**Ch 113: Elements of Winter

"Oh, I forgot to mention, it was just enough to detain your unborn brats," Tyler insincerely laughed.

"How could you do this to my babies!"

"Just because the Collin Coven lacks some of their best warriors and Alphas from the war, doesn't mean I still won't take precautions to make sure none of you can mentally reach Kai," Tyler snickered as his clan all joined in. "Strip her down and dunk her into the pond."

"No, you leave me alone!" I screamed as one of the men retrieved a pocket knife from his belt.

He flicked the blade open and slashed through my winter coat. Another man pulled the shredded material off my body as I struggled to stop him. All of my efforts to kick and squirm free were in vain against them. My black, long-sleeved shirt was torn in half at my cleavage, exposing my dark blue lace bra.

Tyler ogled at my perky breasts and licked his lips. "If hypothermia doesn't kill you this time, I'll make you my concubine, and if you have any daughters, I'll sell them to my allies as courtesans," he snickered, further undressing me with his eyes.

The man then roughly flopped me into the snow, making me wince from the cold.

"You won't..." I stammered, making them all laugh.

"I can and will," Tyler mocked.

Through my chattering teeth, my words broke apart as I shivered, "Kai... will stop... you..."

"I'd like to see him try," Tyler taunted, grinning from ear to ear as he ogled me.

"Do you want her naked?" the man asked, hardly containing the light chuckle in his tone.

Away from me, Tyler veered his eyes at the man and replied with an amused chuckle, "I wouldn't want to fully degrade her. Take her to the pond."

"No..." I weakly squealed, feebly fighting with my arms against him, before he seized my wrists.

As everyone watched me get dragged across the freezing snow, Tyler got knocked sideways and stumbled some, when Darlene rammed her body against his.

"Victori..." she attempted to call out until Tyler recovered his balance and violently snatched her neck with brutal ferocity.

"Darlene!" I hollered, witnessing Tyler snapping her neck like a toothpick.

He snorted, hurtling her unconscious figure into the cracked snow, just before his dark, reddened eyes blazed inside the damaged SUV.

"End the wounded man!" he barked, growling fiendishly.

Another one of Tyler's granted humans pulled out a knife and walked toward the damaged vehicle.

"Leave him... alone..."

As the frigid cold snow scraped against the bare skin on my back, my teeth chattered as the man dragged me through the icy, snow-covered ground by my wrists, hauling me toward the nearby pond I had once crashed my car into, as it was Tyler's first attempt to kill me during the fall season. Sharp ice stabbed into my flesh as he submerged my entire body beneath the freezing water.

"Aah..." I managed to scream before my cries were smothered out by the gurgling sounds of myself drowning.

Several times, I was pulled up by my hair and dunked back under the arctic water.

"That should be good," Tyler snickered, ordering the man to cease his barbaric actions.

Wet and cold, my mind began to shut down against nature's arctic elements that winter brings. Uncontrollable convulsions wracked my body as my eyelids shut loosely. Writhing beneath the suffering sensation of feeling multiple needles enwrapping my body, I experienced nothing but excruciating pain piercing into my flesh. Weak and shivering, I lay helpless on the snow, unable to withstand the gelid elements. Driven to give up, my body cried to shut down, just before a sudden howling filled the atmosphere in the woods, causing me to feebly reopen my eyes.

"Watch out!" one of Tyler's advisors growled, yelling over the constant howling.

Bound on all paws, huge oversized wolves leaped out from between the trees, attacking Tyler and his clan. Skin and fur were torn from their flesh as they battled. Blood splattered on the snow and sprayed the bare trunks of the trees. Stronger than the wolves' unwavering ferocity, Tyler's clan managed to overpower them and tossed those poor creatures around like rag dolls. Amidst the fierce battle, one grayish-black wolf sank its canines into Tyler's arm, but he flexed his muscles and flung the wolf against a tree, eliciting a pained yelp, as the impact struck its spinal cord.

"Stop!" Tyler yelled, halting his clan from causing further harm to the rest of the pack.

Bones popped and shifted as the wolves balanced on their hind legs, bending their upper bodies backward. Fur folded inward with some misshapen twists, revealing fully clothed, human-like figures emerging before Tyler and his clan.

"We can take them, Tyler!" snapped one of his advisors. "It's only Levi's roughly nine-hundred-year-old son and his clan!"

"Patience, my friend," Tyler cautioned, eyeing Ryder, the young Alpha he had thrown off his arm. "Ryder, I suggest you listen to reason and retreat with your clan."

"Not a chance, Tyler!" Ryder growled, refusing to stand down.

"Perhaps your father didn't teach you how to choose your battles wisely," Tyler mocked the young Alpha, inherently disparaging his father.

"My father didn't raise a coward!" Ryder retorted.

A low-pitched growl rumbled from Tyler's chest, and his terrifying eyes veered to me. "You're too late," he chuckled as a twisted, satisfied grin spread across his lips.

With a snap from Tyler's fingers, three guardians grabbed their three granted humans and vanished without leaving another footprint in the snow. Overhead, from the trees, the truck that caused us to crash had started and began driving down the road, as Tyler couldn't travel too far without exposing his granted humans to the freezing cold temperatures.

Barely able to breathe on my own, Ryder came to my aid and pulled me onto his lap. He covered me with his jacket, and a cloudiness shrouded his eyes after he looked at my shrunken baby bump. Beneath his embrace, his warm palms became clammy on my skin, and his breath stilled like the cold air around us. Confusion raced through his mind, impairing his cognition, which left him unsure of how to regain his ability to think clearly.

Though I recognized this look on someone else from before, my frozen state prevented me from recalling who it was, or when I had seen it. All I truly wanted to do was close my eyes and fall asleep.

"No...don't fall asleep..." Ryder's voice stuttered. "Stay with me... Victoria."

Down through my frozen lungs, I gasped in a breath of air, "I'm... so tired..."

I wasn't sure how I was still breathing, but somehow my lungs merely managed.

"Ryder, we need to act fast!" his advisor shouted from the vehicle. "The Professor isn't going to make it."

Unresponsive, Ryder remained quiet while his body shook, and his eyes stayed fixed on me and my belly. Defeated by the arctic cold, my eyes shut as the panicked voices grew faint, before completely fading around me.