The pack's eyes followed her everywhere now.
Every corridor Selene walked down fell into a hush. Every training session, every mealtime, every patrol... the stares burned like embers against her skin.
She was no longer the wounded rogue.
She was the enemy who hadn't been executed.
Kael hadn't announced the truth publicly. But packs were built on instinct, and wolves sensed when something shifted.
And something had.
She didn't sleep that night. Or the next. On the third morning, Selene showed up at the training grounds before sunrise, surprising even the guards.
"I want double patrol duty," she told Beta Rael.
He raised a brow. "You want to be worked like a mule?"
"I want the pack to see me bleed for them."
"You should start with an apology."
"I'll do that too," she said. "But actions speak louder."
Rael looked her over. "You're lucky Kael didn't rip your throat out."
"I know."
"You broke his trust."
"I'm trying to earn it back."
Rael scoffed. "Good luck. He barely trusts me."
Still, he tossed her a blade. "Let's see if you survive the day."
Hours later, she was drenched in sweat and dirt, her muscles screaming, but she didn't stop.
When a younger warrior sneered, "Spies don't belong here," Selene handed him a blade and said, "Then take me out."
He didn't, no one did. They watched her instead. Some with disgust, others with grudging curiosity.
At dinner, she stood in the center of the hall and cleared her throat. Dozens of heads turned. Kael was seated at the front, expression unreadable.
Selene's voice didn't waver.
"My name is Selene. I came to this pack under false pretenses. I was working for someone who wanted your Alpha dead. Who wanted all of you gone."
Murmurs rippled across the room.
Selene swallowed hard. "But I won't make excuses. I can only say I was wrong. And that I'm... sorry."
Kael's gaze pierced her, but he didn't speak.
Neither did anyone else. Selene stepped down and returned to her seat, alone.
No one sat beside her, but they didn't throw her out either. It was a start.
Later that night, as she walked back to her quarters, someone stepped into her path.
It wasn't Kael. It was an elder; Mistress Elira, head of the healing ward.
"You think an apology erases blood from your hands?"
Selene bowed her head. "No."
"Then why are you still here?"
"I don't know," Selene admitted. "Kael let me stay."
Elira studied her with cold, gray eyes. "The last person who betrayed this pack wore a smile and stabbed us during a harvest celebration. My son died that night."
Selene's heart clenched.
"I don't expect your forgiveness," she said softly. "But if there's any way I can help here, at the healing tents or wherever... I'll do it."
Elira stared a moment longer.
Then said, "Come at dawn. Don't be late."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kael found her by the edge of the woods that night, sitting alone with her arms wrapped around her knees.
"You didn't have to say all that in front of them," he said.
"Yes, I did."
He stood beside her. "You surprised me."
She looked up. "Is that good or bad?"
He didn't answer.
Instead, he sat down beside her, pulling a flask from his coat.
"Want some?"
She took a sip. Warmth spread through her chest. Silence fell again, but not a bitter one this time.
"What are you thinking?" she asked.
Kael tilted his head toward the stars. "That you're either brave... or really, really stupid."
She laughed, a real laugh this time. He didn't join her.
"I also think you're still hiding something."
The smile dropped from her lips.
"I told you everything," she whispered.
"You told me enough," he corrected. "Not everything."
"I—"
"I'm not pressing. Yet."
Selene looked at him. Really looked. He was tired, there were shadows under his eyes, tension in his jaw.
But there was still something else. Trust.
A threadbare, fragile thread of it, but it was there.
"I'll tell you the rest," she said. "Just not yet."
"Then don't make me regret giving you the time."
She nodded.
And for the first time since arriving in the BloodMoon Pack, she felt like maybe... just maybe... she wasn't completely alone anymore.