Prologue
The field ran red with blood, fallen wolves and men were locked in death, battles scattered across the horizon. A lone warrior stood surrounded by slain enemies, his wounds leaking the last of his life away. Falling to his knees, he crawled to the woman laying prone under the sycamore tree upon a hill. Dark red stained her clothes as she held her blood-soaked hands against the wound in her stomach, tears rolling down her cheeks. Soft gasps left her throat, the raw moans of pain no longer able to pass her lips. “Reya…my heart. It is finished.”, the deep timber of the fallen warrior wrapped around the dying woman. Her limp hand slid off her stomach as she reached out to him, the last of her strength a gift and a plea to the man. “Je…Jeric…Jericho. I…I lov…” Her words died off as the light left her amber eyes. The soul wrenching scream that left the mouth of the man echoed across the field of battle, any remaining combat halting at the sound of a soul crushing under the weight of pure, unadulterated sorrow. Cradling the auburn head of his dead love in his lap, the man’s tears fell, his last breaths laid against the cooling skin of the woman.
A hulking form climbs the hill and stands over the slain lovers. His black armor drenched in blood, his sword bathed in it. A cold look crosses his handsome features as he tsks, “You may have kept her from me this time Jericho, but in our next life, she will be mine. I’ll be waiting.” The white haired man turned and descended the hill, leaving them under the sycamore. Moonlight pierced the veil of the tree’s branches, soaking the entwined lovers in pale white light. Their forms dissipated as if a mirage, as if the very moon was claiming them in her bosom until such a time as she would release them to wander the land once more.
Many moons later…
The moon had relinquished her hold upon one soul already, and she watched as he thrived as a young pup to a powerful Alpha and his Luna. The other, her very own child, rested in her bosom still as she waited for the perfect circumstances to place her. The dark one crowned in moonlight hungered for her child, but that young pup would protect her, or so she hoped. She could feel the soul of her child stirring, impatient to run again. The moon’s light touched on another Alpha and his Luna, both powerful and yet humble to her power. She smiled as she watched them bath in her light as they mated in the time immemorial tradition of her children. With a kiss, a moon-touched blessing, she released her daughter to them, that she may be reborn once more. Her trials would be numerous, but with any hope, she would be triumphant
