Moonblooded

Chapter 9

The guards said nothing as they led her through the garden paths behind the estate. She moved quietly, every step measured, the ache from Kade’s rejection still burning beneath her skin.

The scent of flowers drifted around her lavender, sage, blooming ivy but it couldn’t cover the metallic sting left by his words.

“Keep her away from my wing.”

The memory echoed louder than any order.

Lira stirred restlessly inside her.

“He lies like a coward. The wolf aches. The man hides.”

Selene didn’t respond.

She kept her head high, her expression blank. But her ears burned as murmurs floated from passing wolves. Only they weren’t speaking aloud.

The words pressed faintly into her mind. Not voices but thoughts.

Why is she here?

The Alpha should’ve turned her over to the Council.

She doesn’t belong. Dangerous. Too quiet.

Selene stiffened.

That wasn’t possible. She wasn’t part of their pack. She shouldn’t have access to the link.

And yet, she could hear them.

The realization chilled her.

“Moonblooded,” Lira whispered. “Blood older than their rules. Our gifts are waking.”

Selene kept walking.

She didn’t let the guards see her reaction. But her heart was racing.

The garden widened into a shaded courtyard, ringed with iron benches and hanging vines. She sat alone. The guards lingered nearby, watching but saying nothing.

She was about to close her eyes and breathe just for a moment when the scent of lilac and sweat reached her.

Taylor.

The Beta female’s steps were sure and unhurried. She wore training gear, light armor strapped to her chest, her dark braid slung over one shoulder. She said nothing as she approached, only gestured to the empty spot beside Selene.

“Mind if I sit?”

Selene gave a slow nod.

Taylor sank down beside her with the grace of someone used to holding power. But there was no hostility in her aura. No aggression. Just watchfulness.

They sat in silence for a minute.

Then Taylor spoke, voice calm. “You know Kade saved me when I was fifteen.”

Selene turned toward her, surprised.

Taylor’s gaze remained fixed on the trees ahead. “My old pack was taken by rogue raiders. My parents were murdered. Kade was the one who found me, half-starved, trying to dig through a trash can outside a human gas station.”

Selene’s chest tightened.

“He brought me here. Trained me. Gave me purpose. A place. I owe him more than my rank.”

Selene watched her carefully. “Why are you telling me this?”

“Because people mistake him,” Taylor said softly. “They think the silence means he feels nothing. But silence is how he survives. He leads with walls, not softness.”

Selene looked down at her hands. “So that’s how he treats everyone?”

Taylor shook her head. “No. Just the ones who matter.”

Selene’s breath caught. “I don’t matter to him, to anyone.”

“Maybe not in a way you understand yet,” Taylor replied, standing slowly. “But he wouldn’t have brought you inside these walls if you were just another rogue.”

Selene’s voice was quiet. “He doesn’t look at me like that.”

“He doesn’t look at anyone,” Taylor said. “That’s the point.”

Selene stared after her as she walked away.

Taylor hadn’t guessed the truth.

No one had.

Only Selene, Kade, and the healer who’d seen the bond spike like lightning across her vitals.

The rest of the pack only saw what Kade wanted them to see a rogue with no name, no place, no claim.

And that was exactly how he intended to keep it.

But as Selene turned her eyes to the sky and felt the pull of the bond still throbbing faintly through her chest.

She wasn’t sure how long the lie could hold.

The forest swallowed sound like a grave.

Twilight bled through the branches as Kade moved barefoot, shirtless, sweat streaming down his spine as he struck again and again at the training post buried in the ground.

Each hit echoed with a crunch of flesh on wood, bark splintering, skin tearing. His knuckles were already raw.

Good.

Pain kept him grounded. Distracted. Away from her.

He struck again.

And again.

And again.

The sound of her voice haunted him not her speaking, but breathing. The way her pulse had quickened the moment she saw him. The way the word had left her lips like a prayer.

Mate.

Kade’s fist slammed into the post.

A crack echoed deeper than the wood. His knuckles split wide, blood dripping freely.

Stop thinking. Keep moving.

He pivoted and struck a second post with his elbow, then a knee, forcing his body to respond faster, harder.

His muscles burned.

His lungs seized.

The scent of pine, blood, and sweat filled the clearing and beneath it all, the faintest trace of wildflowers and rain.

Her.

Damn it.

He turned and roared, driving a punch straight through the post’s center, splitting it in two.

Wood shattered.

Silence rushed back.

Kade staggered back, chest heaving.

He collapsed to one knee, blood dripping from his fists, breath ragged.

And then Varric surged.

You hurt her for nothing, the wolf snarled, voice razor-edged. And we both felt it.

Kade gritted his teeth. “She needs distance.”

