Whispers of the Blood Moon

The silence that followed the confession felt more painful than a physical slap. The air in the living room felt thick, as if the oxygen had been sucked out by a single word: Alpha.

Revira stared at him. Not with love, not with admiration. She looked at Rakar as if her husband were an alien species that had just landed in their living room. Her eyes darted wildly from Rakar's face to his fists clenched at his sides.

"Alpha," Revira repeated, her voice hollow, as if the word held no meaning in the dictionary of her life. "You think this is funny? You're saying you're... the leader of a wolf pack? Like in a movie?"

"Not a pack of animals, Revira," Rakar corrected softly, fighting the urge to step forward and embrace her. "My people. The Velkan Clan."

Revira laughed. A short, sharp, nearly hysterical sound. She took another step back until her hip struck the edge of the sofa hard.

"This is insane. You're all insane." Revira pointed a trembling finger at Daniel and Eldric. "What syndicate are you? Con artists? Or did you escape from a mental hospital? I can't believe I let lunatics into my house and let them hold my son."

"Revira, please listen to me," Rakar pleaded, his voice low but urgent.

"Back off!" Revira shrieked. Her hand snatched the glass vase from the coffee table, gripping it tightly like a deadly weapon. Water spilled onto the carpet. "Don't come closer! I'll call the police! I swear it!"

"The police cannot help you, Madam," Eldric interjected calmly from the corner of the room. His voice wasn't threatening, merely stating a cold fact. "Not with the matter we are facing. Human law does not apply here."

"Shut up, old man!" Revira snapped. Her breath hitched, her chest rising and falling rapidly. "Get out of my house! All of you! Take that crazy doctor, take your strange friends, and get out of my life!"

"I can't leave," Rakar said firmly. "Ardan needs me. You saw what happened in that lab. His blood is awakening."

"Ardan needs a real doctor! Not a father who hallucinates he's a monster!"

"Revira—"

"Enough, Rakar! I'm sick of this!"

Revira slammed the vase onto the floor near Rakar's feet. Shards of glass scattered everywhere, but Rakar didn't flinch. He accepted the anger. He deserved it.

"Eight years I lived with you," Revira's voice trembled violently, tears starting to stream down her face uncontrollably. "I thought you were the most honest man in the world. I entrusted my life, my son's life, to you. It turns out... it turns out you aren't even human? Then what am I to you? What is Ardan? Your pet?"

"Don't talk like that," Rakar's voice hardened, wounded by the accusation. "You are my family. You are everything to me. I hid this to protect you from my world."

"Protect me?!" Revira screamed. "You lied to me! Family doesn't lie to each other for a decade!"

The argument peaked. The tension in the living room was so high that it felt like a single spark could ignite the entire house.

However, it wasn't an explosion of anger that stopped them.

"AAAAARGHHHH! MOMMY!"

The scream came from the bedroom at the end of the hall. High-pitched, full of unbearable pain, a sound that tore at the heart of anyone who heard it.

Revira’s face went instantly ashen. The broken vase, the argument, Rakar’s lies—all were forgotten. Her mother’s instinct took over.

"Ardan!"

Revira turned and ran like lightning toward the bedroom. Rakar, Daniel, and Eldric followed behind her.

Revira shoved the bedroom door wide open.

"Oh God..." she whispered, her hand covering her mouth to stifle a scream.

The sight inside the room was like a nightmare come true. Ardan was having a violent seizure on his bed. His small body arched backward unnaturally, as if an invisible hand were pulling his spine, leaving only his heels and head touching the mattress. His eyes were rolled back, showing only the whites. His mouth was wide open in a non-stop scream.

And his back...

A dazzling, blood-red light emanated from the boy's back, piercing through the thin pajama fabric he wore. The light pulsed strongly, synchronized with his overly rapid heartbeat, creating monstrous shadows that danced on the bedroom walls.

"Ardan! Sweetheart!" Revira leaped to the side of the bed. She reached out to hug her son, wanting to comfort him.

"DON'T TOUCH HIM!" Rakar yelled.

But it was too late. Revira's fingers touched Ardan's shoulder.

A burst of static energy erupted. Revira was thrown backward as if electrocuted by high voltage. She fell hard onto the floor, clutching her palms, which were now red and blistered.

"It's hot! His body is burning up!" Revira cried, staring at her trembling hands. "Rakar! Do something! Our son is on fire!"

Rakar stood frozen in the doorway. He saw the red aura enveloping his son. He knew what it was. As an Alpha, he could feel the pressure wave. It wasn't a fever. It was pure energy raging, trying to tear apart its fragile vessel.

And most painfully, Rakar knew he couldn't go near him. His own energy was too dominant. If he touched Ardan now, the collision of two Alpha auras would destroy the small body.

"I... I can't," Rakar whispered, his voice cracking with despair. "I can't touch him while his energy is exploding like this. I'll kill him if I go near him."

"What good is being a monster if you can't even help your own son?!" Revira screamed hysterically. She tried to get up again, ignoring the pain in her hands. "Call an ambulance! Daniel, call 911! Now! Don't just stand there!"

