The Blood Moon Rises

The courtyard’s cold stone pressed against my back as I stood beneath the rising moon. Its silver light felt like ice on my skin, sharp and watching.

I tilted my head up, eyes tracing the stars as they danced above me. They looked like they were rejoicing.

My chest pulled an odd sensation again, the exact one I felt in the forest. It tugged at me painfully.

Nyra hadn’t shut up since this morning. She’d been restless, clawing at my insides, pushing words into my mind I couldn’t always hear and certainly couldn’t understand.

I rubbed my fingers over the crescent moon tattoo on my neck. It tingled again, burning just a little, like it had something to do with the pounding in my chest.

The Blood Moon Festival was here. The first night of it anyway.

Dancing, music, and maybe, if the Moon Goddess deemed me worthy, my mate.

But everything that happened yesterday was still heavy in my mind.

The way Kael looked at me, storm-gray eyes boring through everything I tried to hide.

A spark of hope had lit up inside me, foolish and warm. I shouldn't be. I shouldn't be feeling this way, but I am.

I pushed off the wall, dragging my fingers through my tangled curls, willing the thoughts would go away.

The fortress throbbed with life tonight.

The scent of roasted meat, pine, and wolf fur filled the air. Laughter and drumbeats spilled from the great hall behind me, bright and thunderous.

I glanced down at the gray shift dress clinging to my frame. It's plain, now faded. It looked like ash next to the festival colors, but omegas didn’t get silks or jewels. No one expected us to shine.

I smoothed the fabric anyway, trying not to think of the scars under my sleeves. They didn't show. That was enough.

“Even omegas like you get a chance under the Blood Moon,” Elder Mara had said. I did believe her then, and somehow the believe in those words started to reduce.

I had to stand before the pack and pretend like I belonged there, even though I do not.

The great doors towered in front of me, carved with wolves howling beneath a blood-red moon.

I slipped inside, staying close to the walls, trying to disappear into shadow.

The hall was chaos and color. Crimson pennants hung from the rafters, stirring with the heat of so many bodies. Moonstone charms flickered on tables, casting soft glows over plates of venison and tankards of dark wine.

Wolves spun in the center, dancing wild to the rhythm of drums. Others leaned into corners and shadows, laughing, whispering about mates and marks and fate.

The moon altar stood tall at the hall’s heart, overflowing with herbs and moonpetals. The carved wolves on its edges seemed to watch me as I passed.

I wrinkled my nose. The scents here were stronger, cedar, sweat, and something metallic. Sharp, like iron.

Nyra stirred, rising fast inside me, her senses flaring. I felt she drew me forward, forcing my eyes across the crowd.

And that’s when my eyes landed on him.

The Alpha.

Alpha Kael Blackthorne.

He stood above everyone else, on the platform beside Beta Roland and the elders.

His black tunic clung to the cut lines of his body, the firelight making his dark hair shine. His storm-gray eyes swept over the room... until they found me.

I froze.

The pull in my chest snapped tight.

I breath heavily, trembling as Nyra whimpered, heat rising under my skin like wildfire.

Mate, she whispered, fierce and sure.

I shook my head. No. It couldn’t be. Kael was the Alpha. He was promised to Luna Celeste. 

He wasn’t mine.

He could never be mine.

But his eyes didn’t let me go. They locked onto mine with something deeper than curiosity, something harder than chance.

Then a she-wolf stepped up to him, speaking into his ear, and he turned away.

I clenched my fists, nails digging into my palms.

Why did he keep looking at me? In the corridor yesterday. Here tonight. What did he see?

I pushed through the crowd, walking in the paved way, between warriors and giggling she-wolves, until I reached a corner table.

The lower ranks gathered here, omegas and outsiders, laughing softly and the familiar ones talking to themselves.

I sat quietly, hiding the basket I’d carried under the bench, and tried to lose myself in their talk about mates and rituals. But the pull in my chest only grew stronger than before. Nyra scratched my skin from inside, relentlessly.

And then, a hand brushed my shoulder.

I turned quickly, my heart racing. Tessa stood there, her eyes gleaming with cruelty and hatred.

Her dark brown hair was braided back with red silk bands, her dress the same deep crimson. She looked like the festival, all polished and smug.

“Hiding already, omega?” she sneered. “Think the Moon Goddess gives a damn about a rat like you?”

My teeth pressed together. I forced my voice steady. “I’m just here for the festival. Same as you.”

She laughed, sharp and cold, her voice slicing through my skin like a razor. A few wolves looked at our direction. I quickly ducked my head when I noticed.

“You?” Tessa stepped in closer, placing on hand on my shoulder . “You’ll be lucky if a rogue claims you. No one here wants an omega’s broken blood.”

I felt Nyra bristle, the growl rising in her chest echoing in mine. I wanted to bare my teeth, to snap.

But maybe Tessa wasn’t wrong afterall.

I looked down and nodded. Let her have her victory, so she'll walk away.

She did, walking away proudly while laughing like something was funny.

My heart ached immediately she was gone.

Maybe she was right. Maybe I never should’ve come. Maybe this is a wrong decision.

The drums stopped.

The room fell into silence, and I turned toward the platform as Elder Mara stepped forward. Her silver hair shimmered in the moonstone glow, and then she raised her arms.

“Wolves of the Black Fang Pack,” she called, with a clear and strong voice. “The Blood Moon rises! Tonight, we honor the Moon Goddess, who binds our souls and guides our fates. The mate reveal is tomorrow. But tonight, we feast and dance under her magnificent glow!”

Cheers broke out. The drums was started again, louder.

Wolves filled the floor with howls and wild steps.

I didn’t move.

Tomorrow.

The mate reveal was tomorrow.

The pull in my chest tightened again. My eyes drifted, unwillingly, to Kael.

He stood by the altar now. Alone. Broad shoulders straight, arms crossed. He looked like he's observing everything, everyone. He turned and his gaze caught mine again.

Everything inside me became still.

Nyra’s voice rose again, so loud that it hurt. 'Mate.'

I couldn’t breathe. I vouldn’t even stay.

I slipped from the bench and moved through the edge of the crowd, past the doors, out into the cool night.

The courtyard was empty now, the moon higher in the sky. It gleamed like a red eye, watching all of us below.

I leaned against a stone pillar, gasping, my chest aching, heavy with different thoughts, and confusion.

It couldn’t be him. Kael was powerful, cold, the Alpha of Black Fang.

I am... nothing. An omega girl with hidden scars and a wolf who just would never shut up.

And yet... his scent clung to me, like he was next to me.

I heard a snapping sound behind me.

I turned quickly expecting it to be Tessa’s mocking voice, or her friends, or perhaps a guard coming to scold.

But it was him.

Kael.

He stood in the doorway.

I froze, my pulse seized.

“You shouldn’t be out here alone,” he said, voice low and rough. Not wicked, but not friendly either.

I swallowed. “I... I needed air.”

He didn’t move. He just watched me, his eyes flickering down to the mark on my neck. Something changed in his face. His jaw tightened, like he'd seen something he shouldn't.

“Stay with the pack,” he said quietly, and then he turned, his boots echoing on the stone as he walked away.

I didn’t say anything else. I couldn’t. I didn't even have anything to say.

I just stood there, heart burning, Nyra howling inside me, the pull so strong it nearly brought me to my knees.

Kael Blackthorne couldn’t be my mate.

But the Blood Moon didn’t lie.