Blood Claimed
1315 Words
The crescent mark burned across my palm.
Not enough to make me scream, but enough to make my knees weaken. Thin silver lines glowed beneath my skin, curving into a perfect half-moon while everyone in the hall stared.
Kael reached for me.
I stepped back.
“What does she mean?” I asked, looking at Mara. “How can someone claim my blood?”
Mara’s face had gone pale. “Through a blood mark.”
“That explains nothing.”
“It is an old form of magic,” she said. “Forbidden magic. Someone used your blood to create a link between you.”
My stomach twisted. “Who?”
“The traitor, most likely.”
The brown wolf had disappeared into the rain only seconds ago. Kael’s guards were already chasing him through the forest, but I knew from the look on everyone’s faces that catching him would not erase whatever he had done.
Kael moved closer, slower this time. “Let me see.”
I wanted to refuse him. I wanted to refuse everything about this night.
Instead, I held out my hand.
His fingers closed carefully around my wrist. The moment his skin touched mine, the silver crescent flared so brightly that I gasped.
Kael growled.
The sound was low and furious.
“That mark does not belong on her.”
Mara came closer. “It may not be possession.”
Kael’s eyes snapped toward her. “You said claimed.”
“Claimed by blood, not by bond. There is a difference.”
“Explain it.”
Mara swallowed. “The person who made the mark can track her. Possibly see through her dreams. Maybe influence them.”
The stranger’s words came back to me.
Can you guard her dreams?
A chill ran through me.
“He said I would hear someone when the moon rose,” I whispered.
Kael’s grip tightened.
“Redthorne,” Mara said. “He may be trying to reach her directly.”
“Then remove it,” Kael ordered.
“I don’t know how.”
The hall went silent.
Kael looked at her like he had not understood. “You are the healer.”
“I heal bodies,” Mara said. “This is older than medicine.”
I laughed once, but there was no humor in it. “Good. So I’m being stalked through magical blood Wi-Fi.”
Rhys appeared through the broken doors, soaked with rain and breathing hard. “We lost him.”
Kael’s expression darkened.
“He crossed the creek,” Rhys continued. “His scent disappeared on the other side. Someone was waiting with a vehicle.”
“So he planned the escape,” Kael said.
“Yes.”
Rhys noticed my palm.
His face changed.
“What happened?”
“The traitor marked her,” Mara said.
Rhys cursed.
I pulled my hand from Kael’s grip. “Can everyone stop reacting like I’m already dead?”
Kael’s eyes found mine. “You are not dying.”
“You don’t know that.”
“No,” he said. “But I know no one takes you from me.”
There it was again.
That certainty.
That impossible confidence.
I should have been angry.
Instead, part of me wanted to believe him.
Kael turned to Rhys. “Double the guards around the lodge. Send two wolves to her apartment and two to the clinic. No one she knows is left unprotected.”
My chest tightened. “You would do that?”
His gaze returned to me. “I told you. Your life is mine to protect.”
“That is still possessive and unsettling.”
“Yet effective.”
Rhys almost smiled. “He has a point.”
“You’re becoming less likable,” I told him.
“I’ve had a difficult night.”
“So have I.”
Kael took one step toward me, but pain crossed his face. His injured leg buckled slightly.
I caught him before I could think better of it.
His arm came around my waist, heavy and warm. My palm landed against his chest, and the crescent mark pulsed between us.
Kael inhaled sharply.
“What?” I asked.
His eyes darkened. “The mark reacts to me.”
Mara stared. “Not to you. To the bond.”
I looked at her. “Which means?”
“Redthorne may have tied the blood mark to your mate bond.”
My stomach dropped. “Why would he do that?”
“To use the Alpha to reach you,” she said. “Or use you to weaken the Alpha.”
Kael’s arm tightened around me.
“I am not weak.”
“No,” Mara said carefully. “But she is.”
I stiffened.
Kael’s expression turned lethal.
Mara lifted a hand. “I mean physically. She is human.”
“I’m standing right here,” I said.
“And you are exhausted, injured, and carrying magic you don’t understand.”
I hated how reasonable that sounded.
Kael looked down at me. “You will sleep.”
“I don’t think sleep is a good idea when a stranger can apparently enter my dreams.”
“You will sleep beside me.”
My face heated. “That is definitely not what I said.”
“It is safer.”
“For who?”
His mouth curved faintly. “We will find out.”
I stepped away from him before my body could react in front of the entire pack.
Mara examined my palm again. “The mark is growing warmer.”
She was right.
The burning had become a steady heat, spreading slowly up my wrist.
“What happens when it reaches my arm?”
No one answered.
I closed my eyes. “I hate this place.”
Kael’s voice softened. “No, you don’t.”
I opened my eyes. “I have known this place for less than a night.”
“You already argue like you belong here.”
“That is not belonging. That is stress.”
A faint smile touched his mouth.
Then the crescent mark pulsed.
Hard.
Pain shot up my arm.
I cried out and dropped to my knees.
Kael was beside me instantly. “Mira.”
The lodge disappeared.
For one dizzy second, all I could see was darkness.
Then moonlight.
I was no longer in the hall.
I stood barefoot in a forest beneath a red moon. Trees twisted around me, their branches black and sharp against the sky. A man waited beside an enormous oak tree.
I couldn’t see his face.
But I felt him watching me.
“Who are you?” I whispered.
His voice came from everywhere.
“You already carry my mark.”
I tried to move, but roots curled around my ankles.
“You are Redthorne.”
A low laugh moved through the trees.
“Not the pack.”
The man stepped into the moonlight.
He was tall, with silver hair and eyes the color of fresh blood.
“The Alpha.”
My breath caught.
He smiled.
“Tell Kael I am coming for what belongs to me.”
The forest vanished.
I came back screaming.
Kael held me against his chest while the pack crowded around us. My body shook violently, and the crescent mark burned like fire.
“What did you see?” he demanded.
I looked up at him, struggling to breathe.
“The Redthorne Alpha.”
Kael went completely still.
“He spoke to me,” I whispered. “He said I belong to him.”
A growl tore from Kael’s chest.
The lights flickered.
Every wolf in the hall lowered their head.
Kael pressed his forehead to mine, his voice so quiet only I could hear it.
“He is wrong.”
The mark on my palm pulsed once.
And somewhere inside my mind, the Redthorne Alpha laughed.
- Writer
