The Blood Moon's Secret
The first time I died, I was sixteen.
Not literally.
Just enough that the girl I used to be never came back.
The entire pack stood in a circle beneath the Blood Moon.
Everyone smiled.
Everyone except me.
I tugged at the sleeves of my worn black dress as whispers slithered through the crowd.
“Poor thing.”
“No wolf at eighteen...”
“She’ll be banished after tonight.”
I pretended not to hear them.
My name isLyra Ashwood, daughter of two of the strongest warriors the Moon Goddess had ever blessed.
Both dead.
And somehow... I was the only child in the history of the Ashwood Pack who had never heard her wolf.
No heartbeat beside mine.
No voice in my head.
Nothing.
An empty silence.
“Lyra.”
The Alpha’s voice echoed across the clearing.
I stepped forward, keeping my chin high despite the hundreds of eyes burning into me.
Alpha Rowan studied me with obvious disappointment.
“Tonight is your eighteenth birthday.”
“Yes, Alpha.”
“If the Moon Goddess does not awaken your wolf before sunrise...” he paused. “...you will no longer belong to this pack.”
The words punched the air from my lungs.
Banished.
Alone.
Without a wolf.
A death sentence.
Someone laughed.
I didn’t have to turn around to know it wasKael Blackthorne.
The future Alpha.
The most powerful wolf in three generations.
And the boy who had spent years making my life unbearable.
“You should save everyone the trouble,” Kael called lazily. “Just leave now.”
The crowd chuckled.
Heat rushed to my face.
I refused to cry.
Not here.
Not in front of him.
The Alpha raised his hands toward the moon.
“The ceremony begins.”
Every werewolf bowed.
Silver light spilled through the trees.
The air trembled.
One by one, wolves awakened.
People gasped as glowing spirit wolves appeared behind newly turned eighteen-year-olds.
Cheers erupted.
Parents cried.
Friends laughed.
The Moon Goddess had spoken.
I waited.
And waited.
Nothing.
Silence.
My heart cracked with every passing second.
Then...
Pain.
A sharp, blinding pain exploded through my chest.
I collapsed onto the dirt.
The crowd screamed.
It felt like molten silver was pouring through my veins.
Bones cracked.
My vision blurred.
At last...
My wolf.
Tears filled my eyes.
“Hello?”I whispered inside my mind.
Silence.
No answer.
Instead...
Something far worse.
A voice.
Deep.
Ancient.
Male.
“Mine.”
The word thundered through my soul.
Not from inside me.
From somewhere beyond the forest.
The earth shook.
Birds burst into the sky.
Every wolf around me whimpered.
Even Alpha Rowan staggered backward.
Kael’s confident smirk vanished.
He looked... afraid.
A scent drifted through the clearing.
Rain.
Smoke.
And wild pine.
Every wolf instinctively lowered their head.
No one understood why.
Then the forest split apart.
Trees bent as if bowing.
Heavy footsteps echoed closer.
One.
Two.
Three.
Out of the darkness stepped a man nearly seven feet tall, dressed entirely in black.
His silver eyes glowed like twin moons.
Scars covered his bare arms.
The air around him felt... wrong.
Ancient.
Powerful.
Deadly.
Every Alpha in the clearing fell to one knee.
Including Rowan.
Including Kael.
I was the only one still standing.
The stranger stared directly at me.
His expression shifted from shock...
...to fury.
“No.”
His voice rolled across the mountains.
“It can’t be.”
He crossed the clearing in three long strides.
Before anyone could stop him, he grabbed my wrist.
The strange mark hidden beneath my sleeve began to burn.
A mark I’d been born with.
A mark every healer had called meaningless.
Silver light erupted from my skin.
The man’s eyes widened.
After a thousand years...
He smiled.
“I finally found you.”
