Chapter 2: The Blood Moon Shift.

Lyra's POV

“Breathe, Lyra. The moon will not hurt you… unless you let it.”

The words floated through the darkness. It was soft yet firm, like a hand pressing against my chest. That was my best friend’s voice... Eira.

I sucked in a shaky breath, my lungs trembling as if they were about to burst, while the night air tasted sharp and metallic, like blood waiting on my tongue.

The forest clearing had changed since the bonfire. The pack had stripped away their ceremonial robes, which were replaced by raw skin and nerves, each of them waiting for the Blood Moon’s rise. Torches burned low now, as smoke curled into the branches above us like warning fingers.

I stood barefoot at the center of the ritual circle; my pulse was hammering so loud that I swore the others could hear it. My father towered behind me, his hand clamped like iron around my shoulder, keeping me still.

“This is your moment,” he murmured; his voice was low enough that only I could hear what he said. “Do not falter.”

He made the words he uttered sound so easy, like I hadn’t spent my entire life being told I was different, cursed and also a mistake waiting to happen.

I swallowed hard, as my throat was dry. Eira edged closer, with her long braid swaying over her shoulder. She offered me a shaky smile, but her eyes betrayed her, too wide, too glassy and too full of guilt.

“What if it hurts?” I whispered.

She squeezed my hand. “Everything about it is worth becoming hurt.” But the way her voice cracked made something cold sink into my stomach. She knew something and I was so sure that she was hiding something.

The pack shifted restlessly around us, their murmurs filling the air. Some stared at me with open curiosity, while others stared at me with thinly veiled disgust. I caught Rowan’s smirk among them, the Beta’s son; he was practically salivating for me to fail and then, at the far edge of the circle, I saw him again... Kael Aeson.

His dark coat caught the torchlight, his stance as rigid and unyielding as stone. He hadn’t moved since the bonfire, but his eyes were super sharp and those sharp black eyes never left me. They were watching and waiting.

My skin prickled under his gaze. His words from earlier echoed in my skull: If you shift tonight, I will be the one to kill you.

My jaw clenched as I looked away, my body shaking as the Elders stepped forward. “The Blood Moon rises,” one of them intoned, as her voice quivered with reverence.

The pack dropped to their knees, heads bowed. Even my father inclined his head, though he did not kneel.

Above us, the first sliver of red crested the horizon. The moon dragged itself into the sky, swelling and deepening in color until it hung heavy, crimson and swollen, like an open wound bleeding across the night.

The air thickened as my heart thudded. I have to remind myself that it was time.

“Step forward, Lyra Vale,” the Elder said.

My feet moved of their own accord as they dragged me to the exact center of the circle. The soil was cold beneath my toes and the earth was vibrating as if it recognized what was about to happen.

“Breathe,” Eira whispered again, though she sounded further away this time.

The Elder raised her arms. “Blood of Vale, child of the Alpha, meet your moon and be reborn.”

The pack howled as one, the sound shaking the ground and then my body broke.

It started as a fire beneath my skin, tiny sparks racing down my veins, searing every nerve. My knees buckled, while my scream was swallowed by the roar of the wind. My bones cracked, not one by one, but all at once, like my skeleton was shattering into dust.

I fell to my hands and knees, the earth swallowing my fingers as claws tore through my skin. My spine bent backward, snapping, stretching and reshaping. Fur exploded across my body, but it wasn’t silver like my father’s or even brown like my pack’s.

It was black... like pitch black and threaded through the darkness was something else. Something must surely be wrong. My body flickered between forms, as my shadow was stretching longer than my body, while my face was elongating into a muzzle before snapping back into something half-human and half-wolf.

The screams began immediately. “She’s not shifting, she’s breaking!” someone shouted.

“What is she?” another cried.

I tried to rise and equally to steady myself, but my legs twisted and bent the wrong way and forced me back to the ground. My reflection shimmered in the pools of torchlight: my eyes glowed not amber, not gold, but white, hollow and endless.

I guess I wasn’t becoming a wolf; instead, I was becoming a monster.

“Hold your ground!” My father bellowed, though his voice cracked.

The pack had already begun to back away, forming a jagged circle of terror. Mothers clutched their pups and warriors drew halfway into their shifts and were ready to attack.

Just then, I saw it: my father’s eyes. It shows horror, not surprise and also not confusion, but recognition. As if he had been waiting for this, fearing it and at the same time expecting it. He actually knew about this.

My chest caved, a sob clawing at my throat, but it came out as a growl. My claws gouged the earth as my body was flickering between beast and shadow.

The whispers grew louder and shriller, echoing through the clearing: The Hollow Wolf...The Hollow Wolf...The Hollow Wolf.

And then, through the chaos, Kael moved. He stepped into the circle; his every motion was deliberate and calm, as though he had been waiting for this very moment.

Our eyes locked as the world fell silent and then it hit me, like fire and lightning exploding in my chest. The mate bond.

It seared through my veins, soul-deep and undeniable. My body lurched toward him, pulled by an invisible tether. Every instinct screamed at me: mine.

But his lips curled into a snarl.

“So it’s true,” Kael spat, his voice trembling with both rage and awe. “You are the Hollow Wolf.”

The bond burned hotter, twisting between desire and betrayal until I thought it would tear me in half. Immediately, the circle erupted into shouts.

“Kill it before it kills us all!” someone screamed.

Without wasting seconds, warriors surged forward, their eyes wild and their fangs bared.

I staggered back, my claws dripping earth, my breath a ragged growl. My father raised his arms as if to protect me, but his hesitation was too long and too heavy.

The circle closed in. The air split with roars and I realized the truth...

They weren’t seeing me anymore. Instead, they were seeing the monster the Seer had promised.

The pack lunged, shadows and fangs closing around me and I had one wild thought before the chaos swallowed me whole: Will I survive my first shift, or will my own family tear me apart?