13 - Lines in the Earth

Kael POV

Kael stood at the edge of the Nightclaw pack house’s war room. He seemed to be spending a lot of time here lately. His arms folded across his chest, gaze fixed on the map pinned across the far wall. Inked lines marked their territory with brutal precision—ridges, borders, known rogue paths. But it was the southern edge that held his attention. The border of Moonfang.

A line drawn in blood decades ago, by members of each pack that were long gone. History whispered through every inch of that edge, and still it held firm—an invisible wall made of pride, wounds, and silence.

Behind him, Elias shifted, the crackle of the fireplace the only sound for a moment.

“You’re thinking about it again,” Elias said softly.

Kael didn’t answer right away. He didn’t need to. Elias was his best friend, his Beta... they could practically read each other’s minds. Elias always knew what he was thinking.

Elias stepped closer, his dark eyes scanning the map as well. “We should go,” he said finally. “Visit their Beta.”

Kael turned, brow lifting. “Ryker?”

Elias nodded. “He’s still alive. Injured, yes—but alive. That says something. And if the rogues are becoming bolder, this isn’t just Moonfang’s problem. It’s all of ours.”

Kael ran a hand through his hair, tension tight in his shoulders. “You think Alpha Theron would even let us near him? Let me cross into their lands like a guest and not a threat?”

“If we go in peace,” Elias said, “he’d be a fool not to hear us out. You show respect, you extend a hand—figuratively, of course—and maybe we stop this cold war from boiling over.”

Kael gave a bitter half-smile. “And how many of our warriors would call it weakness?”

Elias didn’t answer right away. He stepped to the fire, his silhouette flickering orange in the flames. “Some would,” he admitted. “But they’ll call anything weakness if it doesn’t involve teeth and blood. That doesn’t mean they’re right.”

Kael exhaled sharply through his nose. “Moonfang has never been an ally. Not in my lifetime. Not in my father’s.”

“Which is exactly why this matters,” Elias said. “If what we’re seeing is just the beginning… if the rogues are joining forces, organizing, planning—it’s bigger than pack politics.”

The words hung between them like fog.

Kael stared at the map again, his fingers curling into fists. “Even if we wanted to cooperate, we’d be walking into a den of wolves who would rather see us dead.”

“Some of them still remember the last time,” he added quietly. “The old scars don’t fade easy.”

His voice dropped lower. “Some of them might try to make that a reality.”

Elias didn’t flinch. “I know it’s not simple.”

Kael’s silence was heavy. He didn’t deny it.

The past was a noose they were all still tangled in. Pride, revenge, loss—it poisoned everything. And yet, the idea of peace… it scraped against that pride like flint on stone. Dangerous. Tempting. Maybe even necessary.

The truth was, part of him wanted it to be simple. Black and white. Enemy and ally. But the world wasn’t shaped like that anymore. If it ever had been.

Kael moved to the long oak table at the center of the room, his hand brushing the edge. “Even if I agreed… even if I went… what then? Shake hands with Theron? Sit by Ryker’s bedside like we’re old friends? Pretend we don’t have history soaked in blood?”

“You don’t have to pretend,” Elias said. “Just acknowledge what’s coming. There’s a storm building. You feel it—I know you do. And when it breaks, we’re going to need every ally we can get.”

Kael looked at him, eyes narrowed. “You think we’re heading into a war.”

“I think we’re already in one. We just haven’t realized it yet.”

A long pause stretched between them. Outside, the wind whispered against the stone walls, carrying with it the distant howl of some unseen wolf. Kael’s stomach twisted.

He’d seen the signs. The sudden silence of border trails. The scorched earth left behind by rogue movements. The fear in younger soldiers’ eyes, the tension in the older ones who’d seen similar patterns years ago, in the last great conflict.

“I’ll speak to the elders,” he said at last. “If I cross that line, I won’t do it without their blessing.”

Elias nodded. “Fair enough.”

“But I’m not promising anything more.”

“You don’t have to,” Elias said quietly. “Just start with the truth. That we’ll be stronger with them, then against them with the common enemy ahead.”

Kael nodded once and turned back to the map. His gaze fell again on the southern border—Aria’s border.

A piece of him still felt the pull of her, fierce and undeniable. Not just as a wolf, but as a man. She’d unsettled something inside him. Something that had no name but demanded attention. That complicated things.

And Elias, of course, had seen right through him.

“I think you’re being careful,” Elias replied. “And I think that for the first time in your life, someone has made you hesitate.”

Kael huffed. “Dangerous thing, hesitation.”

“So is charging ahead blind.”

They stood in silence for a while, the fire crackling low behind them.

Finally, Kael reached for one of the knives on the table and drove the point into the border between their lands—Moonfang and Nightclaw. The blade quivered in the wood.

“We’ve been drawing this line for so long, I don’t know if we even remember why it was drawn in the first place.”

Elias looked at him, brow furrowed.

Kael didn’t wait for a response. “I’ll go before the elders at first light.”

“And if they say no?”

Kael’s mouth tightened. “Then we can find another way.”

Elias smiled faintly. “You always do.”

Kael gave him a dry look. “Don’t make this sentimental.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.”

They left the war room together, the doors closing behind them with a finality that made Kael feel like something had just shifted.

Like a fuse had been lit.

Whether it led to peace or fire, he couldn’t yet tell.

But the line in the earth was no longer so clear.