Chapter16
595 Words
Chapter Sixteen
The camp changed after that.
It was subtle at first. Rumi noticed that quiet conversations stopped when certain wolves noticed her nearby.
Tension lingered heavier in the air and fear spread quietly through Black Hollow like smoke.
Rumi noticed all of it. Every subtle glance, every micro hesitation…even if nobody openly blamed her something had shifted. And maybe she deserved it.
She sat alone outside her cabin that evening watching the mountains darken beneath sunset.
Her appetite had vanished hours ago.
“You missed dinner.”
Rumi looked up. Kael approached slowly through the fading light carrying two bowls.
“I wasn’t hungry.”
“You still need to eat.”
He sat beside her without asking.
Comfortably close.
Rumi hated how natural it felt already.
For a while neither of them spoke but the silence wasn’t awkward and that unsettled her too.
Finally she whispered, “Did he suffer?”
Kael’s jaw tightened faintly. “No.”
Relief mixed painfully with grief. Rumi stared toward the distant trees.
“I liked him.” she confessed.
“I know.”
The words slipped out before she could stop them.
“He talked to me.”
Kael frowned slightly. “What?”
“At Black Moon…” Her voice cracked, Rumi hated how vulnerable she felt at that moment. “Most wolves avoided me unless they wanted something.”
Rumi expected pity instead Kael looked angry.
“Then Black Moon was filled with cowards and degenerates.”
Her breath caught softly. Nobody had ever defended her so casually before, like it was obvious she deserved better.
Rumi looked down at her hands.
“What if this place changes too?”
Kael went quiet.
The firelight from nearby cabins flickered softly across his face.
“It won’t.”
“You can’t promise that.”
“No,” he admitted. “But I can promise nobody here touches you without going through me first.”
Her pulse stumbled unexpectedly.
Kael seemed to realize it too because his gaze shifted away briefly.
Silence settled again, heavy this time.
Rumi swallowed hard.
“Why do you care so much?” she asked quietly after a while.
Kael didn’t answer immediately. For one strange second, something vulnerable flickered through his expression but it was gone almost instantly.
“Because someone should.”
Rumi looked away quickly before he could see how much those words affected her.
That night, she dreamed of blood only this time she was standing over Tomas’s body herself.
Her hands were covered in crimson.
The thing with red eyes smiled from the darkness behind her.
Mine.
Rumi woke with a violent gasp. Moonlight flooded her cabin, her heart hammered wildly.
The dream clung to her skin like sweat.
Not real…It wasn’t real Rumi, it's just a nightmare she assured herself.
Breathing unevenly, she pushed herself out of bed and went towards the wash basin.
Water dripped from her trembling fingers…Then she froze.
Her fingernails were dark red.
Blood.
Rumi stared in horror.
No. No no no.
She scrubbed her hands frantically.
The blood washed away instantly.
Her breathing turned ragged.
How? She hadn’t gone near the body had she?
Panic twisted violently through her chest.
A soft knock sounded against the cabin door and Rumi nearly jumped out of her skin.
“Rumi?”
It was Kael.
She stared at the faint blood staining the wash water and terror crept up her s
pine slowly.
Because for the first time a horrible thought entered her mind…
What if the camp was right to fear her?
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