MARKED BY THE MOON

The touch that burns

Luna POV

I don't tell him.

"I told you already," I say instead, forcing my voice into something light. "Rhea Sorensen. Ashwood liaison."

Kian doesn't move. His eyes search my face like he's solving a puzzle missing half its pieces, and I have to fight the urge to step back, because every inch closer he gets, the louder my wolf howls at me to stop lying to him.

"You smell familiar," he says finally, voice rough. "I don't know why, and it's driving me insane."

My heart stutters. "Maybe I remind you of someone."

"Maybe." He doesn't sound convinced. "Or maybe you're a very good liar who was hiding something in my records room at nine o'clock at night."

"I got turned around."

"Try again."

I lift my chin. "Are you accusing your guest of something, Alpha? That seems like poor hospitality."

"I don't know what I'm accusing you of." He steps closer, and I can smell him now cedarwood, winter rain, something achingly, specifically him. "That's the problem. My wolf won't settle. That hasn't happened in five years."

I can't breathe right. Five years of hating him, five years of building myself into someone unbreakable, five years of telling myself he never thought of me again and here he is, telling me he looked.

"That sounds like it's haunted you," I manage.

"It has." He looks at me then, really looks, something in his expression sliding slowly into focus, like a picture developing. "You have her eyes. Under whatever's hiding them. The same silver. The same way they light up when you're thinking too hard about something."

My heart stops completely.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I whisper.

"Luna." My real name, in his mouth, for the first time in five years, quiet, disbelieving, cracking straight through every wall I built so carefully. "It's you."

He reaches for me. For one second, I almost let him. For one second the girl I was at seventeen almost takes over completely.

Footsteps crunch fast against gravel outside. Declan's voice cuts across the courtyard, sharp enough to shatter the moment entirely.

"Alpha! Elder Cassia called an emergency council session. She says she has proof our guest isn't who she claims to be!"

Kian doesn't look away from me, hand still extended. "I already know who she is," he says quietly then, louder, to Declan: "Tell her I'm coming. Five minutes."

The footsteps hesitate, then hurry off.

Kian steps closer. This time I don't back away. "Why are you here, hiding behind another name?"

"Because I can't afford anyone knowing who I am." At least this part is true. "Because your council's been staging attacks and blaming my pack for them. Because I came here to gather evidence, not to" I trail off. Not to fall apart in front of you. Not to remember why I loved you.

"The council didn't" He stops, understanding crossing his face like a shadow. "Cassia. This is Cassia."

"I found proof in the records room. Scent-masking herbs, ordered the same week as the second attack. Signed by her."

His jaw tightens. When he speaks again, something in his voice has gone harder, clearer, a man finally seeing straight.

"We're going to that council. And you're going to tell them exactly what you found."

"I can't. If I do, my cover's gone. My entire mission"

"Your mission doesn't matter to me right now," he says. "Because I'm about to tell them who you are."

My blood turns to ice. "What?"

"I've spent five years hating myself for letting you walk away, Luna. I'm not letting you fight this alone. Not anymore."

Behind us, someone gasps soft, almost shocked, from the doorway.

I turn to find a young woman standing there, someone I vaguely remember from the pack house halls, watching me with an expression caught somewhere between recognition and tears.

"Luna?" she whispers. "Luna Sorensen? But my mother said you were"

She stops herself, and in that single, unfinished sentence, I understand exactly how much damage tonight is about to do.