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Alice\'s voice faded as Axel\'s mind cleared, and he opened his eyes.

He lifted his head, looking around him and remembering where he was. Still bound by the thick roots that had sprung up from the earth, his leg still aching with the fire of his infection.

He heard Roman\'s steps in the snow coming toward him.

Roman squatted before Axel, grinning.

"How are you feeling, old friend?" he asked, looking down at the wound on Axel\'s leg. "I admit I knew it would take some time, but I\'m starting to feel impatient now."

He reached down and squeezed Axel\'s leg, drawing a hiss from Axel.

Axel took soft breaths as the pain eased, and he looked at the man before him.

The devil from his past.

The scar on Axel\'s face constantly reminded him of the fear that had been burned inside him.

Bell\'s mate, the unknown enemy that Axel had longed to meet since the day she arrived in Winter with her jaw wired shut. The cause of all her grief and suffering.

The man that taught Alice how to ignore pain. How to suffer with a smile and hide away in the darkness.

This man was that monster.

Roman looked into Axel\'s eyes. He didn\'t like what he saw. The calm, the thinking. He wanted this stupid boy to be as scared as he was when they were children. As he chased him through the trees and almost tore out his eye.

Roman growled and leaned closer.

"They scream in their minds," he whispered. "All of them."

Axel didn\'t respond.

"They are in agonizing pain, begging to die," Roman continued, angered by the lack of response. "Soon, that\'s going to be you. Screaming endlessly."

Axel looked up at the man hovering above him. Roman\'s face was twisted in a rage. He was lost in his own madness. It was different than it had been with Granger.

Granger knew what he was doing. He chose every step of the way to continue hurting everyone and everything around him without considering the consequences. He went out of his way to use the

love and trust people had for him against them. Granger had not regretted any of it, even in the last moments of his life. He had not struggled with the decisions he made.

But Axel saw something as he looked at the anger and resentment on Roman\'s face.

He saw desperation. Loneliness.

Roman was a monster, a killer, and he would continue to be one no matter what anyone said or did. But, unlike Granger, Roman felt something.

Alice was wrong. Roman didn\'t find comfort in the screams he so desperately craved. Instead, they were just loud enough to cover the sounds of his own cries.

"I have a question for you," Axel said softly.

Roman\'s brows knitted together in confusion; he tilted his head, wondering what Axel would ask.

"Do you want me to kill you?" Axel finally asked.

Roman\'s eyes widened. His heart pounded in his ears, and a cold sweat broke over him.

The moment was still, time moving at a snail\'s pace.

Deep in his mind\'s darkness, Roman heard a child\'s soft cries. Alone, abandoned, unwanted, and hated. A monster.

The sound filled him with panic and rage as hot tears gathered in his eyes.

Axel saw the panic and the tears. He closed his eyes and deeply breathed the cold mountain air into his lungs.

"Are you… mocking me?" Roman asked in a shaken whisper. The rage bubbled inside him, the pain and the desperation overwhelming any rational thought he may have had. "I\'ll end your miserable life here and now!"

He reached down and pulled the blade from his pocket, drawing back, intent on cutting open Axel\'s throat and ending it all now.

But as he tried to thrust the blade forward, he could not move. His breath caught in his throat, and his legs stiffened and locked. Around him, an immense cold pressure grew and grew, pushing in against his body until it screamed in agony as the cold burned along his skin.

"For your sake as much as everyone else\'s…." Axel whispered.

The knife fell from Roman\'s hand as he turned his eyes up to the bound and helpless man before him.

Axel opened his eyes, revealing the white glow of ice and snow, so bright that it almost blinded Roman.

A thick frost began to spread over the dark roots that bound Axel until they were completely covered in ice.

The ice-covered roots shattered as Axel\'s arm thrust forward and grabbed Roman by the throat. Rising to his feet, he lifted Roman in the air.

"I will sentence you," Axel stated, even his voice was layered with the cold howling of a bitter wind.

Roman tried to gasp, breathe, and push the cold away, but he couldn\'t. His life was in the hands of the Alpha of Winter.

Axel leaned close, looking into Roman\'s fiery eyes.

"I will grant you mercy," he whispered. "In death."

Roman\'s eyes widened, and the cry from the dark grew even louder as Axel\'s words fell over him. He wanted to get away. He needed to get away. But he couldn\'t move. He was frozen in place, surrounded by the cold darkness.

Axel set Roman back on his feet, and with a final push of his will, Roman\'s lungs filled with a gripping cold.

Roman felt the hot tears streaming down his face as the crying echoed in his ears. Frost crawled up his legs, spreading over his body.

\'No!\' Roman screamed inside his mind. \'No!\'

The crying stopped, and there was no sound except for the soft crackling of the ice forming over his body. And then there was another sound. A soft sniffle, and then footsteps, tiny footsteps.

Roman\'s eyes stared out into the darkness, darting back and forth.

Finally, a small boy stepped forward. He looked up at Roman with innocent burnt orange eyes. Tear stains on his face.

Roman swallowed, feeling a heaviness in his heart. A deep well of grief and regret formed in his belly.

"I\'m sor—" he whispered, trying to apologize, but his words were cut off when the screams of his past echoed through the darkness.

One over the other, louder and louder, their pain and anguish resonating through his bones. Every scream he had ever drawn from the lips of another poured over him now.

The boy covered his ears and cried. He fell to his knees. Roman could see the trickle of blood that slipped down the boy\'s throat from under his hands.

Roman tried to reach out, but the ice was up to his chin now, he couldn\'t even speak. All he could do was watch in horror as the screams of his victims tore him apart.

Axel looked closely at Roman. The fire in the beast\'s eyes was gone, and not even a smoldering ember was left. All that remained was the cold of Winter and the soft, slow heartbeat that came from within.

Axel drew back, and he punched Roman square in the chest with all his might. The force of the blow shattered his lungs and sent the frozen shards flying into his heart, silencing it forever.

The cold that held him locked in place fell away, and Roman\'s body crumpled to its knees, slumping forward lifelessly into the snow.

The light in Axel\'s eyes slowly faded as he took deep, heavy breaths looking down on the remains of the slain monster. Then, finally, he fell to one knee.

He laughed gently, knowing that his family was finally safe.

"They\'re safe now…" he whispered. "They have to be…."

Axel tried to rise to his feet, but the burning in his wound suddenly felt excruciating. He fell back into the snow, grabbing his leg and howling his agony.

The pain eased, and Axel lay back, huffing and staring into the trees.

A heavy cough forced him to turn onto his side, and another spattered blood into the snow. Axel wiped his mouth, looking at the red stains on his hands.

He took a deep breath as his body gave in to the exhaustion of his power, his wounds, and his transformation.

The Alpha of Winter fell back into the snow as the darkness settled over him.