CHAPTER ONE: The Howl Beneath the Blood Moon

The forest whispered like it knew a secret.

Mist slid low over the roots of the black pines, and the moon fat and red as a wound hung unnaturally close to the earth. Lyra Graythorn stood at the edge of the clearing, her breath clouding in the cold, her heartbeat the loudest thing in her ears. She had seen many full moons before, but never one like this.

Her grandmother’s words echoed in her mind: The Blood Moon doesn’t just light the sky, child. It marks. It claims.

And tonight, it was claiming her.

The clearing wasn’t empty. Dozens of Crescent Hollow wolves had gathered in their dual forms some human, some already half-shifted, their glowing eyes fixed on the ceremonial stones that formed the circle. Torches hissed in the damp air, dripping smoke that smelled faintly of sage and iron.

This was meant to be a night of celebration.

But Lyra felt none of it.

She tugged at the ceremonial silver clasp at her throat, the one that fastened the deep-blue cloak over her dress. The fabric itched. The metal felt too heavy. Everything about tonight weighed on her in a way she couldn’t shake.

From across the circle, she caught his gaze.

Kael.

He stood tall, black hair falling into sharp, aristocratic angles around his face. The Alpha heir of Stormfang carried power the way some men carried weapons easy, natural, dangerous. His pale eyes didn’t waver from her, not even when the elders chanted, not even when wolves knelt around him in reverence.

He smiled faintly. Possessively.

She forced herself to smile back, because that was what she was meant to do. Because Kael was her betrothed. Because this night the Blood Moon Binding was meant to secure a peace between their packs that had been hanging by a thread for decades.

But inside, her wolf stirred uneasily.

Something felt wrong.

---

“Lyra.”

She turned. Her father, Alden Graythorn, stood beside her. The Alpha of Crescent Hollow her Alpha, her father looked more worn tonight, the gray in his beard catching the torchlight like frost.

“Are you ready?” he asked, his voice low.

Lyra’s throat tightened. She nodded, though the truth sat bitter on her tongue.

He searched her face, and for a flicker of a moment, guilt crossed his.

“This will save the pack,” he said. “This will save us.”

Lyra wanted to believe him. She wanted to believe that her being handed over to Kael was the only way to keep blood from spilling between Stormfang and Crescent Hollow.

But she had heard the whispers.

She had seen the tension in Kael’s jaw when anyone questioned him.

She had seen what Stormfang wolves did to outsiders who disrespected their borders.

And something in her gut something primal told her Kael wasn’t the only danger looming tonight.

---

The chanting stopped.

A hush fell over the clearing, sharp and sudden.

The Blood Moon Binding was about to begin.

Kael stepped forward, his long black coat brushing the grass. The crowd watched as he moved like he already owned the ground beneath him, like he already owned her.

Lyra took a breath, steadying herself, lifting her chin so no one would see the crack in her resolve.

The Elder of Stormfang, a withered wolf with scar-lined hands, began the ancient words that would bind Lyra to Kael not just in promise, but in blood, in soul, in pack magic.

Lyra’s fingers trembled as the ceremonial knife was pressed into her palm.

---

Then

A howl split the air.

Not a celebratory one.

A warning.

It came from the treeline, sharp and furious, followed by another then another. The crowd shifted uneasily, wolves half-shifting instinctively, fur bristling, teeth bared.

Lyra’s heart pounded.

From the darkness, they came.

Rogues.

At first she counted three, then six, then more slipping between the trees like shadows, their eyes glinting feral gold.

The elders shouted. Crescent Hollow warriors leapt forward. Torches fell, sputtering in the damp grass as chaos erupted.

The Blood Moon Binding shattered.

---

“Lyra!” her father’s voice thundered.

But she couldn’t answer because a rogue wolf lunged for her, teeth flashing.

She stumbled back, raising the knife instinctively, but before the wolf could reach her, a blur of movement intercepted it.

Someone someone fast slammed into the rogue with brutal precision, sending it skidding into the dirt.

Lyra’s breath hitched.

The man who stood over the fallen rogue wasn’t Crescent Hollow. He wasn’t Stormfang either.

He was a stranger.

Tall. Broad-shouldered. Dark hair falling in messy waves, his eyes God, his eyes a stormy gray that locked on hers like he had been searching for her his entire life.

And when their gazes met

Her wolf surged inside her chest, howling.

The world tilted.

Something electric slammed through her through them both and in that instant she knew.

Mate.

Her breath caught in her throat.

The man’s nostrils flared, and his lips parted like he felt it too.

But there was no time to speak. No time to breathe.

Because another rogue came flying out of the trees, and he this stranger, this wolf who wasn’t supposed to exist in her world shifted mid-air, his body breaking, reshaping, exploding into the form of a massive black wolf.

And gods, he was beautiful.

---

The clearing dissolved into chaos wolves fighting, blood spraying, the moon burning red overhead.

Lyra was shoved back, grabbed by her father, dragged toward the circle of stones for protection but she couldn’t tear her gaze away from the stranger as he ripped through the rogues like a shadow unleashed.

And she felt it.

A pull.

A tether snapping into place.

As if the moon itself had pointed at him and whispered, this one.

---

Kael’s roar cut through the madness.

He shifted too silver fur blazing in the moonlight and launched himself into the fray, tearing through rogues with brutal ferocity.

For a heartbeat, Lyra thought she saw it a flicker of something darker in his eyes. Not just rage.

Possession.

As if he’d seen the way she looked at the black wolf.

As if he knew.

---

The battle ended as suddenly as it began.

The rogues were dead or gone, the survivors slinking back into the forest. The clearing was a mess of blood, torn earth, and broken ceremony.

Kael stood panting, his silver fur slick with crimson. His eyes found Lyra instantly.

The black wolf stood at the treeline, still as stone, his gray eyes locked on hers.

And she knew, with a certainty that terrified her, that this was only the beginning.

Because the Blood Moon was supposed to bind her to Kael.

But under its light, she had found her mate.