The Blood Moon Raid

The howl outside the gates fractured the night like glass.

One voice became many—dozens, maybe more—rising in a chorus so savage it vibrated through the stone walls of Blackwood Keep. The air thickened with the metallic taste of bloodlust. Wolves shifted uneasily along the battlements, their hackles raised, their eyes fixed on the treeline.

I clutched the edge of the courtyard wall, my heart battering my ribs. This was no rogue skirmish. This was an army.

Kade’s roar cut through the chaos. “Positions!”

His command rolled over the pack like thunder. Warriors shifted in rapid bursts of snapping bones and erupting fur, their clothes shredding as hulking shapes took their place. The courtyard filled with snarls and growls, the pack’s collective pulse syncing to the Alpha’s voice.

I should have been terrified. I was terrified. But a deeper instinct hummed beneath the fear, an ache that drew my gaze to him.

Kade stood at the center, golden eyes blazing, his chest bare save for the half-healed bite wound that still marked his shoulder. His power pulsed out like a stormfront, demanding obedience, bending every wolf in earshot to his will.

And still—he looked at me.

“Inside, Lena.” His voice was sharp, brooking no argument. “Now.”

“I’m not—”

“Now.”

The force of the word slammed into me like a fist. My knees nearly buckled. The bond burned hot in my blood, urging me to obey. I tasted iron as I bit my tongue, forcing myself upright.

“I won’t hide,” I said, my voice trembling but steady.

Something flickered across his face—fury, fear, something rawer. But he turned away before I could read it, lifting his hand to signal the warriors at the gates.

The ground shook as the first impact hit. Wolves hurled themselves against the iron, claws screeching against metal, teeth snapping. The gates groaned, torches flickering with the force.

The pack howled back, a wall of sound that rattled my bones.

“Hold,” Kade growled. His wolves froze, taut as bowstrings. Another crash, harder this time. Splinters rained from the wooden beams bracing the gates.

“Hold.”

The third strike ripped the world open. The gates burst inward, iron shrieking, wood splintering. Shadows poured through the breach—massive wolves, bigger than any I’d seen, their eyes glowing red, their muzzles slick with froth and blood.

Ronan’s army.

The courtyard erupted into violence. Blackwood warriors met the invaders head-on, bodies colliding with the sound of snapping bone and tearing flesh. Blood spattered across stone, hot and metallic in the night air.

I stumbled back against the wall, breath frozen in my chest. It was chaos. Wolves ripping at each other, snarls and screams blending into a single, monstrous sound. I’d never seen war—not like this.

Kade was a blur at the center, shifting mid-stride, his beast erupting in a storm of muscle and fur. His wolf was massive, towering, black as pitch, his golden eyes cutting through the carnage like fire. He ripped through Ronan’s wolves with savage precision, every strike fatal, every movement claiming space for his pack.

And still—I felt him watching me.

The bond seared, pulling me to him, begging me to move closer even as the battle pressed in. My body ached with the pull, my skin buzzing with heat. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t move.

Until the wall at my back shuddered.

A wolf slammed into it just feet from me, its ribs snapping under the weight of a Blackwood warrior. Blood sprayed across the stones, warm and wet. I cried out, stumbling sideways into the melee before I realized where I was.

Too far from the safety of the wall. Too close to the fight.

A shadow lunged at me from the side—fangs bared, claws flashing. I froze, my mind blank.

And then Kade was there.

He struck like a storm, jaws locking around the attacker’s throat. Blood gushed as he ripped the wolf away from me, flinging the corpse aside like nothing. His massive body loomed over mine, a living wall of fur and muscle, his snarl vibrating through my bones.

“Inside!” he roared, his voice shredded by the beast, but I understood.

I shook my head, chest heaving. “No—I can fight—”

His growl rattled the stones under my feet. “You’ll die.”

But before I could answer, the battle shifted. A horn blared from the treeline, low and guttural. The wolves at the gate pulled back, regrouping, their red eyes gleaming in the torchlight.

Not retreating. Waiting.

