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Blood of the Black Moon
Blood of the Black Moon
Penulis: Ken Clementine

Ch. 1: The Night the Forest Looked Back

Penulis: Ken Clementine
last update Terakhir Diperbarui: 2025-10-30 08:53:06

The moon sat too low, like it was listening.

Kaelira Voss stood barefoot on the cold ritual stone, mist coiling around her ankles.

Every eye in Vyrden Hollow Pack was on her—some expectant, most waiting for her to fail.

At the edge of the clearing, Alpha Draven Corren leaned against a torch post, all shadow and command.

“Run the perimeter,” he ordered. “Keep control this time, Voss.”

Control.

As if she hadn’t been practicing restraint her entire life.

Kaelira dipped her head and stepped backward off the stone. One breath—and her body shattered into motion.

Bone shifted. Skin split to silver fur. The forest rushed up to meet Ardyn, her wolf, with that intoxicating clarity that only came when the world finally made sense.

We run for them again? Ardyn teased in her mind.

We run for us, Kaelira answered.

They darted through the trees, moonlight catching the edges of ferns. Patrol scents painted the air—pine, sweat, iron. But under it, something wrong.

Blood. Young. Unclaimed.

They found him half-collapsed by a rotted log: a boy no older than sixteen, one arm wrapped in wire engraved with burning sigils.

“Don’t—” he gasped, seeing her eyes glow. “They’ll find me.”

Kaelira shifted back, skin steaming from the cold. “You’re bleeding on pack land. That’s already a problem.”

He swallowed hard. “My name’s Taren. They said this forest was safe.”

“Safe from what?”

“The Dominion,” he whispered. “They… experiment on wolves. With moonfire.”

Kaelira’s stomach tightened. The High Lunar Dominion didn’t “experiment.” They cleansed.

Footsteps snapped through the brush—pack warriors.

If they found him, he’d be dead before he could finish that sentence.

Kaelira pressed a finger to her lips, then dragged him behind the cedar roots.

When Alpha Draven appeared, she forced her heartbeat calm.

“Perimeter clear,” she lied. “Only deer sign.”

He studied her too long before grunting. “Continue.”

When the patrol vanished, Kaelira turned back to Taren. “You stay hidden until dawn. Then I’ll get you across the ridge.”

Taren nodded, shaking. “Why help me?”

Kaelira stared into the dark. “Because someone should.”

A horn split the night—three sharp blasts. Border breach.

Kaelira cursed and ran toward the sound. The Sigils of Velnor at the boundary stones glowed a sick blue.

A figure stood on the far side of the border—tall, dark cloak, silver eyes reflecting the moon.

King Zevran Kaelith.

The Lycan King himself.

“Your pack shelters what is mine,” Zevran said, his voice carrying through the pines. “Return the boy.”

Draven stepped forward. “We shelter no one.”

Zevran’s eyes cut past him—straight to Kaelira. “Then why does your blood smell like his?”

Her pulse stuttered. “Maybe because I’m the only one who didn’t plan to kill him.”

For an instant, the great King of Lycans looked amused.

Then the ground trembled.

The runes screamed white, and something dark peeled itself out of the treeline—

a shape of claws and smoke that shrieked like broken metal.

Taren screamed.

Kaelira shifted before she knew she had moved.

And the forest, for the first time, looked back.

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  • Blood of the Black Moon   Ch. 34: The Temple of Echoes

    The forest seemed alive with whispers.Kaelira and Zevran moved silently along the ridge, the morning mist wrapping around their shoulders like a warning. The valley below spread wide and gray, dotted with faint lights — flickering torches, perhaps, or the eyes of beasts. She couldn’t tell which.Zevran’s hand rested lightly on his sword hilt, the tension in his muscles sharp enough for Kaelira to feel from a step behind. Every few paces he cast a glance over his shoulder, wary of the shadows that shifted between the trees.“You’re quiet,” he said finally.“I’m thinking,” Kaelira replied, keeping her voice low. “About him. About what we’re walking into.”Zevran didn’t answer immediately. His eyes scanned the distant valley, the faint signs of Ardan’s influence spreading like veins of fire through the mist. “Thinking doesn’t change the outcome,” he said finally. “We act, or we fail. There’s no in-between.”She swallowed. “I just… I hate that he’s right sometim

  • Blood of the Black Moon   Ch. 33: The Quiet Before

    By the time they reached the northern ridge, the forest had changed.The air was colder here, sharp with pine and the faint metallic scent of frost. Mist clung to the roots, curling like smoke around their boots. Kaelira had traveled these woods countless times, but now every tree felt like a witness—silent, watchful, holding its breath.Zevran walked ahead, his pace measured. The mark on his wrist—the one that tied him to the Council—had begun to fade, its lines duller than before. He didn’t mention it, but Kaelira noticed.She noticed everything about him now.The way he ran his thumb along the edge of his blade when he thought. The stiffness in his shoulders each time the wind shifted west—the direction of the Council’s capital. The way he avoided her eyes in the quiet moments, as if afraid of what he might say if he met them too long.And beneath all that, she could feel him.Not in a mystical way, but in the simple, human gravity of proximity. The echo o

  • Blood of the Black Moon   Ch. 32: The Fire Between Us

    The forest was almost too quiet.Not the calm of peace, but the silence before something breaks.Kaelira woke to the sharp whisper of steel.Zevran was already standing, blade half drawn, eyes fixed on the darkness beyond the campfire. The faint orange glow carved him in pieces—jawline, shoulder, the glint of his weapon. Every line of him was coiled tension.She reached for her bow. “What is it?”“Scouts,” he murmured. “Two, maybe three. Council hunters.”Her pulse kicked. “They found us.”Zevran gave a single nod. “Stay behind me.”Kaelira almost laughed. “You forget who’s faster?”But before she could move, he turned slightly, and the look in his eyes rooted her. Not command. Not arrogance. Fear.“Please,” he said, voice low and raw. “Just this once.”Something in her chest tightened. She nodded.They waited, breaths shallow.The first shadow broke from the trees—a tall figure wrapped in the Council’s gray armor, the crest of the

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    The sound came first—not the growl, not the scrape of claws against stone—but the silence between them.It was the kind of silence that split the air open, made the forest itself hold its breath.Kaelira felt it in her bones, in the low thrum beneath her skin that had begun ever since the moon’s last rise.Her wolf pressed against the surface of her thoughts, restless, watchful, whispering one word over and over.Mine.But that wasn’t what this was about. Not tonight.The circle of wolves moved inward, the glow of the ritual fire painting them in amber and shadow. Ardan stood at its heart, every inch of him coiled and ready, his bare chest streaked with earth and the sigil of the old ways drawn across his collarbone. Zevran faced him—taller, quieter, but far more dangerous for it. His silence was the kind that spoke of calculation. Control. The kind that could unravel into something feral with a single breath.Kaelira co

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