Blood Moon Contract

Kael did not take her to the village. Not yet.

He led her along a narrow trail that followed the stream, deeper into the trees, and Mara

memorized every turn out of habit, the way she memorized every room she ever walked into.

Exits. Cover. Places a person could hide or run."You're quiet," Kael said, not looking back at her.

"I'm careful," Mara said. "Diferent thing."

That almost-smile again. He didn't push her further.

They hadn't walked long when Mara heard shouting ahead — not the panicked kind, but sharp,

urgent voices giving orders. Kael's whole body changed in an instant. His shoulders dropped, his

steps went silent, and the calm, almost amused man from a moment ago was gone. What

replaced him looked like something built for war.

"Stay behind me," he said, and it wasn't a request.

Mara did not stay behind him. She followed close, low, using the trees the way she'd been

trained to, and what she saw at the clearing ahead made her stop breathing for a second.

Three travelers — a woman and two children — were pressed against a fallen tree, surrounded

by wolves. Not pack wolves. These were leaner, wilder-eyed, mange showing through patchy fur,

snarling with a kind of hunger that had nothing to do with food. Rogues. She'd heard the Order's

stories about them too, wolves who'd lost their minds to the change, dangerous to everyone,

human and wolf alike.

Kael didn't hesitate. He shifted mid-stride, and Mara had never seen a shift happen that fast —

one second a man, the next a wolf twice the size of the rogues circling the travelers, black-furred,

moving like something poured rather than run.

He hit the nearest rogue before it even registered him. The clearing became chaos, snarling and

snapping, the woman screaming and pulling her children back toward the trees. Mara's hand

went to the blade at her hip on instinct, and she almost moved to help before she caught herself.

Watch. That's all you're here to do. Watch.

But watching, she saw something that didn't match anything the Order had ever told her.

Kael fought like he was protecting something, not like he was enjoying it. He put himself

between the rogues and the children every time, took a bite meant for the woman across his own

shoulder, and when the last rogue finally broke and ran, he let it go rather than chase it down

and finish it. He shifted back, breathing hard, blood running from his shoulder, and the first

thing he did was kneel down to the children's height and ask if they were hurt.

Not the travelers. Not himself. The children first.

"You're safe now," he told them, voice gentle in a way Mara hadn't heard from him yet. "I'll have

someone walk you to the village. You can rest there tonight."The woman was crying, thanking him over and over, and Kael just nodded like it was nothing,

like this was simply what he did.

Mara stood at the edge of the clearing, her heart still hammering, and thought about the words

monster and massacre and hates humans, and none of them fit what she'd just watched.

"You're staring," Kael said, without turning around.

"You saved them."

"That's usually what happens when rogues attack travelers on my land and I'm close enough to

stop it." He pressed a hand to his bleeding shoulder, wincing. "Did the stories say otherwise?"

Mara didn't answer right away, and that silence told him something. His eyes found hers, sharp

again, reading her the way he had at the Line.

"You've heard stories about me," he said. It wasn't a question.

"Everyone has."

"And what do they say?"

She could have lied. She was good at lying. But something about the blood on his shoulder and

the way he'd knelt down to the children made the easy lie stick in her throat. "That you're

dangerous. That your pack burned villages, years ago. That you don't care who gets hurt."

Kael's jaw tightened, and for a moment the warmth was gone from his face, replaced by

something older and more tired. "That's the story the Order tells," he said. "It isn't the one that's

true. But I don't expect a stranger from beyond the Line to believe that in one afternoon."

He turned and started walking, and Mara realized he expected her to follow.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

"The village. You wanted work. I could use someone who doesn't panic at the sight of blood." He

glanced back at her, and there was something testing in the look, like he already suspected she

was more than a hungry traveler. "Unless you'd rather turn back now, while you still can."

Mara thought of Amara, thin and pale, and the gold that would save her life. She thought of the

contract folded against her ribs, and the blade in her boot, and the man walking ahead of her

who fought like he had something worth protecting.

"I'll come," she said.She told herself it changed nothing. She told herself the mission was the same as it had been

three days ago at the outpost.

She was already starting to know that was a lie.