What the blood knows
1308 Words
I didn’t go back to the kitchens.
I couldn’t.
I walked instead. Down corridor after corridor in the dark, ignoring the possibility of being caught, ignoring the cold stone beneath my bare feet. Every step was measured, quiet, desperate.
Maybe I had lost my mind.
The Emberveil bloodline was supposed to die with my father. Supposed to fade into obscurity. But now, whispers, warnings, and that one word, heir, weighed heavy in my chest.
I pressed my back against the wall of the narrow stairwell and slid down until I was sitting on the cold steps. My knees pulled to my chest, arms wrapped around them, mind racing.
She outranks half the Alphas at the table.
The words repeated in my head like a mantra. Impossible. Dangerous. Forbidden.
Think, Zeph. Think.
What could I become? What did that even mean? I had always known my father had been the Alpha of the Emberveil Pack. I had always known my family had been destroyed. But we had been a small pack, mid-tier. No influence. No real power. That’s what everyone told me. That’s what I believed.
And now… that belief has cracked.
Cara’s soft footsteps pulled me from my spiral.
She sat beside me on the steps, eyes full of that mixture of relief and worry only she could carry. “Where have you been?” she whispered.
“I got held up,” I said quietly, pressing my hands to stop the trembling.
“What did you tell Mara?”
“That I was finishing the east wing.”
Her eyes widened. “Zeph. What happened?”
“Nothing,” I said. But my voice betrayed me. Trembling, uneven, afraid.
“You’re shaking,” she said.
“I’m cold,” I muttered.
“Zeph,” she said again, softer this time, steady. “If someone told you that you weren’t who you thought you were… that there’s something in your blood… what would you do?”
I stared at my hands, gripping my knees. “I’d like to know.”
“Even if the truth was dangerous?”
“Especially then,” I said, quiet, deadly serious.
She nodded, understanding more than I wanted her to. “I’m here,” she said softly. “Whatever it is. I’m here.”
I pressed my lips together. “Go to sleep, Cara.”
She sighed, and eventually I heard the soft rhythm of her breathing even out. I stayed on the steps a while longer, letting the cold stone ground me, listening to my own heartbeat, listening to the way my wolf stirred beneath the surface.
The Blood Moon was in three days. Everything was about to change.
Morning came.
I didn’t bother pretending I had slept. I splashed cold water on my face, pinned back my hair, and forced myself to move. Today, I would be invisible. Perfectly, completely, utterly invisible. No wandering, no overhearing, no mistakes. Just survival.
The morning passed in a blur of trays, corridors, and Mara’s clipped instructions. I moved with the precision of a shadow. Invisible, quiet, careful.
I carried a stack of fresh linens to the guest wing when I rounded a corner and ran directly into a wall of black fabric and authority.
Draxon.
His hand caught my elbow, firm, warm, grounding. That two-second contact, the one that made my chest race and my wolf howl silently, made the world around me fall away.
He released me, stepped back. Masked again. Cold, carved indifference.
“You need to stop walking into me,” he said.
“You need to stop standing in corridors,” I muttered, a hint of defiance threading through my tone.
Something flickered across his face. Caution? Measurement? I wasn’t sure. It vanished before I could read it.
“How did you sleep?” he asked, suddenly, casually, impossibly normal.
I blinked. “Fine. Thank you.”
“You look tired.”
“I’m always tired.”
“That’s not…” He stopped, jaw tight, then started again. “The ceremony preparations will be demanding over the next three days. Make sure you’re eating.”
I raised an eyebrow. “If that’s all, Alpha, I have a guest wing to prepare.”
He stepped aside. But then, low, controlled, almost imperceptible:
“Zephyrine. Stay close to the servant quarters tonight. Don’t wander.”
My fingers tightened around the linens. “Why?”
“Just… do as I say,” he replied, voice steady as stone.
By noon, the reason became clear.
I was folding tablecloths in the linen room when Cara slipped inside, urgency written on her face.
“What?” I asked immediately.
“I just heard something,” she whispered. “From Betta… you know Betta? She cleans for the elder council.”
My heart thumped. “Cara, what?”
She grabbed my wrist. “Someone told Elder Gorn that a servant was in the corridor outside the council room last night. During the closed session.”
The tablecloth slipped from my fingers. My pulse raced.
“They’re saying whoever it was… if they find out who it was…”
“They’ll be removed from the pack house. Permanently,” she breathed. “Zeph.”
Outside, the mountains of Stormcrest were gray and immovable, silent witnesses.
I pressed my hand against the shelf. Breathe.
“Okay,” I said quietly.
“Okay?” Cara’s voice pitched higher.
“Yes,” I said, steadier this time. “Listen carefully. You stay out of this. You do not know anything. Act normal. Promise me.”
She hesitated. Eyes glossy. “Fine. But you better not disappear on me.”
“I won’t,” I said.
The summons came an hour later.
A young warrior appeared at the doorway. “The Alpha wants you.”
Every head in the kitchen turned. I set down the tray, wiped my hands, and followed silently.
The walk to Draxon’s study felt endless.
He was standing, arms crossed, dark eyes tracking me as if he could read every heartbeat. The door closed behind me with a soft click.
“You were there,” he said. Not a question.
“I don’t know what you mean,” I whispered.
“Don’t,” he said quietly, but with authority. “You were outside the council room. You heard the session.”
I hesitated. How much should I admit? How much could I say?
“Enough,” I said finally.
He studied me. Movement flickered in his eyes, surprise? Frustration? Something more subtle, and then vanished.
“You don’t understand what you’re dealing with,” he said quietly. “Not fully.”
“I understand more than you think,” I replied. “I know my blood. I know what it means. I know why you’re afraid of it.”
He pressed his jaw tight, then softened just slightly. “You are a risk,” he said carefully. “A liability. But… also something else. Something more.”
I stared. The weight of his gaze pinned me. Something moved in me too. Danger. Desire. Tension. The bond. The pull.
“You will be under my protection,” he said finally, slowly, deliberately. “No harm will come to you under my watch. You obey me directly. Do not test me.”
I nodded. My heart thundered in my chest. The Alpha’s word was binding. His protection, a chain stronger than any law.
When I left his study, the corridors felt impossibly long. Every shadow, every whisper of wind, every flicker of candlelight reminded me of what I was now. Emberveil blood. Dangerous. Feared. And for the first time in years, seen.
My wolf stirred beneath the surface, alert, restless. My bloodline pulsed. My heart raced. And Draxon’s presence lingered, close, inescapable, burning through every step I took.
I wasn’t invisible anymore.
And I wasn’t safe from feeling
- Writer