She needs truth. You gave her rejection. Cold. Like she meant nothing.

“She has no place here.”

Then why does she fit in your bones like breath? Why can’t you sleep without her scent in your lungs?

Kade growled low in his throat. “Because fate is cruel.”

Varric slammed harder now, clawing at his ribs from the inside.

No. Because you’re weak. Too afraid to fight for what’s yours.

Kade pushed up to his feet, staggering back a step as his claws lengthened involuntarily. “I’m protecting her.”

You’re punishing her. Varric’s voice dropped into a growl. She knows we’re hers. She spoke the bond. And you turned your back.

Kade turned and slammed his fist into the nearest tree bark splintered, blood streaking the trunk.

“I can’t claim her,” he shouted into the hollow night. “If I do, she becomes a target. The Council will tear her apart. The packs will challenge me. You saw what happened to the last Alpha who chose a mate outside the Council’s will.”

Then let me claim her, Varric hissed. Because if you won’t, I will. And I won’t stop next time. Not when we touch. Not when she begs. I’ll tear through you to get to her.

Kade’s chest locked.

Varric’s threat wasn’t idle.

It was instinct.

Ferality.

Their shared body trembled under the strain Alpha will against primal need.

Kade clenched his fists, jaw tight, eyes glowing faintly gold.

“You would destroy everything we’ve built.”

She is everything.

The words echoed too loud.

Too true.

Kade stumbled back, hands shaking, blood dripping to the forest floor like the toll of time he didn’t have.

Varric’s voice dropped, quieter now. More final.

You keep lying to yourself. But we’re already losing control. Every time we see her. Every time she looks at us like we belong to her. It grows. The bond grows. The feral edge sharpens. Now that she’s recognized the bond as well, she will suffer every time you take another to bed. Mate will burn because of you.

Kade fell to his knees.

The cool earth pressed against his legs.

The ache in his chest was worse than the split skin, worse than the bleeding.

It was want.

It was hers.

And he couldn’t take it.

But he couldn’t let go either.

“I can’t claim her,” he whispered, voice breaking.

The moonlight stretched across the ceiling like silver veins, casting long shadows that flickered with every rustle of leaves beyond her window.

Selene lay awake, staring at the cracks in the plaster above her head, unable to sleep.

Her body had stopped aching days ago, but the pressure hadn’t left. It shifted instead settling beneath her skin, curling around her ribs like invisible wire.

She could still feel him.

Even from across the estate.

Not through sound or sight.

Through the bond.

It hummed like a distant chord always there, low and aching.

Lira hadn’t spoken in hours. But she wasn’t absent. Just… watchful.

Selene exhaled slowly, turning onto her side.

Then it began.

Not a dream.

A memory.

It came in pieces shards of sensation that slammed into her all at once.

The scent of sage smoke.

The feel of bark beneath her fingertips.

An old woman’s voice, cracked and kind. “The Moon’s gift must stay hidden until she is ready.”

Selene’s breath hitched.

More followed faster now.

A silver pendant, shaped like a crescent, cradled in her palm. Warm. Familiar.

A howl in the distance.

A cave beneath roots.

A flash of silver eyes not her own.

She sat up in bed, breathing hard.

Her hands were trembling.

What was that?

“Pieces,” Lira whispered, voice distant but sure. “You’re remembering.”

Selene pressed her palm to her chest. Her heart thundered.

“What does it mean?” she whispered aloud.

“ We were never just some rogue Selene ,we were always meant for something more. I can’t tell you, but soon you will remember everything you need to.”

Her wolf’s voice echoed with something deeper this time almost reverent.

Selene leaned back against the wall and closed her eyes.

Sleep came again, but this time she was aware of it.

And this time, the forest wasn’t empty.

She stood in the middle of it, barefoot in the moss. The moon above cast no light, yet she could see perfectly. The trees around her stood like ancient sentinels, the leaves whispering secrets in a tongue she almost understood.

Then she felt it.

A presence behind her.

She turned slowly.

He stood in the shadows.

Kade.

Not speaking.

Not moving.

But watching.

His blue eyes burned in the dark, rimmed with gold.

He didn’t reach for her. Didn’t run either.

He just stood there.

And she knew, in the way you know things in dreams, that he didn’t belong in the vision.

He’d forced his way in.

Drawn by the bond. Or maybe… haunted by it.

Selene opened her mouth to speak.

But she woke with a gasp before the words could leave.

The bond pulsed sharp, hot, insistent.

She sat still for a moment, letting the echoes fade.

Then she whispered into the silence:

“He’s protecting me… from himself.”

Lira’s voice followed like a breath of cold wind:

“And soon, he won’t be able to.”