The bloody Pack

Chapter 14 – "Wolfsteel and the Shadow Empire"

Year Four in Essos began not on the battlefield—but at a desk.

Cregan Stark sat in a marble hall in Pentos, ink on his fingers and contracts in front of him. Gold no longer trickled—it poured. Behind every letter of trade was a favour, behind every favour, a blade, a whispered tale of the "Bloodthirsty Wolf."

Magisters who once laughed now paid him in coin, soldiers, and trade routes. He had earned it all—through blood, grit, and Northern stubbornness. He was no longer just a warrior or captain. He was a merchant prince in everything but name, cloaked in northern furs and southern ruthlessness.

By midyear, Cregan had founded a network of trade stretching from Tyrosh to Norvos. Salt, fur, timber, iron—he bought and sold it all. But it was not wealth for comfort. It was fuel.

Fuel for the North.

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Back home, Jon Snow managed Frosthall with quiet efficiency. Letters flowed like rivers between the brothers. Cregan sent coin, maps, names. Jon sent progress, harvest numbers, and ideas. They were no longer boys—they were builders.

Then came the discovery.

In the depths of the lands around Moat Cailin—land that once lay forgotten—Cregan's miners struck something strange. It was unlike any ore they had seen. Black as night, cold to the touch, but when smelted, it gleamed faintly blue under firelight. Harder than steel. Resistant to rust. Sharp as a butcher's edge.

They called it Wolfsteel.

The smiths of Frosthall worked night and day. Cregan brought in craftsmen from Qohor and Lys. Even a retired swordsmith from Braavos was hired and given land. They combined techniques from all over Essos with Northern secrets.

The result: a metal second only to Valyrian steel in strength and beauty.

The first blade forged was a longsword, gifted to Jon.

The second—a massive axe—Cregan kept for himself, naming it Bloodhowl.

The secret of its creation was guarded fiercely. Only three men knew the full process, and all had sworn blood oaths before the heart tree in Frosthall's grove. Wolfsteel became the pride of the North, the treasure of Frosthall, and a legend whispered even in the Free Cities.

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Cregan returned to the North often now, moving between Frosthall, Moat Cailin, and Winterfell. With Jon and Robb by his side, trade grew, roads expanded, and old keeps were surveyed for restoration.

Bannermen who once feared his wildness now toasted him in halls.

He was the wolf who had gone East and returned bearing fire and gold.

Cregan brokered trade routes with the Riverlands, brought spices and silks from Essos into White Harbor, and filled Northern granaries with Essosi grain and Volantene wheat.

He opened a bank in Frosthall—a rare thing in the North. It lent to villages, funded rebuilding projects, and paid the wages of his growing Frostguard army.

The North, long left to its own harsh winters, began to thrive.

The lords prospered. Villages grew. Roads were built. Old mines reopened. Winter towns flourished.

Even Lord Wyman Manderly, ever cautious, invited him for feasts and called him "the boldest Stark since the Old Kings."

Frosthall became a symbol—not of defiance, but of vision. A new age.

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But not all was forgiven.

Ned Stark, proud and stern, watched his son with wary eyes. Though Cregan had brought coin and strength, he had also brought shadows—alliances beyond Westeros, secrets kept even from blood.

"You should have told me," Ned had said one night by the godswood.

Cregan, quiet, replied, "If I had, would you have let me go?"

Ned didn't answer. But he didn't forbid him either.

There was grudging respect now. Silent understanding. A bond reforged not in affection—but in shared responsibility.

Robb too had changed. He saw what Cregan had built—what his twin had achieved. There was envy at times, but also admiration. And pride.

"You never stop," Robb told him. "You were never meant to sit still."

"No wolf is," Cregan had said.

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Among all this, a new idea bloomed.

Jon and Cregan—along with several of Cregan's most loyal companions—had experimented with wild northern fruits and firewater brought from Lys. The result was strong. Fierce. Warm like the hearth. Fermented in barrels carved from weirwood roots and dark oak.

They called it Frostbite.

Casks were sold across Essos and Westeros, first as curiosities, then as luxuries. The taste burned like truth and left the tongue craving more.

Frostbite became the North's most famous export. Inns from Braavos to Sunspear begged for it. Noble houses began requesting custom blends, and the Frostbite brand grew into a legend.

Wealth flowed. So did influence.

Cregan had turned war into wealth.

His wolves—those who followed him to Essos and back—were now lords in their own right. Not in name, but in respect and coin.

They called themselves Frostguard.

They lived, trained, and bled in Frosthall. And they built more than just wealth.

They built legacy.

The Frostguard became more than soldiers. They were merchants, smiths, architects, horse breeders, diplomats. Their loyalty to Cregan was unshakable. Their reputation, hard-earned.

Their symbol? A black wolf's head howling over a frost-covered blade.

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As year four came to an end, the North was not just strong—it was awakening.

The bannermen toasted to Frosthall. The lords praised its grain and steel. The people wore cloaks lined in southern silks bought with Essosi coin.

Old songs began to be sung again. Songs of kings who wore wolf pelts and built kingdoms from stone and storm.

Cregan stood upon the battlements of Moat Cailin one frostbitten morning, staring at the land that birthed him.

He smiled.

A broken fortress once thought forgotten now stood in scaffolds and stone. Wolf banners fluttered beside Stark ones. The marshes that once drowned armies were now lined with timber walkways and signal towers.

"We're not done yet," he whispered to the wind.

And somewhere deep in the woods beyond, wolves howled.

The North remembered.

And it thrived.

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