The BloodMoon Pack was restless.
News of the traitor spread like wildfire, and while Kael's swift action had subdued panic, it didn't extinguish the flame of suspicion.
Selene could feel it burning her skin every time she walked into a room. Eyes lingered too long. Conversations stopped too fast. And even though she had helped expose Tomas, there was a new whisper behind closed doors.
What if she had only exposed him to protect herself?
Kael sat in the council chamber, staring at the map splayed across the stone table. His warriors were silent, waiting for his command, but his mind was elsewhere; trapped in the moment Tomas had said those cursed words:
"Your Luna's already damned you."
His Luna.
The bond had chosen her. His instincts had softened for her. His heart had cracked for her.
But his mind; the part sharpened by war, betrayal, and blood, still asked: Why her? Why now?
"Alpha?"
Rael's voice pulled him back.
"We've tripled patrols at the borders. No sign of outsiders. Tomas didn't act alone, though."
Kael nodded slowly. "Someone else is in here. Feeding them."
He didn't have to say who he was thinking about. Rael didn't answer. Neither did anyone else. Because they were all thinking the same thing.
Selene wasn't in her room that evening. She was at the old training pit, standing in the center of the dusted circle, knives strapped to her hips, eyes burning with fury.
Every strike she landed on the practice dummy was filled with something more than strength.
Guilt. Anger. Confusion. Longing.
She had been trained to lie without flinching. To seduce without caring. To kill without regret. But now?
She flinched every time Kael looked at her like she mattered. She couldn't seduce him because he wanted more than her body, he wanted truth.
And she hadn't killed him, even when she had the perfect chance. Worse? She didn't want to.
"Why do you care?" she muttered to herself, driving the blade deep into the dummy's side. "He's the enemy. He's not—"
"Selene."
She froze.
Kael stood behind her, arms crossed, watching her with unreadable eyes. She turned slowly, wiping sweat from her brow. "You followed me?"
"I didn't have to. I knew you'd be here."
She hated how that made her chest ache.
"What do you want, Kael?"
He walked into the pit, slow and silent. The Alpha in him always moved like a predator, like the world owed him its attention. But tonight, something was different.
He was softer.
Wounded, maybe.
"You told me you didn't come to hurt us," he said. "You helped take down Tomas. You've healed my warriors. You've... stayed."
"And you're still waiting for the other shoe to drop."
"I'm not the only one."
Selene crossed her arms, voice quieter now.
"Then say it. Ask me what you really want to ask."
Kael stepped closer.
His voice dropped. "Are you my enemy, Selene?"
She looked up at him, into the eyes of the man who had cradled her when she felt broken, who trusted her enough to let her close. The man who, against all odds, had made her feel like more than a weapon.
"No," she whispered.
But in her heart, she knew it wasn't that simple.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That night, Selene tossed in her bed, the words she didn't say burning behind her ribs.
She had come here to kill Kael.
And she had failed.
Not because he was stronger. Not because she'd lost her chance. But because she'd stopped wanting to do it.
Now, she didn't know if that made her a bad spy, or a terrible person. She had let him into her soul. Let him see pieces no one else had seen. And worse, she had let herself want more.
She turned to the ceiling and whispered into the silence:
"I think I'm falling in love with him."
And she was terrified of what that would cost her.