My stomach turned cold. This wasn’t the raid. It was only the beginning.

The horn’s echo hadn’t faded when the next wave came.

They moved differently than the first—taller, broader, wolves with scars crisscrossing their hides and teeth filed to points. Not wild rogues. Soldiers. Ronan’s chosen.

The ground trembled under their charge. The air thickened with the stink of blood and smoke.

“Shields!” Kade’s roar cut through the courtyard. A line of wolves surged forward, bracing shoulder to shoulder, their claws digging into the stone. The impact hit like an earthquake—snarls and screams exploding as the two forces collided.

I pressed against the wall, my nails biting into stone. The air was thick with copper, every breath scalding my lungs. My legs trembled, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the carnage.

Kade was everywhere. A blur of black fur, golden eyes, and blood-soaked fangs. He moved with impossible speed, ripping through enemies, his power rolling over the courtyard like a storm.

And still, the bond burned.

It was like a rope hooked into my chest, dragging me toward him, pulling me into the fight. The harder I resisted, the hotter it burned, until I thought my veins might split open from the heat.

A shout tore through the din. “The wall—!”

I whipped my head just in time to see it: a massive wolf, larger than any I’d seen, scaling the stones with claws that shredded rock. Its muzzle was gray with age, its eyes glowing a sickly crimson. Not just a soldier. A lieutenant.

It leaped down into the courtyard, crushing a warrior beneath its weight. The pack scrambled to face it, but its roar scattered them like leaves in a storm.

And then its gaze found me.

My breath caught. Its lips peeled back, revealing jagged teeth, dripping red. It knew. It knew what I was.

The wolf lunged.

I stumbled back, but there was nowhere left to go. The wall pressed cold and unyielding against my spine. My scream stuck in my throat.

The bond ignited.

Heat exploded in my veins, searing, violent, alive. My skin burned, my pulse thundered. The world slowed—the wolf’s claws slicing through air, its teeth snapping down.

I threw up my hands—

And something inside me lashed out.

The air shuddered. A force burst from my chest, invisible but crushing, hurling the wolf back across the courtyard. It slammed into the stone with a sickening crack, dust and rubble raining down.

Silence followed, thick and stunned. Wolves turned, their snarls faltering, their eyes snapping to me.

My chest heaved. My hands shook. I didn’t know what I had done. I didn’t even know if I could do it again. But I felt it—the bond thrumming in my blood like a second heartbeat.

“Lena.”

I turned. Kade stood across the carnage, his golden eyes locked on me. His chest rose and fell, his fur matted with blood. But his expression—raw, unguarded—wasn’t fury.

It was fear.

Before either of us could speak, the lieutenant stirred. It shook itself, rising unsteadily, blood dripping from its muzzle. Its roar split the courtyard, and the fight resumed in a storm of fangs and claws.

But this time, it wasn’t charging the pack.

It was charging me.

I staggered back, but my legs gave out, collapsing against the wall. The wolf loomed, its teeth flashing—

And then Kade hit it like a thunderclap.

They collided in a storm of fur and blood, rolling across the stones. Kade’s jaws clamped around its throat, but the wolf was stronger than the others, its claws ripping deep into his side. Blood sprayed, hot and dark.

“No!” The scream ripped from my throat, tearing it raw.

Kade roared, ripping the wolf’s throat open in a shower of crimson. It collapsed beneath him, twitching once before falling still.

The courtyard went silent again.

Kade staggered to his feet, blood pouring from his side. His golden eyes locked to mine, blazing even through the haze of pain. He crossed the courtyard in staggering strides, his hands bloody, his chest heaving.

He seized my face, his claws biting into my skin. His voice was a growl, low and savage.

“Whatever that was,” he rasped, his breath hot and wild against my lips, “it’s ours. It’s mine. And if Ronan wants you, he’ll have to walk through Blackwood’s dead to take you.”

His forehead pressed to mine, his words vibrating into my bones. The bond pulsed hot between us, alive, burning, binding.

And for the first time, I didn’t fight it.