Daniel looked at Rakar, unmoving. He knew human medicine would be useless.

"Call an ambulance, you idiot!" Revira snapped.

"An ambulance won't come, Madam," Eldric's voice was heavy and authoritative. He stepped past Rakar, his gray robe sweeping the bedroom floor. "And even if they did, they would only hasten his death."

"Move aside," Eldric ordered Revira.

"Don't touch him! Are you going to hurt him again?!" Revira blocked Eldric like a feral mother cat protecting her kitten, even though she was trembling with fear.

Eldric looked at Revira. His gaze wasn't harsh, but it was so sharp and ancient that it froze Revira into silence.

"Look at your son," Eldric said, pointing to the still-screaming Ardan. "Your human doctors will give him a sedative, and then he will die because his heart will explode from the contained energy. Do you want that?"

Revira fell silent, her lips trembling. "Then... then what?"

"Let me work. Step back."

Revira finally moved aside, though her eyes never left Ardan.

Eldric knelt beside the bed. He didn't touch Ardan immediately. He chanted something, a low murmur in a foreign language that made the hairs on Revira's arms stand up. Then, he pulled a sea-blue crystal stone from his robe pocket and pressed it slowly against Ardan's sweat-soaked forehead.

A soft hiss sounded, like hot iron plunged into water.

The red light on Ardan's back dimmed little by little, as if being absorbed by the crystal. Ardan's rigid body slowly relaxed, falling limply back onto the mattress. His screams turned into weak whimpers and ragged breaths.

"It hurts... Mom... it hurts..."

Revira crawled closer, tears flooding her face. She carefully stroked her son's cheek, afraid of being burned again. "Mommy's here, Sweetheart. Mommy's here."

Eldric stood, putting away his crystal, which was now cracked down the middle. He looked at Rakar and Revira alternately with a grim expression.

"That is only temporary," Eldric said flatly. "The energy is too great. My crystal is already cracked. It won't hold him long. Rakar, you know what this is?"

Rakar nodded stiffly, his face deathly pale. "Moon Blood."

"Moon Blood?" Revira repeated, confused. "A blood disease? Leukemia?"

"Not a disease," Eldric interjected firmly. "It is a legacy. A curse. A gift. Call it what you will."

Eldric walked to the window, closing the curtains tightly as if afraid someone might be peering in from the darkness outside.

"Your son," Eldric turned back to look at Revira, "is undergoing an awakening. The wolf blood inside him... it is not ordinary blood. It is ancient, powerful blood. His human body is too weak to contain it. It is like pouring molten lava into a thin glass cup. The cup will shatter."

Revira shook her head slowly, her brain struggling to process this fantastical information amidst a critical medical situation. "But the doctor said it was just a fever... that birthmark..."

"Your human doctors are blind," Eldric cut in. "They see heat, they say fever. They see a birthmark, they say skin irritation. They don't see the energy slowly consuming his internal organs."

Revira looked at Rakar. Her gaze was sharp. "This is because of you, isn't it? Because of your blood?"

Rakar looked down, not daring to meet his wife's eyes. Guilt crushed his chest. "Yes. I'm sorry."

"Sorry won't save his life!" Revira snapped. She turned to Eldric again. "How do we cure him? Surgery? A transplant? How much does it cost? I have savings, I'll pay anything."

Eldric shook his head slowly. "Your money is useless for this matter. And no pharmacy holds a cure. There is only one way."

"What? Tell me!" Revira urged.

"He must be taken to Velmora," Eldric replied. "To Rakar's homeland. There is the Avariel River there. Its waters are sacred to our people. Ardan must be immersed there to quell the fire in his blood before it burns him up completely."

"Velmora?" Revira frowned. "Where is that? Overseas?"

"Another world," Rakar answered softly, finally raising his face. "Beyond the dimensional veil. The world I came from."

"You're insane," Revira whispered, taking a step back. "You want to take my dying son to a world of monsters?"

"There is no other choice," Rakar said, his tone turning urgent. He looked at Revira with a pleading gaze. "If he stays here, he dies, Revira. Tonight. At the latest, tomorrow morning when the sun rises, his heart will stop. Eldric's crystal won't last forever."

"I don't believe you," Revira said coldly. "You're a liar."

"Believe it or not, that's the fact," interjected Daniel, who had been silently guarding the bedroom door. He checked his watch, his face anxious. "And we have another, more serious problem, Boss."

"What?" Rakar asked, switching to alert mode.

"I just got a signal from the border guard sensors," Daniel said, showing Rakar his phone screen. "They detected massive movement in the northern sector. The scent of foreign dogs."

Rakar's face hardened instantly. His jaw tightened, the muscles in his neck bulging. "The Lunaris?"

"Who else?" Daniel replied. "They're moving fast."

"Wait," Revira cut in. "Lunaris? What is that now?"

Eldric approached Revira, his old face looking extremely serious under the dim bedroom light.

