Snow Traps

I didn't stay in Luna room.

Next morning, Kael woke before fire was hot, pulling on black pants, tying hair back, gold eyes black with planning.

"Where are you going?" I asked, sitting up, mark itching less now, more tight, like skin pulling.

"River," he said. "And mountain path where North Pack must come. We set traps. You stay, healer says no walking much today, mark still soft."

But through bond, I felt something else — he didn't want me to stay because mark soft.

He wanted me to stay because Elder Corvin was still talking about trading me for cattle, and he didn't want me to hear.

I stood, grey dress no longer bloody — Mara washed it at night, left clean one, same grey wool, fur sleeves — and touched his bare arm.

"I am Luna," I said. "Luna doesn't hide while Alpha sets traps for war that is about her.

I come."

He looked at my neck — mark red but closed, no blood — and at my feet — pink, not blue after snow — and sighed.

"Human Luna is stubborn," he muttered, but I felt proud through bond again.

He wrapped thick white fur around my shoulders, and extra fur around my mark, to keep cold out and to hide scent a little from possible North spies.

"Don't run," he said. "Walk slow.

If mark bleeds again, we go back immediately. Promise?"

"Promise," I said.

We went outside. Snow had stopped, but sky was grey, heavy. Mountain was white.

Pack was already working.

Not 30 wolves — I saw more now, because some were in man form, some in wolf form.

Young boys who held spears yesterday were digging holes in snow on the path that goes up mountain — the only path wide enough for 50 wolves.

Beta Mara showed me. "North wolves must come this path, Luna.

Mountain left and right is too steep, ice. So we dig."

She pointed. Boys dug deep, then covered with thin branches and snow, so it looked normal.

"Snow traps," she said. "Wolf falls in, leg breaks, can't run. Old trick from last winter war."

Kael was with older wolves near river, where he had washed my heat. They were breaking ice, making river wider, deeper.

"River will be second trap," Kael told me when I walked slow to him, feeling mark stretch a little but not bleed. "North wolves hate cold water. They come from lower mountain, where snow less. If we break ice, they must swim cold. Like I did for 3 days."

He said it casually, but I remembered — 3 days in river, biting rocks to not come inside to me in heat.

"You stayed in river 3 days for me," I whispered, touching his hand. "Now you make river for me again."

"River is ours," he said. "It helped us once."

Elder woman who blessed marking came, holding bowl of something black — pine sap and ash mixed.

"For Luna's mark," she said, looking at my fur-covered neck. "To hide scent, if North spies smell. Human Luna heat scent is gone, but new mark scent is strong — pine and smoke and Alpha. North will smell you are marked from far if we don't cover."

Kael growled low. "No covering my scent on her. I want them to smell she is mine."

Elder woman shook head. "Alpha, if they smell marked Luna, they will be insulted and come faster, not in 5 days but tomorrow. Let Luna hide scent 3 days, until we ready. Then show."

Kael didn't like, but nodded after feeling my worry through bond — I was worried too, about 50 wolves.

Elder woman put black sap around mark, not on mark, around, on skin. It smelled like burnt wood, strong, covering honey and pine.

"Now you smell like fire, not Luna," she said.

I sneezed.

Kael laughed, first time since letter, gold eyes soft.

"My Luna smells like burnt soup," he said.

"Better than cattle trade," I said.

We worked all morning. I didn't dig — healer would be angry — but I carried small branches to cover traps, slow steps, as Luna should.

Pack wolves watched me, sniffing air, confused because I smelled like fire, not like Alpha anymore, but they still bowed when I passed, because they remembered yesterday I smelled like Alpha.

One young wolf, boy maybe 15, in wolf form, grey fur, came close, whined, and pushed his head to my hand — asking permission to be petted, like dog.

I petted him, and through bond, I felt Kael's wolf feeling — _pup likes Luna, good, pack likes Luna_.

Elder Corvin came at noon, staff banging, face angry, holding same black wax letter even though Kael burned one — he had another copy.

"Traps won't stop 50!" he shouted to Kael, in front of everyone. "We have 30! We need to give human to North! 20 cattle can feed pups whole winter! Human is one, cattle is 20! Logic!"

All wolves stopped working, looking.

Kael stood, bare chest steaming in cold, claws out, gold eyes black, standing in front of me.

"Logic?" he said, voice low, making snow shake. "My Luna is logic. My mark is logic. Luna law — no trading marked Luna. You know law, Corvin. You taught me law when I was pup."

Corvin banged staff. "Luna law says Alpha protects pack! If 50 North wolves come, many of our pups will die! For one human?"

I stepped out from behind Kael, even though he wanted me behind, fur around shoulders, black sap smelling like fire around mark.

"Elder Corvin," I said, voice shaking but loud enough for pack to hear, "in village, I was traded for 2 goats. My family traded me because I smelled sweet and they were scared. 2 goats. Now you want to trade me for 20 cattle. More expensive. But still trade."

Pack went quiet.

"I don't want to be traded again," I said, looking at young wolves, old wolves, Mara. "I want to be Luna who carries branches for snow traps. Even if thin human arms. Even if mark itches."

Mara stepped next to me. "Human Luna carries branches, Elder. She doesn't hide."

Young boy wolf who I petted barked, agreeing.

Elder Corvin looked at me, at black sap around my neck, at fur, at 30 wolves watching.

"You are stubborn like Alpha," he muttered. "Both fools. Like Mara said."

He walked away, staff banging, but not as loud.

Kael pulled me to chest, careful of mark, forehead to my forehead, and I felt through bond — relief, huge relief, and love storm again, and also — pride so big it hurt.

"You spoke like Luna," he whispered, so only I hear. "My Luna."

"Was it okay?" I whispered back.

"It was perfect," he said. "Now Rorik cannot have you. Pack won't let."

We went back to Luna room at sunset, feet pink but tired. Healer checked mark — still closed, not bleeding, good — and put fresh honey paste, and removed black sap because we were inside, safe.

"You can smell like me again tonight," Kael said, licking around mark to put his scent back, making me giggle because it tickled itching spot.

Outside, snow traps were ready. River was broken, wide, cold.

3 more traps to set tomorrow, on east path.

4 days until full moon.

4 days until North Pack comes.

But tonight, lying on furs, his bare chest to my cheek, my mark no longer itching, just tight and warm, and his bond feeling — _pack accepted, Luna accepted, war okay because Luna with us_ — I slept deep, no heat, no cold, just his heartbeat under my ear.

And somewhere down mountain, in North Pack territory, a wolf howled — far, but I heard, because newly marked Luna hears far.

Not Stoneclaw howl.

North howl, looking for sweet honey scent that was now hidden under burnt sap and Alpha pine.