I'd been sitting alone for a while when the clan elder called out.
Someone was looking for me.
I pushed open the tent flap.
Lila stood there in a white linen dress, small and soft, her sweet water lily scent already wrapping around me before she even opened her mouth. She gave me a little wave like we were old friends.
"Fenrisa," she said, her voice careful and quiet. "I just reached out to Kael through the pack-link. His pheromones are all over the place. He really wants me to come with him to the back hills for a hunt."
A small pause.
"Is that okay with you?"
Straight to the point.
Her voice was cautious. But underneath it, barely hidden, was something else entirely.
Pride.
This was how she'd been with me all season.
Fragile. Put-upon. Secretly thrilled.
And here she was again. Same face. Same door.
I watched her with cold eyes.
I still couldn't understand it — what a proud Alpha like Kael saw in someone who hid her claws inside lace gloves. Who turned every room into a stage and called it shyness.
In the beginning, he hadn't wanted anything to do with her. Said her scent was too muddled — none of the northern wolf's bloodline in it. Too soft. Too southern.
Then came the territory patrol.
A hunter's trap caught Kael's hind leg. Steel teeth, deep.
I was already moving. Already reaching for the herbs, my hands steady, doing what needed to be done.
But Zoey dropped to her knees first.
She burst into tears — the loud, gasping kind — and tore a strip from her own skirt. That thin, barely-there skirt. She pressed it against the wound with both hands, sobbing like she was the one bleeding out.
Kael had gone very still.
He stared at her for a long moment. That same look he got when something surprised him — rare, quiet, unsettled.
He didn't accept her mating advance after that. But he stopped turning her away from his territory.
Eventually, Lila just claimed him as a brother.
And the whole north knew: the strongest Alpha had taken in a little sister from the south.
As for me?I got a new title.The Pack's Stray.
Half the pack thought that was the funniest thing they'd ever heard. Wolves who'd never said a word to me suddenly had a lot to say. Even Kael had laughed — just once, soft and reluctant — before he reached over and scratched behind my ears and said:
"You're not a stray. As long as I'm alive, you're in my territory."
Was I still in his territory now?
I smiled at Lila.The kind of smile that didn't reach anywhere.
She shifted under my gaze, nervous, and asked again. "Fenrisa, can I go with Kael to the hunt? If it bothers you, I won't go."
Before I could answer, a shadow fell across the entrance.
Kael stepped out of the pines.
He was frowning before he even reached us. "Lila." His voice was flat. "I told you to wait at the tree line. Why are you here?"
"I — I wasn't sure if I should cross into your hunting range," she said, stumbling over the words. "So I came to ask Fenrisa first."
She dropped her chin as she said it, tilting her head just enough to bare the back of her neck.
Soft. Submissive. Completely helpless.
Kael's expression immediately softened. Like it always did.
He reached out and ruffled her hair. "Silly girl. I said you could come into my hunting grounds — that means you can go. You don't need to ask anyone."
"But…" Lila ducked her head, still playing uncertain, still milking every last second of it.
Kael glanced over at me. His jaw tightened. "Look at how much thought Lila puts into your feelings. And you can't even take a joke."
A joke.
He still thought that was all it was. Lila tampering with my blood contract — just a prank. My anger — my problem.
My fault.
I looked at Lila.
The smile that curled my lips had nothing warm in it.
"She puts thought into my feelings?" My voice came out steady. Quiet. Each word its own small blade.
"This little sister routine she's been running all season would make a fox take notes. She releases mating pheromones right in front of me and calls it not knowing the rules. She takes what isn't hers and calls it a brother's favor. She can't outrun a rabbit on her best day, but she walks around like she'll shatter if someone breathes wrong — always one wrong look away from tears, always the victim, always so fragile."
I stepped closer.
"You smile at me and call me sister. And then you spend every waking hour trying to squeeze your poison into my water bag. So tell me, Lila —" I tilted my head. "Is something wrong with your glands, or have you always survived by making Alphas feel sorry for you?"
Every sentence landed.
I watched the color drain from her face, one word at a time.
By the end, she was trembling. Head bowed. A small, broken sound escaping her throat — that familiar whimper, perfectly timed, perfectly placed.
Kael's expression went dark.
His eyes burned — that deep, dangerous red flickering up through the gold.
"Are you done?" His voice dropped low. Controlled. Barely. "When did you turn into this? You're acting like a rabid wolf with no sense left in her."
He stepped forward.
"Or maybe you want to be the one kicked out of this pack."
His eyes locked onto mine. Cold. Final.
"The Pack's Stray."
