MY LUNA, MY CHOICE

Chapter 6 — Running Blind

Kaima's POV

The howl rose again, closer this time, joined by a second voice, then a third, an unmistakable pattern I recognized from years of living among Henry's pack. A hunting call. Coordinated and deliberate.

"They're mobilizing." Carlmax said, already moving toward a chest tucked beneath the small window, pulling out a bag I hadn't noticed before, packed and ready like he'd always known a night like this might come.

"Kyle didn't waste any time."

"How far out are they?"

I asked, forcing myself to focus, to push past the exhaustion threatening to swallow me whole.

"Not far enough."

He tossed the bag over his shoulder and crossed to me in three quick strides, his hands settling on my shoulders, grounding me the way they had back in the forest.

"Kaima, I need you to trust me completely right now. Can you do that?"

I searched his face, looking for any trace of doubt, any hesitation that might tell me this was a mistake. I found none. Just steady certainty, the same quiet strength I remembered from beneath the oak tree, the same strength that had somehow survived five years of silence between us.

"Yes," I said.

"Then we run. Now."

We slipped out the back of the cabin into the dense treeline, moving fast and low, Carlmax's hand wrapped firmly around mine like he was afraid I might disappear if he let go for even a second. The howls behind us grew louder, more urgent, the sound of a pack closing in on prey they believed had nowhere left to run.

"Your bloodline"

I gasped between breaths, unable to hold the question back any longer.

"What did you mean back there? About your mother's side?"

Carlmax's jaw tightened, his pace never slowing.

"My mother wasn't from any pack Henry would recognize. She came from a bloodline that stayed hidden for generations, wolves who learned a long time ago that visibility only invited danger."

"Hidden from what?"

“From exactly the kind of people who'd want what your child represents," he said.

"A bond that defied an Alpha's claim and still took root. My mother's bloodline carries old blood tied to bonds like that, the kind certain packs have hunted for generations. It's part of why I never told you the full truth about my family, Kaima. It wasn't safe for either of us.”

The weight of his words settled heavily over me even as we ran, my mind struggling to piece together implications I didn't yet fully understand.

Before I could ask anything further, the trees ahead of us shifted, shadows moving with purpose, and three wolves stepped into our path, blocking the way forward.

Henry's wolves. I recognized the markings even in wolf form, burned into memory from two years of forced proximity to his pack.

Carlmax shoved me behind him instantly, his own shift finally breaking free, fur rippling across his skin as bones cracked and reshaped themselves in the space of a single breath.

Where a man had stood a moment before, now a massive gray wolf crouched low, teeth bared, a growl rumbling from somewhere deep in his chest.

The three wolves didn't hesitate. They lunged.

I stumbled backward, my own wolf clawing desperately at the surface, desperate to help, to fight, to do something other than stand frozen while Carlmax fought three against one. But exhaustion and fear had drained something vital from me, some reserve of strength I needed and simply didn't have left to give.

Carlmax moved like something out of a nightmare, fast and vicious, meeting the first wolf head on with a force that sent it tumbling sideways into the underbrush.

But the other two flanked him, working together in a way that spoke of coordinated pack training, exactly the kind of training Henry's wolves received from the day they could walk.

I had to do something.

Scanning the ground desperately, my hands closed around a heavy branch, splintered and jagged at one end. It wasn't much. It wouldn't stop a determined wolf. But it was something, and something was infinitely better than standing helpless while the only person who'd ever truly protected me bled for it.

One of the wolves broke away from Carlmax, turning its attention toward me instead, sensing easier prey. I raised the branch, my hands shaking, my heart hammering so hard I could feel it in my throat.

"Kaima, run!"

Carlmax's voice, still edged with wolf, tore through the chaos.

I couldn't run. My legs had locked in place, some primal instinct freezing me exactly when I needed to move most. The wolf advanced, low and slow, savoring the moment the way predators do when they know their prey has nowhere left to go.

Then, from somewhere behind the advancing wolf, a new shape crashed through the underbrush, colliding with it mid-stride and sending both tumbling into the darkness beyond the firelight's reach.

I couldn't see who, or what, had intervened. I only knew that for the first time since Henry's voice had cut through that hall hours ago, someone else had chosen to fight for me without being asked.

The sounds of the struggle grew distant, swallowed by the trees, leaving me alone in the small clearing with Carlmax still locked in combat against the remaining wolf, both of them circling, snarling, neither willing to yield ground.

A twig snapped directly behind me.

I spun around, branch raised, only to find myself staring into a pair of familiar amber eyes I hadn't seen in over three years, eyes that belonged to someone I'd long believed had turned their back on me completely, the same way everyone else eventually had.

"You"

I breathed, lowering the branch slightly, disbelief rooting me to the spot even as danger raged just meters away.

"What are you doing here?"

"That you survived," they said simply.

"That you're carrying a bond strong enough to defy an Alpha, the same kind of bond your parents died protecting the knowledge of."

The words settled over me like ice water, dragging my mind back to everything Larisa had already hinted at in the cabin.

"What do you mean, protecting the knowledge of? My parents didn't know anything about Carlmax and me."

"Not about the two of you specifically."

The stranger said, their amber eyes finally softening slightly as they studied my face.

"But about what bonds like yours can mean when they survive something they were never supposed to survive. Rejection, distance, and an Alpha's claim standing in the way.”

He continues, “There are old bloodlines that carry the trait for it, bonds that refuse to break no matter how hard the world tries to force them apart. Your mother's line was one of them."

"That's not possible," I said

Though even as the words left my mouth, I felt the ground shifting beneath everything I thought I understood about my own family.

"No one ever told me that."

"Because telling you would have made you a target long before tonight," they said.

"Your parents spent years making sure no one connected your bloodline to what it was truly capable of. I don't think it was an accident that the debt collectors came for your family exactly when they did, Kaima.

I think someone already knew what you might become capable of carrying, long before Henry ever laid a claim on you.”