Untitled Episode
898 Words
By the third day after she woke up, Rumi could finally walk without feeling like her ribs were splitting apart although Kael still looked unconvinced.
“You’re limping.” he said.
“I’m alive captain obvious.”
“Barely.” he countered.
Rumi glared at him from across the cabin. “You’re very encouraging.”
Lyra snorted into her drink from where she sat near the fireplace. “He actually likes you,” she said. “This is his gentle version.”
Kael shot her a flat look and Lyra grinned shamelessly.
Rumi tried not to smile but the corner of her mouth twitched in amusement.
“Come on,” Lyra announced suddenly, standing. “You’ve been hiding in this cabin long enough.”
“I wasn’t hiding.” Rumi retorted a little too strongly.
“You absolutely were.”
Kael leaned against the doorway with crossed arms. “now that I think about it you should move around,” he admitted. “The healers said light activity would help.”
Traitor. Rumi narrowed her eyes. “I liked you better when you barely talked.”
Lyra gasped dramatically. “She insults people now! Growth.”
Kael’s silver eyes flickered toward Rumi briefly and her heart stuttered?
It was briefly of course but still…
Rumi cleared her throat and made for the door. “fine.”
***
Black Hollow looked different in the daylight.
When she first woke up, everything had been blurred by exhaustion and fear. But now she could finally see the camp clearly.
Cabins stretched across a wide valley hidden deep between mountains and dense forest. Smoke curled lazily into the morning sky from dozens of chimneys. Wolves moved throughout the clearing carrying supplies, chopping wood, repairing roofs, sparring…
The camp was a whole settlement and not one seemed superior to the other. This observation unsettled Rumi more than she expected, because at Black Moon Pack, survival had been the only thing she understood.
“Morning, Kael.” A broad-shouldered, tattooed wolf carrying firewood said with a nod of acknowledgement as they passed.
“Morning Tomas.” Kael nodded back once.
Toma’s gaze shifted to Rumi. She instinctively braced herself for inevitable mockery and sneer sneer, instead he simply smiled slightly.
“You’re looking better.” he said.
Rumi blinked once, twice. She couldn’t believe her ears “Thanks.” she said a little sceptical then he walked away casually…Just like that.
She got a few hellos more than she could count after that and each time Rumi kept exxpectng the worst.
Lyra noticed her confusion instantly. “You’ll hurt your own feelings if you keep waiting for people here to attack you.”
Rumi frowned. “I’m not waiting.”
“You flinch every time someone says hello.”
Heat crept into Rumi’s cheeks because it was true.
Kael glanced at her once but said nothing.
Somehow that made it worse. She wish she knew what he was thinking at that moment.
***
The camp’s center held a massive circular clearing lined with training posts and weapon racks.
Several wolves sparred there while others watched from the sidelines.
Rumi stiffened instinctively. Nothing good ever came out of training grounds.
At Black Moon Pack, it was where stronger wolves cornered weaker ones for entertainment.
Kael noticed her hesitation and followed her line of sight. “No one here touches you without permission.”
“How do you know what I was thinking?”
“Because you keep reaching for exits. Although I may have an idea what you might’ve gone through, I’m not sure to what extent. Being an omega without a wolf must make you feel like you don’t matter at all but you do matter to me, to all of us here I know it might be hard starting over or even trusting anyone after everything but I want you to give us a chance, give yourself a chance.”
She blinked back tears just as lyra took her hand and gave her a reassuring squeeze. “I’m a rogue because I didn’t fit in with my pack but I am accepted here flaws and all. This is my pack now, and it can be yours as well.”
Before she could answer, a loud crash echoed across the clearing.
“that was my face!”
A dark-haired man sprawled dramatically in the dirt while a woman stood over him looking unimpressed.
“You’ll survive,” she replied calmly.
“I could’ve died.”
“You tripped over your own foot.”
“That’s not the point!”
Lyra cackled beside Rumi.
“That’s Darius and Mira,” she explained. “They’ve been flirting through violence for months.”
“We are not flirting!” Darius shouted instantly from the ground. Mira kicked dirt at him.
Rumi stared despite herself, the entire interaction felt so absurdly normal that the tightness in her chest loosened slightly.
These wolves were rogues, exiles and outcasts and yet they looked happier than most pack wolves she’d known.
“How long have all of them been here?” she asked quietly.
Kael followed her gaze across the camp. “Some a few weeks. Some years.”
“Why stay?”
“Because nowhere else wanted the
m.”
“right.” Rumi swallowed hard.
Kael looked at her then. “And because nobody deserves to survive alone.”
- Writer
