Page 20 of Iron Beneath the Snow

The word settled across the table, and for a moment no one spoke.

“You’re certain?” his second asked. “You intend to put Ironfang’s name behind the claim?”

For a brief instant, Soren’s thoughts shifted where he did not allow them to linger—back to white cloth against cold stone, to the sharp flare of recognition in her eyes, and to the way the mark had responded beneath his hand more strongly than expected.

The low pressure in his chest tightened again.

He dismissed it.

“Yes,” he said.

From every strategic angle, it remained the cleanest move. Bringing her into Ironfang would convert scandal into advantage.

More importantly, it would force Vargan to witness the structure he upheld turn against him.

“When do you move?” his second asked.

“Immediately,” Soren replied. “Before their Council fixes the outcome.”

He turned toward the entrance of the hall.

“Prepare the formal claim under the Ironfang covenant.”

One of the older wolves frowned slightly.

“And if she refuses?”

Soren did not slow.

“She will not be offered that choice.”

The finality of it cut cleanly through the room.

Not because the logic required it. But because he did.

Behind him, chairs scraped against stone as the others rose to act.

Soren stepped outside into the wind, the cold striking hard enough to sharpen his focus further. Snow moved across the courtyard in thin, shifting veils, and he paused just long enough to draw a steady breath.

That was when the sensation returned.

The same low pull beneath his ribs.

It did not resemble pain or weakness. It felt more like tension drawn tight somewhere inside him, a thread held under strain for reasons he chose not to examine.

He exhaled slowly.

Residual resonance, he told himself.

Nothing more.

Frostvein used ritual to dominate. Ironfang used it to destabilize. There was no place in that equation for anything beyond function.

He descended the stone steps.

By nightfall, Frostvein would be forced to answer.

And when they did, he would stand at their gates—not as a raider, but as a claimant.