All Chapters of Moonlight Pact: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

POV: AriaThe house always felt too quiet after Kai left.Not empty — just holding its breath. Like it was waiting for something I couldn’t name.I stood for a while in the kitchen, fingers resting on the counter, trying to steady my thoughts. Wolfborn. Thresholds. A wolf inside me I’d never met. It was too much and somehow not enough — like I needed one more piece before anything could make sense.Behind me, a cupboard slammed.Maya groaned. “Your cereal tried to assault me. I’m suing.”I almost smiled. “You can add it to the list of appliances that hate you.”She waved a hand dismissively, already wandering back toward the living room.“I need caffeine before my brain decides to quit,” she muttered and disappeared around the corner.The house went quiet again.A heartbeat later, something shifted outside.Not threatening. Not cold. Just… present — like a faint shift in the air pressure, subtle enough to notice only because everything else was still.I moved to the door, hesitating

POV: AriaLater, when the sky shifted toward evening, I found Kai at the edge of the yard again.He stood still, arms folded, eyes fixed on the western ridge.“Rowan’s driving you insane, isn’t he,” I said.“That’s not the word I’d use,” he said.“What word would you use?”He thought about it.“Predictable,” he said at last.I huffed. “He looks like he’s going to implode whenever Maya’s in a ten-meter radius.”“That’s him trying,” Kai said.“Yikes,” I said.He didn’t disagree.“Is there…” I hesitated. “Is there any way to make it easier? For them?”“No,” he said.“That was fast.”“It’s a bond,” he said simply. “If I interfere too much, it warps. If you explain too much, it overwhelms. They need to find a way to stand in the same space without running. That’s the first battle.”“And the second?” I asked.He glanced at me.“You don’t get to skip ahead,” he said.I crossed my arms, mirroring him without meaning to.“You’re infuriating,” I muttered.“You’re still alive,” he countered. “I’

POV: AriaThe house felt wrong without Kai nearby.Not empty.Not unsafe.Just… missing something steady I hadn’t realized I’d begun to rely on.I moved around the kitchen with restless hands, touching things just to hear a sound: the click of a mug on the counter, the soft hiss of the kettle, the scrape of a chair leg. Each noise landed too sharp in my ears, too bright. My senses were still shifting in ways I didn’t fully understand.Being wolfborn meant feeling everything like the volume knob was stuck on high.Outside, the sky was sliding from blue into the first shade of twilight. The hour where the forest seemed to pull closer to the house, like breath pressing against glass.Maya shuffled past, wrapped in my blanket like a walking laundry pile.“If I don’t get food in the next ten minutes,” she warned dramatically, “I will collapse and haunt you.”“You already haunt me,” I muttered.She snorted and rummaged in the cupboards. “You’re acting weird again.”“You say that like there’

POV: AriaHaving a werewolf in your living room was a lot louder than I expected.Not in actual sound.In… everything else.Rowan didn’t move much. He sat on the end of the couch like he’d been placed there and hadn’t figured out what to do with his hands since. One on his knee. One wrapped around a mug of tea he hadn’t drunk.But even when he was still, he felt like motion. Coiled. Contained. Ready.My wolf—sleeping, half-formed, whatever she was—stirred every time I stepped into the room, like she knew exactly what he was.Maya, on the other hand, had no idea.She walked in with a bowl of popcorn and a suspicious squint.“So,” she said, drawing the word out like a knife. “Let me get this straight. Forest Guy Number Two is now… what? Our guard dog?”I winced. “He can hear you.”“I know he can hear me,” she said. “I’m not whispering.”Rowan didn’t flinch. His gaze stayed on the muted TV, where a sitcom couple argued silently.“He’s here because Kai asked him to be,” I said. “Just for

POV: AriaBy midafternoon, the house felt too small.Rowan was a quiet kind of loud. He barely moved, barely spoke, barely breathed in any way that made sound—but I could feel him.Outside. Near the treeline. A steady weight at the edge of my awareness.Guard dog, Maya had called him.She wasn’t entirely wrong.I stood at the kitchen sink, rinsing a mug that was already clean, watching him through the window. He was on the porch now, leaning against the railing, arms folded, eyes fixed on the trees.Like he was daring the forest to try something.Maya padded in behind me, chewing on a piece of toast.She followed my gaze, then made a face.“He’s still here,” she muttered. “Does he ever go home?”“Sometimes,” I said.“Is he being paid? Is this a job? Is he, like… forest security?”I almost snorted. “Something like that.”She narrowed her eyes. “He’s acting like a guard dog, Aria. Just saying.”I didn’t answer.Because she wasn’t wrong about that either.The memory of last night brushe