Moonlights and Bloodlines

Chapter Two – The Alpha in Disguise

Kael Donovan had been in Hollow Creek for under a day and already he despised the way the town seemed too small for him. The trees loomed in like bars, the air was heavy with secrets and every pair of eyes in the school hallway seemed to follow him as if they already knew he was different.

His father had warned him that it wouldn't be easy to start fresh at a human school. Keep your head down. Blend in. Don't draw attention to yourself. Kael had nodded but he knew the truth. No matter how hard he tried, people always sensed something about him. It wasn't just the way he carried himself. It was the wolf inside him, restless, powerful, waiting to be unleashed.

He sat in the back of history class, arms folded, feigning attention as the instructor lectured on about dead empires. His gaze swept the students until it landed on her.

The girl from the hallway.

Amara Cole.

She sat two rows ahead, pen tapping on the notebook, eyes scrunched up and focused. She was one of those people who lived in two worlds at once, body in class but mind well beyond it. When she frowned, it wasn't because she was confused, but because she thought too much. Kael had learned to read people. This girl had depth.

Their eyes met once. A spark. Her eyes widened, as though she had seen something in him she wasn't supposed to. Most people looked away when Kael looked at them. Amara didn't. She held his gaze for a heartbeat longer than any other person would have dared. That tiny act of defiance stirred something in the pit of his chest.

At lunchtime, he hung around the edges of the cafeteria. Clusters of human students sat at tables, laughing too loudly, gossiping. He was not among them and he was not bothered. Yet his eyes searched for her again. She was sitting with her friend, a girl who had braids in her hair and who laughed every other sentence. Amara listened, smiled, smiled again at the right moments but her hand was busy with a pencil. She was drawing.

Kael watched as her wrist darted back and forth across the page. He had no idea what she was sketching, but it was obvious that it was something important to her. Her body curved over the notebook in a guarded arc, as if she was hiding a secret. He knew the feeling.

Later, as students flooded the courtyard, destiny decided to take a hand. Amara's sketchbook slipped from her arms and landed open on the ground. Papers spilled over the pavement. Kael was closest. He bent and picked it up before she could.

For a moment he froze. Staring up at him from the page was a pair of eyes. Dark. Intense. His eyes.

Amara's breath caught. She grabbed for the book, her cheeks flushing. "Return that."

Kael shut it softly and gave it to her. His voice was low, even. "You draw well."

She jerked it out of his hands. "You weren't meant to see that."

"I didn't intend to," he told her, and it was the truth. But some part of him was glad he had. Now he knew she felt the same attraction he did.

Amara hugged the book to her chest, avoiding his gaze. "Thanks… I guess."

They stood silently for a moment, the buzz of other students passing by them fading into the distance. Kael hoped he could say more, something sincere, but words were never his forte. He was used to being trailed, not understood.

After a moment, she broke the silence. "You're new. From up north?"

"Yeah." The reply was abrupt.

"What's it like there?"

Kael thought about mountains, cold nights, and the constant pressure of his father's expectations. He thought about the pack, about trials and blood and battles no one in this school could ever imagine. But all he said was, "Different."

Her eyes narrowed, studying him as if she could pull the rest of the answer out of his silence. Then her friend called her name and the spell broke.

Amara turned and left but not without glancing back at him. Their eyes met for the second time that day, and Kael's wolf stirred, restless, curious.

That night, Amara sat at her bedroom window with her sketchbook open in front of her. She should have been working on homework, but her pencil kept wandering back to Kael's eyes, Kael's posture, Kael's face in shadow. There was something about him she couldn't leave alone. Something that felt like danger lurking in gravity.

In the woods just off her street, Kael stood under the rising moon. The shift pulled on his bones, aching to be released, but he battled it. His father's instructions echoed in his head. Do not draw attention to yourself. Do not reveal yourself.

But his head was not on his father. It was on her. Amara Cole, the girl who caught his attention before she even knew him. The girl who looked at him without fear.

Kael lifted his face up to the moon, his body trembling as the wolf moved beneath his flesh. He clenched his fists until the trembling ceased.

He could not afford to make errors. Not here. Not now. And definitely not with her.

But one fact shouted louder than any warning.

Amara Cole was not ordinary.

And no matter how much he tried, he would not be able to stay away.