Maya POV
Mordecai's scream shattered the canyon as I twisted the rock deeper into his eye socket.
He dropped me. I hit the ground hard, gasping for air, my throat on fire. Blood poured down the Alpha's face as he shifted fully human, clutching his ruined eye.
"KILL THEM ALL!" he roared.
Chaos erupted. Kael's wolf tore into Shadow Clan warriors. Thorne fought like the feral beast he'd been, all claws and teeth and rage. Oryn moved with deadly precision despite his blindness, using sound to locate enemies.
I crawled toward Sophie, who was still held by two males. My hand closed around another sharp rock.
"Let her go," I said, my voice raw and dangerous. "Or I take your eyes too."
They looked at Mordecai's bleeding face and released her immediately.
The battle lasted three brutal minutes. When it ended, five Shadow Clan warriors were dead or dying. The rest fled with their wounded Alpha, Mordecai's parting words echoing behind him: "I'll be back with my full army, exile scum. And when I return, I'm taking those females' heads."
Brutus clapped slowly from his corner. "Well done. You've just declared war on the most powerful clan in the eastern territories. They'll bring two hundred warriors next time."
My hands shook as I helped Sophie stand. Around us, my males bled from dozens of wounds. Soren's head injury looked serious. Rafe had claw marks across his chest. Marcus was limping badly.
We'd won. But at what cost?
"Everyone inside," I ordered, slipping back into doctor mode because that's what I did when everything fell apart. "I need to treat these wounds before infection sets in."
It took hours. My medical supplies—what little I had—ran low. I used the last of Oryn's healing plants, my hands working automatically while my brain screamed that we were doomed.
By the time I finished, exhaustion hit me like a truck. I stumbled outside for fresh air, my throat still bruised from Mordecai's grip.
Kael found me by the stream, staring at the twin suns setting.
"You should be resting," he said quietly.
"Can't. Too much to think about." I touched my throat, wincing. "How long until Mordecai comes back?"
"A week. Maybe two if his eye gets infected." Kael sat beside me. "Maya, what you did in there—that took incredible courage. You saved yourself."
"I stabbed a man in the eye with a rock. That's not courage. That's desperation." I laughed bitterly. "And now he's going to come back with an army. Because I couldn't just accept being taken."
"Would you rather have gone with him?"
"No. God, no." I shuddered. "But Kael, we can't fight two hundred warriors. We can barely fight twenty. How are we supposed to survive this?"
He was quiet for a moment. Then: "The same way we've survived everything else. Together."
"Pretty words. But winter's coming too, isn't it?" I'd seen the signs—shorter days, colder nights, the way the males kept glancing at the sky with worry. "Tell me about it. No lies. I need to know what we're facing."
Kael's jaw tightened. "We call it the Frost Death. Starts in about six weeks. Lasts six months."
My stomach dropped. "Six months of winter?"
"Harsh winter. Temperatures that can freeze a male solid in his sleep if he doesn't have proper shelter. Snow that buries entire camps. Game disappears—migrates south or goes into hibernation. Most tribes lose half their people to starvation and cold."
The world tilted sideways. "Six weeks. We have six weeks before winter?"
"Yes."
"And we have no food stores. No real shelter. No warm clothes. No—" My voice rose with hysteria. "Kael, we're going to die. All of us. Even if I make plants grow, they won't be ready before winter hits. We're dead."
"Not if you lead us," he said firmly.
"I'm a doctor, not a miracle worker!" I stood, pacing. "You're asking me to solve impossible problems with impossible timelines. Brutus wants me to fail in six weeks. Mordecai wants to kill me in two. And winter wants to freeze us all in six. I can't—" My voice broke. "I can't save everyone, Kael. I'm just one person."
He stood and grabbed my shoulders, forcing me to look at him. His ice-blue eyes were intense. "You've already saved us. You gave us hope when we were waiting to die. You made us believe we could be something other than discarded trash. That's worth more than any crop or shelter."
"Hope doesn't keep you warm. Hope doesn't fill empty stomachs."
"No. But it makes you fight instead of giving up." He pulled me closer. "Maya, you asked why we were exiled. Every one of us was thrown away for being different, for having conscience, for refusing to be monsters. We're the males the Beastlands rejected. But you? You see value in us. You make us believe we're worth saving."
