapping me beneath the surface.

Outside the tunnel of snow barricading me in on all sides, twinkling stars wink down at me in the pitch darkness. Again I struggle with freeing my body from its cold confines, shuffling handfuls of snow with my already violently blue hands. Once my legs are free, I finally make a move to stand. Immediately I faceplant into the snow.

With an angered growl, I heft myself up on numb feet and frozen legs. Eyes trained on the nearest tree, I make a lunge toward it. I repeat this process of lunging from tree to tree since it's the only thing keeping me upright at the moment. Soon the rhythmical thump of my body forcefully hitting the tree drowns out as I focus on my task.

Now on my feet, I begin searching through the darkness for any sign of Everest. Although it would be smart to call out for the Omega, other beasts claim these woods as their home. Instead, I look for any large human-shaped forms in the snow.

Before long, my blood begins pumping back into my system again. The first brutal shock to my hand causes me to wince. Upon further inspection, I watch as my hands begin to tremble from the sudden onslaught of pain from the frostbite. Everything burns. It's similar to the burn of Heat but instead of feeling like your body is on fire, I feel like my entire body is being stabbed by a thousand tiny pins.

Minutes blend into hours as I continue to blindly walk in a straight line. The snow starts to fall heavier around me at the beginning of a blizzard. The snowfall gets so dense that I can't see the trees in front of me. Suddenly my foot catches on a tree root and everything turns upside down. Sliding down an incline I wind up toppling over into another tree.

Blood drips down my face, head pounding I crack open my eyes. Above me, the snowstorm continues to wreak havoc around me. This is it? Dying in the middle of nowhere. I slowly roll over onto my side with a strangled cough. "Fuck everything." Head throbbing with even more blood trickling from the wound on the side of my head, I stare off into the distance.

A short distance away, an orange light bobs up and down in the storm. I blink multiple times, rubbing my eyes for good measure. "What?" The light gets closer, its brightness turning from orange and yellow to a warm reddish hue. Once the light is a few feet away a dark shape joins it. The intimidating ghostlike form stands in front of me. "H-Hello?" My voice comes out hoarse from dehydration.

The lamp wobbles as the person shifts. Suddenly the figure is revealed to be dressed in hunting gear suited for the harsh Winter. Goggles reflect my hideous reflection at me. I squint from the severe wind blowing, "Umm, do you know the common tongue?" I tilt my head. "The Lycan tongue?"

Suddenly a hand is touching my outstretched leg. "Are you lost little human?"

I try to nod but wince when my neck strains. "Y-yes, please I need help." I weakly point in a random direction, "My friend, s-she's lost too."

The person leans closer, "Don't worry." Their hand disappears off my leg and tug down their scarf, in the process of removing the goggles. "We already found her."

If my body wasn't already frozen and tense, I would have screamed. The woman's eyes glow a luminous red with black teeth. Her face is heavily scarred like someone repeatedly took a knife to it. My hands scramble for purchase as I try to back away. "No. No no no. Get away!"

The woman smiles at me but it doesn't reach her eyes. "Little human, you're in Lycan Territory now."