BLOOD BENEATH THE MOON

CHAPTER 3

BLOOD BENEATH THE MOON

“Little Luna. You have finally awakened.”

The voice lingered inside Lyra's mind long after the words had been spoken.

She stared at the silver symbol glowing on her wrist. It looked like a crescent moon wrapped around a delicate wolf's head, its lines shifting beneath her skin as though something alive was moving underneath.

“What are you?” she whispered.

Mira, who had been standing beside the bed, immediately turned.

“Lyra? Who are you talking to?”

Lyra looked up. “You didn't hear that?”

“Hear what?”

“The voice.”

Mira glanced toward the open doorway, then back at her. “There's no one here.”

Lyra swallowed. The voice had sounded so close. Not like someone speaking from another room, but like someone whispering directly into her thoughts.

She pulled her sleeve over the mark.

“I think I'm losing my mind.”

“Don't say that.” Mira sat beside her and took her hand. “You were just rejected in front of the entire pack. You're hurt, exhausted and frightened. Anyone would be struggling.”

Lyra wanted to believe her.

But ordinary fear did not make symbols appear beneath someone's skin.

And ordinary pain did not make the moonlight move.

She turned toward the window. The moon was still visible above the distant trees, its pale glow spilling across the floor. For a moment, she thought she saw a shadow standing between the trees.

Then it disappeared.

“Mira,” she whispered. “Did you see that?”

Mira followed her gaze. “See what?”

“Nothing.”

Lyra lowered her eyes.

The silver mark had begun to burn again.

---

By morning, the entire Silvermoon Pack knew what had happened.

The whispers started before Lyra even stepped outside her room.

“She was rejected by the Nightfall Alpha.”

“I heard the moonstone almost cracked.”

“What did she expect? A woman without a wolf cannot become an Alpha's Luna.”

Lyra kept her head lowered as she walked through the corridor with Mira.

Every word found its way beneath her skin.

She had spent twenty-two years learning how to ignore cruel remarks. She had learned to smile when people called her defective and to remain silent when they treated her as though she were less than a wolf.

But yesterday had been different.

Yesterday, the Moon-Binding Ceremony had told the entire gathering that she belonged to Alpha Kael Draven.

And Kael had looked her in the eyes and rejected her.

The memory tightened her chest.

“Don't listen to them,” Mira muttered.

“It's difficult not to when they make certain everyone hears.”

“Then let them hear something else.”

Lyra managed a weak smile. “Like what?”

“Like the sound of me breaking someone's nose.”

Despite everything, Lyra almost laughed.

They reached the healing house, where the scent of dried herbs and medicinal oils filled the air. It had always been the one place where Lyra felt useful. She knew every shelf, every bottle and every healing mixture.

She hoped the familiar surroundings would help her forget the strange voice.

But the moment she stepped inside, a sharp pain shot through her wrist.

She gasped and grabbed the edge of a table.

“Lyra!”

Mira rushed toward her.

The silver symbol glowed through her sleeve.

Then every glass bottle on the nearest shelf began to tremble.

One fell.

Before it could hit the floor, it stopped in midair.

Lyra stared.

The bottle remained suspended for a heartbeat before dropping gently onto the wooden table.

Neither girl moved.

Mira's face had gone pale.

“Did you just...?”

“I don't know.”

“Lyra, what is happening to you?”

“I said I don't know!”

Her voice cracked.

The silence that followed was worse than the shouting outside.

Lyra pressed both hands against the table. She was frightened, but beneath the fear was something else. A strange sensation, like a door inside her had been unlocked after years of being sealed.

She could hear the heartbeat of the woman working in the next room.

She could smell the rain that had fallen miles away.

And somewhere beyond the healing house, she could hear wolves moving through the forest.

Their sounds were no longer distant.

They were painfully clear.

Then came another sensation.

A whisper.

Blood remembers.

Lyra closed her eyes.

“Please,” she whispered. “Tell me what's happening.”

This time, the voice answered.

They took your wolf. They buried your blood. They told the world you were nothing.

Lyra's breath caught.

“Who did?”

There was a pause.

Then the voice spoke again.

The woman who feared what you would become.

A chill passed through her.

Before she could ask another question, the door to the healing house opened.

Selene Draven entered.

---

The former Luna did not need to raise her voice to command attention.

She wore a long silver dress, her dark hair arranged neatly behind her head. Two guards followed her, their expressions unreadable.

Mira immediately straightened.

“Luna Selene.”

Selene's gaze moved over her before settling on Lyra.

For a moment, she said nothing.

Then her eyes narrowed.

“You.”

Lyra lowered her head out of habit. “My lady.”

“I was told you were unwell.”

“I'm recovering.”

“After what happened yesterday, I imagine you have much to recover from.”

There was something unpleasantly smooth about Selene's voice.

Lyra looked up. “Yes, my lady.”

Selene stepped closer.

“Show me your wrist.”

Lyra froze.

“My wrist?”

“The one you are hiding beneath your sleeve.”

Mira moved slightly in front of her. “Is there a reason you need to see it?”

Selene's eyes flicked toward Mira.

“I wasn't speaking to you.”

Mira fell silent, but she did not move away.

Lyra slowly pulled back her sleeve.

