The packs outcast Luna (Kaia and Theo) novel Chapter 8

Chapter 008

Theo’s POV

The scent hit me before I saw her–blood, silverroot, and fear.

Not fear from her… fear around her.

The fear itself seemed to shrink around her. As if it knew, she wasn’t afraid of death.

I followed the trail through the pines, my boots crushing dead leaves.

We had come searching for rogue tracks, but the moment that scent touched the wind, every instinct in me shifted.

Walking faster than my men. I searched for her.

Her faint, dying scent leading.

It led me to a cottage.

And then I saw her.

Kaia.

The strange woman whom I could never forget.

She saved my life, risking hers.

Her sad face haunted me for days.

Lying in a cottage, pale as moonlight, her skin streaked with her blood and dirt.

Shivering with cold sweat.

One hand still clutched a dagger, the other pressed weakly to her ribs. She was shaking–but goddess, she was alive.

I dropped to my knees beside her before my mind caught up with my body.

“Kaia?”

Her lashes fluttered.

She looked up at me, dazed.

For a heartbeat, recognition flickered across her face,maybe something else but she looked at me–then she tried to push me away.

“Don’t–touch me.”

Her voice was a ghost of what I remembered.

I caught her wrist gently but firmly. “You’re bleeding out. Save your pride for later.”

“I’ve been saving it all my life,” she whispered, eyes glazing. “Didn’t help much. It didn’t make a difference”

She slumped, her head falling forward.

Panic,a foreign, unwelcome thing–flared in my chest. I tore open my jacket and wrapped it around her, pressing down on the wound.

“Stay with me, Kaia.” My tone came out harsher than I meant. “That’s an order.”

Her lips twitched faintly. “You’re not my Alpha…”

“No,” I said quietly, lifting her into my arms, “but I should have been.”

The words slipped out before I could stop them.

When I stood up, her blood stained my hands;warm, human, too fragile.

And for the first time in years, I felt something I hadn’t since my mother’s death.

Fear.

1/5

Successfully unlocked!

Chapter 008

Fear of losing someone I wasn’t supposed to care about.

Before I could say anything else, I saw light go out of her eyes and she stopped moving.

Unconscious. Cold. Bleeding.

Behind me, one of my men shouted, “Alpha! We found the bodies of three rogues; dead, poisoned!”

I didn’t answer. My attention stayed on the unconscious woman in my arms.

Who is she, really?

And why did the scent of betrayal and power cling to her like a curse?

“Let’s return to the camp. She needs urgent attention” I barked at my men, concern etched on my face.

“Immediately, your Grace.” He agreed. “Let’s get moving” I heard my Delta order.

With the stranger unconscious in my arms, we walked.

Back to the camp.

As I carried her back toward camp, a mark on her shoulder caught my attention – a crescent within a crown.

Royal. Ancient.

I wasn’t supposed to see that but her fallen dress exposed it.

And then, its glow caught and fixed my attention on it for a minute longer than I intended.

Something that seems to bask in the moonlight.

Glowing. Dancing with joy.

I could swear, it felt like it was glowing with happiness.

By the time we reached camp, she was fully covered in her blood.

Her pulse was faint but steady; stubborn, like the woman herself

“Lay her here,” I ordered, clearing a cot inside the medic tent.

The healer, Seira, a sharp–eyed older wolf with steady hands, moved fast, cutting away Kaia’s blood–soaked clothes.

The gash on her shoulder was deep, claw marks, jagged and blackened by silverroot poison.

She must’ve used it on her attackers, and the residue burned back through her own wound.

Clever… but reckless.

“She did this to herself,” Seira muttered, shaking her head. “This poison–she mixed it. Twisted”

I stepped closer. “Can you heal her?”

“She’s lucky to be alive,” Seira replied quietly. “Whoever she is, she’s survived something brutal.”

Whoever she is.

That was the problem.

No one should’ve survived rogue territory alone. Not without a wolf. And yet, the rogues we found were the ones lying dead.

I pulled a stool beside the cot, unable to walk away.

Her face was smeared with dirt, but there was strength in it, a strange kind of defiance even in sleep.

I remembered the first time I saw her. Half–conscious, half–exhausted, still trying to fight for a stranger’s life.

Now, she was the one on the edge.

“She called you by name, didn’t she?” Seira asked softly.

“Yes,” I said.

“She’s not from around here.”

2/5

Chapter 008

“No.” I glanced toward the forest. “And that’s what worries me.”

Seira hesitated. “Alpha Theo… her blood–it’s not pure rogue or pack. It’s strong. Almost… old.”

I froze. “Old?”

She nodded slowly. “Like the bloodlines the royal houses used to have. Before they vanished.”

A chill crawled down my spine.

Royal blood. Lost blood.

And she was lying in my camp, injured.

Unconscious with a strange mark on her shoulder that I didn’t know existed.

“Keep this quiet,” I said sharply. “No one outside this tent should know about that mark.”

“Yes, Alpha.”