Tears burned my eyes. "What if I fail? What if I get you all killed because I promised things I can't deliver?"
"Then we die fighting for something beautiful instead of starving alone in the dark." His scarred hands were gentle on my face. "I'd rather have six weeks with you teaching us to dream than six months surviving without purpose."
"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard," I said, but I was crying now.
"Probably." He smiled slightly. "But it's true."
Sophie's voice interrupted us: "Maya! Come quick! Something's wrong with the plants!"
We ran back to the irrigation channels we'd started digging. Sophie stood there, pointing at the ground with a shaking hand.
Every single plant we'd carefully transplanted—every seedling, every cutting, every hope for food—was dead. Withered and black like they'd been poisoned.
"No," I whispered. "No, no, no—"
Oryn knelt by the plants, touching them gently. His face went pale. "Shadowblight. A fungus that kills everything it touches. Spreads through soil."
"Can we stop it?" Kael demanded.
"Maybe. If we dig up all the infected soil and replace it. But Maya—" Oryn's blind eyes turned toward me. "This doesn't happen naturally. Someone planted this. Someone sabotaged us."
My blood turned to ice. I looked around at our camp. At the fifteen males who'd worked so hard today. At Brutus, watching from the cave entrance with that knowing smile.
"It was him," I said. "Brutus did this."
"Probably," Soren agreed, limping over. "Or one of his warriors. Easy to plant fungus while we were fighting Shadow Clan."
"We can't prove it," Kael said grimly.
"Doesn't matter." I stared at the dead plants—my miracle, destroyed before it could begin. "He's won. Even if we dig up the soil, replace it, start over... we've lost two days. Two days we can't afford to lose."
The math was brutal. Six weeks until winter. Six weeks until Brutus claimed me. Two weeks until Mordecai returned with an army. And now we had to start farming from scratch with contaminated soil.
We were drowning in impossible deadlines, and someone had just tied weights to our ankles.
"What do we do?" Sophie asked quietly.
I looked at my people—broken, exhausted, bleeding, but still standing. Still looking at me like I had answers.
The truth was, I had no idea. I was a trauma surgeon playing farmer in a fantasy wasteland, facing enemies on all sides and a killing winter approaching fast.
But I couldn't tell them that. Leaders didn't get to fall apart.
"We start over," I said, forcing steel into my voice. "Tomorrow, we dig up every inch of contaminated soil. We find clean dirt. We plant again. Faster this time. Better."
"And if Brutus sabotages us again?" Rafe asked.
"Then we guard the plants day and night. We don't sleep if we have to." I met each of their eyes. "We're not giving up. We're going to survive winter, defeat our enemies, and build something beautiful in this wasteland. Because that's what we do—we survive impossible things."
They nodded, believing me because they needed to.
I turned away before they could see my hands shaking.
That night, I couldn't sleep. I lay awake in the cold cave, listening to fifteen males breathe, knowing I'd promised them miracles I couldn't deliver.
A shadow fell across me. I looked up to find Thorne standing there, his golden eyes glowing in the darkness.
"Can't sleep either?" I whispered.
He shook his head. Then, with his halting speech: "Thorne... knows something. About winter. About... survival."
"What do you mean?"
"When beasts raised Thorne... they showed him. Secret place. Warm place. Hidden." He struggled to find words. "Could save... everyone. But..."
"But what?"
His face twisted with fear. "Place is in Shadow Clan territory. Deep inside. Would have to... go through enemy. Very dangerous."
My heart raced. "A warm place? Big enough for all of us?"
"Yes. Cave system. Hot springs. Underground. Safe from winter." His voice dropped to a whisper. "But Thorne tried once. Got caught. Barely escaped. They'll kill anyone who finds it."
A hidden sanctuary in enemy territory. It could save us all—or get us all killed trying to reach it.
"Show me," I said.
"Now?"
"Now. Before I lose my nerve."
We slipped out of camp silently. Thorne led me through the darkness with animal grace, and I followed blindly, trusting him completely.
We'd traveled maybe a mile when he suddenly froze.
Voices ahead. Multiple males. Laughing, talking casually.
Thorne pulled me behind a boulder, his hand over my mouth. Through the gap, I saw them: a full patrol of Shadow Clan warriors. Twenty at least.
And they were heading straight for our canyon.