I didn't sleep.
I lay in bed staring at the ceiling, replaying the way his hand had hovered near my throat, the way his voice had changed when he told me to go back to my room.
It hadn't sounded like anger.
It had sounded like fear.
Not for himself.
For me.
That thought followed me into morning and refused to let go.
By the time I went downstairs, the house had returned to its usual rhythm. Breakfast, low conversation, the smell of coffee and fresh bread. If I hadn't been awake the night before, I would have believed nothing had happened.
Kael wasn't there.
Again.
Elara spoke to me about inventory deliveries. Lina asked if I could review a new set of supplier numbers. Everything was normal, efficient, structured.
But people were watching me.
Not openly, just enough that I noticed.
As if they were waiting to see whether I had understood something I hadn't.
I finished quickly and escaped outside.
The cold air helped clear my head, but the unease stayed. I walked past the training field, past the storage buildings, toward the edge of the tree line where the gravel path gave way to packed earth.
The forest was quieter than usual.
A sound carried through it, low and distant. Not quite an animal call, not wind, not anything I could name. It rose and fell in a way that made my skin tighten.
I told myself it was just wildlife.
I kept walking.
Another sound, closer this time.
I stopped.
Something moved between the trees.
"Hello?" I called, immediately hating myself for it.
No answer.
The underbrush shifted again.
I took a step back.
"Mara."
Kael's voice cut through the forest from behind me.
I turned too quickly, relief hitting before I could hide it.
He was already moving toward me, expression hard, eyes scanning the trees rather than me.
"What are you doing out here?" he asked.
"Walking."
"You shouldn't be in the forest alone."
"You keep saying that," I said. "You still haven't told me why."
His gaze moved past me again, focused on something deeper in the forest. For a moment he looked like he was listening to a conversation I couldn't hear.
Then his hand closed around my wrist.
"We're going back," he said.
"I'm not a prisoner."
"You're not safe here."
"There it is again."
I tried to pull my hand free. His grip tightened just enough to stop me.
"Mara," he said, and there was a warning in it I hadn't heard before.
The same low sound echoed from the trees, closer now.
This time he heard it too.
Every muscle in his body went still.
"What is that?" I asked.
"Inside," he said.
"I'm not moving until you – "
The sound came again, sharper, almost like a howl cut short.
My heart jumped.
Kael stepped between me and the forest without thinking, body angled, shoulders squared. I had never seen him move that fast.
The reaction was instinctive.
Protective.
"Stay behind me," he said.
"What is it?"
"Inside. Now."
The authority in his voice left no room for argument.
We moved back toward the buildings quickly, his hand still on my wrist, his attention split between the path ahead and the trees behind us. The closer we got to the open space, the more I felt the tension ease in his grip.
By the time we reached the courtyard, he released me.
People were already there.
Two men headed toward the outer gate.
No one looked panicked.
"What's happening?" I asked.
"Nothing," he said again.
I laughed, sharp and disbelieving. "You expect me to believe that after last night?"
"It is routine," he replied, but his eyes were still on the tree line.
"For what? What do you think is in those woods?"
He hesitated.
It was the first time I had seen him hesitate like that in daylight.
"There are animals," he said finally.
"That wasn't an animal."
"You don't know that."
"I know what I heard."
Our voices had drawn attention. A few people nearby slowed, not stopping, but listening.
Kael noticed.
His expression shifted back into something controlled and distant.
"We're done with this conversation," he said.
"No," I said quietly. "We're not."
I stepped closer.
"You keep telling me I'm in danger, but you won't tell me why. You keep watching me like I'm going to do something wrong just by existing here. You can't have it both ways."
"You shouldn't have gone into the forest."
"I didn't go far."
"That's not the point."
"Then what is?"
He looked at me then. Really looked.
For a moment the courtyard disappeared, the movement around us fading into the background.
"The point," he said, voice lower now, "is that you don't understand what you're standing in the middle of."
"Then explain it."
"I can't."
"You keep saying that."
"Because it's true."
Frustration burned hot in my chest.
"I'm not leaving," I said. "Not because you tell me to. Not because you think you know what's best for me. If something is happening here, I deserve to know."
His jaw tightened.
"You deserve to be safe."
"Then trust me enough to tell me the truth."
For a second I thought he might.
His hand lifted again, not toward my throat this time but toward my face, stopping just short of touching my cheek. The restraint in that tiny movement said more than any words.
"You don't know what you're asking," he said.
"Then make me understand."
The same sound from the forest echoed again, distant but unmistakable.
This time several people turned toward it at once.
Kael's hand dropped.
The moment shattered.
"Inside," he said, and the command was back.
"I'm not – "
He stepped closer, lowering his voice so only I could hear.
"If you trust me at all," he said, "you'll go inside right now."
The intensity in his eyes left no room for sarcasm, no space for argument.
I nodded once.
I turned toward the house.
At the door I stopped and looked back.
He was already moving toward the others, posture different, attention sharp, every line of him focused on whatever waited beyond the tree line.
Not the man who argued with me in corridors.
Not the man who kissed me in the library.
Someone else.
Someone in charge of something I didn't understand.
Inside, the house felt too quiet.
I stood in the hallway, listening.
Minutes passed.
Then the sound came again.
Closer.
Longer.
A howl.
Not like any I had heard before.
Not like the recordings, not like the distant wildlife calls from the city outskirts. This was deeper, layered, multiple voices overlapping in a way that made my chest tighten.
My hands started to shake.
From the window at the end of the corridor I could see the courtyard.
People were moving faster now.
Kael stood at the center again, giving orders I couldn't hear. Eren was beside him. The gate was open.
They were going into the forest.
A wave of cold rolled through me.
I didn't know what they were facing.
I only knew that whatever it was, it was normal for them.
And completely outside anything I understood.
Another howl cut through the air, closer than before, echoing off the buildings.
This time I saw it.
A shape moving at the edge of the tree line.
Too large.
Too fast.
Not human.
I stepped back from the window, heart hammering.
The door behind me opened.
Lina stood there, one hand on her stomach, the other braced against the frame.
"You should stay away from the windows," she said gently.
"What is that?" I asked.
"Something that doesn't concern you," she said softly.
The howl came again.
Closer.
And outside, Kael disappeared into the trees.