I rose, gaze lingering on Kaia’s sleeping form.

“You saved me once,” I murmured, voice low. “Now you’ve dropped into my world again–bleeding, hunted, and wearing a mark that holds unknown secrets. Who are you,Kaia?”

I turned to leave, but her voice, her weak and hoarse, stopped me cold.

“You talk too much, Alpha.”

She was awake. Barely.

Her lips curved faintly, almost mocking, almost grateful.

I let out a slow breath, relief mixing with something far more dangerous.

“Good,” I said. “Because I’m not done asking questions.”

I heard a commotion.

Outside, a messenger stumbled into camp, breathless.

“Alpha–the rogues we tracked… they bore Silvermoon’s seal.” My Beta Zane, came in.

“I’m afraid we need to talk in private, Alpha Theo”

I looked back at Kaia. Her eyes had gone still.

She was falling in and out of consciousness.

Better, I can’t have her hear things she doesn’t need to know.

I took one long look at her. Then, dashed out with Zane.

In my private tent.

“Alpha Theo,” My Beta, Zane called.“Are you sure this is a good idea? The Pack wouldn’t like this very much”

I answered. Cold. “This is what I want. I don’t care what the pack thinks”

“But,they have their reasons. We know the reasons. And it’s valid” Beta Zane says.

“I know,and I understand their concerns but I can’t abandon Kaia. She saved my life once,it’s my turn now“. I firmly replied.

Zane sighed. Clearly holding back.

Better. He wouldn’t want to step on my tail.

Zane’s jaw clenched.

“How are you sure she isn’t a spy? What if she’s in cohort with the enemies? Would you risk the Pack’s safety for a woman you barely know”

My gaze swept to him. Annoyed.

Questioning my decision is not something I like very much.

3/5

Chapter 008

“Watch your mouth, Zane.” I growled. Coldly. “She was dying,”I calmly said. “If I’d left her there, she wouldn’t have survived the night. Would you have preferred that?”

“That’s not what I’m saying.” Zane’s voice was steady, cautious. “But you don’t know who she is.where she came from, what she’s done. You found her half–dead near rogue territory. For all we know, she could be one

of them.”

I didn’t answer. Zane pressed on.

“The camp is one thing. The men can grumble, but they’ll follow orders. The pack, though…” He shook his head. “They won’t understand why you’d bring a stranger inside our borders. Not with tensions already this high.”

My jaw tightened. “She’s not a threat. I’d have sensed it if she were.”

“What if she masked it? She knew, we would investigate her. She might’ve masked her dangerous aura”

Beta Zane has a point but my heart disagrees.

I didn’t know what to say. To think.

“She’s not a danger. She has no reason to” I replied,looking away.

Beta Zane hesitated, then said quietly, “Maybe. But sometimes danger doesn’t come from the fangs we can see.”

“She was barely breathing when I found her,” I said. “I couldn’t just walk away.”

Beta Zane sighed. “Then we’ll tend to her here. But until we know who she is, she doesn’t set foot in the packlands.”

I didn’t argue. But the muscle in my jaw twitched, betraying the thought I didn’t plan to voice out.

“Are you questioning my choices,Beta Zane?”

I’ve already made my choice.

“I wouldn’t dare, Alpha.” Zane calmly said.“I’m just following protocols like we’ve always done”

Protocols.

Yeah, right. I forgot protocols when Kaia is in question.

What’s wrong with me?

I value protocols more than anything yet I can’t seem to do the same with Kaia.

We both fell silent.

The silence lingered for a bit too long before I finally asked, “Did you get anything off the body?”

Zane blinked. “Th rogue?”

I nodded. “You mentioned something earlier. A marking?”

Zane reached his pocket for something.

“We found this on him.”

A broken pendant, shaped like a crescent moon.

My expression hardened. “Silvermoon.”

Zane gave a grim nod. “It matches their seal. The old one, before the Alpha changed the crest. I had the tracker confirm it twice.”

My face wrinkled.”What the hell is a rogue doing with a Silvermoon insignia?”

“That’s what I’ve been asking myself,” Zane said quietly. “Either he stole it… or someone from Silvermoon gave it to him.”

I folded my arms. “If that’s true, it means the rogues aren’t acting alone.”

“And bringing that girl here-” Zane started, but I cut him off with a sharp look.

4/5

Chapter 008

“She was bleeding out when I found her, not planning an ambush.”

Zane raised his hands. “I’m just saying, it’s too neat. A dying stranger near a rogue with Silvermoon ties? Feels like a message, Theo. Or a trap.”

“Then we’ll find out,” he said quietly. “Whether she’s the warning… or the reason for it.”

“So,she’s not coming with us,right?” Zane eagerly asked.

I barked. “Kaia is coming with us. and that’s final”

I turned to leave.

If I left Kaia behind again. I don’t think I will survive the nightmare.

I won’t risk Kaia.

Even if I have to fight against my Beta and Pack for her.

She’s worth fighting for.