Page 17 of Traitor Wolf (Bonded by Fate Duet #1)

Chapter Twelve

A fter sulking for a few hours alone inside the empty train cabin, I left the room in search of Kaelric to find that he was right outside the door waiting for me. He leaned against the frame, staring off into the distance, looking extremely bored.

Did he ever leave? Or did he just stay out here and guard me?

“I’m sorry,” I blurted out. “I just really love my family, and my mother being sick is?—”

“It’s fine. Let’s eat,” he grumbled and walked towards the back of the car.

Okay… not one for verbose make-ups, totally cool.

The man ate six meals a day. I had chest burn just thinking of eating again, but followed him anyway.

We moved through three cars until my nose picked up hints of rosemary, salted meats, and something sweet.

The food car.

Once inside, we slipped to the end of the buffet line, and I froze.

The spread was overwhelming. My eyes flitted from the towering slab of chocolate cake, frosting glistening like satin, to the golden whipped yams crowned with candied nuts.

My mouth watered at the buttery scent of roasted meat and warm bread.

It felt like we’d stumbled into a wedding feast, not a train bringing most of us to our deaths.

“You can go ahead,” a female wolfkin said, her voice respectful as she dipped her chin toward Kaelric.

He gave her a nod and reached out, his hand gently closing around my elbow. His touch was firm but unhurried as he guided me past her.

As we moved forward, a wolfkin male stepped aside. Then another. And another. Until, without protest or question, we were at the front of the line.

Why are they doing that? I wondered.

Valkaryn’s voice slid into my mind like smoke: ‘Because his rank in the pack is higher than theirs.’ I managed not to jump, barely. Her and Kaelric’s mental intrusions were becoming a regular occurrence.

Pack rank? I knew next to nothing about it. Sure, I’d heard whispers—one wolf at the top, the alpha, with others falling in line beneath—but I hadn’t paid it much attention.

‘In Fenmyr, there are only two packs,’ Valkaryn continued, ‘Valewulf and Ashmane, and within each a hierarchy that spans tens of thousands. Every wolf has a place. ’

My jaw nearly dropped. Tens of thousands? That kind of scale was unfathomable. I glanced sideways at Kaelric, who was quietly selecting food for his plate.

Then I spotted the guy who had challenged him, the shaved-headed one who’d later attacked me. He hadn’t seemed nearly as deferential. Maybe he was higher ranked. Or close to it. Or…?

‘Or from the rival pack,’ Valkaryn added, her tone calm.

Oh . That possibility hadn’t even crossed my mind.

Kaelric turned and looked down at my empty hands. Without a word, he placed his overflowing plate into them. A thick hunk of seared meat sat beside a generous heap of whipped potatoes and greens. The chocolate cake slice on top looked like it had its own gravitational pull.

“I’m not this hungry,” I said honestly, eyeing the mountain of food. “I’ll get sick.”

He frowned. “We’ll share.”

He grabbed two forks and led me to a quiet table tucked in the corner. I set the plate down, and he handed me a fork. Then he waited, his fork poised in the air, specifically over the chocolate cake.

I couldn’t help the smile tugging at my lips. Just moments ago, I’d been fuming at him for pulling me away from my mother. But now…

“You can eat before me, you know…” I offered, amusement lacing my voice.

His expression twisted as if the suggestion caused him actual pain. “Trust me, I want to… but I can’t.”

Interesting.

He always let me eat first. I’d thought it was chivalrous, but now I wondered if it was something more. I slowly lifted a bite of cake on my fork, holding it near my mouth. Kaelric’s gaze locked on mine, his focus razor-sharp.

I held the fork there deliberately, teasing.

His eyes narrowed. “You’re wicked,” he murmured.

I laughed. “Wait. Can you really not eat until I do? Because this is so fun for me.”

A low growl rumbled in his chest, his eyes flaring yellow. “You really want to see what happens when you deny a hungry wolfkin food?”

I gulped and shoved the cake into my mouth.

In an instant, Kaelric seized the hunk of meat from the plate and tore into it, his eyes still locked on mine, golden and wild .

I wondered if it was a rule within all of the bonded initiates. I peered around the room but found that the Elite were just lining up for food as their wolfkin sat together at a table and scarfed food down without them.

I took another bite of chocolate cake.

“Why can’t you eat before me? Is it because I’m female?” I asked softly, my voice nearly lost beneath the clatter of silverware around us.

Kaelric didn’t answer right away. He tore a chunk of meat from the bone with sharp teeth, eyes flicking up to mine with an unreadable expression. “Something like that,” he muttered.

Chivalry in a wolfkin. Unexpected, and oddly charming. Especially for someone who spent eighty percent of his time acting like I was a thorn in his paw.

“You know,” I added, pushing my food around with my fork, “if you keep being a jerk to me, I might have to go on a hunger strike. I can go three days without food like it’s nothing.”

His entire demeanor changed. The meat stopped midair. His face drained like I’d just told him I’d buried his mother. His hand lowered slowly to the table.

I glanced over my shoulder, half expecting some threat to be creeping up behind me, but the train cabin was quiet. All eyes on their meals. No monsters. Except, perhaps, the one sitting across from me .

Did I say something wrong?

“I was kidding,” I said quickly, my tone light, awkward. “I wouldn’t do that to you. You’d probably eat me.”

Still, that haunted look stayed, shock bleeding into something sharper. Despair. Then… anger.

“You’ve gone three days without eating?” he asked, but it didn’t sound like him anymore. His voice was rough, guttural, almost torn from his throat. The beast was speaking now.

