Luna Priestess

Ashen Territory

“What do you mean, it isn’t just me?”

Kaius glanced past me, at his Betas, at Rhys, at the small crowd of pack wolves who’d gathered at the edge of the tree line to watch their Alpha greet the Priestess. Too many ears.

“Not here,” he said. “Walk with me.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Rhys said, before I could answer for myself, which normally would’ve annoyed me, except this time I was grateful for it, because I genuinely didn’t trust my own legs to hold me up yet.

“Understood.” Kaius didn’t argue. That surprised me. From everything I’d heard about him, I expected an Alpha who didn’t take no from anyone, let alone a Beta from a rival pack he’d known for ten minutes.

“The Priestess is welcome to bring her guard.”

He turned and started walking toward the pack house without waiting to see if I’d follow.

I followed.

Up close, the Ashen pack house was bigger than it looked from the road.

Timber and stone, three stories, with wolves moving in and out of it constantly, carrying firewood, laundry, crates of something that smelled like it might be meat for the evening meal.

A few of them stared as we passed. Most of them looked away fast when Kaius glanced back at them, which told me plenty about how his pack felt about him without anybody saying a word.

“They’re afraid of you,” I said, before I could stop myself.

“They respect me.”

“Those aren’t always the same thing.”

He looked at me sideways, something almost like amusement flickering across his face.

“You’ve got opinions for someone who just met me.”

“I’ve got opinions for everyone. Ask Rhys.”

“She does,” Rhys confirmed, from a few steps behind us, in a tone that made it clear he wasn’t thrilled about being included in this conversation at all.

Kaius led us into a small study off the main hall...a desk, a few chairs, a fireplace that wasn’t lit. He shut the door behind us, which made Rhys’s shoulders go tight, and gestured for me to sit. I didn’t.

“Talk,” I said. “What did you mean?”

He was quiet for a second, like he was deciding how much to give me.

“Four years ago,” he said finally,

“I had a mate-bond. It didn’t end well. I won’t get into it. But since then, my senses don’t work the way they’re supposed to around anyone. Scent, pull, all of it. I stopped feeling it. Figured that part of me just...shut off.”

“And now?”

“And now I put my hand in yours and felt something for the first time in four years. Not the Sight going out. It was something else entirely.” His jaw tightened as the words cost him something to say.

“I don’t know what it means. But I know it’s not nothing, and I don’t think you believe it’s nothing either.”

I didn’t say anything because he was right, and I hated that he was right.

“I need you to keep this to yourself,” I said finally.

“The Council can’t hear about this. Not from your mouth, not from your pack’s mouths, not from anyone.”

“You think I want this getting out?” His voice had an edge to it now.

“I’m two weeks from a vote that decides whether I lead this Court. The last thing I need is a rumour that the Priestess and I are...whatever this is.”

“Then we agree on something.”

“Seems like it.”

We stood there a second too long, just looking at each other, and I felt that same pull from the border rite start humming under my skin again, quieter this time, but there, and I hated that too.

“I should go,” I said.

“Rooms are being prepared,” Kaius said. “You’ll stay in the guest wing. Your guard can stay adjacent.”

“Fine.”

“Fine,” he echoed, and something about the way he said it made it sound like neither of us meant it.

Rhys waited until we were alone in the hallway to grab my elbow.

“A mate-bond,” he said, low and urgent. “Ly, did you hear what he just said? He had a mate-bond before. That doesn’t just come back for no reason.”

“I heard him.”

“So you understand what this looks like.”

“I understand exactly what it looks like, Rhys. I was standing right there.”

“Then you understand why you need to be careful. He’s not just some Alpha. He’s about to be the most powerful wolf in the Coastal Court, and you’re the Priestess whose Sight goes dark every time she touches him. People will make that mean whatever they want it to mean. It doesn’t matter what actually happened.”

“I know.”

“Do you?” He stopped walking and forced me to look at him. His face had none of its usual teasing in it. “Because from where I’m standing, it looked like you didn’t want to let go of his hand.”

That landed harder than I expected it to, mostly because it was true, and I didn’t have a good answer for it, so I didn’t give him one.

“I’m tired,” I said instead. “I want to see my room.”

He let me go. I felt him watching me the whole way down the hall.

The guest room was better than my room at the Temple...bigger bed, a real fireplace, a window that looked out over the valley instead of a courtyard wall. I should’ve felt grateful.

Mostly, I just felt exhausted in a way that had nothing to do with the ride.

I fell asleep faster than I expected to.

I did not expect the dream.

In it, I was back in that hallway of mirrors, except this time there was no fire.

Just quiet, and candlelight, and Kaius standing behind me with his hand resting lightly on my hip, watching my reflection in the glass instead of me.

“You’re not supposed to be here,” I told him, or told the mirror, I wasn’t sure which.

“Neither are you,” he said, and his mouth found the side of my throat, and every thought I had scattered like startled birds.

Kaius pressed closer. His chest met my back. Heat radiated from him. “Good,” he said. His lips brushed my ear. I leaned into the touch. The hallway felt smaller now.

His other hand joined the first. Both rested on my hips. He guided me gently. Just enough to make me aware. “Breathe with me,” Kaius directed.

Our breaths synced. In. Out. Slow and deep. The candle flames danced in the glass. His thumbs circled small patterns. Each one sent sparks through me.

“You belong here tonight,” he stated. I nodded. The words felt heavy. His mouth returned to my throat. Kisses trailed higher. A soft sound escaped me.

“That’s it,” he praised. His voice was velvety. Reflections multiplied the moment. Every angle showed his control. His body stayed firm behind mine. Unmoving yet full of promise.

I reached back. My fingers found his arm. Kaius allowed the touch. His muscles tensed under my hand. “More,” I breathed.

He chuckled low. The sound vibrated against me. “Patience,” he replied. His grip tightened slightly. Anticipation coiled tighter in my core.

The air thickened with unspoken need. His lips moved to my shoulder. Fabric shifted under his mouth. Heat pooled low. My knees felt weaker.

“Watch yourself,” Kaius ordered. I obeyed. The mirror showed flushed cheeks. His eyes held mine. Fierce and Unwavering. One hand rose. It traced my collarbone. Fingers lingered at the edge of my robe.

“This moment is ours,” he said. I shivered again. I closed my eyes briefly. Sensation overwhelmed. “Open them,” Kaius said sharply. I did. His reflection commanded attention.

“Stay present,” he added. His lips found my pulse point. Kissed there. My heart raced faster than necessary. Sh

I woke up flushed and breathless, tangled in the blankets, heart going too fast, and it took me a full minute lying there in the dark before I trusted myself to move.

It had felt real. That was the part that scared me. Not like a dream at all...like a memory of something that hadn’t happened yet.

I sat up, pressed the heels of my hands against my eyes, and tried very hard not to think about the fact that a Priestess’s dreams weren’t supposed to work like ordinary wolves’ dreams.

Mine were supposed to be visions. Warnings. Pieces of the future laid out by the Goddess for me to interpret and use.

If that was true, then what I’d just seen wasn’t a dream at all.

And I didn’t know which was worse...the Goddess showing me something that was going to happen, or my own body wanting it badly enough to imagine it on its own.

Either way, I understood one thing clearly, lying there in the dark with my pulse still racing.

Wherever this was going, the Goddess wasn’t warning me away from him.

She was pushing me toward him.