Chapter 9: First Blood

The path was quiet too quiet. The kind of silence that presses into your skin and squeezes the breath from your lungs. Kai and I moved as one, cloaked in shadows, every step calculated. We had followed a lead on an underground information broker rumored to be connected to Victoria’s network. It was supposed to be a simple recon mission. Find him, question him, and disappear before anyone noticed.

Instead, we walked straight into a trap.

The first arrow struck the tree inches from my head. I froze, instincts flaring. Kai held me to the ground just as a second arrow sliced through the air where my neck had been.

"Ambush!" Kai growled, pulling me behind a fallen log.

Shadows exploded around us figures cloaked in ash-gray armor, faces covered in masks. They didn’t smell like wolves. Not fully. Something darker laced their scent.

"Hybrids," Kai muttered. "Assassins."

My blood turned to ice. This wasn’t a random attack. They had come for me.

Kai launched himself at the nearest hybrid, claws extended. I moved to follow but froze as three assassins closed in on me from the trees. My pulse thundered. Training flooded my mind Celeste’s voice echoing, “Your power doesn’t ask permission. It demands.”

I raised my hand. "Submit."

The word echoed like a bell, laced with the primal force buried in my blood. One assassin dropped instantly, knees slamming into the dirt. The others flinched, their movements faltering.

But it wasn’t enough.

Pain exploded across my side as a blade grazed me. I twisted, driving my elbow into the attacker’s throat. He staggered back, gasping. Another lunged. I ducked, rolled, and came up with claws ready. This wasn’t training. This was survival.

My vision blurred. The forest narrowed into tunnels of sound and motion. A primal part of me surged forward the part Celeste warned would awaken in battle. My body moved faster than thought, faster than fear. Every strike landed with terrifying precision. I was no longer Luna Blackwood, rejected mate. I was something else.

A predator.

Across the clearing, Kai staggered, blood streaming from a gash on his shoulder. An assassin raised a sword behind him. I didn’t think.

I roared.

Time slowed. The world trembled. My body shifted half-shifted bones elongating, muscles snapping and stretching, eyes glowing silver. The ground cracked beneath my feet as I launched myself across the battlefield.

The assassin didn’t have time to scream.

My claws tore through his chest, flinging him aside like a doll. Two more surged forward. I met them with fury, slicing through armor and bone. My hands were slick with blood, my breath ragged, my heart thundering in my ears. 

When the final assassin fell, the forest returned to silence. Smoke rose from burning leaves. Blood stained the earth.

I stood in the carnage, trembling. My hands shook. My knees buckled. I fell.

Kai caught me before I hit the ground. He lowered us behind a boulder, his arms tightening around me.

"You're okay," he whispered, voice hoarse.

"I killed them," I said. My voice cracked. "I killed them all."

He didn’t deny it. Didn’t soothe me with lies.

"You saved us."

My chest heaved. The faces of the dead swam behind my eyes. I had trained for this. I knew what it meant to be a warrior. But nothing prepares you for the moment your claws rip through living flesh. Nothing prepares you for blood on your skin.

"I felt something inside me," I whispered. "Something cold. Powerful. It wanted to take over."

Kai nodded. "That’s the royal instinct. It’s brutal, protective... and ancient."

"It scared me."

"It should," he said softly. "But it’s part of you. You don’t have to fear it, you have to command it."

I leaned into him, i was exhausted. He held me without talking, his fingers gently brushing the blood from my cheek.

"You were magnificent again," he said after a while. "Terrifying, but magnificent."

I huffed a shaky laugh, then winced. Pain flared across my ribs.

"Let me see," he said. He gently lifted my shirt, inspecting the deep wound. His hands were steady, but his eyes... his eyes were dark with worry and something deeper. Admiration. Respect.

He cleaned the wound, wrapping it with gauze from his kit. "We need to move. If there are more of them"

"There are always more," I said.

We moved through the forest carefully, finding a safer place to rest. Once we reached a hidden glade, Kai built a small fire while I tried to process what I am becoming.

I stared into the flames. "It won’t stop here, will it?"

Kai shook his head. "They know who you are now. They’ll come harder. Smarter."

"Then I have to be ready. No more hiding."

He looked at me across the fire. "You’ve drawn out blood agin, Luna. The real war begins."

We didn’t sleep. We kept watch, side by side, until the moon reached its peak. My hands still trembled, but not from fear.

From transformation.

I was killed. I had bled. And I survived.

I wasn’t just a symbol anymore. I was a weapon.

And at this point I was done being afraid.