The Traitor Within
1066 Words
The alarm kept blaring through the lodge, deep and violent enough to shake the walls. Doors opened, footsteps thundered across the upper floors, and shouted orders filled the hall.
Kael’s hand dropped from my face.
The warmth vanished with it.
“What do you mean the hunters are gone?” he asked.
Rhys stepped into the infirmary, breathing hard. Blood streaked one side of his shirt. “The eastern cells were opened from the outside. The guards are alive, but unconscious. Every prisoner is missing.”
Kael’s expression became terrifyingly still. “The tunnels?”
“Open.”
Mara went pale. “Those passages were sealed.”
I looked between them. “What tunnels?”
“Old escape routes beneath the lodge,” Kael said. “They lead beyond the inner gate.”
My stomach tightened. “So someone inside the pack helped them escape.”
Silence answered me.
“There’s a traitor,” I said.
Kael’s eyes burned gold. “There is someone about to regret being born.” He headed into the hall despite the blood soaking through his bandages.
“Kael,” I called. “You need stitches.”
“I need the traitor.”
“You need both.”
He ignored me, so I followed.
The main hall was crowded with wolves in various stages of shifting. Some held weapons. Others had claws extending from their fingers or glowing eyes fixed on the broken doors.
Everyone went quiet when Kael entered.
“Seal the territory,” he ordered. “Search every building, every vehicle, and every section of forest. No one leaves.”
A tall woman with auburn hair stepped forward. Her eyes were pale silver, and she looked at me with open suspicion.
“The human should be confined,” she said.
Kael turned slowly. “Explain yourself, Sienna.”
“The attacks began after she touched your blood. Hunters crossed our borders for her. A Redthorne wolf entered the lodge for her. Now the prisoners are gone.”
“I didn’t know this place existed,” I said.
“That does not mean Redthorne didn’t use you.”
Kael’s growl rolled through the room.
Sienna held her ground. “If she is Moon-blooded, she should be tested.”
“There will be no test,” Kael said.
“What if she is bait?”
The words struck harder than I expected. Then something in my hand pulsed. The bandage around my finger glowed silver-blue. Everyone saw it.
Sienna stepped back. “There.”
Mara stared at my hand. “Moon blood is said to react to danger and spoken truths.”
“That would have been useful information earlier,” I said.
Kael crossed the space between us and took my hand. The glow brightened beneath his touch.
“You did not know me before tonight,” he said.
“No.”
The light stayed steady.
“You did not work with Redthorne.”
“No.”
Still steady.
“You did not lead me into the trap.”
“No.”
Nothing changed.
Kael looked at Sienna. “Did you open the eastern cells?”
Her face tightened. “No.”
The light in my hand flashed. The hall erupted in angry voices. Sienna went pale. “That proves nothing.”
“Ask her again,” Mara whispered.
Kael’s voice went cold. “Did you open the cells?”
“No.”
The light flashed brighter. Rhys drew his knife.
“Explain,” Kael said.
Sienna swallowed. “I opened them, but the prisoners were already gone. I received a message saying one of the guards was injured. When I arrived, the doors were locked.”
“Why didn’t you sound the alarm?”
She hesitated.
My finger burned.
Kael saw it. “What are you hiding?”
Sienna slowly reached into her jacket and pulled out a folded note. Rhys took it before she could move any closer. His face changed when he read it. Kael took the paper from him.
“What does it say?” I asked.
“Nothing,” Kael said.
My hand flared so brightly the entire hall filled with silver-blue light.
I stared at him. “You just lied to me.”
His jaw tightened. “Mira.”
“Read it.”
For a moment, he looked like he wanted to burn the note instead.
Then he opened it.
“Bring the Moon-blooded girl to the red oak before the next moonrise,” he read, “or the bodies will begin with those she loves.”
My blood went cold.
My apartment. My classmates. The people at the clinic.
“They know who I care about.”
“They will use that fear to draw you out,” Kael said.
“And what do you expect me to do? Hide while innocent people die?”
“Yes.”
The answer hit me like a slap.
“I won’t.”
“You will not go to that oak.”
“I never said I would.”
My hand flashed.
Kael went still.
Rhys muttered a curse.
I looked down. “I hate this power.”
“You were planning to go,” Kael said.
“I was thinking about it.”
“You are not going.”
“You don’t control me.”
“I will chain you to my bed before I let Redthorne take you.”
The hall went silent.
Heat rushed into my face.
“That is not helping your kidnapping defense.”
His jaw flexed. “I would rather have you hate me and alive than willing and dead.”
The anger inside me faltered.
Before I could answer, pain ripped across my palm.
I gasped.
A thin man near the back of the hall met my eyes and smiled.
The pain intensified.
“He’s the one,” I whispered.
The man ran.
He shifted before reaching the broken doors, his body twisting into a lean brown wolf. Guards lunged after him, but he slipped into the rain and disappeared.
Kael roared an order, and wolves poured outside.
I stood frozen, clutching my burning hand.
Beneath the bandage, silver lines spread across my palm, forming the shape of a crescent moon.
Mara stared at it in horror.
“What does that mean?” I asked.
Her face went white.
“It means the traitor has already claimed your blood.”
- Writer
