All Chapters of Moon kissed, Blood crowned: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

Maya Rain began falling through the forest just after morning, first as a whisper against the leaves, then as a steady downpour that showed no intention of stopping.Droplets gathered on the broad green leaves before spilling over their edges, falling in shimmering streams to the forest floor. The branches swayed beneath the weight of the rain, their leaves trembling with every gust of wind. The sound surrounded us—the soft tapping above, the constant patter against the thick undergrowth, and the occasional heavy splash when a drop struck one of the puddles forming along the trail.The horses had turned sullen.The sky was grey in every direction, and the forest looked darker beneath the clouds.Valeria had not said a word in the past two hours. This was either dignified endurance or the early stage of something worse. I couldn’t tell which and I wasn’t going to ask.I had stopped being cold somewhere around mid-morning and advanced to a state beyond cold that didn’t have a name. My

MayaThe bath was the best thing that had happened to me in the last five days. I sank deeper into the wooden tub and let the hot water do whatever it wanted. For the first time in days, I wasn’t thinking about the road, the rain, Lord Draken, or how far we still had to travel.I was simply warm.The heat seeped into every aching muscle and reminded me just how thoroughly my body had been abused by the past five days. Every part of me hurt—the kind of deep, exhausted ache that came from riding too long, sleeping too little, and pushing a body far beyond what it wanted to endure.I didn’t care that the water was almost too hot. I didn’t care that it was deep enough to cover my shoulders. I hunched beneath the surface, closed my eyes, and surrendered to the warmth.It embraced me and the liquid heat penetrated my bones, easing the cold that had settled inside them. Much like Tyler’s body heat had done.My eyes opened as I immediately pushed the thought away. That was not something I wan

KaiThe rain had not been kind to the campsite. I crouched in the middle of what had once been a fire pit, now reduced to a shallow puddle of grey ash and muddy water, and searched for anything useful.There wasn’t much left.The ground around it had been churned into mud. Whatever footprints had once been there had been washed away hours ago. The rock shelf on the southern side had protected a narrow strip of ground from the worst of the rain, but even there, the evidence was faint.Too faint.Zane moved around the perimeter with his usual quiet thoroughness. Finn examined the rock shelf. And Liam was near the tree line, crouching over the ground and nodding to himself as though he had uncovered some great mystery. Then he straightened.“Two people were here,” he announced. “Maybe three.”“Definitely three,” Finn said without looking up.“That’s what I said. Two or maybe three.”“There were three.”Liam crouched lower with the focused dignity of a man who had not been wrong, merely i

MayaThe rest of the day should have been a relief. But it wasn’t.Valeria slept through most of it, which was exactly what she needed. Her body had finally surrendered to the exhaustion and illness she’d been fighting, leaving me with little to do except tend the fire and think. That was the last thing I needed.Tyler had taken himself off to check the perimeter, hunt, and check on the horses. He had barely said anything before leaving, and I was grateful for the distance.Because we hadn’t spoken about the kiss. Apparently, we weren’t going to speak about the kiss at all. It was simply going to exist between us like a third shadow, acknowledged by neither of us, yet impossible for either of us to ignore. And I was going to have to manage that for the few days remaining between here and Frost Moon Hill.I piled another branch onto the fire and told myself not to think about it.Naturally, I thought about it anyway. The problem was that I had no framework for what had happened. I had

TylerShe had been visiting Draken for months. I turned that thought over from every angle as I rode, searching for the part that didn’t sit right. There were too many parts.The fact that Draken could touch her in a dreamspace.The fact that she hadn’t pulled away. The fact that whatever hold he had over her there was strong enough that it had taken a wolf breaking through to shake it loose.Apparently, my wolf. I hadn’t confirmed it yet, but I knew my own wolf the way I knew my own hands. And with the description Maya had given me, enormous, nightshade, and furious, there was very little room for another interpretation.My wolf had entered a dreamspace I hadn’t even known existed. And he had put himself between Maya and Draken without asking my permission. Which was exactly the kind of thing my wolf would do. And exactly the kind of information I had absolutely no idea what to do with.My jaw tightened.Draken could touch her in that dream. What exactly did that mean? Had he hurt her