This book follows the events of The Journey of Stormfast 2: Separation and Claudette's Mate. Read those books first before continuing with this installment.


The Journey of Stormfast 3: Unification


Chapter 1: Bright Sides (written from May 1st to May 7th, 2022)

June 22nd, 2013

Tap! Tap! Tap! The onslaught of hail did not reprieve the mountainside. Flashing the mouth-shaped pit, zealous clouds tucked away the morning, a veil of twilight over the remote facility. Within the jaws of rock, the Eastern Justice Center was pelted with white meteors. Like shell bombardment, each hit sent fragments bouncing off the stone piles. But unsettled the inmates were not, too starved to move a paw—save one, a wolf named Rhys who could not be unsettled more. Every thwack made her head flinch. Every flash made her heart skip. Every rumble made her paws clench the floor as if the winds would abduct her. Weeping cracks hung overhead. The dens were lousy at best, only reinforced with luck and prayers; however, Rhys did not fear a cave-in, for as thin as it was, the ceiling could not even bruise her. Rather, she feared what would succeed the storm—the grand reward for all her sins.

Her memory of the trial came back as lightning mauled the sky. Two weeks earlier she stood before Stinky and his Grand Council with her fur pine-coned straight and her claws cleaned with waterfall. The russet she-wolf had to look presentable if she had any chance, but pleading guilty was inevitable. The charges she faced saturated the court with bubbling emotions. From a division of the chamber called the "witness zone," the pack healer named Claws described the murder of her dearest friend, Scar. Ironically, the wolf who saved Rhys's life was ending her.

"He had been outside divvying up the caribou we hunted the day before. I was... in the den we shared when I heard a bloodcurdling scream. I rushed outside and there was Stone... with his right forepaw inside Scar's throat. Scar had been pinned against the tree stump where he had done his butchering. The snow was a deep red, but I could tell it didn't come from the deer. Vividly I remember that prideful smile hanging above him. It was Stone's mate. She enjoyed watching him die!" The orange she-wolf cleared her face of tears before finishing. "I was too late... Getting their attention was pointless, but during that time when we stared at each other, her smile did not go away. It neither straightened nor flipped upside down. There was no respect. It was like she saw his death as a personal achievement. I was horrified and disgusted, heartbroken beyond belief. Our pack was at war, as you all know, so we were ready to die if it came to that, but Scar's death was not honorable. The battlefield was his place! It should've been on the battlefield!"

"That's enough," said Kate, one of the six members of the Council. "Rhys, it is clear you helped kill multiple Alphas with these cowardly ambush attacks. It is clear you were an accomplice of Stone. You've admitted to helping him in more ways than one, but what makes these acts particularly egregious is the fact that these murders were far from tactical. These testimonies suggest they were done out of thrill and hate. Dispute the Council's opinion do you?"

"I do not," Rhys replied, her voice rippling with apology. "I confirm the accuracy of every witness. As stated before, the truth is all I offer."

"In exchange for mercy, I assume?"

Rhys nodded with hesitation. She did not plan on admitting it. "Unfortunately for you, Rhys," Kate continued, "the Pack Leader of the South reported you being loyal to Stone until he betrayed you. Are we to trust this story of you coming to your senses merely because your mate fled?"

"I understand." She gave a long sigh. It was hopeless.

"You should be grateful that Stephen is a good friend of mine. If it weren't for that, you would've been summoned much earlier." Kate turned to the orange she-wolf. "Thank you, Alpha Claws, for your testimony. I'm sure it was difficult to recollect." Claws replied with a sorrowful nod while the other witnesses consoled her. They gave soft rubs and words of support while Kate shot Rhys a scowl, but the former mate of Stone had already shriveled in shame. The tip of her snout nearly touched the floor.

"Head up!" Stinky ordered. Slowly, she lifted her head, feeling the weight of the council's glare. The pack leader sat between the Eastern and Western caucuses, and his glare was the fiercest of them all. It was at that point Rhys knew for certain that Stinky would be the one who would take her life. "The council sentences you to death for the assistance in the murder of Toby, Griffin, Kiel, and Scar and conspiracy against the Grand Pack. You are to be sent to the Eastern Justice Center where you will remain until your end. As custom dictates, it will be me, the Pack Leader, who shall carry out your execution."

"Because you admit your guilt," Kate added, "your execution will be quick, your body will be buried, and you will be allowed to have one day of freedom before your final day."

Rhys's day of freedom had been yesterday, but she did not take advantage of it. There was nothing to go back to. No one to give her kind words. No one to wish her goodbye. There was no Terra, no Justin, no Stone, no Simon, no Chance, no Kris. Even her adopted son, Stephen, disowned her. Her day of freedom would have only amplified the shame and reminded her of what she lacked.

In the days following the trial, she came to accept her fate, but acceptance did little to relieve her terror. She was going to die a humiliating death. Since Stinky was expected to arrive after the storm, every hailstone hitting Rhys's dilapidated den reminded her of the dwindling moments. Oh, what she would give to take it all back, to edit history and make it be that she had never met Stone. That vile wolf she loved had harnessed her anger and snared her in a web of lies and misdirection. On the bright side, Rhys thought, she could meet Stone in hell and give him a piece of her mind.

