Two Steps Behind

"Walk behind me," Rhys said. "Two steps back."

I stopped on the stone path and turned around. "That is not how guards work. Guards walk beside the person they protect."

"Guards who are not me, yes."

"What does that mean?"

"It means if I walk beside you, I will smell you." He kept his eyes on the road. "And I would like to get through today."

Heat crawled up my neck. "Oh."

"Yes. Oh."

Two steps back it was.

The pack house sat on a hill in the center of the territory. Below us, the village spread out in neat rows of stone houses, smoke curling from every chimney. Cain wanted me to walk the grounds so the pack could see their new Luna. I had agreed.

I had not agreed to do it with Rhys breathing behind me.

"You can walk slower," I said over my shoulder. "Nobody is chasing us."

"I know."

"Then why do you look like someone is?"

"I don't look like anything."

"You look like a man holding his breath underwater."

He was quiet for three steps. "Maybe I am."

I bit my lip so I would not smile. It was not funny. It was not cute. It was dangerous.

He is cute, Thea said.

He is forbidden, I shot back.

Those can be the same thing.

I ignored her.

The village woke up as we passed. A baker pushed a warm loaf into my hands and bowed so low I thought she would fall over. A group of old men stopped their card game and nodded. Two teenage girls whispered behind their fingers and stared at my dress.

"Do they always stare like this?" I asked.

"You are new. Wolves love new things."

"Is that good or bad?"

"Depends on the day." A pause. "Today it is good."

That was almost a whole sentence. I counted it as a win.

"Cain says you speak ten words a day," I said.

"Cain exaggerates."

"So how many are you at?"

"Forty-one."

I laughed. I could not stop it. The sound burst out of me, and a bird flew out of a nearby tree.

Behind me, Rhys went still.

I turned. He was staring at me with such raw, open want that my laugh died in my throat.

Then he blinked, and the look was gone, locked away behind that calm warrior face.

"Keep walking, Luna," he said quietly.

My heart was pounding. I kept walking.

The market square was loud and busy. Children ran between the stalls. A woman argued with a fish seller. Somewhere, someone was playing a drum.

I was reaching for a ribbon at a stall when I heard a small cry.

A little boy, maybe five years old, tripped over a loose stone and flew forward. His head was heading straight for the edge of a stone water trough.

I gasped.

Rhys moved faster than I could blink. One second he was behind me. The next, he was on his knees in front of the trough, the boy caught safely in his arms.

The whole square froze.

"Easy, pup," Rhys said. His voice was gentle. Warmer than I had ever heard it. "Did you hit anything?"

The boy sniffled. "No."

"Good. Next time, watch the stones."

"Okay."

"Do you want to see something?"

The boy nodded.

Rhys held out his palm. A tiny spark of gold light flickered across his fingertips, his wolf's magic, just a little glow. The boy's eyes went wide. He giggled.

"Do it again!"

"Only if you promise to be careful."

"I promise!"

Rhys smiled. A real smile. Soft, a little shy.

My chest ached.

This man was supposed to be dangerous. A warrior. A wolf who held a border alone for two years. But right now he was kneeling in the dirt, making a child laugh.

Mate, Thea sighed. She did not roar this time. She just said it, quietly, like she was admitting a truth.

Stop, I begged her.

I am only saying what is real.

The boy's mother ran up and snatched him into her arms, thanking Rhys over and over. Rhys rose, brushed the dust off his knees, and looked at me.

Our eyes caught.

The noise of the market faded. I could hear my own heartbeat. I could hear his.

"Luna," he said, almost like a question.

"That was kind," I whispered.

"It was nothing."

"It was not nothing."

He looked away first.

We left the market and took the narrow path that wound along the river. It was quiet there. Trees on one side, the water on the other, and a wooden bridge ahead.

Halfway across the bridge, my heel caught a loose plank.

I stumbled. Rhys's hand shot out and caught my elbow.

The world stopped.

His touch was warm. Only a hand on my arm, nothing more. But my whole body lit up like a lantern. Thea howled inside me. His wolf answered, deep and hungry.

We stood on that bridge, two steps turned into zero, my shoulder against his chest. His breath stirred my hair.

"You are shaking," I said. It was a stupid thing to say.

"So are you."

"I tripped."

"I know."

"You can let go now."

"I know."

He did not let go.

His thumb moved, barely, across the inside of my elbow. One slow stroke. My breath caught. I looked up, and his face was so close I could see every gold fleck in his eyes.

His gaze dropped to my mouth.

Just once, Thea whispered. Just once.

I took a step back.

I pulled my arm free. It was the hardest thing I had ever done.

"Thank you," I said, too loudly. "For catching me."

"That is my job."

"Right. Your job." I smoothed my dress with shaking hands. "We should go back."

"Selene..."

"Luna," I corrected him. "In public, I am Luna."

He flinched. Only a little. But I saw it, and I hated myself for it.

"Of course," he said. "Luna."

When I looked up the hill, I saw a figure on the pack house terrace. Silver-blonde hair. Folded arms. Vivienne.

She was watching us.

How long had she been standing there?

My stomach turned cold.

We were almost back at the main gate when a young scout came sprinting toward us, red-faced and out of breath.

"Rhys!" he gasped. "Beta Dane sent me. We found something at the northern border."

Rhys stepped in front of me at once. "What?"

"A rogue. Dead. He was left on the road, right at the line." The scout swallowed hard. "Sir, he was wearing a mark."

"What mark?"

The scout's eyes slid to me. They were wide with fear.

"The Ashford brand, sir. It was burned into his shoulder. The same mark as the Luna's pack."

The ground tilted under my feet.

That was my father's mark. My family's mark. No rogue should ever wear it.

Unless somebody wanted them to.