The Secret in My Blood
1384 Words
Kael carried me upstairs.
I protested for the first ten steps.
Then the crescent mark burned again, and I stopped pretending I could walk.
My body felt heavy against him, weak in a way I hated. One of his arms supported my back while the other held beneath my knees. His chest was warm against my side, his heartbeat steady despite the silver wounds that should have put him in bed hours ago.
“You are injured,” I muttered.
“So are you.”
“I can walk.”
“You nearly collapsed.”
“I was temporarily overwhelmed by magical blood stalking.”
His mouth twitched. “That is not a medical diagnosis.”
“It is now.”
The upper floor of the lodge was quieter than the hall below. Guards stood at every corner, watching us pass with lowered eyes. I could feel their attention on me, especially on the glowing crescent across my palm.
The Moon-blooded human.
The Alpha’s mate.
The reason their home was under attack.
Kael carried me through a pair of heavy wooden doors and into a bedroom large enough to fit my entire apartment. Dark beams crossed the ceiling, and a fire burned low in a stone hearth. One wall was made almost entirely of windows overlooking the forest.
There was one bed.
Of course.
Kael lowered me onto it carefully.
I immediately moved toward the far side. “I’m sleeping alone.”
“No.”
“You really need a second word.”
“I have many.”
“You only use three. No, mine, and Mira.”
His gaze darkened slightly. “I like the third one.”
Heat touched my face.
I ignored it.
Kael locked the bedroom door and checked the windows before returning to me. He moved like a man who expected an attack from the walls themselves, even though every step clearly hurt.
“You need to sit down,” I said.
“You need to sleep.”
“I will after I check your wound.”
“You already saved me twice.”
“And apparently that wasn’t enough.”
I reached for the medical bag Mara had sent upstairs with us. Kael watched as I pulled out fresh gauze, antiseptic, and a needle.
His eyebrows lifted. “You brought that into my bedroom?”
“You brought me into your bedroom.”
“True.”
“Sit.”
He did.
I was starting to think the entire pack would collapse if they knew how easily their terrifying Alpha listened to me when blood was involved.
Kael removed his coat and sat on the edge of the bed. The gunshot wound looked better than before, but the stitches along his side had pulled loose again.
“You keep ruining my work,” I said.
“I was defending you.”
“That does not make your tissue less fragile.”
He looked offended. “I am not fragile.”
“Your skin disagrees.”
I cleaned the wound, trying to focus on the medical task instead of the hard lines of his body beneath my hands. It became more difficult when his gaze stayed on my face the entire time.
“You’re staring again,” I said.
“So are you.”
“I’m examining a wound.”
“You examined my chest first.”
My fingers paused.
“That was clinically necessary.”
His mouth curved. “Of course.”
I pushed the needle through his skin harder than necessary.
Kael hissed.
“Clinically necessary,” I repeated.
A quiet laugh escaped him.
For the first time since I had found him behind the clinic, the sound wasn’t dark or threatening. It was warm.
Human.
That made him more dangerous somehow.
When I finished closing the wound, Kael caught my wrist before I could pull away. His thumb rested near the silver crescent on my palm.
“Does it hurt?”
“Less than before.”
“Do not lie to me.”
I stared at him. “That is bold coming from the man who tried to hide a death threat from me.”
His jaw tightened.
I tried to pull my hand back.
He didn’t release it.
“I should not have lied,” he said.
The apology surprised me.
It also made my anger harder to hold.
“No,” I said quietly. “You shouldn’t have.”
His thumb moved lightly over the edge of the mark. The silver lines glowed beneath his touch, but this time the heat was gentle.
“What did Redthorne feel like?” he asked.
I looked toward the window. The forest beyond the glass was black beneath the moonlight.
“Cold,” I said. “Like he was inside my head without permission.”
Kael’s grip tightened.
“He said I carried his mark. He acted like he already knew me.”
“He does not know you.”
“He knew how to reach me.”
“That will not happen again.”
I looked back at him. “You can’t promise that.”
His expression hardened. “I can promise what will happen if he touches you.”
There was no teasing in his voice.
No arrogance.
Only violence.
A part of me should have been afraid of that. Instead, something warm twisted beneath my ribs. “You cannot kill every problem,” I said.
“I can try.”
“That might be the most Alpha thing you’ve said all night.”
He leaned closer. “You say Alpha like an insult.”
“Sometimes it is.”
“And the other times?”
His face was suddenly too close.
The room became too quiet.
I could feel the warmth of his breath. The pull between us tightened, not painful like the mark, but deep and demanding.
“The other times,” I whispered, “it’s just a title.”
“Liar.”
The mark remained still.
I smiled despite myself. “Apparently not.”
Kael’s gaze dropped to my mouth.
My pulse accelerated.
His thumb brushed my palm again, and the crescent glowed brighter. The warmth traveled up my arm and settled low in my stomach.
I should have moved.
But I didn’t.
“You feel it,” he said.
“I feel exhausted.”
“Mira.”
There it was.
My name in that rough, quiet voice.
My body reacted before my mind could stop it.
Kael leaned closer.
The distance between our mouths disappeared until only a breath remained.
Then the crescent mark burned.
I gasped and grabbed his shoulder.
Kael pulled back immediately. “What?”
The room blurred around me.
Not another vision.
A memory.
White walls.
Bright lights.
A woman screaming.
I saw myself as a child, no older than five, sitting beneath a metal table. Blood covered the floor. A silver crescent glowed on the woman’s palm as she reached toward me.
“Hide, Mira,” she whispered.
My mother.
The memory vanished.
I jerked away from Kael, breathing hard.
“What did you see?” he asked.
“My mother.”
The words barely came out.
Kael went still.
“She had the same mark.”
Silence filled the room.
I stared at my palm.
For years, I had believed my mother died in an accident. That was what I had been told. That was all I remembered.
But there had been blood.
Silver light.
And fear.
Kael stood. “Who told you how she died?”
“My aunt. She raised me after.”
“Where is she now?”
My throat tightened. “Dead.”
“When?”
“Three years ago.”
He looked toward the locked door.
I knew that expression now.
Something didn’t fit.
Before I could ask, a soft knock sounded from the hallway.
Kael moved in front of me instantly. “Who is it?”
Rhys answered from outside. “We found something in the tunnel.”
Kael opened the door but blocked the entrance with his body.
Rhys held up a clear plastic bag.
Inside was an old photograph.
A woman stood beside the Redthorne Alpha beneath a red oak tree.
My mother.
On the back, written in faded ink, were four words.
Our daughter belongs to Redthorne.
- Writer