Tap! Tap! Tap! But it was not from the hail striking the rocks. Rhys's ears perked. It came from the canyon's entrance. The only way for anyone to go in or out of the facility was through a narrow tunnel, and the tapping came from the huge boulder that closed the hole from the outside. Someone was wanting to come in! Rhys gulped. The Pack Leader had come earlier than expected.

Rhys stuck her head out of the den and saw one of the prison guards approach the tunnel. The guard howled, and a few seconds later, the Pack Leader gave his own tune but was it the Pack Leader?

"Who are you?! What is your business?!" The guard hurled his questions over the wall. Other inmates began sticking their heads out of their dens as well, exposing themselves to the terrible weather. Life in the Justice Center was so monotonous that the slightest irregularities attracted everyone's attention.

"I am Austin! I come with a criminal who requires the highest security!" Rhys gave a sigh of relief. It was not the Pack Leader.

"What?!" the guard exclaimed. "We were not notified! Was this sanctioned by Stinky?!"

"The Pack Leader has been critically injured! The wolf responsible is who I am bringing in!"

A wave of shock flooded the canyon. Guards and inmates exchanged nervous glances, but one wolf remained unwavering. It was the warden, a toned black wolf known as Tamson. Every inmate feared him. The black wolf was ruthless and not the type to shy away from a challenge.

"Bring them in!" he ordered. It took several minutes for Austin to move the boulder. Once he was in the tunnel, he did not move with haste, for the wolf beside him walked gingerly. It was a small grey she-wolf, one that did not look threatening in the least. Tamson tried his best to hold his laughter.

"This is the wolf that injured the Pack Leader?"

"Her name is Alice," Austin informed. "She is a Northerner."

"A Northerner, eh? I didn't know the Northern Pack was capable of runts." Tamson neared the grey wolf's emotionless face. Her eyes were stuck to the ground. She appeared to be mentally gone. "You have quite the story, don't you? Welcome to the Justice Center, little one." The only movement the grey wolf allowed came in the form of a blink. With that exception, she stood perfectly still and perfectly quiet. Tamson did not like it. "Not much of a talker, aren't you?"

No response.

The warden squinted his eyes. In his view, impassivity was the same as protesting. There was no question that he had to break her. "No matter. A couple rounds in the spring caves will straighten you up."

"Spring caves? That sounds nice," said Austin.

"Ohhh, it's not as nice as you think," the warden asserted.

"Well, I gotta head back now. Thank you, sir."

"Understood. I wish the Pack Leader a quick recovery."

As Austin hurried back through the tunnel, Tamson attempted to push Alice towards the prison dens. The grey wolf fell into a puddle and struggled to recover. It appeared she suffered a painful injury to her back. "Pathetic," Tamson whispered before calling out the name of his servant. "RHYS!" The former mate of Stone wasted no time exiting her den. She had been in the Justice Center long enough to know what Tamson desired at any given point.

She began nudging Alice.

"I don't need help!" the Northerner snapped, and with that, she managed to regain her footing. Rhys led the Northerner to her dilapidated den. Luckily, both of them did not get hit by a single hailstone.

"It's not much but..." Rhys then shook her head. Where was she going to go with that sentence? "Well, it's not much." Carefully, Alice settled herself in the farthest portion of the cave. "One of the guards will build a den for you tomorrow."

"So you're the infamous mate of Stone?"

"Former," Rhys corrected. "Is what that wolf says true? Did you injure the Pack Leader?"

"It's not true."

"Wait. What? You said it's not true?"

"It's not. I did not 'injure' him. I killed him."

Rhys's heart dropped like the snow of an avalanche.

"You what?! I... I don't understand. Why doesn't Austin know he's dead?"

"Because he wasn't dead when Austin found him. If he's not dead already, I'm certain he will die. There's no way he'll survive that cut to his neck." Rhys became speechless. From one perspective, this Alpha she just met saved her. She would live... at least for a little while. But from another perspective, the Pack Leader's killer was in a den with her! Rhys was either the most protected wolf in the world or the most vulnerable. Alice could sense Rhys's unease build with every passing second. "I did not kill him on purpose if you're assuming that."

"What happened?"

"It's nothing you need to know. It's my fault regardless. I belong here."

Rhys then turned to the mouth of the cave. Smooth rain had replaced the hail during their short conversation, and the millions of frozen pieces left over were beginning to melt away.

For the first time in a while, Rhys was not sure what the future held. If Stinky was dead, what did that mean for her? What did that mean for every pack in the Valley? She knew Stinky had no sons to succeed him so who would? And would that wolf be the one to kill her? Then another thought came to her mind. If word spread far, would there be someone who would take advantage of the Grand Pack? A pack without its Pack Leader was normally a weak pack, and the Grand Pack since the end of the Stone War had only one enemy of comparable strength: the King Pack of Banff.

"The Rogues interest me," Stone had told her a year ago. "They're all Alphas, they show no mercy, and their enemy is the same as ours. Perhaps we should ally with them." The alliance, however, would never become more than an idea. After the Rogues failed with their scheme of holding Stinky's brother hostage, Stone discarded his plans for an unholy union. For their massive failure, he deemed them as weak but that had been many moons ago. Rogues still plagued the areas outside of the Valley. Justice Center guards sometimes spotted a Rogue or two every week and that suggested that their strength had not diminished. What was out there to stop them from invading again?

Well, on the bright side, Rhys thought, she would rather die fighting a Rogue than die by execution.


Next - Chapter 2: An Unholy Union