The Red Wolf: Bitter Frost Series

By Kailin Gow

The Red Wolf has always been just a fable told to the fey, a legendary figure as ancient as Feyland itself. Now The Red Wolf is about to rise again...

Logan, the Prince of the Wolves in Feyland, is lured back into Feyland from Gregory, Oregon in hot pursuit of Breena, the girl he had always loved. She was kidnapped by the Winter Prince Kian, and taken into the world of the Fey. As Logan journeys into Feyland, he learns how his new role as Wolf Prince plays a significant role in shaping the future of Feyland.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sparklesoup.com
• Release date: Jan 17, 2023
• ISBN: 9781597481878

Kailin Gow

It's official! Read about Kailin and her books being adapted into films and tv series here: https://filmdaily.co/obsessions/kailin-gow-loving-summer/ FIND OUT MORE ABOUT KAILIN GOW AT: https://linktr.ee/KailinGow including how to get a free book from her! Kailin Gow is a million-selling international and USA Today Bestselling author of over 680 published books! She writes in many genres under her name and other pen names. She has been an invited speaker on Book Expo America, appeared on CBS News about writing books with social issues, and the Top 15 National radio regularly on women's issues, women in film and Hollywood, and leadership. She holds a Masters in Management from USC and degrees in Social Ecology, Criminology, and Filmmaking. She is an author influencer on Instagram, owns a podcast network with multiple channels, is a multi-award-winning filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, actress, and host. Her books have been made into games, animated short films, and series. Currently, a number of her book series have been optioned, are in development, or pre-production, including her YA Fantasy Sci Fi Thriller FADE (which has been optioned) and Red Genesis (also optioned) by Netflix producers. Kailin Gow is a regular guest in radio and television on women in Hollywood and filmmaking, naming the top Women Execs to Watch. She is a judge in film festivals, writing contests, and is also a voting member in the Academy Awards. AWARD-WINNING INTERNATIONAL MILLION-SELLING AUTHOR, PRODUCER, AND TV PERSONALITY Kailin Gow is an internationally-recognized multi-award-winning multi-genres USA bestselling Asian American author and woman director/filmmaker who has written and published over 400 books under Kailin Gow and her pen names. She is both traditionally-published as well as indie. Considered a digital publishing pioneer, her books have been downloaded over 10 Million times around the world. She is known as one of the most prolific authors internationally who not only writes novels but screenplays fast, but of world-class quality they win prestigious awards like the ALA YALSA Awards and Los Angeles Film Awards. Besides having gone to law school, she holds a Masters Degree in Communications Management from USC and Drama/Film and Social Ecology Degrees from UC Irvine. She has also been a longtime member of TED Talks. She is the first Asian American author to have sold over 1 million books and to be featured on Amazon.com's homepage as an indie Author Success Story. Her success as an Indie Author and advocate for Indie authors during the early Kindle days has inspired many to take a plunge to become authors. The first Asian American woman who is independently published to appear on Amazon's homepage as an Author Success Story, she also represented Amazon as an author spokesperson during Amazon's Kindle Family Launch press conference in Santa Monica and at Book Expo America where she was an invited speaker. A digital publishing pioneer, she was one of the first authors and publisher to publish digitally back in 2001. Prior to becoming a full-time author and filmmaker, she worked as an Exec in Legal and Production at Walt Disney Company, a writer/producer for Cable Television, an Exec at high tech start ups, and Exec at Fortune 100 Hotel and Travel Corporations where she has managed and trained hundreds of employees on world-class service and operations. She has also been a professional model, a tour director, journalist, re-organization consultant, a secret mystery shopper/consultant for top brands, and professional speaker who has been an invited speaker at Book Expo America, Girl Scouts, Asian America Heritage Week, and more! FUTURIST AND SOCIAL INFLUENCER A social influencer, she has over millions of views on her YouTube channel and her Vimeo channel with over 1.5 million views on her Bitter Frost trailer and award-winning animated short film alone. She is a judge on writing contests for writing incubator social sites, has been a member of TED Talks, and is one of the most quoted modern living authors today. She has also been regularly published as a contributor on Fast Company magazine on articles about publishing, leadership, business, and social issues. https://www.fastcompany.com/1800256/social-media-and-future-publishing-industry

Book preview

Prologue

Somewhere, far away, a battle was raging. A pixie was attacking a princess – my Breena, my love. I had fought to save her as I had sworn to do – it was no use. The Pixie King was far more powerful than I could ever hope to be. He had the ancient magic of his people; the magic of the Wolf Fey had long since grown thin in our blood. I half-remembered what had happened: I had rushed at Delano, frantic. Desperate to save her. But that all felt so far away now.

