LOGINKAELI wanted to find every person who’d ever mocked her for that stutter and tear their world apart. My wolf, Blade, was pacing behind my ribs, snarling at the memory of her saying her mother called her voice a "nuisance."I kept my ears tuned to the woods. We were safe for the night, but tomorrow, we’d have to put miles between us and everyone we know."I'm curious about something," I said, tearing off a piece of bread as I watched her. "I get why you don't talk now but why do you pretend to be a boy too?"She gripped the pen, and scribbled some words down the held it up:NO ONE LOOKS TWICE. NO ONE… TOUCHES. IT'S SAFE.The implication hit me like a physical blow to the gut. I swallowed the snarl rising in my throat, my pulse thrumming with a protective fury I could barely contain.“From now on, you don’t have to pretend anymore,” I said, my voice dropping to a low, steady rumble. “Not for safety. Not around me.”Her eyes flicked up, wary, exhausted, but searching for the lie
KAEL“I… I h-have… to… go b-back…” she said, her voice, barely a whisper, each word dragged out like it cost her something precious. “G-Ginny w-would… would b-be… mad if… if I d-didn’t.”The name hit me like a fist to the sternum. I couldn’t help it when my voice came out sharper than I meant, almost a shout. “Okay, who the hell is Ginny?”She flinched, but then impossibly, a tiny huff escaped her, something perilously close to a laugh. It was gone in an instant, swallowed by fear, but it lit something warm and fierce in my chest all the same.“M-mother,” she said, eyes dropping to her trembling hands. “Sh-she’s… my m-mom. And… and M-Mary is… my s-sister. I… I h-have to b-be… home… b-before… before they r-return.”The words mother and sister felt obscene in her mouth, like she was naming weapons instead of family.Blade surged forward in my mind, a guttural snarl echoing through my bones. They dare call themselves that?I pulled in a slow, measured breath, forcing the rage back down b
KAELI ran with her in my back until the town became a distant smear behind us, until the pavement gave way to dirt and the air thickened with pine and damp earth. My lungs burned, my legs screamed, but I didn’t stop until we were deep in the woods, far from any road, far from any eyes.The small cabin I’d claimed last night was still undisturbed. I eased her down onto the bedroll, the rough wool now stained darker with her blood. The metallic scent clung to both of us, thick and accusing.She was lighter than I expected. Too light. I knelt beside her, hands hovering, afraid to touch now that I knew the truth beneath the bindings. The linen around her chest was soaked through, but when I carefully peeled back the edge of her ruined shirt, the gash that had been gaping and lethal was already a thin pink line, the skin knitting together like time itself was running backward.Impossible. Blade paced restlessly inside me, fury barely leashed.'She is alive, that is enough for now.'But it
KAELI looked around some more before deciding to go to his house, we'd thankfully followed him home yesterday.A reckless move at the time… but now it felt like the only lifeline I had left.Maybe he wasn’t skipping, maybe he was just… home. Sick.The thought slid through me like cold water. If he was sick, what was I supposed to do? Show up at his door looking like I’d been dragged across three counties?I waited a few more minutes, clinging to the idea that he might still appear, but the entrance stayed stubbornly empty.Blade’s voice edged into my mind, low and uneasy. We need to know. If he’s hurt, if he’s sick… we should be there.“Yeah,” I exhaled shakily. “We should.”So I left the school and headed toward his house.The walk wasn’t long, but every step dragged dread closer and closer around my ribs. My boots scuffed against the sidewalk, the early morning air cool and sharp in my lungs as I replayed every awful possibility.What if he was seriously sick?What if he’d fainted
Morning didn’t come gently.It dragged me out of sleep with a bolt of pain so sharp it stole the breath from my lungs. For a few seconds I just lay there on the splintered floor, blinking at the sickly gray light leaking through the broken cabin walls, letting reality settle like ash over my chest.Rogue, exiled and cast out for choosing fate over politics. But I refused to be defeated.Blade stirred inside me, slow and sore, we haven't fully recovered from our injuries because of the rejection from the pack which weakened my wolf a little but we are almost there.I pushed myself upright anyway.My body protested with every motion. My ribs shouted, my muscles ached, and dried blood cracked along my skin. I looked like something pulled from a battlefield. And if I showed up like this, like a stray dog limping home, Max would see nothing but the ruin of who I used to be.No. I wouldn’t let that be his impression of me after yesterday.I staggered outside and followed the scent of water
I left the pack lands with a heart so heavy it felt like it was dragging the rest of me into the dirt. Every step away from home tasted like loss, raw, metallic, and bitter. It was as if something vital had been carved straight out of my chest and left bleeding behind me.Never, not in any version of my future, had I imagined this.Me.A rogue.Cast out by my own father, not for treason, or weakness. But because my beliefs no longer aligned with his, because I dared to want a life shaped by my own choices.The word rogue settled on me like a curse. One of the very creatures I’d been raised to despise.The wolves we were taught to treat as threats, as beasts without honor, and as shadows to chase from our borders.Failures of loyalty, of bloodline and of everything my father claimed made us “superior.” And now I was one of them. A stray.A futureless wolf. The irony tasted like ash on my tongue.Rogue.As a rogue, I had to avoid pack wolves at all costs. One wrong scent, one wrong step







