From His Luna to His Rival's Mate

Chapter 19

SELENE

HOURS LATER

The confrontation between Calder and Kael stayed fresh in my mind all day, no matter what I tried to focus on... classes, meals, the conversations happening around me and I kept coming back to it.

The anger in Calder's eyes that had looked less like jealousy and more like something coming apart at the seams. It sat in my chest like a stone I couldn't put down. The rivalry between them was growing too fast and moving in a direction I didn't like. I couldn't keep watching it build without saying something.

So when the sky finally turned dark and the campus quieted down for the evening, I went looking for Kael.

I found him near the edge of the training grounds, sitting alone on a low stone wall with his elbows resting on his knees. The moonlight touched his dark hair and laid soft shadows across his face. He looked deep in thought, shoulders slightly hunched, eyes somewhere far away. He hadn't heard me coming.

I slowed my steps as I got closer. "Kael."

He lifted his head and his eyes found mine, and for a brief second something like surprise moved across his face before it smoothed away again. He sat up straighter but kept his expression guarded. "Selene. You should not be here."

I stopped in front of him and crossed my arms loosely. "I had to come. We all saw what happened today between you and Calder. It is getting worse. He looked ready to lose control completely out there, and everyone around you saw it too. I am worried about what he might do next."

Kael turned his gaze toward the dark line of trees at the edge of the grounds. His jaw moved slightly, like he was working something over before he let it out. "I can handle Calder. You should stay out of it."

"I cannot stay out of it," I said, keeping my voice steady. "This involves me whether I want it to or not. He is becoming more unstable every day. The way he spoke to you this morning, the way his hands were shaking, that was not normal anger. That was something else, and I need to understand why you keep pushing me away when it is clear that is not really what you want."

Kael stayed quiet, he looked down at his hands for a long moment, rubbing them together slowly like he was thinking about how much to give and how much to keep back.

Then he looked up at me again. His eyes held caution and something softer underneath it, something he was working hard not to show too openly. "You ask hard questions."

"I know."

He let out a breath. "I keep my distance because my life is complicated. My past is not clean. There are things I carry that have a way of pulling danger toward anyone who gets too close to me. Staying away from people is not something I enjoy. It is something I learned."

I studied his face for a moment, then stepped forward and sat down on the stone wall beside him. I left a small space between us but didn't move away.

"Then tell me one thing. Just one real thing about your past. I am tired of being told to stay away without being given a single reason I can actually hold onto."

He looked at me sideways. Then he let his shoulders drop, just slightly, like something in him agreed to put a small weight down.

"When I was younger, I lost people who mattered to me. People who had gotten too close to things I was carrying. Things I hadn't been careful enough about. After that I learned that keeping distance is not cruelty. It is protection. For the other person more than for me." He paused. "That is all I can give you right now."

I sat with that for a moment, the moonlight moved gently through the trees at the edge of the grounds and laid long shadows across the grass.

I looked at his face, at the tiredness sitting quietly in his eyes, at the small lines of tension along his forehead that I was starting to recognize as permanent, not temporary.

"That sounds lonely," I said.

He didn't look away. "It is. But it is necessary."

Neither of us said anything after that for a while. The night wind moved around us in slow, easy waves.

I turned my head to look at him. He was already looking at me. Our eyes held and the space between us felt smaller than the gap on the stone wall suggested, warmer than the night air had any right to be.

"Thank you for telling me that much," I said. "It means something. More than you probably think it does."

Kael's hand rested on the stone beside him, close to mine without touching. His fingers were still. "You make it hard to keep my distance, Selene. Harder than anyone else ever has. I want you to know that even if I cannot explain everything right now."

My heart beat a little faster. I didn't answer right away. I just let his words sit between us in the quiet, because they felt like something that deserved space rather than an immediate response.

We stayed like that under the open sky, close enough that I could feel the warmth coming off him, sharing a small piece of honesty that neither of us had planned for. It wasn't much, but it felt like the most real conversation I'd had in weeks, and that made it matter more than it probably should have.

After a while I stood up and smoothed my jacket. "I should go back. Thank you for listening."

Kael nodded but didn't say anything else, his eyes followed me as I crossed the grass and walked back toward the path, and I could feel them on my back until the distance made it impossible.

I walked back to the dorm with slower steps than usual, turning the conversation over in my mind. He had shared something real with me tonight. Not everything, not even close, but something.

A corner of a door opened just wide enough to let a little light through. I felt a small, quiet loosening in my chest as I reached my building and pulled open my door.

When I stepped into my room, something stopped me immediately, the air felt wrong. I stood in the doorway for a second before I could name why, and then I started to see it.

My books on the desk had been moved, shifted just slightly from where I always kept them. One drawer was not fully closed, sitting open by half an inch. My pillow looked like hands had pressed it down and tried to put it back without quite getting it right.

Nothing was missing, but someone had been here. I stepped inside slowly and closed the door behind me, turning the lock.

My heart was beating harder now. I stood in the middle of the room and looked around carefully, checking every corner. The feeling of being watched pressed in from all sides even though I was completely alone.

I sat down on the edge of my bed and didn't move for a long moment. Who had come in? And what exactly had they been looking for?