Go or Stay

KAEL’S POV

When Mara says it, I start to refuse.

She cuts me off before the words fully leave my mouth.

“Or is there something you’re hiding? If there isn’t, you’ll let her stay with me until the Moon Rite begins.”

Lorenzo, the councilor standing at her shoulder, speaks before I can answer. His voice is calm, measured, the kind that expects obedience. “Obey the rules, Alpha. We shouldn’t have to remind you of the law. You’re supposed to know it better than any of us.”

The room feels smaller. I look at Lyra. She looks back. For a second I try to read her—whether she wants me to fight this or whether she’s already bracing to be moved again. Her face gives me almost nothing. Then she looks away first.

The silence stretches. I can feel Lorenzo watching every shift in my expression, waiting for the Alpha to remember his place.

“She stays with Mara,” I say.

Lyra is on her feet before I finish the sentence. Unsteady for half a breath, then she locks it down. Her hands are clenched at her sides.

I almost change my mind. Almost tell them both to get out and close the door behind them. The urge is sharp and immediate.

But Lorenzo is still watching, and the law is the only thing standing between her and a worse verdict tonight.

“Mara.” My voice comes out low. “Take care of her. Bath. Food. Whatever she needs.”

Mara’s eyes flick to mine, surprised, then carefully blank. She doesn’t answer. She doesn’t need to.

I keep looking at Lyra.

She doesn’t look back.

They walk her out. The door shuts with a soft, final sound.

The second she’s out of sight, something in my chest yanks tight, like a rope pulled hard from the other end. I press a hand flat against my sternum without meaning to. The pressure doesn’t ease.

If this is only the full moon talking, why does it already feel like she took something with her I can’t get back?

LYRA’S POV

They talk about me like I’m not three feet away.

Mara wants me out of this room. Kael wants me safe. The man with Mara wants the law obeyed. No one asks what I want. The shape of the moment is so familiar it almost makes me laugh. Another room, another set of people deciding the next hours of my life while I sit quietly and absorb it.

I look at Kael, hoping for something I can’t name. A refusal. A fight. Anything that says I’m not just being handed off again like a problem to be managed.

He doesn’t give it.

“She stays with Mara,” he says, and it sounds like a man talking himself into the decision while the words are still leaving his mouth.

I stand before he finishes. If I’m going to be moved, I’ll walk there myself. My legs feel less steady than I want them to, but I don’t let it show.

He looks at me like there’s more he wants to say. The look lasts only a second. He doesn’t say it.

“Mara. Take care of her. Bath. Food. Whatever she needs.”

Mara’s face tightens—anger, or something close enough to it that the difference doesn’t matter. I understand the reaction. I would feel the same if someone handed me responsibility for a person I clearly didn’t want.

Small kindnesses, given to someone else to carry out. I can’t tell if it’s tenderness or distance. Tonight they feel like the same thing.

I don’t look back on the way out. I’m afraid of what my face will do if I do.

Mara walks beside me in silence the whole way, her steps even, her jaw tight. I brace for cruelty. I've had worse said to me by better people.

But she doesn't say a word until we reach her door. Her hand rests on it for a second before she opens it, then she finally turns to look at me.

"What are you and Kael really up to?" she asks, quiet and even. "I know when someone's lying to me."