Blood Moon Contract

The North Pack village was nothing like Mara expected.

She had pictured something rough and half-wild, huts made of mud and bone, maybe. What she

found instead was a real village, wooden houses with smoke curling from chimneys, gardens

fenced against deer, children chasing each other between the buildings while their mothers

called them in for supper. It smelled like bread and woodsmoke, not blood.

People looked up as Kael walked through, and every single one of them relaxed at the sight of

him, the way a room relaxes when someone trustworthy walks in. Not fear. Relief.

"This way," Kael said, leading her toward a smaller house near the edge of the village. "You can

stay here tonight. Elin will get you settled — she runs the guest house for travelers who come

through."

An older woman appeared in the doorway, wiping flour from her hands onto her apron, and

gave Mara a look that was kind but not unguarded. "Another stray, Kael?"

"A traveler," Kael said. "Looking for work. Treat her well."

"Don't I always," Elin said, though her eyes stayed on Mara a beat longer than felt comfortable,

like she was cataloguing her the same way Mara cataloged rooms.

Kael left without another word, disappearing toward the center of the village where a larger hall

stood, and Mara let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding.

Elin's house was warm and simple. A fire in the hearth, a pot of something with herbs in it, a

narrow cot in the corner that Elin said Mara could use. "You're not from around here," Elin said,

ladling stew into a bowl and setting it down. It wasn't quite a question.

"No," Mara admitted. "South of the Line."

"That's a long way to walk for work."

"I go where the work is."Elin studied her again, and Mara made herself eat the stew, made herself look tired and

unremarkable, a traveler and nothing more. It was a role she'd played a hundred times before. It

should have been easy.

It wasn't, not entirely, because every few minutes her mind went back to the clearing to Kael

kneeling in front of frightened children, to the way the whole village had looked at him like he

was someone worth trusting.

That night, lying on the narrow cot, Mara went over her mission the way she always did before a

job. Get close. Learn his patterns. Find the moment he was alone and unguarded. Strike before

the Blood Moon.

Three weeks had already become less than that. She had, what, eighteen days now? She needed

information where he slept, who guarded him, when his defenses were thinnest. She needed to

move quickly and carefully, the way she always did.

Instead she found herself thinking about his voice when he'd told the children they were safe.

She pushed the thought away and made herself sleep.

In the morning, Kael found her near the well, watching the village wake up around her smiths

lighting their forges, hunters heading out with bows, an old man teaching two boys how to

properly sharpen a blade. It was so ordinary it made her chest ache in a way she didn't want to

examine.

"You're up early," Kael said, appearing beside her without a sound, which she noted with more

alarm than she let show.

"Habit."

"Elin says you barely touched your breakfast."

"Elin talks a lot."

That earned her a real laugh, short and surprised, like he hadn't expected her to have any edge to

her. "She does. She also doesn't trust easily. If she's decided to like you, that says something."

"Or she just likes having someone new to gossip about."

"Also possible." Kael's gold eyes moved over the village, the same way Mara's did reading it,

watching it, protecting it without seeming to try. "I have to meet with some of the pack elders

this morning. You're welcome to look around, if you want. Just " he hesitated."Just what?"

"Some in the village aren't as trusting of outsiders as I am. Stay near the well or the market, and

you won't have trouble."

Mara nodded, filing that away. Not everyone trusts strangers here. Someone might already be

watching me.

"Why?" she asked before she could stop herself. "Why let me stay at all? You don't know

anything about me."

Kael was quiet for a moment, considering the question more seriously than she expected. "I

know you didn't run when the rogues attacked," he said finally. "Most travelers would have. And

I know something about the way you watch a room, like you're always counting exits." His gaze

sharpened slightly, and her pulse jumped. "That tells me you're not just a hungry traveler. But it

doesn't tell me you mean harm. Not yet."

Mara held perfectly still, the way she'd trained herself to when a mark got too close to the truth.

"And if I do mean harm?"

"Then I'll deal with that when I have to." He said it simply, without threat, like a fact about the

weather. "Until then, you're a guest. We don't turn away people who might need help, Mara.

Even when it isn't smart."

He walked off toward the hall before she could answer, and Mara stood by the well a long

moment, turning his words over.

Even when it isn't smart.

She thought of the blade in her boot, and for the first time since she'd left the outpost, her hand

did not want to move toward it.