Episode 4: The Wall Between Us
1428 Words
Episode 4: The Wall Between Us
Selene
Kael was avoiding me.
I didn’t need a map and compass to figure that out—he’d perfected the art of disappearing just before I entered a room. He no longer ate meals with the rest of the pack. His scent, usually all over the west wing of the house, had vanished completely, scrubbed away like a guilty secret.
I didn’t care.
Truly.
Not. One. Bit.
Which was why I totally wasn’t hiding behind a pillar near the training grounds, pretending to examine a really fascinating piece of bark while watching him spar.
Again.
He moved like a force of nature—precision, discipline, power. But he looked different now. Colder. Sharper. Like the warmth in him had been sealed behind some invisible wall I wasn’t allowed near.
“Enjoying the view?”
I yelped and spun around.
The Beta’s son, Lysander, stood behind me with a crooked smile and two mugs of tea.
“Didn’t mean to scare you,” he said, offering me one of the mugs. “I just figured if you were going to spy, you’d need something to drink.”
I flushed and took the tea.
“I wasn’t spying.”
“Of course not.” He sipped his own mug, unbothered. “You were conducting… visual assessments of Alpha movement. Completely normal.”
I almost laughed, then caught Kael glancing our way—and quickly looked away.
He didn’t flinch. Didn’t react. Just turned back to his sparring partner and started issuing commands like I didn’t exist.
Something inside me flickered. A strange ache I hadn’t felt in years.
I cleared my throat. “Lysander, do you ever think Kael’s… different lately?”
“You mean brooding like a thundercloud and snapping at anyone who breathes wrong?” Lysander asked. “Yeah. But he’s under pressure. He’s the heir.”
I frowned. “He’s never acted like this before.”
“Well,” Lysander said, his tone shifting, “maybe something changed.”
I caught the way he looked at me. Curious. A little too perceptive.
“No idea what you mean,” I said quickly and turned back toward the infirmary.
But even as I walked away, I could feel Kael’s presence behind me. Cold and far away. Like a shadow that used to be light.
---
That evening, I tried to distract myself by reorganizing the herb shelves.
Again.
“Selene,” Marcy called, poking her head into the infirmary. “There’s an injured rogue at the border. Kael wants you.”
I blinked. “What? Why me?”
“He said, and I quote, ‘She’s the only one who can handle it.’”
Oh.
So now I existed.
---
When I arrived, the rogue was already unconscious, half-bleeding on the forest floor, with claw marks down his side and a face so bruised it barely looked human.
Kael stood nearby, arms crossed, shirt gone, blood splattered across his chest like war paint.
“What happened?” I asked, kneeling beside the rogue and inspecting the wounds.
“Caught him crossing the boundary. He didn’t come to fight. Didn’t even defend himself. Just collapsed.”
I raised a brow. “So you beat him unconscious?”
“He wasn’t unconscious when I started,” Kael said flatly.
I looked up.
His expression was unreadable. Cold. Sharp-edged. Eyes like blue ice under moonlight.
This wasn’t the boy who used to steal honey cakes and blame me.
This was the Alpha in waiting.
And he wasn’t letting me in.
“Hold his head,” I muttered, turning back to the rogue. “I need to clean the gash.”
Kael knelt beside me without a word.
His fingers brushed mine for a second.
My breath caught.
I didn’t look at him. Couldn’t. Not when every inch of me remembered what it felt like to be pressed against him, forehead to forehead, heart to heart.
He said nothing.
And I hated him for it.
---
Kael
I wasn’t avoiding Selene.
I was protecting her.
From what, exactly, I wasn’t sure—but it felt necessary. Like if I got too close again, something inside me would snap, and we’d tumble off a cliff we couldn’t survive.
She didn’t understand the bond.
Hell, I didn’t.
But I felt it. In every part of me.
When she was near, my senses sharpened. My skin heated. My wolf prowled beneath the surface like a caged thing waiting to leap.
It wasn’t safe.
So I built a wall.
And every time she looked at me like I’d kicked her puppy, I reinforced it.
The rogue wasn’t the real threat today.
She was.
And yet, when her fingers brushed mine, I felt fire.
She didn’t flinch.
She didn’t look up.
But she felt it too.
I could tell.
---
Selene
The rogue woke up around midnight.
He was groggy, muttering nonsense, but he clutched my wrist as I tried to replace the bandage.
“Not safe,” he whispered.
I frowned. “You’re in the pack lands now. No one’s going to hurt you.”
“Not safe,” he repeated, eyes glassy. “He’s coming.”
My stomach turned.
“Who?”
The rogue gripped tighter. “The Howler. He’s… back.”
My heart stuttered.
I’d heard stories. Every pup had. Tales of a feral Alpha who vanished a decade ago after slaughtering his own pack. No mark. No trace. Just the sound of howling under blood-red moons.
“Just rest,” I said softly, gently prying his fingers from mine.
But as I walked back to my room, a strange chill settled in my bones.
Something was coming.
And I wasn’t sure Kael’s wall could protect either of us from it.
---
Kael
Lysander was talking too much.
“Selene’s been working herself raw,” he said, lounging in my study chair like he owned the place. “She needs rest. Or a vacation. Or a warm bath and someone to tell her she’s appreciated.”
I growled. “What are you getting at?”
“Nothing,” he said innocently. “Just observing. You used to be that someone, you know.”
I stared at the fire.
“She’s not my responsibility.”
Lysander arched a brow. “Could’ve fooled me. You hovered like a jealous wolf when I handed her tea earlier.”
I stood. “You’re overstepping.”
He raised his hands. “Just saying—if you don’t want her, someone else will.”
My wolf snarled inside me.
But I said nothing.
Because if I spoke, I might say something I couldn’t take back.
---
Selene
For the next three days, I didn’t see Kael once.
He was “on patrol,” which I was pretty sure translated to “hiding in the woods to avoid you.”
Lysander, however, was everywhere.
Bringing me food. Checking on my patients. Cracking dumb jokes and making me laugh despite myself.
It felt… normal.
Comfortable.
But not right.
Because every time Lysander smiled, I found myself searching the crowd for blue eyes and dark hair that never came.
And that made me hate myself a little.
---
On the fourth night, I found Kael at the river.
He didn’t look up as I approached.
“Did you need something?” he asked flatly.
I crossed my arms. “Why are you pushing me away?”
His jaw tensed. “Because I have to.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“Yes, it is,” he snapped. “You just don’t like it.”
I stared at him, heart hammering.
“I don’t understand. We’re not even blood. You said that. So what’s the big deal?”
Kael turned, finally looking at me—and the pain in his eyes made me forget how to breathe.
“Because I want you, Selene,” he said, voice raw. “And I don’t trust myself when I’m around you.”
Silence.
“I would never hurt you,” he added, softer now. “But the bond… it doesn’t care what we want. It only takes.”
I stepped closer.
“Maybe it doesn’t have to.”
He reached up—brushed a strand of hair from my face.
Then dropped his hand like it burned him.
“Go home,” he whispered. “Please.”
So I did.
But I didn’t sleep.
Because for the first time since this started, I wasn’t afraid of the bond.
I was afraid of how badly I wanted to follow it.
---
- Writer
