Chapter5
1166 Words
KAEL
The forest was quiet as we made our way back. Too quiet.
I adjusted the strap of my pack and glanced at Mashik, who kept pace beside me. His expression was unreadable as always, but his shoulders were tight. He probably felt it too, the odd buzz in the air. Not danger…. Not quite. Something… different.
“We should get moving,” he muttered. “Don’t like lingering after a job.”
“Agreed,” I said, but I didn’t move.
The buzzing wasn’t just in the air anymore. It was in me. A strange pull, low in my chest, like a string tugging me north, toward the boundary of our territory.
I frowned.
Mashik noticed. “What is it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Alpha Kael,” he said, sharper now. “We can’t afford distractions.”
I didn’t answer him. I turned and started walking in the direction of the pull. Mashik swore under his breath but followed. He always did.
The trees grew thicker as we moved, the moonlight barely slipping through the dense canopy. Then I smelled it, blood. And something else. Something wild and sweet, like crushed violets and smoke.
She was lying against the roots of an old pine, barely breathing, her face pale as death. Her hair was dark, matted with dirt, and her lips were parted as she gasped for air.
“Hell,” Mashik hissed. “She’s dying.”
“She’s on our land,” I said quietly.
“Then let me do it,” he said. “A quick one. I’ll be merciful.”
I stepped between him and the woman.
“No.”
He stared at me. “Kael…”
“I said no.” My voice came out rougher than I meant it to.
Mashik didn’t argue further. He just studied me, his jaw tight. Then he backed off, hands raised.
I crouched beside her and brushed the hair from her face. Her skin was hot under my fingers, fevered and clammy. But her scent, gods, her scent, made something in me go completely still. I didn’t recognize her, but my wolf was pacing hard inside me.
“Who are you?” I murmured.
She didn’t answer. Her eyes fluttered, then rolled back. She went limp.
“Let’s get her to the healer quick,” I snapped.
Mashik gave me a long look, then turned and ran back toward camp. I lifted her carefully into my arms. She was light. Too light. And her head lolled against my shoulder like she hadn’t had the strength to hold it up in days.
I held her closer, and that strange buzz in my chest pulsed stronger.
Who was she?
---
I paced.
The healers wouldn’t let me in while they worked on her, which I understood. Didn’t mean I liked it.
“She’s stable,” one of them told me after an hour. “You did good bringing her in when you did.”
That didn’t make my wolf settle. If anything, it made him more agitated.
I tried to focus on other things. Reports. Weapons maintenance. Scouting rotations. But she wouldn’t leave my head.
And when the word finally came that she’d woken, I was at the door before I even knew I’d moved. She sat propped up on a small cot, wrapped in a blanket. Her long dark hair had been brushed out, falling like silk over her shoulders, and her green eyes met mine the second I stepped in.
Gods. Midnight and forest fire.
“You’re awake,” I said.
“You’re observant,” she replied, her voice hoarse and quiet. Her cheeks pinked a little after her quip.
I raised a brow. “You’re lucky I found you.”
“Or unlucky, depending on what you plan to do with me.” She whispered, fiddling with her fingers. “I’m guessing you’re the Rogue boss around here?”
I stepped closer. “That depends on who you are. And why you were bleeding out near my border.”
She didn’t answer right away. Her eyes dropped to her lap.
“I don’t owe you answers.”
“You’re in my camp,” I said. “On my land. After collapsing half-dead. You owe me something.”
She glanced up again. “I was…running?”
“From what?” I deadpanned. Was she asking or telling?
“People who wanted me dead.”
Well, that tracked. I was familiar with that
“Were they the ones who poisoned you?”
She gave me a tired smile. “So it was poison then?”
I frowned. “You didn’t know?”
“I had suspicions. But I blacked out before I could be sure, or start evaluating possible antidotes.”
I watched her. She wasn’t lying, not that I could tell. But she wasn’t telling the whole truth either.
“You’re dangerous woman,” I said finally.
Her smile faded. “You’re a dangerous man.”
We stared at each other for a long second.
“I’m guessing you’re some sort of healer or herb worker?,” I asked softly. “Where are you running from and who?”
“I don’t know.”
Another painfully obvious lie I didn’t appreciate and I gritted my teeth.
She tilted her head. “You’re not going to lock me up?”
“I haven’t decided yet.”
She gave a quiet laugh, but it didn’t reach her eyes. She looked tired. Hollowed out. A thought entered her eyes and she seemed to work herself up to say it.
“I don’t want to be alone tonight,” she said suddenly.
I blinked. “What?”
“I need an escape,” she said. “Even just for a few hours. To just pretend and forget. Everyone and everything.”
“I’m not a distraction,” I said slowly even as my wolf perked up eagerly.
“You’re here,” she said simply. “And I don’t want to feel empty tonight.”
I hesitated. Everything in me said to say no. But my wolf was louder.
I walked to her and held out my hand.
She took it.
---
Her body fit against mine like we’d done this a hundred times. Every kiss was fire. Every touch burned straight to my bones. She wasn’t soft. She was heat and hunger and desperation, just like me.
The room filled with our breath, with the quiet sounds of skin and mouth and gasps between.
I didn’t know her name. Didn’t know her story.
But I knew her.
And when we came together, the world cracked open.
Her eyes locked with mine, green and wild and wide.
And my wolf…
My wolf let out a sound I’d never heard from him before. A low, deep growl that echoed in my chest and roared through my head.
One word was snarled as we raced towards the peak, submitting to the euphoria of our c****x.
One word.
Mate.
- Writer
