The air in the BloodMoon Pack had changed. Not visibly, not yet. But Selene could feel it.
Tension lingered in the hallways. Conversations died when she entered. Warriors clutched their weapons a little tighter. Eyes lingered a little longer. She knew what this meant.
Suspicion.
After Luca's warning, everyone was on edge. Including her. She wasn't afraid of the enemy pack infiltrating. She was afraid of what would happen if Kael found the traitor before she did, and assumed it was her.
Selene paced outside the training arena, watching as warriors sparred under Beta Rael's sharp eyes. Kael stood at the edge, his arms folded across his chest. Silent. Commanding. Watching everything.
But every few minutes, his gaze drifted to her.
Like a silent question he wasn't ready to ask.
Later that afternoon, Selene sat in the war room, flipping through a stack of supply records. She wasn't on kitchen duty. She wasn't even supposed to be in here. But Kael had let her help; an unspoken olive branch.
Across the room, Rael entered with a thin folder.
"Found something," he muttered, dropping it in front of Kael.
Kael flipped it open, jaw tensing. "Tomas."
Selene frowned. "Tomas? The patrol leader with the limp?"
"He's healed now," Rael said. "Too quickly. Suspiciously quickly."
Kael slid a photo across the table toward Selene. A close-up of a man's wrist, one she'd seen a dozen times.
But now, under magnified light, the faint double scar stood out.
Cassian's mark.
Selene's blood ran cold.
"That's him," she whispered.
Kael nodded. "Tonight, we move."
When darkness fell, so did the mask Selene wore. Dressed in black, her movements were silent as she slipped through the side corridors of the barracks. She wasn't part of the extraction team. Kael hadn't wanted her involved. But she couldn't stay away.
This was her war, too.
She found the patrol team assembling behind the old training pit. Kael was already there, sword strapped to his back, aura burning with fury.
He turned when he felt her near.
"You're not supposed to be here."
"I'm not good at doing what I'm told," she said softly.
A pause. Then he handed her a dagger.
"You'll stay close to me."
It wasn't a question.
She nodded.
Tomas didn't go down without a fight. When they stormed his quarters, he tried to flee. But Kael was faster, knocking him down and pressing a blade to his throat.
Selene crouched beside him, yanking back his sleeve. The scar was there.
"Why, Tomas?" Kael asked, voice low and dangerous.
Tomas spit blood and snarled, "Your Luna's already damned you. I was just the backup plan."
Kael's fist cracked across his jaw before anyone could stop him.
Selene froze.
Your Luna.
Her lungs tightened. Her vision tunneled. She looked at Kael; who stared back at her, unreadable.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That night, Selene sat on the windowsill of her room, hugging her knees to her chest. Kael stood in the doorway, watching her.
"You heard what he said," she said without looking up.
"I did."
"And you're wondering."
"I've always wondered."
That stung more than it should have.
"But I haven't made a move," she said quietly. "Not against you. Not since the bond."
"I know."
He walked in, slow, calm, powerful. His scent; earth and rain and something dark, wrapped around her like fog.
"I don't trust easily, Selene."
"I know."
"But I do trust my instincts."
She looked at him, afraid to hope. "And what do they say?"
Kael stepped closer.
"They say you're still hiding something."
Her breath caught.
"But they also say you're not my enemy."
Selene didn't realize she was crying until his thumb brushed a tear off her cheek. She leaned into him; against every rule she'd been taught, against every survival instinct she had.
Because for the first time in her life, someone wasn't just watching her.
He saw her.
And she didn't want to be invisible anymore.