Chapter48
948 Words
Kaida’s pov
I sat at the far end of the long table, the usual place I liked during meetings. It gave me space to see everyone. I liked watching. Wolves never really hid much, even when they thought they did. You could see it in their eyes, their breathing, their shoulders. And that day, it was the same, except… it wasn’t. Something was different.
Willow sat beside Kael. Her first time in the room as Luna. I could tell she was nervous by the way she kept adjusting her fingers on the table, the way her lips parted like she wanted to speak but didn’t. Still, there was something else. Her energy carried into the room like a heavy wind. I felt it the moment she entered, sharp and humming. I had to blink a few times, to make sure it wasn’t my own wolf stirring. But no, it was her.
She looked small against him, but her presence filled the room in its own way. Her hands rested on the table, stiff, and her lips parted slightly as if she wanted to speak. Nervous. Yes, I expected nervous. But there was more.
The hum came first. Faint, but I felt it through my skin. Like fixed before lightning. I glanced around. No one else shifted. No one else seemed to feel it. My wolf stirred in my chest, ears twitching. She didn’t like it.
Willow’s scent had changed too. Deeper. Wilder. I frowned, staring harder at her. She wasn’t even speaking yet, but I could feel something.
Kael greeted the council in his usual calm voice, the kind that made people shut up whether they wanted to or not. He started with talk of borders, threats from the east. I should’ve listened. Normally, I did. But today my eyes kept dragging back to Willow.
I thought of the first time I saw her fight. That girl hadn’t been quiet. She hadn’t stumbled. She had given orders with fire in her voice, blade steady in her hand. She had led. The wolves who laughed at her now, half of them wouldn’t have survived that night without her.
But here she was, fingers tightening on the edge of the table, her shoulders stiff, like she didn’t belong.
Then she tried to speak.
Her words came out broken. Not in the way of someone who forgot their lines, but like the words themselves fought her mouth. A half-formed sentence, cut in the middle. She swallowed hard, tried again, but it came out twisted. Incoherent.
I stilled. My wolf lifted her head inside me, hackles rising.
The others? They frowned, blinked, exchanged looks. One snorted under his breath, barely hiding a laugh. Another leaned back in his chair, lips curled. Outsider, his expression said. Weak.
But I wasn’t laughing.
Because when Willow spoke, the air changed. It wasn’t just a sound…it carried weight, like a wave pushing out from her chest. It brushed against me. My skin prickled. My wolf flattened her ears.
Something was wrong. Or maybe something was awakening.
Kael shifted slightly closer to her, his hand brushing her arm, steadying. His face didn’t move much, he had trained himself into that calm mask but I caught it. The tightness in his jaw. The flicker in his eyes. He noticed.
Still, he didn’t call it out. He let the meeting go on as if nothing strange was happening.
I leaned back further in my chair, folding my arms tighter. My gaze didn’t leave Willow.
She didn’t even seem to know. That was the strange part. She spoke in pieces, her voice heavy, her breath shaky, but her eyes didn’t carry awareness of the energy spilling out of her. She didn’t see what I felt.
It was strong. Stronger than a Luna should be.
Stronger than Kael, maybe.
I swallowed, forcing myself to look away, to pay attention to the shouting across the table. Wolves argued about food supplies, about whether to move families from the north border. Voices clashed, claws drummed on wood, someone even stood up. It was the usual chaos.
But under all of it, I felt Willow’s presence pressing against the room, unseen by everyone else. A storm trapped inside her body.
It drained me just to sit near her.
And yet no one else noticed. Or maybe they couldn’t. Maybe my senses, sharper than most, caught what theirs couldn’t.
My mind drifted to the stories I’d half-heard, whispers about her bloodline, her mother, the shadows in her past. Things no one spoke of openly. Things Kael himself never said out loud.
If what I felt today was any sign… those whispers were truer than I wanted to believe.
When the meeting finally ended, wolves pushed back their chairs, some grumbling, some storming out, some lingering to throw Willow another glance dismissive, resentful, or simply curious. Not a single one looked at her with full respect.
Kael stood first, pulling Willow with him, guiding her out before she could stumble again. She followed quietly, her face pale, lips pressed shut. She didn’t even glance at me.
The doors shut behind them. The hall felt emptier instantly.
I stayed seated.
For a moment, I stared at her chair. The wood was plain, but I could still feel her trace there, like smoke left behind after a fire. That invisible hum hadn’t faded. It clung to the air, brushing against my wolf’s senses.
I rubbed at my temples, trying to shake it off.
Willow was stronger than even she realized.
And if she kept breaking open like that in front of the pack, they’d either fear her, or they’d turn on her.
I wasn’t sure which was worse.
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