《BENEATH THE CRIMSON MOON 》全部章節：第 1 章 - 第 10 章

She brought bread.Not scraps. Not leftovers. Actual bread. The good half of her morning roll that she had been saving since sunrise, wrapped carefully in cloth and tucked into her basket under the unsold roses like something important.Tyra told herself it was practical.The wolf was going to come anyway. She had seen the tracks. Months of them pressed into the mud outside her door. Whatever this animal was it had already decided her alley was its territory. Feeding it was simply damage control. A way of keeping it calm. Manageable.She was lying to herself and she knew it.The truth was she had thought about those gold eyes three separate times during the market that day. Had caught herself wondering if it would come back. Had packed the bread before she even realized she was doing it.She turned into the alley at dusk.It was already there.Same spot. Same stillness. That massive dark shape crouched at the far end where the lamplight barely reached, those gold eyes burning through

He was at the bakery when she arrived.Tyra saw him the moment she turned onto Piet's street. Troy was leaning against the counter with a roll in one hand, talking to Piet like they were old friends, that dark hair falling across his forehead, those gold eyes catching the morning light and throwing it straight back.She turned around immediately.She was not running.She was making a strategic decision about her morning.She bought her stock from Marta using the back entrance, arranged her basket quickly and set up near the fountain instead of her usual spot. Different location. Fresh start. Completely Troy free morning.She sold three bunches in twenty minutes.She was reaching for a fourth when a cup of tea appeared on the edge of her stall.She stared at it."It is getting cold," Troy said from beside her.She closed her eyes briefly. "How.""Piet's back entrance," he said pleasantly. "Same one you used."She turned to look at him. He was standing close enough that she could see th

Tyra could not sleep.She lay staring at the ceiling with Troy's face burned into her mind. That expression when her hand healed. Still and heavy and full of something that had been sitting in him for a long time.Tonight. He had said tonight.Tonight came. Tonight went. Troy never showed up.She sat up. Looked at the door. Nothing. Just Marren Lane settling into its ordinary night sounds. The butcher shop below. The distant river. The wind moving through the alley.She lay back down.Closed her eyes.She was standing in a forest.Tall dark trees pressing close on every side. Branches tangled overhead blocking everything except a thin strip of sky the color of something torn open. Deep red. Wrong in a way she felt low in her stomach.She looked down at her feet. Black soil. Damp. Her boots were leaving prints.She was not afraid.That was the strange thing. She was alone in an unfamiliar forest under a sky that was the wrong color and her body felt calm. Like something in her blood kn

She should not have gone into the forest.She knew that before she even crossed the tree line. Grimwall's forest sat on the east edge of town where the cobblestones ran out and the streetlamps stopped and the path narrowed into something that barely deserved the name. People in Grimwall did not go into that forest after dark. They did not go in before dark either if they could help it.Tyra went in at dusk.She had a reason. Old Sera who bought flowers from her every week had sent a message that morning saying she had found rare herbs in the forest that Marta charged three times too much for. Enough to cut Tyra's costs for a month.She had left before she could talk herself out of it.That was an hour ago.Now she was not sure she could find her way back.The trees had thickened faster than she expected. The path had split twice and she had chosen wrong both times and the light was almost gone and the forest had gone quiet in the way that meant something had noticed her before she had

She was not fully gone.Not yet.She could feel the cold ground under her. The wet soil against her cheek. The pain in her knee somewhere distant and patient, waiting for her to come back to it properly. She could hear the forest around her. Quiet now. Whatever had been in that vial had burned through the air and left nothing behind except that sharp cold smell and the sound of her own unsteady breathing.She tried to open her eyes.Got them halfway.The wolf was beside her. She could feel the warmth of it against her arm. Could hear its breathing, slower now than before, steadying itself the way it did when the worst had passed. She wanted to say something to it. Tell it she was alright. Tell it thank you for the hundredth time in ways she never had the right words for.She could not make her mouth work.Her eyes closed again.She felt the wolf move.Not the small adjustments it made when it pressed closer to her. Something larger. A shift in the air around her. A sound she had no na