The Mark of Blood
1331 Words
The first scream tore through the forest before I understood what I was seeing.
It wasn’t human.
It was wolf.
Deep. Agonized. Wet with blood.
The rogue pack hit like a storm.
One second the glowing eyes ringed the darkness beyond the trees.
The next, fur and claws exploded from the shadows.
King Kael moved before I could breathe.
Massive.
Violent.
Inhuman.
His body twisted in a flash of black smoke and cracking bone, his form stretching upward into something monstrous. Fur darker than midnight rippled over muscle and scar. His wolf was larger than any I had ever seen broad-shouldered, brutal, crowned by pale silver eyes that burned with terrifying intelligence.
The Alpha King.
And he was between me and death.
A rogue lunged.
Kael ripped it from the air.
The sound of tearing flesh made my stomach turn.
Blood sprayed across fallen leaves.
Another wolf slammed into him from the side.
Then three more.
Growls shook the forest floor.
I stumbled backward, heart hammering so hard it hurt.
I should run.
I should hide.
But I wasn’t weak.
Not anymore.
Not after everything they had taken from me.
A rogue broke past Kael’s flank and launched toward me.
I dropped low.
Its claws sliced empty air above my head.
I grabbed a fallen branch sharpened at one end and drove it upward with every ounce of force in my body.
The wood punched into the wolf’s throat.
It shrieked.
Collapsed.
Hot blood splashed my hands.
My breathing turned ragged.
The beast twitched once.
Then stilled.
I had killed before.
But never like this.
Never so close.
Never feeling its dying heat.
Kael’s silver eyes flashed toward me.
Even in wolf form, I felt his fury.
Protective.
Possessive.
As if my nearly being touched by another predator enraged him more than the attack itself.
He roared.
A sound so powerful the trees seemed to shudder.
The remaining rogues hesitated.
Then retreated.
Vanishing into darkness.
Silence crashed down.
Broken only by my breathing.
And the wet drip of blood onto leaves.
Kael shifted back.
Bone snapped.
Fur receded.
Smoke coiled.
Then he stood before me again naked, blood-covered, chest heaving.
Scarred.
Beautiful.
Terrifying.
Moonlight carved sharp lines over his hard body. Fresh claw wounds crossed his ribs, already healing.
I looked away.
Too late.
My cheeks burned.
“Are you hurt?” he asked.
His voice was rough, almost feral.
“No.”
I hated how small my voice sounded.
His gaze swept over me.
Checking.
Assessing.
Lingering.
Then stopping on my blood-covered hands.
His jaw hardened.
“You fought.”
“I defended myself.”
“That was not your battle.”
I laughed bitterly.
“Then whose was it? Yours?”
His expression darkened.
“Yes.”
The answer came without hesitation.
A king’s certainty.
As if my survival belonged to him.
My spine straightened.
“I don’t belong to anyone.”
For one dangerous heartbeat, silence stretched between us.
His eyes dropped to the mark near my collarbone.
The crescent-shaped scar that had haunted me since childhood.
Then his gaze lifted.
“You belong to fate.”
I hated those words.
Because every time someone had spoken of fate, pain followed.
My father had said it when he traded alliances like cattle.
My former pack had said it when they cast me aside.
The Moon Priests had whispered it when they looked at me like I was something cursed.
I stepped away.
“Don’t talk to me about fate.”
Kael’s face tightened.
He understood pain.
I could see it.
Even if he never spoke of it.
“We need shelter,” he said.
Practical. Cold.
Like he hadn’t just bared his possessive rage.
Like I hadn’t noticed.
He led me deeper through the forest.
Toward cliffs that rose black against the moonlit sky.
A hidden cave opened behind hanging roots and stone.
Inside, it smelled of ash and rain.
Old magic.
Kael lit a fire with a flick of his hand.
I froze.
Flame bloomed from his fingers.
Not wolf magic.
Something older.
Darker.
“You can do that?” I whispered.
He didn’t answer immediately.
Then
“Yes.”
That was all.
But it told me enough.
Power beyond ordinary Alphas.
Legends whispered the royal bloodline carried shadow gifts from the First Wolves.
Most believed it myth.
Apparently not.
He sat near the fire while blood still streaked his torso.
I frowned.
“You’re injured.”
“It will heal.”
“Not before infection.”
He gave me a sharp look.
“You would tend me?”
The question felt strange.
Almost suspicious.
As if kindness was foreign to him.
I crouched beside him.
Pulled clean cloth from my torn dress lining.
“Don’t mistake practicality for softness.”
A faint smile ghosted his mouth.
The first I had ever seen.
It nearly undid me.
I pressed cloth to his wound.
He hissed.
Not from pain.
From contact.
His skin was burning.
Hard muscle shifted under my fingers.
Scars crossed his chest like old wars.
I traced one before I could stop myself.
His breathing changed.
Deeper.
Rougher.
My hand froze.
His silver eyes locked onto mine.
Fire crackled.
Outside, wind screamed through the trees.
Inside, the cave felt too small.
Too intimate.
“Why do you hate me?” he asked quietly.
The question struck harder than claws.
Because I didn’t.
That was the problem.
I hated what he represented.
Power.
Control.
Fate.
But him?
I didn’t know him enough.
And already I felt too much.
“I don’t hate you.”
His gaze sharpened.
“Then why do you look at me like I’m the monster?”
Because monsters had always looked beautiful before they destroyed me.
I swallowed.
“You’re dangerous.”
His jaw flexed.
“Yes.”
No denial.
No lies.
Just truth.
Dangerous.
Honest.
Deadly.
I should have moved.
Instead I stayed kneeling between his knees.
Close enough to feel heat.
Close enough to smell pine, blood, smoke, and male power.
Kael’s hand lifted.
Slowly.
Giving me time to pull away.
I didn’t.
His fingers brushed my jaw.
Gentle.
The opposite of what he was.
My pulse stuttered.
“This bond between us,” he said softly, “I feel it every second.”
My throat tightened.
So did I.
That impossible pull.
Every look.
Every breath.
Every moment near him.
A magnetic ache.
Terrifying.
He leaned closer.
Not touching.
Just enough that our breaths tangled.
“If I kiss you now,” he murmured, “will you fight me?”
Yes.
No.
Maybe.
My body betrayed me first.
I didn’t move.
His eyes darkened.
Then
A howl shattered the night.
Kael jerked upright.
Every protective instinct snapping into place.
Not rogue.
Not wolf.
Something worse.
A horn echoed from beyond the cliffs.
Low.
Ancient.
Forbidden.
Kael’s face went white.
True fear.
The first I had seen.
“What is that?” I whispered.
His voice was deadly quiet.
“The Blood Hunters.”
Ice spread through me.
Legends.
Human warriors bred to kill wolves.
Silver weapons.
Dark rituals.
Merciless.
Extinct.
Or so we had believed.
Kael was already on his feet.
Tension rolling off him like a storm.
“They should not know this place.”
Then realization hit him.
Hard.
His gaze snapped toward the cave entrance.
Then toward me.
My pulse stopped.
“You were tracked.”
“What?”
His eyes dropped to my collarbone scar.
The crescent mark.
The thing priests had feared.
The thing I had never understood.
His voice lowered.
Horrified.
“That is not a birthmark.”
Another horn blasted outside.
Closer.
Then footsteps.
Many.
Steel.
Voices.
And torchlight flickered through the cracks of stone.
Kael stepped in front of me.
Protective.
Terrifying.
Possessive.
Sword of black fire forming in his hand.
Then he said the words that shattered everything.
“They are not here for me, little wolf.”
His silver eyes locked onto mine.
“They came for you.”
- Writer