I swallowed, realizing too late that Kaelric had a… complicated relationship with food. And I’d just stepped on a landmine.

“Just once or twice,” I lied, keeping my tone casual.

He dropped the meat with a heavy thud and braced his hands on the table. White fur rippled up his arms like frost creeping over glass. His jaw clenched. He was trying to breathe, slowly, controlled, but his knuckles strained, and his claws extended slightly.

Oh no .

I bit my lip. Was he about to wolf out? Should I move to another train car?

The others around us had gone quiet. Conversations died mid-sentence. Everyone was watching.

Without thinking, I reached across the table and threaded my fingers into his hands, now rough with transforming bone and fur. His eyes snapped to mine, glowing a wild, feral yellow.

There was death in them. Hunger. Pain. A lifetime of something I didn’t yet understand.

“I’m okay now,” I whispered. “I’m full. I’m safe. This chocolate cake is really good.” I took a bite, forcing a happy sigh. “ Mmm .”

His eyes tracked the motion, the sound. Slowly, the fur receded. His shoulders uncoiled. The glow in his gaze dimmed back to a golden flicker.

I took another bite, then looked down, realizing we were still holding hands. Embarrassed, I pulled away, heat creeping up my neck.

When I met his gaze again, it was Kaelric’s human eyes staring back, green and stormy, chest rising and falling like he’d just run for miles.

“You okay?” I asked, my voice small. Around us, the cabin slowly returned to normal, clinking cutlery, low laughter, whispers.

He cleared his throat and picked up the abandoned meat. “I’m fine. But Creator help the person who tries to withhold food from you in front of me.”

I blinked. “Kaelric… are you saying you care what happens to me?” I clutched my chest dramatically, fluttering my lashes. “How scandalous.”

His gaze drifted to the window, to the blur of trees beyond. “Which was not part of the plan,” he said quietly.

He was a man of secrets and storms. And something else.

Something I was starting to like more than I should.

That night, sleep didn’t come easily. My thoughts kept circling Kaelric, his eyes glowing with that wild light, his body on the verge of shifting just because he’d learned I went without food for three days.

Fasting was normal in my community, sure, but three days wasn’t for discipline.

Three days meant there wasn’t enough to go around.

It meant my mother and I quietly went hungry so the littles could eat.

Eventually, the gentle rocking of the train lulled me under, but only for a few hours. I woke with a start at the soft click of the door closing and Kaelric slipping out.

My eyes darted to the bathroom in our car. He hadn’t gone in there. Instead, he used the main door.

Curiosity prickled at the back of my neck. I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and swung down from the top bunk, making sure Valkaryn was secured at my waist. My feet touched the cool floor silently as I padded to the door and eased it open just enough to slip into the hallway.

I spotted him just in time, his tall frame disappearing around the bend. He didn’t look back, didn’t pause.

I followed, hugging the shadows, until I saw him duck into another private car.

My heart picked up. What was he doing? Was he going to silence an initiate before the trials began? Or was this a midnight rendezvous with some secret wolfkin lover? I crept closer, stopping just short of the open door.

Kaelric’s voice broke the stillness: “You know what you have to do?”

I froze.

“Even if I get a traitor mark for it,” a woman replied, and a chill swept down my arms.

Why would she get a traitor mark? Unless she was planning on betraying her initiate. Just like Kaelric did, even if it was to save that innocent girl five years ago. I knew I shouldn’t have trusted a traitor wolf!

“We have to do whatever it takes for Kaelric to get that sword from the girl,” a male voice added.

“Agreed,” Kaelric said. “Whatever it takes.”

The words shattered something inside of me. I stood there in the corridor, stunned and hollowed out. I had let myself trust him. Worse, I’d started to feel things for him, things I hadn’t meant to. But with those four words, a steel cage snapped into place around my heart.

I turned and fled, each step like thunder beneath me. He wanted Valkaryn; that was all this was, all I ever was to him. He’d never have her. Even if I won the trials, I would never let him take her from me.

‘He’ll never have you,’ I told the sword silently, clutching her hilt. ‘Even if I win, I’ll never give you up.’

I felt the answering hum of agreement ripple through her.

‘He wouldn’t be the first to think he could wield my power simply by winning the Arcane Trials,’ she said. ‘I choose my bonded. And I chose you.’

The words filled me with a fierce pride, like warm fire surging through my chest.

But Valkaryn wasn’t finished.

‘That being said, I wouldn’t rush to any conclusions on Kaelric Morvain. You have no idea what he’s dealing with.’

Morvain. She knew his last name? I scoffed and stepped back into the cabin, slipping under the covers with my back to the door. ‘And you do?’

‘Yes. Unfortunately, I do.’

Confusion prickled beneath my skin. ‘Then tell me. What’s he dealing with?’

‘He’ll tell you when he’s ready. ’

That was the last thing she said before the door clicked again, and Kaelric stepped back into the room.

I kept my back to him, staring at the wall, every part of me tense.

Kaelric Morvain was a cocky, lying bastard, clearly plotting something. He wanted my sword, and he’d do anything to get it. I was about to enter the most dangerous competition of my life with someone I knew was against me. My stomach turned, and I swallowed back the nausea.

Kaelric’s voice came from behind me, low and unreadable: “Why is your heart rate up?”

I stiffened, pulse hammering faster. “Nightmare,” I mumbled.

It wasn’t that far from the truth.

Because the real nightmare… it was realizing that I was in this alone. Just me and Valkaryn. I couldn’t rely on Kaelric for anything.