I knew what had happened next; I remembered it vaguely in the back of my mind. He had rounded on me, grinning at me, his sharp yellow teeth glinting in the fluorescent lighting of the living room. His magic had struck me full-force in the chest. As I fell, I felt no pain. Only the agony of knowing I'd let Breena down.

Breena, I'm sorry.

But that was so far away. Now I was somewhere else, somewhere strange. The world around me shimmered with an eerie pale glow, a golden aura surrounding every shape, every outline. The shadows seemed to expand and then vanish; from the corner of my eye, I saw visions that weren't there. My feet were weightless; I was floating through space. Was I in Feyland? It looked like Feyland – only there could the mountains and valleys surround me have such beauty. But something was different. Something was wrong. Normally, coming from the mortal world into Feyland was like coming from a dream into reality: the colors were stronger, the contours of things more defined. The mortal world – the land Beyond the Crystal River – felt like a mere echo in comparison. But now everything around me felt hazy and blurred. As if I were still dreaming.

Was this all a dream?

Hello? I called out, confused, but I found that no sound could escape from my throat. I tried to turn around, to run, but my body refused to obey; my feet continued on the path before me, gliding softly over the cool autumn leaves.

Breena? Where was she?

I felt a pang in my heart, but it swiftly vanished. Breena was far away now – another world, another lifetime. Every time I tried to remember her, she seemed to slip through my fingers, to pass quietly unnoticed from my mind.

A spell?

I tried to resist whatever feeling had come over me, but it was in vain. A strange opiate feeling of calm came over me, a calm mingled with forgetfulness. And then I did not think of Breena at all, nor of Delano, nor of the struggle that had just occurred on Breena's living-room floor. Instead I thought of my army.

My army? Part of me resisted, reeling with confusion. But the feeling of serenity once again flooded through me, diluting all my doubts in a sea of tranquility.

For I had an army – the thought came to me suddenly, and then I could not remember not thinking it. I was by now in a cave – a high-vaulted, magnificent cavern decorated with sumptuous jewels, glimmering by the torchlight. Frescoes of wolves and fairies were painted on the sides of the cave; sapphires, rubies, and emeralds all sparkled from their places of honor, embedded in the smooth stone. The floor was lavishly decorated with marble and mosaics; strewn about the cave were rich fabrics and carpets.

Somehow I knew this place. This was a palace – my palace – a place I had never seen before and yet which I recognized somewhere deep in my soul. I had rolled about on these soft pillows and embroidered textiles, shedding my fur before leaping to my feet as a man. I had dined here, on these silver platters, drinking wine and fairyfruit concoctions from golden goblets. This was all familiar to me.

And surrounding me were wolves – thousands of them. Some were in their lupine form, their ears pricked back and their noses pressed to the cool marble of the floor, signs of submission and loyalty upon their face, their tails wagging. Others were in human form like me, clad in the leather armor customary to the ancient Wolf Fey. Their faces were obscured, painted in the colors I recognized. Red and black – the colors of wolf blood and of sacrifice. For our blood ran red like mortal's blood did; in this, we were different from the Fey our brothers.

In this and nothing else.

For as I looked the wolves up and down, as one by one my brothers and sisters knelt and bowed, placing their swords on the floor as a sign of their fealty to me, I felt the presence of a great magic in the room. A magic greater than any I had ever known – even my grandfather, even Balthazar (names increasingly unfamiliar to me) had never experienced. The magic here was an ancient magic, a powerful magic. Fairy magic.

I knew the history of Wolf lore well. Once we had been a great and proud people, as powerful as the Fey of the Summer and Winter Courts. But that was a long time ago. Intermarriage with humans had thinned our bloodline, and in each successive generation our powers had waned. Few of us had any ability to command magic at all, let alone gather storms and move mountains the way the strongest Summer and Winter fairies did. But we still remembered our noble past, a past dotted with stories – with great myths and legends. Stories spoken to us at campfires. Stories my grandfather had told me before I went to sleep at night.

But now the past was present. The old stories were here. I stood as a leader of men and wolves before an army ten thousand strong, an army waiting for my command.

