Chapter 4 Her Scent, My undoing

Kaelen's POV

I wasn't supposed to be on this path. It was old...nearly forgotten, my warriors had warned me against using it. Said it was cursed by the cries and whispers of rogues who haunted these woods.

But somehow my wolf insisted....and when he insisted, I listened. It hit me like lightning to the spine, sharp, raw, and familiar...but not in the way I knew it. This was something else.

A mix of wolf...and fear...something that made my heart skip. I was already moving, veering off the trail as I pushed through frostbitten leaves, my boots crunching against old earth.

"She's close." My wolf whispered inside me..." Go faster, she's fading!!"

Who was she?

I didn't even know who the hell it was talking to me about. But the scent...it grew stronger as I climbed the ridge. There, hidden behind a wall of moss and a collapsed tree, stood the shell of an old hunter's lodge.

Half-roofed and forgotten by time. I stepped inside and that was when everything else stopped. There she was...collapsed on the dusty floor, curled into herself like a child, one of her hands trembling as it clutched her swollen belly.

While the other hand was shielding her face as if she were trying fighting off shadows. Her breathing was weak, her skin dripping with sweat, her body shaking with fever. And yet...even half-conscious, she was fighting. Her legs were shaking weakly as if trying to stand up.

Like she would die if she didn't. I stood frozen, my breath stolen from my lungs. Damn, she was beautiful. Even with everything that was happening to her, but not the kind of beauty that demanded attention.

It was the kind that ached, her pale skin was flushed from fever, her eyes filled with tears. Lips cracked but still shaking with determination. And her scent...Moon Goddess help me. It creeped into my chest like a vine, ancient and alive.

"Get away from me!!" She hissed, her voice shaking while her hands were still clinging over her belly, and though her body barely obeyed her, she tried to push herself away.

"You're one of his," she whispered. "Not Rael's....are you?"

"He....he sent you to capture me right?"

The name twisted something sharp inside me. Rael, of course. That sick bastard who calls himself my cousin. Now it all made sense to me, she belonged to him. That was his scent beneath hers all along. "I don't belong to any of Rael's men," I said quietly, stepping closer to her.

"And I'm not here to hurt you."

Her eyes didn't believe me, and I wouldn't blame them. She tried to shift into a defensive state, but her body still betrayed her ... .her knees still shaking. I moved on instinct, catching her before she fell to the ground, she was so light, too light for me to carry.

"Let me go," she hissed, struggling weakly in my arms, her fists hitting against my chest like a kitten in a storm. "You'll die if I do that."

"I'd rather die than be dragged back to Rael."

I paused, tightening my grip on her just enough to hold steady. "I'm not taking you back to him." She blinked, her eyes looking up at me in a mix of surprise and confusion.

"I don't understand..." she said. But I didn't understand it myself either. But there was Something about her...something wrong and right all at once. My wolf paced now, already drawn to her, but growling in resistance.

It made no sense. "I'll take you somewhere safe," I said, adjusting her weight in my arms. "But I need to move now. You have a fever and it's burning too fast." She didn't resist me this time, didn't even say a word.

Her head fell slightly against my shoulder, and I carried her. Not to my pack, no. They would ask questions. They would sense that something was wrong, eventually get to know who she was, and whose child she carried.

So I took her somewhere I hadn't shown anyone in years. My hiding place...a small cabin deep in the western side. It was isolated, enough to shield one, hidden under a canopy of stars and silence. I laid her down gently, covering her in my spare cloak, and stoked the fire until it chased away the cold.

She didn't move once, only winced in pain when I touched her wrist to check her pulse. I sat across the room that night, watching her sleep, wondering what that son of a bitch Rael had done to hurt her this badly.

Lying to myself that the pull I felt towards her was nothing but pity. But I was lying. There was something between us...something forbidden and dangerous, the way her scent clung to me.

The way my heart was beating right now just sitting beside her, the way her lips parted as if she was calling out ... not for help, but for me. But I would never touch her, not while she belonged to him.

Certainly not while she was broken. Not while my wolf was still trying to figure out if I wanted to claim her or kill every damn trace of Rael left inside her. So I stayed silent. And waited.

Because whatever storm she brought into my territory.....

I had a feeling I wasn't going to let her walk into it alone.