The cold in Kael's eyes was deeper than the blizzard, and his presence pressed down on the air like a physical weight, making Elara's knees tremble. The wounded Beta let out a weak groan, reminding her that the immediate threat wasn't the Alpha's fury, but hypovolemic shock.
"I am not a parasite," Elara managed, her voice thin but level, her clinical focus overriding her fear. She pointed past Kael to the still-twitching form of the Shadow-Corrupted wolf that had retreated into the trees. "And I'm not trespassing. I was transported here. Now, that man—" she gestured at the Beta "—is losing critical blood volume. If you don't stop the bleeding, he'll be dead within the hour."
Kael didn't shift his gaze, but a flicker of icy impatience crossed his features. "He is a warrior of the Ice Pack. He handles his wounds."
"He is also a mammal, and blood volume is blood volume, whether your body runs on plasma or plasma-infused elemental magic," Elara retorted, driven by a professional urgency that bordered on madness. She spotted her medical bag near the boulder, a canvas beacon in the snow. "I need my tools. Now."
The absolute audacity of the command, given to an Alpha in his own territory by a creature he could crush with a single thought, seemed to stun him more effectively than any weapon. Kael's massive hand—the fingers still possessing the terrifying length of a wolf's claws—swept toward her bag. A wave of localized elemental ice magic lifted the canvas kit and deposited it exactly three feet from her feet.
"You may access your 'tools,' mortal," Kael stated, his tone heavy with predatory indulgence. "Then you will explain precisely what makes you the prize the old prophecies spoke of."
Elara dropped to her knees, tearing open the bag. The Beta, whose name she didn't know, was fading fast. He was still trying to maintain his half-shifted form, but the wound across his chest was weeping that toxic green energy along with dark, thick blood.
"Needle driver, four-ought absorbable suture, iodine wipes." Elara rattled off her needs, her mind flying through triage protocols. The Alpha loomed, a freezing sentinel, but she shut him out, her world shrinking to the patient.
She cut away the broken armor and fur around the jagged wound. The Shadow Corruption had caused the tissue to turn brittle and dark—the body fighting to compartmentalize the draining energy. She worked swiftly, ignoring the way the ice-sharp wind clawed at her exposed hands.
"The magic isn't letting the tissue hold," she muttered, frustration biting her. "It's tearing the fascia. I need to get the corruption out of the immediate field."
Seeing no other choice, Elara did the unthinkable. She pressed her bare, small hands directly against the Beta's massive chest, applying firm pressure to the edges of the wound. She wasn't trying to heal him magically; she was using standard technique to compress a hemorrhage.
The contact was blinding.
A shock wave, not of cold, but of searing, comforting warmth, shot up Elara's arms. The air around the wound hissed as the toxic green taint visibly recoiled, like venom from an antidote. The Beta's ragged breathing immediately deepened, and the frantic, sickly pulse in his neck steadied. His arctic-blue eyes snapped wide open, staring at Elara with astonished clarity.
The Beta wasn't healed, but he was stabilized. The hemorrhage had slowed from a torrent to a manageable trickle.
Kael's powerful, contained aura of cold shattered completely. He took an abrupt step back, his massive chest heaving, his glacier-ice eyes wide with stunned realization. He hadn't reacted this strongly to the actual battle.
"What… what was that?" Kael demanded, his voice dropping from the rumble of an Alpha to the primal growl of a creature faced with the impossible.
Elara pulled her hands back, trembling, feeling a sudden, profound exhaustion. She hadn't used magic, but something had used her. "It was… sterilization. And pressure." She quickly began stitching the skin, ignoring the complexity of the underlying muscle. "You can get him out of shock now. I did my part."
Kael stared at the Beta, whose strength was visibly returning, the destructive green light held at bay. Then Kael looked back at Elara, no longer seeing a parasite or a trespasser. He saw the prophecy—the purity, the power, the cure.
His previous, casual possessiveness hardened into iron-clad claim. He scooped Elara up with one swift, non-negotiable motion, tucking her against the dense silver-gray fur of his chest like a valuable, fragile tool. The contact was jarringly cold, yet underneath his armor, his heartbeat was a steady, heavy drum.
"You have proven your worth, little Conduit," Kael rumbled, turning his back on the snowy clearing. He didn't wait for her consent. "You are the lifeblood of my tribe now. And no force in this world will take you from me."
The last thing Elara saw before Kael marched into the thickening blizzard, carrying her toward his Ice Citadel, was the relieved, grateful stare of the Beta she had just saved, who was already starting to shift back to a more stable form. She was claimed, and her terrifying new life had begun.
We've now established Kael's dominant claim and the magical consequence of Elara's touch. The next chapters will focus on her integration into the Ice Wolf Citadel and the immediate challenges of navigating Kael's rigid control.