The Dark Hordes are rising, I heard myself say. But you must put aside your fear. You must gird yourself with your greatest strength, your most noble courage. The battle for the life and soul of Feyland has begun. Either you will help to push back the threat of the great evil that courses through the life's blood of Feyland today, or we will all perish in the attempt. Your red blood spilled today and tomorrow will water the fertile soil of Feyland, and the life of the earth will give you strength. The life of the sun will give you strength. And you will fight against the darkness. And you shall win.

The Dark Hordes? The small subconscious part of my brain that still remembered that I was Logan, that I was dreaming, prickled at my consciousness. The Dark Hordes hadn't existed for thousands of years. They were only a myth – nobody even believed in them anymore. A power so filled with darkness and hatred that they could annihilate all of Feyland in a single day, sucking out the love and light and soul from our lands? It was told to frighten children, nothing more.

But to the other-me who spoke, to the soldiers who one by one nodded and struck their chests in affirmation, this was no fairy tale. It was real. And although I saw flickers of fear across their faces, I knew that my men and women were ready to fight – ready to die, even – for a chance to save Feyland from this nightmare. I felt my chest swell with pride. A brave army, I thought. A noble army. One that would be remembered for centuries to come.

One of the wolf lieutenants raised his shield high, and with a gasp of shock I caught a glimpse of my face in the shiny metal of the shield. I was not Logan at all – my short-cropped brown hair was long and blonde, my dark hazel-brown eyes had turned an icy blue.  And behind me, growing like vines out of my back, were two gossamer medallions, flapping decisively in the cool air. Two bright scarlet wings.

I looked up in surprise. As, one by one, the wolves began yowling and howling in assent, the human-form wolves too began to howl, releasing wings from their backs. Soon all the crimson and black wings on the backs of my brethren were revealed.

The Dark Hordes. The Fey magic. The wings.

This wasn't just the ancient past. This was the most ancient of all stories – the stories of a time so long ago that even wolves had wings. The time when the very first generation of Wolf Fey fought against the Dark Hordes and, with the aid of the Midnight Knight, helped to force back the banshees and the giants and the Minotaurs into utter darkness and desolation once again. A story I, as Logan, had learned was the most revered story of our kind.

The legend of the Red Wolf. The father of Wolves. The Lupine King. The Great Howler. I had seen pictures of the Red Wolf on every cave fresco; I had read stories of the Red Wolf in every volume in my grandfather's library. None was as famous as he. As a child, I had so often dreamed of going on adventures with the Red Wolf, pretended that I was fighting alongside him.

But as the cave started spinning and my dream began to dissolve into the reality of Breena's living room floor, I felt another sensation even stranger than the dream. I wasn't with the Red Wolf at all – not if the reflection I had seen on the shield was anything to go by.

I recognized that face. I had seen it in paintings.

I was the Red Wolf.

Chapter 1

My eyes flew open. The slow churning of the ceiling fan buzzed through my brain, an agonizing rhythm. My head was throbbing; my feet were throbbing. My chest felt as if it had been sliced open. Instinctively I put my hand to my heart, but with a sigh of relief I noticed that I felt no blood. The magic the Pixie King Delano had used on me had been destructive, but the only injuries I had sustained had been from my violent, crashing fall. Odd, I thought, sitting up and shaking my head. Delano was not known for his mercy; if he shot that lighting-green power from his fingertips, he was probably aiming to kill. But his magic had only sent me reeling. What was happening, I wondered? Had Delano decided to spare my life? That certainly seemed unlikely. Or were Delano's powers reduced across the Crystal River?

Yet if Delano had taken that risk – chosen to come here and risked his own strength and well-being – he had to be in search of something. Something worth risking his life for.

Or someone!

My heart started beating faster. Breena? I called out tentatively, fear flooding my brain. The silence around me seemed to echo louder than thunderbolts through the house. Breena, are you there? But I had no answer. Delano? I called. You pixie scum, show yourself...

But I could sense no pixie presence in the house – nor any other presence, for that matter. I sniffed the air, but it was too late. Any scent of them – of her – was hours old at best. I looked down at my watch. I'd been knocked out for at least two hours.

I could have kicked myself. Two hours was enough time to get Breena miles away – particularly if Delano was traveling at pixie speed. He could have her out of the state by now.

Unless he'd brought her back.

Across the Crystal River? Back to Feyland? If Delano wasn't even capable of shooting to