The silver mark was still there.

Selene's expression changed.

It was brief, almost invisible, but Lyra noticed it. The older woman's lips parted, and the color drained from her face.

For the first time since entering the room, Selene looked afraid.

Then the expression vanished.

“Where did you get that?”

“I don't know.”

“Who gave it to you?”

“No one.”

Selene seized Lyra's wrist.

Pain exploded through Lyra's arm.

She cried out, and the silver mark flared so brightly that the entire room filled with pale light.

Selene released her as though she had touched burning iron.

The guards stepped forward.

Mira caught Lyra before she fell.

“What are you doing?” Mira demanded.

Selene stared at the glowing symbol.

“No,” she whispered.

Lyra looked at her. “What does it mean?”

Selene ignored the question.

“Cover it. Immediately.”

“Why?”

“Because if the others see it, you will not survive the day.”

The warning sent a cold shiver through Lyra.

“What are you talking about?”

Selene turned toward the guards.

“Search this room. Find anything that may have been used to create this mark.”

Mira stepped forward. “You cannot simply search her belongings!”

“I can do whatever is necessary to protect this pack.”

“From what?” Lyra asked.

Selene looked at her again.

For a moment, their eyes met.

Then Selene leaned closer and spoke in a voice only Lyra could hear.

“Whatever you think is waking inside you, pray that it dies before anyone discovers what you are.”

Lyra's heart pounded.

“What am I?”

Selene straightened.

“An unfortunate mistake.”

She turned and walked out.

But Lyra had seen it.

The fear.

Selene Draven knew something about the mark.

And she had been terrified of it.

---

That afternoon, Lyra returned to her room with Mira.

Neither of them spoke until the door was locked.

Mira paced from one side of the room to the other.

“I don't trust her.”

“Neither do I.”

“She knew what that symbol was.”

Lyra sat on the edge of the bed. “And she looked frightened when she saw it.”

“Maybe we should tell someone.”

“Who?”

Mira stopped.

They both knew the answer.

The pack's elders served the Alpha. The guards obeyed the Alpha. And Selene had once been Luna of Nightfall, with influence that reached far beyond the walls of Silvermoon.

There was no one Lyra could trust.

Except perhaps the voice.

She looked down at her wrist.

The mark had dimmed, but it had not disappeared.

“Last night, the voice said something about my blood being buried,” she said quietly. “It said someone took my wolf.”

Mira sat beside her.

“Do you think that's possible?”

“I don't know. But I've never believed I was born without a wolf.”

“Why?”

Lyra hesitated.

There was a memory she had never understood.

A memory from when she was very young.

She remembered a woman holding her beneath a bright moon. She remembered the warmth of a hand against her forehead and a voice singing softly.

Then came a sharp flash of silver light.

And after that, nothing.

“I used to dream about my mother,” Lyra said. “She would tell me that I wasn't broken. That I only needed to remember.”

Mira's expression softened.

“Why didn't you tell me?”

“Because I thought it was just a dream.”

The silver mark suddenly pulsed.

Lyra gasped.

The room grew cold.

A woman's voice whispered through her mind.

Find the Bloodstone Chamber.

Lyra stood abruptly.

“What is it?” Mira asked.

“The voice. It wants me to find something.”

“What?”

“The Bloodstone Chamber.”

Mira frowned. “I've never heard of that place.”

“Neither have I.”

The voice returned.

Beneath the old Moon Temple. Where the first oath was broken.

Lyra's heart began to race.

“Where is the old Moon Temple?”

Mira looked toward the window.

“Beyond the northern forest. It's been abandoned for years. No one goes there.”

“Then that's where I'm going.”

“Absolutely not.”

“Mira—”

“No. You were nearly crushed by the rejection yesterday, and now your wrist is glowing, bottles are flying, and Selene Draven looks ready to have you dragged away. You are not going into an abandoned temple alone.”

Lyra reached for her hand.

“I won't go alone.”

Mira stared at her.

“You're serious.”

“I need answers. And Selene knows something. If I wait for her to decide what happens to me, I may never get the truth.”

Mira sighed.

“I hate that you're right.”

For the first time that day, Lyra smiled.

But the smile disappeared when a sudden wave of pain struck her chest.

She doubled over.

A growl rose from deep inside her.

Not the growl of an ordinary wolf.

It sounded ancient.

Powerful.

And furious.

The windows rattled.

Mira backed away, staring at her.

“Lyra?”

Lyra could no longer hear her.

She was somewhere else.

A vast hall stood before her, its pillars carved with wolves and crescent moons. At the center was a throne made of black stone. A woman stood before it, wearing a crown of silver branches.

Her face was hidden.

But Lyra recognized the symbol glowing above the throne.

The same mark on her wrist.

The woman turned.

You are the blood they tried to erase.

The vision shattered.

Lyra collapsed to her knees.

When she opened her eyes, Mira was beside her, calling her name.

But Lyra barely heard her.

The voice had spoken once more.

And this time, it had given her a name.

First Luna's heir.

Lyra stared at the silver symbol on her wrist.

She had spent her entire life believing she was a girl without a wolf.

Now she was beginning to understand that someone had made her that way.

And whoever had buried her true nature had not done it to protect her.

They had done it because they feared what she might become.