POV: Liora
Kael stopped looking at me after that night. Five days had passed since the rogue attack, since those words hung in the air between us. No man should make me want everything. Five days of Kael avoiding the training yard, sending orders through Vera, staying locked in his office.
Five days of feeling his absence like a physical wound. I threw myself into patrols, taking double shifts at the borders. Anything to exhaust myself, to stop thinking about ice blue eyes and the way his touch made my skin burn. Anything to stop my wolf from whining for an Alpha who couldn't want her back.
Because he thought I was male. And even if he knew the truth, I was still a fugitive. Still someone he should turn away.
"You look like hell," Thomas commented during the evening meal. "When's the last time you slept?"
"I sleep enough."
"Liar." He pushed bread toward me. "Eat. You're no good to anyone if you collapse."
I picked at the food without appetite. Across the hall, Kael's usual seat sat empty. Again.
"Alpha's been working himself to death too," Thomas said, following my gaze. "Locked in his office day and night. Vera says he barely eats, doesn't sleep. Just stare at maps and reports like they'll give him answers."
Guilt twisted in my stomach. This was my fault. My presence was tearing him apart. Maybe I should leave. Disappear into the forest and never look back. It would be easier for everyone.
But Matthias would still be out there. Still hunting me. Still unpunished for Declan's murder.
"Leo?" Thomas waved a hand in front of my face. "Are you listening?"
"Sorry. Just tired."
"Then go to bed. I'll cover your patrol tonight."
"No, I can.."
"That's an order from your superior, runt." Thomas grinned. "Go sleep before you fall over."
I nodded, grateful, and left the hall. But I didn't go to the barracks. My feet carried me toward Kael's office, drawn by instinct I couldn't fight.
I just needed to see him. To know he was okay. The hallway was dark, empty. His door was closed but light flickered underneath. He was still working then, still drowning himself in duty to avoid whatever this was between us.
I raised my hand to knock, then stopped.
What would I even say? That I missed him? That my wolf cried for him every night? That I couldn't breathe when he avoided me?
I lowered my hand and turned away.
That's when I smelled it. Blood. Fresh and metallic. My wolf surged forward, panicked. I shoved the door open without knocking.
Kael sat slumped in his chair, his shirt torn and soaked with crimson. A gash ran across his ribs, deep and angry. Blood dripped onto the floor, pooling beneath him.
"What happened?" I rushed forward, pressing my hands against the wound. He hissed in pain but didn't pull away.
"Ambush. At the eastern border." His voice was rough, strained. "Three rogues. I took care of them but one got lucky."
"You need a healer."
"Already sent them away." He met my eyes for the first time in days. "I heal fast. It'll close by morning."
"Not if you bleed out first." I grabbed cloth from his desk, wadding it against the wound. "Take off your shirt."
"Leo.."
"Now, Alpha."
Something flickered in his eyes. He peeled the ruined shirt away, revealing scarred skin and hard muscle. And more blood than I'd realized. The wound was worse than it looked, jagged and deep.
I worked quickly, cleaning the gash with water from his pitcher. My hands shook but my training held. I'd patched up warriors before, and knew how to stitch flesh together.
"This is going to hurt," I warned.
"Everything hurts lately." His eyes stayed fixed on my face as I threaded the needle. "Since you arrived."
I didn't respond, focusing on the first stitch. He didn't flinch, didn't make a sound, just watched me with that intensity that made my wolf squirm.
"Why are you here?" he asked quietly.
"I smelled blood."
"That's not what I meant." His hand caught my wrist, stilling my work. "Why are you still here? In this pack, in this territory. You could have run a dozen times. Could have disappeared into the forest where neither I nor Matthias could find you."
"Where would I go?" I met his eyes. "I have no pack. No home. No one who believes I'm innocent."
"You have me."
Three words that shouldn't have meant so much. Three words that cracked something open in my chest.
"Do I?" I whispered. "You've been avoiding me for days."
"Because being near you drives me insane." His grip tightened on my wrist. "Because every time I see you, I want things I shouldn't want. Feel things that make no sense."
"Kael..."
"Do you know what it's like?" His voice dropped, rough with emotion. "To be drawn to someone so completely that it scares you? To want someone you can never have?"
My throat closed. "Yes. I know exactly what that's like."
His eyes searched mine, looking for something I couldn't name. His hand released my wrist but didn't pull away, his fingers trailing up my arm.
"Finish the stitches," he said softly. "Please."
I worked in silence, hyperaware of every breath, every tiny movement. The thread pulled through the skin, closing the wound. My hands steadied as I fell into the rhythm of it.
When I tied off the last stitch, his hand caught my chin. Gently, carefully, tilting my face up.
"You fight like you were trained," he said. "Move like you grew up with discipline. Heal like you have Alpha blood." His thumb traced my jaw. "Everything about you is a contradiction."
"I'm just a survivor."
"No." His eyes burned into mine. "You're so much more than that."
We were too close. His bare chest inches from mine, his hand cradling my face, his eyes seeing too much. My heart hammered so loud I was certain he could hear it.
"I dream about you," Kael confessed, his voice barely above a whisper. "Your scent, your voice, the way you look at me like I don't terrify you. Every night, I wake up aching for someone I can't have."
"Why can't you?"
"Because you're male." Pain flickered across his face. "Because even if every instinct I have screams that you're meant for me, it's impossible. Mate bonds don't work that way."
Mate bonds. There it was again, that word that changed everything.
"What if..." I stopped, fear choking the words.
"What if what?"
Tell him. Tell him the truth and let the pieces fall where they may.
But I couldn't. Not yet. Not when Matthias was still hunting me, not when my life hung by a thread.
"Nothing," I whispered.
Kael's expression shuttered. He started to pull away but I caught his hand without thinking.
"Wait."
He froze, looking down at where our fingers intertwined.
"I dream about you too," I admitted. "And I shouldn't. I know I shouldn't. But I can't stop."
His free hand cupped my other cheek, holding my face between his palms. His eyes searched mine, desperate and confused and wanting.
"If you were anyone else," he whispered, his forehead pressing against mine, "I'd think you're my mate."