"Listen closely," Eldric said. "Our world is not peaceful. There are two major clans. Us, the Velkan. And our enemies, the Lunaris."

Eldric pointed to the restlessly sleeping Ardan.

"Your son's awakening just now... the light, the energy... it was like lighting a giant flare in the middle of a pitch-black forest. Every supernatural creature within a hundred-kilometer radius can feel it. Especially the Lunaris."

"They... they know about Ardan?" Revira asked, her voice trembling.

"They've caught his scent," Rakar answered. His voice changed, deeper, more dangerous. "They hunt strong children to use as war assets. And Ardan... Ardan is the strongest there has been in the last century."

"What do they want?" Revira asked, fear beginning to climb up her throat. "To kill him?"

"Worse," Eldric said coldly. "They want to kidnap him. Train him in their brutal ways. Turn him into a living weapon to destroy our clan. They will brainwash him, make him forget you, forget his father, and turn him into a killing machine."

Revira covered her mouth, stifling a sob. Her legs felt weak. She slumped onto the edge of the bed, gripping Ardan's hand tightly. Her normal world had completely collapsed.

"This is a nightmare..." she whispered.

"This is the reality we must face," Rakar stated firmly. He knelt in front of Revira, leveling his height with hers. "Revira, look at me. Please."

Revira looked at him with wet eyes. There was hatred there, but also overwhelming fear for her son's safety.

"I know you're angry," Rakar said gently yet firmly. "I know you hate me. I deserve it. But Ardan doesn't. We have to take him away. Now. Before they get here."

"Where?" Revira asked weakly.

"To Velmora," Rakar replied. "The Velkan clan fortress is there. I can protect him there. Eldric can perform the ritual in the river to save his life."

"And me?" Revira asked, tears falling. "Are you going to separate me from my son? Are you going to take him to your world and leave me here?"

"No," Rakar shook his head quickly. "You are his mother. You must come."

Eldric cleared his throat loudly behind them. "Rakar, taking a human to Velmora violates clan law. You know that. The other Elders will strongly oppose it. Vorlag will certainly—"

"To hell with the law!" Rakar cut him off, turning sharply to Eldric. His eyes flashed yellow for a moment, his dominant aura filling the small room. "She is my wife! She comes with us, or I will raze Velmora to the ground myself!"

Daniel and Eldric fell silent. Rakar's aura felt heavy and oppressive. The aura of an angry, protective Alpha.

Revira felt the pressure. She saw another side of her husband. A side that was savage, terrifying, but also... fiercely protective.

"Okay," Revira said suddenly.

Everyone turned to her.

"I'm coming," Revira said, wiping her tears away roughly. Her face hardened into a cold mask. "I don't care if it's a world of monsters, a world of ghosts, or even hell itself. I'm coming."

She stood, looking Rakar straight in the eye.

"But remember one thing, Rakar."

"What?" Rakar asked.

"I'm coming for Ardan. Not for you," Revira hissed. "As soon as Ardan is healed... as soon as he is safe... I will take him away. And you will never see us again."

The words pierced Rakar's chest. It hurt. But he nodded. He accepted the condition.

"Whatever you want," Rakar said. "The important thing is that he survives first."

"Boss," Daniel interjected again, looking at his phone with a tense face. "The signal is getting closer. They are already within a five-kilometer radius. We have to move now before they surround the house."

"Pack the essentials," Rakar commanded Revira, switching to command mode. "Warm clothes. Sturdy shoes. Don't bring electronics, the signal can be tracked."

Revira nodded stiffly. She immediately opened the closet, tossing Ardan's clothes into a duffel bag with quick movements.

Rakar turned to Eldric. "Get the car ready. We're taking the forest route."

"That route is dangerous tonight," Eldric said.

"It's more dangerous if we stay here," Rakar countered. He walked toward Ardan, carefully lifting the small body into his arms. Ardan whimpered slightly but didn't wake up.

"Hold on, Champ," Rakar whispered into his son's ear, kissing his hot forehead. "Dad is taking you home."

Revira finished packing in two minutes. She slung the bag over her shoulder, looking around her room one last time. The wedding photo on the wall, Ardan's toys on the floor, the life she had built over eight years. All of it was gone tonight.

"Let's go," Rakar said.

They left the house, heading toward the car waiting with its engine running in the driveway.

The night was dark and windy. In the distance, a long, heartbreaking howl could be heard, raising the hairs on their necks.

"Auuuugggghhhhh..."

Revira shivered, stopping in her tracks. "Is that... is that them?"

"Yes," Rakar said, opening the back car door. His face was grim. "The Lunaris. They are calling."

"Get in," Daniel commanded, holding his silver pistol, his eyes sweeping the darkness of the quiet residential street. "The hunt has begun."

Rakar carefully placed Ardan in the back seat, then Revira climbed in after him. Rakar sat beside them, closing the door. Daniel jumped into the driver's seat, Eldric in the front.

The car sped away from the house, leaving the safe human world behind, heading toward a darkness that promised both salvation and danger Revira had never imagined.