Chapter 1 - The Night The Moon Chose

Nyra's POV

The sky was painted scarlet, and fumes of smoke coiled around the trees. 

Chaos.

Commotion.

The moans of the dying and the howls of wolves filled my ears. Once called the city of Dirge, it is now fittingly likened to a funeral dirge. The crescent pack had attacked. Their ambush was quick and vicious, leaving no survivors behind. It was a clean sweep. That was their aim. To completely wipe out the Tharion bloodline.

I was too late.

I’d let him win. 

Again.

I ran across the city, searching every nook and cranny, hoping to find at least one survivor, but I found nothing. I breezed through at lightning speed until I reached a cave and heard some voices.

“Secure the perimeter. No one leaves. No one lives,” a voice ordered. 

I know that voice. I’ve heard it over and over in my dreams; I knew it all too well. I peeped over the rock to see none other than the World’s most feared Alpha, my sworn enemy, Kade. He stood at the mouth of the cage, his strong arm folded and his dark eyes searching until it landed in my direction. There was no way he could see me. I had hid myself well, but his eyes burned right into mine as if somehow he knew I was right there. 

At his command, his men marched forward, releasing renegades around the cave and then taking cover. Once it exploded, we heard loud screams from inside the cave. There were people hiding there. Kade might have taken a wild guess, but their screams said it all. 

Quickly, I teleported into the cave, moving all survivors out through the other exit, as far away from Kade as possible. My speed bought me time, so I was able to save them. Just when I turned to leave, I heard a small cry pierce through the smoke. I traced the sound to find a little girl stuck behind a rock. I rolled the rock over and held her in my arms, ready to bolt.

The air shifted. 

I didn’t need to turn around to know that Kade was there. I could feel him. 

“Mine.” He snarled. He was livid, and I was outnumbered, but I wasn’t going to let him take the little girl’s life. He’d caused enough havoc. 

“Hand her over and I’ll spare you.” It wasn’t a request. It was a command.

“Sorry, I don’t answer to you.” I snapped.

Kade jerked his head to the side with an amused smirk, but his eyes never left mine.

Shrouded in soot and shadows, he walked easily through the wall of flames the renegade had left across the cave. His steps were mute but calculated. I tightened my grip on the tiny little girl beside me. She was hardly older than five, covered in blood, but alive, a survivor.

“Are you sure about that?” he asked, testing me. But I knew he was only trying to buy himself time until more soldiers arrived. I wasn’t going to fall for that.

The wind carried his scent to me — wild, unfamiliar, intoxicating. He wasn’t just a rogue; he was something else. Something dangerous, addictive even. His mouth parted, but before he uttered a word, I let a surge of energy burst through me. The impact of the force cracked the ground open and sent wolves stumbling. 

“Get her.” Kade barked. He barely raised his arm before it swept over him — magic. Raw. Untamed. Ancient. Then I was gone, vanished into the trees, the child still in my arms. Not a single footprint or trace was left behind. But Kade had seen enough. My back. He’d seen the mark on my back. 

Kade’s POV

Three months later

That mark. I couldn’t get it out of my mind. It burned hot, etched into my memory like it had been on her skin. I just couldn’t stop thinking about that night. 

I didn’t know what it meant, but I needed to know. I need to find her. I've had my best hands on the look out, scouting tirelessly day and night but none of the women they've shown me were here. Similar build, matching skin tone, but they weren't her.

It’s almost as if she’d vanished into thin air. 

I still think about that cave. Every night, I dream of it. The flames. The shadows. Her defiance.

“Sorry,” she’d said, but she didn’t sound sorry at all. “I don’t answer to you,” she spat, her voice laced with deathly venom. 

She was the first—my first. I was used to seeing women begging, grovelling in the mud, pleading for mercy at the mere sound of my voice, but the marked girl was… different.

She had defied me. It challenged me. I craved it. Oh, what I’d give to have a taste of her defiance one more time. I need to find her and keep her for myself.

“Alpha.”

Riven’s voice pulled me back into the present.

He joined me on the edge of Westwatch. The wind hummed quietly over the cliff. Below the cliffs, my pack assembled in their signature crescent shape, waiting for matching orders, hoping I’d finally stop obsessing over a girl who’s as good as a ghost.

“Give me the report,” I ordered without sparing him a glance. 

“Alpha, we tarried day and night on the northern wing, patrolling every corner as ordered, but we found nothing.”

“Again?” I asked, clenching my fist tightly. A wicked chill went into my knuckles, but I welcomed it. It was a reminder. I was given life by pain. 

“It’s been three months. If she were out there, we’d have found her by now.”

“You’re not looking hard enough. Keep looking.”

“I don’t think she’s anywhere within the radar. She might have fled another clan, entered human territory across the borders, or worse still, she might…”

Slowly, I turned, daring him to finish his sentence. He didn’t.

Sure, my men must think I have lost my mind by now, but I was perfectly sane.  

“Gather the pack, we’ll continue our hunt. No one bats an eyelid until we find her.”

“It’s been months, Kade. We haven’t batted an eyelid for months. You haven’t been yourself either, and I’m sure it’s because of your fixation on this stranger. You don’t even know her. For all we know, she just might be some random rogue.”

He was mistaken. She is not an obsession.  It’s just pure instinct. She just might be the key to something big. Something ancient. Something even my ancestors feared. That mark on her back isn’t ordinary.

“You really think I’d waste my precious time chasing shadows?” I asked.  

Riven’s mouth opened, then shut. Sensibly.  

“Do you think a shadow would have survived that renegade explosion? What shadow can deflect my magic?  

I took one step closer.  “Tell me.”  I pressed, but Riven stayed quiet.

“Now, summon two troops, expand your search area, triple it. If necessary, you can have wolves stationed above the clouds and beneath the oceans. Find her and bring her to me, alive.” I commanded. 

“Yes, Alpha.”

“I don’t want to see or smell you anywhere close until you find her.” I turned away and headed to my war tent. The lamp on my table burned as hot as my temper, giving light to the thousands of reports on my table, mostly of rebel sightings. I haven’t spared them a glance since that night. I lay down to sleep, staring at the roof of the tent. Her storm-grey defiant eyes burned into my soul. They didn’t beg. There was no iota of fear in them. They only dared me. Dangerously dared me to find her.

I didn’t realise I’d drifted off to sleep until…

“Alpha!” A loud howl sent vibrations around the tent.

I drew out my claws, bolting out of the tent, ready to shift, and another cry echoed through the camp.

Then I noticed two shadows lurking around the treeline: Neon and Amra, our shadow hunters.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

They shifted mid-landing, replacing their once bloody paws with more human limbs.

“The village. It’s off-grid. Couldn’t find it on the maps. Deep in the Frostspine Forest.” Neon managed.

“What about it?”

“She… she’s there”, Amra said, shaky.

That caught my attention.

“Hair as dark as night. Eyes glowing like silver. According to locals, she doesn’t speak much; only appeared out of the blue three moons ago, clothed in blood and smoke with a little girl in hand.

My pulse went still.

“Where’s she now?” I asked.

“Hard to track. She moves only at night in a dark cloak. Her scent was marked with strange sigils. Couldn’t be traced to any known pack.”

I was already in my wolf form.

“Lead me there,” I ordered.