My Mate

Chapter 10 — Early Return

—Kael's POV—

Varric's boots were loud on the kitchen floor downstairs. He was angry. He kicks things when he is angry. I heard the water bucket hit the wall.

Aurora's hand flew to the fresh mark under her ear. My mark. It was still glowing faintly silver in the dark. Still wet. If Varric saw it, he would know in one second what had happened.

"Hide," she mouthed to me, eyes wide with panic.

There was nowhere to hide in her tiny room. Bed, table, one small wardrobe that would not fit an Alpha.

But there was the window. The window that faced my forest. The one she had left open a crack for me.

I could jump. Wolves can jump from second floors and land without a sound. But if I left now, Varric would come upstairs and find her panting, her hair messy, her room smelling like me and moonflower salve and s*x, not s*x, but mate scent, which is close enough for a hunter to know.

If I stayed, he would find me and kill me in her bedroom and she would watch.

Aurora made the choice for me. She shoved me hard toward the wardrobe and threw her own cloak over me. Not good cover, but it was all we had.

"Coming, Father!" she called down, her voice shaking but loud. She quickly pulled her black hair down over her neck to cover my mark and rubbed moonflowers from the bowl on the table all over her hands to cover my scent.

I crouched behind her wardrobe, cloak over my head, every muscle locked, claws out without meaning to, ready to kill if he touched her.

Footsteps on the stairs. Heavy, fast. Varric taking them two at a time.

He pushed her door open without knocking. Hunters never knock.

"Aurora, why are you still awake?" he snapped, then stopped when he saw her standing by the window in her white night dress, hair down.

I could see him from behind the wardrobe. He had his white cloak still on, silver dagger at his belt, face red from riding fast from the Capital.

"The Order meeting was cut short," he said, looking around her room like he was searching for something. His eyes went to the open window, to the bowl of moonflowers that should have been white ash, to the broken ash line outside he could see from her window. "Rogues were spotted near Bramble Hollow. We came back. Why is your window open? And where is the ash bowl?"

Aurora's hands twisted together. First time in her life she was lying to her father. I could hear her heart trying to beat out of her chest.

"I... I was hot, Father. I opened the window for air. And I... I threw the ash away. It gives me headaches."

Varric stared at her. Varric knows when someone is lying. He has interrogated wolves before.

"Headaches?" he repeated.

Mirelle came up the stairs behind him, slower, carrying her herb bag. "Varric, leave her. She is a healer, white ash does give healers headaches. You know that."

She came into the room and I smelled her immediately. White ash and wolf's bane. She looked at Aurora, then at the moonflowers, then her eyes narrowed just a little at the air. She could smell something was off. Hunters' wives have noses almost as good as wolves'.

"Aurora, what is that smell?" Mirelle said softly. "Sweet, like..."

"Like moonflowers, Mother," Aurora said quickly. "I picked them for tea. For my headaches."

Mirelle looked at the bowl of moonflowers, then at Auro's neck where her hair was covering my mark. Aurora's hand twitched like she wanted to touch it to make sure it was covered.

Varric was still staring at the open window. At the forest beyond it. At the faint paw prints in the mud under her window that I had left when I came in. Bare human feet going out, big wolf paws coming in.

He took a step toward the window. If he looked down and saw those prints, he would know a wolf had been in his daughter's room. On the night the ash line was broken.

I was about to stand up from behind the wardrobe, cloak and all, and shift right there and end it. Better he kills me than he looks at her like she is a traitor.

But Aurora stepped in front of him, between him and the window.

"Father, did you bring me anything from the Capital?" she asked, her voice small and daughter-like, the voice she used when she was little. She put her hand on his arm.

Varric looked down at her hand on his arm, then at her face. His angry face softened just a little. Just enough.

"No, little bird. The meeting was ambushed. No gifts tonight," he said.

"Then can I go back to sleep? I have to open the apothecary early tomorrow."

Varric looked at her one more second, then at the window, then back at her. He did not see the paw prints in the dark. Or he chose not to.

"Close this window and put fresh ash down before you sleep," he ordered. "And burn incense. No more moonflowers. They attract wolves."

"Yes, Father."

He turned and went back downstairs, boots loud. Mirelle lingered a second longer, looking at Aurora's neck, at her hair covering something, at the air that smelled like male wolf and honey.

"Aurora," she whispered, almost too soft for even me to hear. "Are you... are you alright, daughter?"

Aurora's eyes filled with tears, real ones. "Yes, Mother. Just tired."

Mirelle touched her cheek once, then followed Varric down.

We waited until we heard their bedroom door close downstairs.

Aurora collapsed against the wall, hand over my mark, breathing hard.

I came out from behind the wardrobe and caught her before she fell.

"You lied to them," I whispered, holding her shaking body.

"For you," she whispered back against my chest, clutching my mantle.

I looked at her neck. My mark was still glowing, beautiful and silver under her black hair. She had risked everything to keep it hidden.

I kissed the top of her head, right over her hair covering my mark, and lifted her up to the window.

"You have to close this now and put ash down like he said, or he will come back," I said.

"Will you come back tomorrow?" she whispered, holding my hands at the windowsill.

"Every night you leave it open a crack, I will come, Luna."

She closed the window most of the way, leaving just a finger width open, just enough for my scent to come in, and for me to get back in.

I jumped from her second floor window and landed silent in the mud, right on top of my own paw prints to cover them, and ran into the Wilds before Varric could smell me.

Behind me, I saw her small shadow in the window, touching her neck where I had marked her, watching me disappear.