Chapter 4

SYLARI

They say the Moon chooses us.

That when the stars align and your eighteenth year settles into your bones, you’ll feel it, this pull, this becoming. The shift isn’t just muscle and fur. It’s a revelation, proof that the Moon Goddess has seen you, claimed you, and called you worthy.

But I am eighteen now....and the moon....it never came for me.

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For the first time in my life, they dressed me in silk.

Soft, silver silk like my eyes, embroidered with tiny moons and stars, symbols of hope, they said, of strength and of rebirth.

The entire Crescent Fang court buzzed with excitement. They said prayers to the Moon Goddess, and wove spells into the hem of my robes, they hummed lullabies I never remembered anyone singing to me.

It was absurd how hope could bloom in the ugliest soil, Tessa the young but now old maid who had always tucked scraps of bread under my bed when no one watched, and cleaned my bruises without being told. She brushed my hair that morning with trembling hands.

“Maybe today, my child,” she whispered, planting a kiss on my forehead, “You’ll rise with a howl and make them regret everything.” I let out a faint smile, but deep down I felt it, this wasn't my day of redemption.

Even the guards, those quiet watchers who never spoke when I was dragged down bloodied corridors offered small nods, some looked away quickly, ashamed to be caught caring, while others gave me fleeting glances, heavy with prayers they dared not voice.

After all, I was the firstborn, the daughter of General Aldrich of the Crescent Fang and my shift day was meant to be sacred no matter how accursed I was claimed to be....that was the tradition, that was the rule.

The arena glowed under the moon’s full gaze, and the stands were packed. Elders, nobles, and warriors. My brothers sat smugly at the front, cloaked in arrogance, their faces covered with smirks they did not bother hiding, and my father.... he sat like a carved statue of rage and pride, high above all, watching with me with keen eyes but a cold expression.

The drums slowed and the crowd silenced, then a priestess chanted in Old Lunarian, calling forth the ancestral spirits.

And then....nothing.

I stood at the center of it all, the moonlight burning down on me like judgment incarnate. My bones ached, my blood tingled and my soul reached for anything, but no shift came.

No fur, no claws, no howling wolf tearing through my skin and spine to claim her place.

I close my eyes.

I call.

I beg, reaching to the in-depths of my soul.

Nothing comes, no burn under my skin.

No surge.

No voice.

Just deafening silence.

And in that silence, I knew that the Moon had forgotten me.

I didn’t cry or speak, I merely stood there, still and hollow, like I already knew this was going to happen but too afraid to admit it.

The whispers began immediately.

"She didn’t even twitch...."

"She’s cursed, I told you...."

"Moonless mutt."

“Nothing? Not even a beta?”

“Didn’t I say she was cursed?”

“Why waste a ceremony on a ghost?”

"What a shame to the Crescent blood line"

"She's doom's incarnate"

One voice broke through louder than the others.

“She’s mocking us, she thinks it’s a joke,” my second brother, Riko snapped as he stood, his eyes gleaming with the same cruelty that had been poured to me all through my life.

“Guards, beat her for her insolence.”

But before the guard could move, a deeper voice silenced the crowd.

“Enough.”

My father’s voice, was sharp and low, so much so it made the wind still.

He stood up slowly, regal in his silence. Then....he stripped.

First his ceremonial coat, then the golden rings, then the heavy fur robe lined with warrior sigils. Piece by piece, he shed his pride until only his bare torso remained, it was carved with scars and victories of a lifetime.

The hall grew tense and confused.

I had an idea of what was coming, but I didn't expect it.

Then without a word, he transformed mid-stride.

His bones cracked and his muscles swelled, his skin stretched and tore until fur covered him, pitch black with streaks of white like lightning trapped in darkness. He was enormous, terrifying, and every inch the beast that had built an empire through war and then he lunged at me.

I didn’t move.

His claws struck first across my cheek and I staggered, blood spewing from my cheek already and for the very first time in my life, my father hit me.

The next swipe landed on my ribs, then another to my back, slamming me to the ground. Pain erupted in waves, hot and relentless, blood soaked into the sacred sand of the arena.

The crowd didn’t cheer, they didn’t boo either, they just watched in silence....terrified silence.

I heard Tessa scream my name, I heard sobs from somewhere in the back.

Even Riko and Daren no longer looked entertained, their smirk had died.

Father snarled in rage, but not battle rage....no, something colder and deeper. He shifted back into his human form mid-attack, breathing heavily, then grabbed me by the hair.

“You shame me,” he spat in my face, blood from his knuckles dripping onto my chest.

“You bring disgrace to our bloodline, you should’ve never been born.”

"I wanted to believe that you could at least be of use when you shift, but no you remain a great disappoinment and the worst mistake of my days".

"You killed your mother, and rejected by the gods themselves ". He spat, hitting my chest with his fist, I spat out more blood but he was far from stopping.

He cursed me in English, then switched to Lunarian, they were words I couldn’t understand, but their venom was unmistakable.

I tasted iron in my mouth and my vision blurred, he then dragged me by the hair across the floor like I was carcass, and with a snarl, he threw me like garbage against the stone wall of the arena.

My head struck the surface with a loud, sickening crack.

And then... darkness.