CHAPTER ONE: SURVIVING

RAISA POV

The first thing I remember is the smell of smoke and burning pipes. Then the screaming.

It tears through the forest like claws through flesh. I’m running before I know where I'm going. My feet are covered with ash and wet leaves. The sky above Moonveil is wrong. It was a red blood moon which should be a blessing.

But it wasn’t.

I look up to see fire moving through the trees, while thick smoke rises to the sky.

I looked through it and that's when I saw them. Men in leather vests who moved through the chaos, owning it. They had thrones on their back, and wolf skulls dangling from their belt, which made a clacking sound as they walked. Those were their trophies.

“Hunters,” I whispered to myself.

“Rasia….” My father’s voice cracked through the noise. He was the Alpha of our small pack. He was strong and looked unbreakable.

U turned towards him…running. But I never reached him.

A blast goes off. The shockwave threw me into the dirt as pain exploded through my shoulder. I immediately tasted blood. When I looked up, the elder’s hall was burning. Wolves I trained with, fighters, are dropping like flies as silver bullets pierce through them.

The hunters came prepared.

I pushed to my feet, my wolf trying to shift but the silver dust in the air made that impossible. My wolf, Midnight, was screaming inside me to let her out. I couldn't. She would die.

That’s when I see him.

My father is on his knees in the clearing, blood soaking his chest and his breaths are uneven. I saw three men circling him as one let out a loud laugh and the other raised a silver blade.

“NO!” I rush forward, trying to stop them. When someone grabs me from behind. A hand clamps over my mouth. Without thinking, I bite hard. The person snarls and punches me across the face. Stars burst behind my eyes.

I watched.

I watched my father lift his head, his eyes finding mine through the smoke. It held no fear in them. He was commanding me.

Then he mouthed, “Live”

The blade comes down fast. I don't even remember screaming, but my throat burned.

The hand shoves me backward. I stumbled, fell, and rolled down a small cliff, crashing into bodies. They were still and warm. My mother’s scent hits me and I nearly lose my mind.

I hear shots being fired again. Wolves fell and children cried.

I need to follow my dad’s last command…to live.

I don’t think about it. I crawl slowly as I shove myself in between my mother’s body and my dad’s–whose bodies they threw off the cliffs. Their blood pours over me, filling my mouth and nose. I don't wipe it away.

I go still as leather boots stop inches from my face.

“Check the bodies.” the man screamed. He pushes his blade down through my father’s body again. Then off to my mother’s.

I waited for it to come down on me again, that's when some shouted out loud…”Nothing is alive.”

The man laughed loudly, his footsteps retreating. The rest of the night passed in a blur.

*********************

I wake up screaming.

I’m on my knees in the Moonstone inner chamber, chest heaving, my vision red. The guards around the room tensed up with their spares raised but made no moves closer.

They know better.

Three years have passed since that horrible night, but the memory of it stays fresh in my brain.

“Raisa Night,” I heard the Alpha king call.

I drag a breath in, forcing my claws back. My hands shake as I make them into a fist.

‘Yes,” I answered.

He stands before me on a sharp, dark volcanic glass platform, with a crown carved with moonstones on his head. I could feel the power surrounding him. It was old and powerful.

Before, I would have bowed due to the pressure but now…..I stood.

“You are the last of the Moonveil,” he says. “And the only one who is suited for this task.”

A map is unrolled across the table between us. I could see borders that had been carved with ink and blood. The southern lands marked my country, Moonstone, and the north was home to humans, Aegis.

“They were thorough,” I say.

The king nodded once. “Agreed. A human biker gang cannot erase a pack that size alone.”

My jaw tightens. “Blackthron Biker Gang.” The name tasted like poison.

“Blackthrone might have carried out this slaughter.” The Alpha king says, “But someone had been feeding them information–like the patrol routes, weak points, and the timing.”

The words were clear. We had a traitor in our midst. “You want names?” I said, out loud.

“Yes, and I want proof.” He added. “I want that chain to be exposed.”

Silence hits. Then I continue, “What’s the mission?” I asked, but I already knew.

“Infiltration,” he says with a cold smile. “You will cross to Aegis and join the blackthorn. Gain their trust and find out who had ordered the massacre.”

“And then?” My wolf snarls.

“Then you bring them down.”

I smile coldly.

******************

The binding hurts worse than death.

As I kneel in the circle, with runes carved deep into the stone on which I lie. I could hear the Elders chanting unknown words, while a strange power coiling in the soul was being shut down from the inside. It tried to fight it but it did not matter.

The bond locks.

Midnight is forced down, and buried inside me. When it was all over, the silence I felt was wrong, it felt too empty.

I miss her immediately.

I collapse forward, gasping, sweat dripping down my face.

“This ritual would weaken you,” the King said. “But it will only hide your wolf.”

I push myself up, with a newfound strength. It was like midnight had found another way to manifest herself. “It won't break me.” my voice cold as ice.

He studies for a moment. “You were born under a blood moon…”

I growl, cutting him off. “So were legends and disasters.” I turned, walking out before he could say any more words.