Chapter 1
Chapter One – The Run
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The hem of my wedding dress tore on the gravel the moment my feet hit the parking lot.
I didn’t stop.
Behind me, the mansion blazed with golden light—three hundred guests, a five-tier cake, and a groom who was supposed to be the safest man I’d ever met.
Julian Black. CEO. Philanthropist. The man who’d held my hand through two years of slow, careful love.
Tonight, I saw his real face.
The blood moon was still burning in my eyes. I blinked and saw it again—a flash from the vision that hit me in the middle of our first dance. His hand on my waist. His lips near my ear. And then the chandelier light shifted, the moon outside the window turned red, and I *saw*.
Not Julian.
A vampire. Pale skin. Fangs. Eyes that had watched me die a thousand years ago.
I stumbled on my heels, kicked them off, and ran faster.
The mansion’s back gate loomed ahead. If I could reach the road, flag down a car—
“I wouldn’t.”
His voice came from everywhere. From the dark. From the moon. From the blood pounding in my ears.
I spun.
He stood ten feet away. His tuxedo jacket was unbuttoned, sleeves rolled up to his elbows. His chest was still heaving—like he’d run too. Like he’d *felt* me leave.
“Lena.” He said my name like a prayer he’d been saving for a thousand years.
“You’re not human.” My voice cracked.
He didn’t deny it. Didn’t move. “Let me explain.”
“You killed me.”
The words came from somewhere deeper than memory. Somewhere my body had always known.
Julian—*no*, the vampire—went completely still. Then, slowly, he dropped to his knees on the gravel.
“Yes.”
One word. No excuse.
I should have run. Should have screamed. But my feet were rooted to the cold ground, and the blood moon was still rising, and something inside me—something old and broken and *stupid*—whispered:
*You loved him first.*
“I don’t remember,” I said, hating how small my voice sounded. “I don’t remember anything except your face. And the way you looked at me like I was nothing.”
He closed his eyes. When he opened them, they weren’t Julian’s warm brown anymore. They were red. Vampire red.
“You were never nothing,” he said. “I just didn’t know your name.”
A sob caught in my throat.
“The first time you died—” He reached for me, then stopped himself. Fingers curling into fists. “You were more annoyed than afraid. Mostly because I hadn’t bothered to learn who you were.”
“That’s not funny.”
“It’s not.” He rose slowly, keeping his hands visible. “I’ve whispered the name I should have asked for every night for a thousand years. Serena. Then Lena, when I found you again. Every. Single. Night. Trying to earn the right to say it out loud.”
The wind picked up. The blood moon painted us both red.
“I’m not going back to that wedding,” I said.
“I know.”
“I’m not going to be your bride.”
He nodded. “But you’re going to let me explain. Because if you run now—without the chip, without the truth—the others will find you. And they won’t kneel.”
I thought of the vision. A bathroom. A mirror. A chip hidden where no one could find it.
“What chip?”
He smiled—sad, sharp, hungry. “The one you died hiding. The one that proves I cheated to win my crown. The one your past self prayed over before she took her last breath.”
He stepped closer. One step. Two.
“You prayed for something, Lena. I don’t know what. But the Moon Goddess heard you. And she cursed me instead.”
I couldn’t breathe.
“So here I am. On my knees. In the gravel. Begging you to stay long enough to remember why you once loved a monster.”
The blood moon flickered.
Behind him, in the distance, sirens started to wail.
He tilted his head. “Your choice, *Blood Moon Bride*. Come with me—or face them alone.”
I looked at his outstretched hand.
Then I looked at the road to freedom.
And I made the worst decision of either of my lives.
I took his hand.
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