My Mate

Chapter 11 — Marked

—Kael's POV—

I did not even make it to the Temple steps before Joren smelled it.

He was waiting at the Moon Temple gate with two of our older wolves, arms crossed, face already angry.

"You marked her," Joren said the second I walked into the courtyard. Not a question.

The older wolves behind him growled low. Not at me. At the air around me. At the honey and wildflowers now mixed permanently into my own scent.

My mark was on Aurora, but her scent was now on me too. Any wolf within fifty feet would know I had claimed a mate. And any wolf would know she was human.

"Kael, you marked a hunter's daughter without council," one of the elders said.

Elder Hark, who had been my father's Beta before Joren's father. "You did not even bring her to the stone to be blessed by the moon goddess. You marked her in a human house, under a human roof, with white ash burning at the door. Do you know what the pack will say?"

"They will say their Alpha has found his Luna," I said.

"They will say their Alpha has been bewitched by a Silver Thorn girl and is going to get us all killed," Hark snapped. "Varric Silver Thorn already doubled the ash line after Blood Moon. Now you go and put your mark on his daughter? He will call it an attack. He will call the whole Order from the Capital."

"Let him call them," I growled before I could stop myself. My claws were out. My wolf was close to the surface because I had just left my mate and now my own pack was telling me she was a mistake. "Let him come. I will be waiting at the truce line."

Joren stepped between me and Hark, hands up.

"Enough. Both of you," he said, looking at me hard. "Kael, go wash the ash off your feet. You are burning. Then go sleep. You have not slept in four days. And we will talk about the human girl at council tonight. Not now."

I wanted to fight him. But Joren was the only one who had not looked at me with disgust when he smelled Aurora on me. He just looked worried.

"She has a name," I said to Hark as I pushed past him. "Her name is Aurora. And she is your Luna whether you like it or not."

I went to my father's chambers and washed the white ash burn off my feet. The water turned gray. My feet were blistered. White ash burns worse when you have just marked your mate, because your blood is hotter.

I did not sleep. I waited for the sun to go down, then I went back to Bramble Hollow.

Aurora's apothecary stall was open in the market, even though it was not market day. She was trying to act normal.

She was wearing a high scarf around her neck even though it was summer and hot. Her black hair was braided tight to cover her neck. From far away she looked like any village girl. Up close, I could see she was pale, tired, and her hand kept going to her scarf to make sure my mark was covered.

She saw me at the tree line and her whole face changed for one second - that bright smile she only gives me - then she remembered her father was watching and looked down at her jars again.

Varric was across the street, sharpening silver daggers at the hunter's post, eyes never leaving her stall. He had not let her out of his sight since last night.

I could not go to her. If I walked into the market smelling like her mate, Varric would smell it and kill her right there.

So I did what my father taught me. I sent Joren's youngest sister, Lina, who is only twelve and still looks human enough to pass.

Lina slipped through the market with a basket of moonflowers and stopped at Aurora's stall.

"For your tea, healer," Lina whispered loud enough for me to hear from the trees, and slipped a folded piece of bark into Aurora's hand under the basket.

Aurora palmed it, nodded once, and Lina ran back.

On the bark, in my bad handwriting, I had written.

Shed. Midnight. Are you safe?

At midnight, she came.

She was even paler in the shed light, scarf still tight around her neck despite the heat. But when she saw me, she pulled the scarf down.

My mark was there, silver white, healed but still glowing faintly in the dark. Like a small moon under her ear.

"It itched all day," she whispered, smiling tiredly. "I kept wanting to scratch it, but then I remembered it was you and I didn't want to."

I knelt in front of her and kissed the mark gently, just with my lips, not teeth. She shivered and grabbed my shoulders to stay standing.

"Did he see it?" I asked against her skin.

"No. I told Mother I had a rash from the ash and needed to keep it covered. She believed me or pretended to."

She sat down on the old table and I sat with her, and she finally let me hold her properly for the first time since the marking. She curled into my chest, my mark on her neck pressed against my jaw, and let out a long breath like she had been holding it all day.

"Kael, my parents are sending me to the Capital," she whispered into my mantle.

My whole body locked up.

"What?"

"Varric said this morning. He said Bramble Hollow is not safe anymore because rogues are coming too close. He said he has a cousin in the Capital, a high Order family, and I will be safer there. We leave in three days."

Three days. Three days and she would be behind the Capital's white stone walls where no wolf can enter. Where the Order burns white ash day and night. Where I could not follow without starting a war.

"No," I growled before I could stop myself, my arms tightening around her too hard. She made a small sound and I forced myself to loosen.

"Aurora, you cannot go to the Capital. The Order there will... if they smell me on you, they will..."

"I know," she whispered. "That is why I came tonight. Kael, what do we do?"

I looked down at her, at my mark glowing on her neck, at her brave brown eyes that were looking up at me like I had all the answers when I had none.

If she goes to the Capital, I lose her. If she stays, Varric will eventually find my mark and kill her for being a traitor.

There was only one place Varric cannot reach her.

"The Temple," I said. "Come live in the Temple. Now. Tonight. Be Luna for real, not just in my mark. My pack will protect you. The moon goddess ground will protect you."

She stared at me.

"Leave my parents' house? Tonight?"

"Yes. Pack a bag. I will wait at your window at first light. One night, Aurora, and you never have to wear a scarf to hide what you are to me."

Outside the shed, the Temple war bells rang once. Just once, soft. A warning.

Joren's howl followed it from the Temple hill. Hunters at the truce line.

Varric had not sent her to the Capital to keep her safe from rogues.

He was sending her away because he already knew she was mine.