The Heartwood

Chapter 1 The Invisible Blood

The silver knife knew the same path across my wrist.

I drew it over the old scars. Blood gathered along the cut, darkened by the magic in my veins, then dropped onto the roots below.

The Heartwood answered with a weak gold pulse. I counted until the light held steady.

That was how Bloodmoon paid for safe borders, good soil, and warriors who healed faster than they should. The pack never saw the bill.

The roots drank faster near the full moon. Tonight the cut had to stay open long enough for blood to run over three separate knots in the wood.

By the last one, my fingers had gone numb and the chamber floor seemed to tilt whenever I looked down.

*Entry 347: Full moon rising. Border shield weakening. Offering increased to sustain the wards.*

I added the line to the worn leather *Sustenance Log* and blotted the ink with the corner of my sleeve. Entry 347 joined three years of figures, dates, and stains.

The oak door struck the wall. Only one person came into this chamber without knocking.

Caleb. My Alpha. My mate.

“Elara, we need to talk.” Caleb sounded as though I had already kept him waiting.

I capped the inkwell and pulled my sleeve over the cut.

His eyes went to the stool by the hearth. I usually left a warm herbal compress there for the old wound in his shoulder. The stool was empty tonight, and his mouth tightened when he noticed.

He rolled that shoulder once. For years I had heated the herbs before he returned from evening patrol, then reheated them if council ran late.

Caleb had never asked who prepared them. Their absence earned more notice than the fresh blood already spreading through my cuff.

Still, he had come on Lily’s business.

“It’s Lily.” His voice softened on her name. “She can’t sleep. The nightmares are getting worse.”

I closed the log.

“Give me the Moonpetal Incense. The one the elders gave you for your solstice meditations.”

He had found Lily shivering at our border two months ago. Since then, my room, my belongings, and Caleb’s time had all become remedies for her suffering.

“It calms a wolf’s spirit during ritual,” I said. “It isn’t a sleeping draught.”

“You’re strong. You don’t need help staying calm.” He held out his hand. “She does.”

White silk moved in the doorway behind him. Lily stepped into the room.

She wore my bonding robe, white silk embroidered with the silver crescent of the Alpha’s mate. Elder Maeve had fitted it to me last winter. I was meant to wear it at my ceremony.

Tears shone on Lily’s lashes. “Oh, Alpha, I didn’t mean to cause trouble. I told you I’d be fine.”

She touched the silver stitching at her throat while she spoke. Elder Maeve had sewn those crescents by hand, one for each family that would swear loyalty to me as Luna. Lily wore them as sleepwear.

Caleb went straight to her and put a hand on her shoulder. “It’s no trouble. Elara understands.”

Silas came forward from the hall. The young warrior looked at me with open disappointment.

“Lady Elara, our strength comes from unity. An Omega in distress concerns the whole pack. Surely this is a small thing to give.”

Last winter, a rogue bear had gored him. For three nights I poured my blood into his wounds and held him on this side of death. He had slept through most of it. Now he had come to teach me generosity.

I put my hand over the carved box on the table. The Moonpetal Incense was one of the few things in the stronghold that belonged only to me.

“No.”

Caleb’s jaw tightened. Lily gasped. Silas stared as if I had insulted the pack altar.

Let them call me selfish. I kept my hand on the box and looked at Caleb.

Tomorrow, he had promised, he would put the Luna’s crown on my head and name me as his true mate before the pack. I had held on to that promise through three years of bleeding.

Caleb led Lily away with his arm around her. The hem of my bonding robe dragged over the stone behind them.

I opened the *Sustenance Log* again but did not lift the pen. Tomorrow would tell me what those three years had bought.