Page 23 of Traitor Wolf (Bonded by Fate Duet #1)

He looked so… human… like that. Not the lethal protector from the trial. Not the fierce commander I saw in flashes. Just a man. A beautiful, exhausted man who had worked all night for my family and now slept in a space far too small for someone who used to be royalty.

I finally admitted to myself in that moment that I felt something more for Kaelric, something beyond friendship.

“I thought he wanted to sleep outside?” I said, lowering my voice, but even as I said it, I got my answer. My gaze flicked to the open front door, cool, moist air coming in after a fresh rain. The porch was flooded as it usually was when it rained.

Elia handed a plate to Caro, who practically inhaled it.

“I brought six of my hens and one rooster with me from Fenmyr,” she said, her voice quiet so as not to wake him. “I’ll leave them behind so you can have eggs every morning. You’ll have to draw straws for who gets one. But one of them has gone broody, so you’ll have chicks soon.”

I was in shock. Chickens, eggs, it was a huge expense. Egg-laying chickens went for big coin around here. Even the Elites wanted them.

I turned back to Elia, lowering my voice. “Six chickens? You don’t have to do that. What about your family?”

She shrugged. “We’re doing fine. Food isn’t our problem. I’m a farmer’s daughter. And I only have two children. Easy to feed.”

I blinked, taken aback. “Then… what is your problem back home?”

Her smile faded, replaced by something quieter, tighter. “War. Power. Safety. Pride.” She turned the eggs again. “Things that can’t be foraged in the woods.”

I didn’t know what to say to that. So I said nothing .

Behind us, tiny footsteps pattered across the floor.

“Are you going back home today, now that Brynn is back and Mama’s better?” six-year-old Isla asked, her round eyes peeking up at Elia.

Elia crouched down, tucking a braid behind my little sister’s ear. “I am. But I’ll miss you dearly.”

Isla’s lip quivered. “Who will tell us stories?”

Elia looked up at me, brows lifted in hope. Storytelling wasn’t exactly my thing.

“Mama will,” I said, a little too quickly.

“Yes, I will,” came a voice from behind me, stronger than it had been in days.

“Mama!” the children squealed.

They barreled into her so hard she nearly toppled over.

She laughed and hugged them close, tears springing in her eyes.

The sound of their joy filled the tiny home, and Kaelric shot upright on the couch, instantly alert, eyes scanning the room for danger.

His gaze found me, then slid to Valkaryn at my hip.

Only when he seemed satisfied did his shoulders drop.

I watched him watching me.

Was it me he was protecting? Or the blade? Was it only because I was Valkaryn’s owner?

‘I don’t need a guard. And you do not own me,’ Valkaryn’s voice whispered in my head.

‘Are you reading my thoughts? Because that’s not cool. ’

If a sword could smirk, I felt her doing it.

‘Kaelric doesn’t need to work a night shift after surviving a death trial just to earn a shot at wielding me. He did that to impress you.’

I blinked at that, surprised by how much I wanted it to be true. How much I wanted Kaelric to have done those things because he cared about me.

But I didn’t let my thoughts linger because?—

“We should start training,” Kaelric said as he crossed the room, pulling his long hair into a bun at the nape of his neck. “The next trial is in six days, and you’re not ready.”

Back to reality…

He reached into his pocket and pulled out six bronze teffers, the coins clinking softly as he set them on the kitchen table. “Your weekly pay. Boss said he hopes to see you soon,” he told my mother.

She blushed and tucked the coins into her pocket. “I don’t know how to thank you and Elia. I’m so grateful for your help.”

He reached out and gently squeezed her shoulder. “You’re welcome.”

There was something in his voice, an honesty so raw it pulled mist into my mother’s eyes.

She placed her hand over his like they’d known each other forever.

How did she even know who he was? She was asleep most of the time he was here.

Then it hit me. Elia must’ve told my mother who had sent her when she showed up here offering help.

My mother turned and hugged Elia, and all the children followed, swarming the wolfkin like ducklings.

After I said my goodbyes, Elia, Kaelric, and I all headed out to the main road, where Elia flagged down a passing carriage.

As the driver hoisted her bags into the rear compartment, she turned to Kaelric. “Did you hear about Moonbridge?”

Kaelric’s gaze flicked to me, then back to her, a silent warning. He gave a slow nod. “Just do what Marx says and lie low.”

She frowned, biting her lip. “But there are hundreds of our pack’s wolfkin in the village. What if we could?—?”

A sudden pulse of power radiated from Kaelric like a slap of heat. Elia lowered her head, her voice catching in a near-whimper. “Okay,” she said aloud, like she’d just been scolded inside her own mind.

He stepped toward her, tension in his shoulders, but his expression softened. Compassion pulled at his features as he took her arms and gently lifted her chin. When her eyes met his, there were tears, and my gut twisted .

Whatever this was, it was private, intimate, and I felt like I shouldn’t be seeing it.

“There are bound to be sacrifices. But now I have the chance to change things. I have to see this through.”

Her gaze flicked to the blade at my side, then back to him, and she gave a single nod.

‘They really want you,’ I told Valkaryn, gripping the hilt out of instinct.

‘They really need me. There's a difference,’ she replied, and there was a sadness in her voice I didn’t know how to answer.

After Elia left, Kaelric and I walked back to the Aerlyn Academy dormitory in silence. The road was quiet, but my thoughts were anything but. A thousand questions burned at the back of my throat.

“What’s Moonbridge?” I asked finally as we slipped through the gap in the fence.

He hesitated, his jaw tight. “A village in Fenmyr,” he said at last. “They’re under attack from a rival pack.”

I frowned. “And Elia wants to help them?”

“Elia wants to help everyone,” he said, his voice thick with affection. “Which is why I asked her to step in for your family while we were in the trial. I knew she couldn’t say no to mothering twelve children. She’s got the biggest heart of anyone I know, but sometimes not everyone can be helped.”

Technically, eleven children, since I was the twelfth, but now wasn’t the time to argue semantics.

“If you were home, would you help the village from the attack?” I asked as we stepped onto the cobbled streets of Aerlyn.

Going from the Dregs to the polished heart of the city always felt like crossing into another world.

“Yes.” The word hit like a closed door. A warning to stop pushing.

I didn’t care.

“Well, should you?” I pressed. “I mean… I don’t want people to die because you have to babysit me. You’re clearly a guard, or a warrior, or something back home. Cassian could train me. You could be back by the next trial.”

He stopped walking and turned, his eyes locking onto mine. Really locking.

It felt like he was seeing through every layer of me. His gaze softened. His lips parted.

“So you have a heart like Elia,” he said quietly, and then sighed. “No. It’s more important that I stay here and train you. Cassian isn’t good enough.”

He turned then and walked ten paces ahead, leaving the conversation and any argument behind him.