The Rogue's Luna

Feral

She was lighter than I had expected. She was Blood-soaked, bruised, and like dead weight in my arms, and still, she didn’t weigh enough. I could feel her bones through the torn remains of her armor, her heat bleeding out into the chill. She was dying. Maybe she was already halfway there. And I was carrying her like a f*****g fool. The cabin came into view just as the light shifted behind the trees. I had built it by hand, years ago. Axe, claw, grit. Just enough space for a cot, a fire, a table, and my sanity. Nothing more. Not that I needed more than that. I pushed the door open with my shoulder and stepped inside. The air was warmer, faint with smoke and pine. I moved fast, as I placed her down onto the bed in front of the fire. She didn’t stir. Not even when I peeled back her jacket and caught sight of the wound at her side, which was deep, angry, and still bleeding. Ace growled low in my chest.

“There’s something wrong with her,” he stated, and I nodded.

“I can see that,” I muttered aloud.

“No, something else. Not just the wounds,” he insisted. I knelt beside the bed and pressed the back of my hand to her forehead. She was burning up. Her skin twitched under the contact. She wasn’t just injured. She was poisoned. It took me a few seconds to recognize the scent.

“Wolfsbane,” I said. I cursed as I reached for my satchel near the fireplace. Dried herbs and clean bandages. A flask of water I had collected from the river earlier. I hadn’t needed to play medic in years, but the muscle memory of it kicked in easily enough. I carefully ground the leaves with my thumb before I mixed them into a paste with some of the water. “She is lucky, though,” I said aloud, my voice rough from disuse. “Any deeper and that blade would have gone through her lung,” I could feel Ace pacing now. Not physically, but just beneath the skin. Still, he was restless. He hadn’t spoken to me this much in weeks. Usually, he was a shadow. A presence. Now, I could tell he had more to say.

“She smells like us,” he pointed out, and I once again nodded. “But…there is something else,”

“Yes, I know,” I said in agreement, even though I couldn’t quite figure it out. Ace hovered, and I did my best to ignore him as I cleaned the worst wound just below her ribs. I packed the grounded paste against it, and even though her body jerked slightly in pain, she didn’t wake up. I continued to treat her other wounds, and every now and again she would let out a soft, pained sound. Her fingers would twitch, but she never once woke up. She looked young, but not as young as a girl. Of course, I had noticed a few scars on her body that told me she wasn’t new to battle. When I finished, I watched her closely. She had this fiery red hair that truly was striking.

“Who is she?” Ace questioned, but I didn’t know the answer to that question. I grabbed a cloth and gently wiped the blood from her face. Her eyes fluttered open, and I paused as I watched her. She looked around, and her gaze landed on me. Her eyes, steel grey and wild. Her lips parted, but then she was gone again. I breathed out a soft sigh of relief and continued to clean her up. I wasn’t even sure why I was doing this. I didn’t know her. I didn’t owe her anything. I took a deep breath and leaned in to examine the wounds again. Slow healing. Too slow. Even for someone hit with wolfsbane, this was bad. Her body was fighting it, but not fast enough. I rolled up her sleeve and found another cut, smaller, near her elbow. Same smell. Same poison. Whoever had done this hadn’t wanted her dead fast. They had wanted her to bleed out. They had wanted her to suffer. The fire cracked behind me, and shadows danced across the ceiling. I didn’t turn around. I just sat there, watching this stranger slowly bleed out on my bed, and I wondered why I hadn’t just left her in the dirt to die.

“Because there is something,” I whispered aloud.

“Because she is—”

“No,” I snapped.

“Don’t deny it, Thorne,” Ace hissed. “You can feel it,”

“Shut it,” I snapped. I didn’t want to feel anything. I hadn’t felt anything in years. I ignored the feeling and grabbed more bandages. I continued to do what I could for her. She twitched again and mumbled something I couldn’t quite make out. She was troubled, probably in pain. I sat beside the bed for a long time after that. Just watching her breathe. Counting the seconds between each breath like I could measure her life that way. I dozed off a few times, but I wasn’t comfortable, so my sleep was broken. She stirred a few hours later. Her eyes opened. Unfocused and clouded with pain.

“Where—” she started, but her voice cracked.

“Quiet,” I said, not unkindly. “You are safe,” she blinked once. Twice, and then she was gone again. I left her side and stoked the fire. I could smell the rain in the air, and I didn’t want any of the chill to seep into the cabin. Moments later, the rain started to fall. I glanced back over at the girl and growled low in the back of my throat. I never should have brought her here. Ace shifted angrily.

“You know why,”

“Don’t start this s**t again,” I snapped. I felt him retreat, but the feelings that lingered made my skin prickle with awareness. I couldn’t deny the way my pulse jumped when she looked at me. Even with those wild eyes. I couldn’t deny the way my wolf recognized hers, even through the blood, poison, and impending death. She was my mate.

“Mate,” Ace echoed, and I growled again as I forced myself to walk away from her. I didn’t want to believe that. It had been so long, and there was no way this girl was my mate. I had no idea who she was, and she had been in battle. Left for dead. I couldn’t deny the feeling anymore, even though I didn’t understand it.

“Mate…” I whispered the word aloud, and it felt so foreign and strange. I shook my head. No. I didn’t believe it. This was something else. She couldn’t be. There was no way that fate was this cruel.