THE BADDIE LUNA

THE STARE

Behind me, Ronan’s wolf finished the kill, ripping the throat from the first Bloodspawn. Blood sprayed the snow, steaming in the cold. His chest heaved as he stood over the corpse, fur matted, golden eyes burning.

He turned toward me.

And froze.

I knew what he saw.

Me, standing over a dead monster without touching it. The faint silver smoke still curling from my palm. The truth I’d hidden for years laid bare in a single reckless moment.

My secret. My curse.

Ronan shifted back, bones cracking, muscles reforming, until the man stood where the wolf had been. His chest rose and fell hard, his skin streaked with blood and sweat, but his eyes those golden eyes never left me.

“What did you just do?” His voice was low, harsh, demanding.

I forced my hand to still, curling it into a fist. “Nothing.”

“Don’t lie to me, Luna.” He stepped closer, eyes sharp, voice edged with something that wasn’t just anger it was fear. “That wasn’t wolf magic. That wasn’t anything I’ve ever seen.”

I lifted my chin, masking the tremor in my body with practiced defiance. “Maybe you don’t know everything.”

His gaze darkened, jaw tight. “No. But I know enough to recognize danger when I see it.”

We stood there, silence crackling like a live wire between us. My heart thundered. Not from the fight. From him. From the weight of his stare, the knowledge that my carefully constructed walls were starting to crumble.

And he was the last person I wanted to see through the cracks.

Ronan’s silence was worse than his growl.

He closed the distance in three strides, his body all hard edges and coiled power. I retreated until bark pressed cold against my spine, the tree unforgiving at my back. He didn’t touch me, not yet, but the heat of him pinned me tighter than any chain.

His golden eyes burned, fierce and searching. “What. Did. You. Do?”

Each word was a hammer blow, low and lethal.

I swallowed, refusing to look away. “I killed it.”

“You didn’t kill it, Luna.” His hand slammed into the tree beside my head, the sound sharp, the force rattling the bark. “You unraveled it. I felt the power snap through the air.”

I kept my chin high, even though my pulse was a frantic drumbeat. “So? Maybe I’m stronger than you thought.”

His laugh was harsh, humorless. “Stronger? That wasn’t strength. That was… unnatural.” His voice dropped, rougher. “That was dangerous.”

Dangerous. The word stung more than it should have, because part of me believed it. Part of me had always feared it.

But I wouldn’t let him see fear. Not when he stood so close, not when his presence scraped against every nerve like fire and steel.

“Then maybe you should be afraid of me,” I whispered.

For a moment, neither of us breathed.

His gaze dropped, just for a heartbeat, to my mouth. A flicker of something wild, something hungry, broke through his control. My wolf howled inside me, heat curling low in my belly.

But then it was gone, replaced by iron resolve. He leaned closer, his breath brushing my cheek, voice cutting through the haze.

“I’m not afraid of you, Luna. I’m afraid of what you are.”

The words sliced sharper than claws.

Before I could bite back a retort, the forest itself interrupted another groan, a ripple through the ground, as if something deeper stirred beneath the soil. The Bloodwood wasn’t done with us yet.

Ronan’s arm shifted, not away but across, as though instinctively shielding me even while suspicion burned in his eyes.

That contradiction that infuriating mix of protection and judgment lit every fuse inside me.

I hated him.

I wanted him.

I feared him.

And I knew this was only the beginning.