"A pack is not a family. A pack is a promise. One you bleed for."
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The forest was too quiet.
Selene crouched low in the undergrowth, her lungs tight, breath shallow. The air hung thick with mist and dread, the scent of moss and copper tinged with something fouler—something wrong. Her shoulder still burned from the last attack, the fabric around it damp with blood, but she ignored it. She had learned that pain was just another voice in the dark, and tonight, all voices were screaming.
Beside her, Kai sniffed the air, golden eyes narrowed. "They're here," he muttered. "But it's not just the Ravenscourge this time."
She wiped sweat from her brow. "More of them?"
He shook his head. "Something else. Something older."
Before she could respond, the wind shifted. Her breath caught. A new scent laced the air—thicker, wild, ancient.
Then came the screams.
They cut through the trees like jagged steel, human and wolf, terror and rage intermingled. Selene bolted up, sprinting with Kai toward the sound, heart hammering. Every step felt like it would be her last.
They reached a high ridge that overlooked a small ravine—and what they saw below stole her breath.
The clearing was soaked in blood.
Torn limbs, scattered weapons, shattered bones. The elite of the Ravenscourge were no more than ruined meat across the stones, their faces mangled, their armor useless. And at the center of the massacre stood three figures—neither man nor beast, but something far worse. Hulking, snarling creatures. Patches of fur streaked with red. Claws like blades. Eyes like cracked gold.
Kai tensed beside her. "Oldbloods."
Selene stared at the creatures, her instincts screaming. She'd heard the name before. In whispers. In warnings. They were legends from before the Moonbound curse, remnants of the First Howl—wolves born from chaos, not bitten or turned, but shaped by the gods themselves. No pack claimed them. No oath bound them.
They were death given form.
One of them looked up. Its head tilted. It sniffed the air and let out a low snarl.
"It smelled us," Selene whispered.
"Run," Kai said, already stepping back.
"No."
"Selene—"
"I'm done running."
The first Oldblood moved like lightning. Selene barely had time to duck before a claw ripped through the air where her throat had been. She rolled aside, slashing her blade across its leg. It shrieked, the sound scraping against her bones.
Another leapt from the trees and collided with Kai, the two of them crashing into the undergrowth in a snarl of teeth and muscle. Selene turned, and too late realized the third was right behind her. Its breath hit her neck just as it struck. Claws tore through her back, sending her sprawling face-first into the mud.
She gasped, vision swimming. The Oldblood stood over her, massive and trembling with bloodlust.
And then the forest lit with fire.
A dagger of blue flame shot from the trees and struck the creature's chest, knocking it backward. Riven emerged from the shadows, blades in hand, eyes glowing with rune-light. "Stay down," she called to Selene. "Unless you want fewer ribs."
Selene forced herself up, blood dripping down her spine. Pain screamed, but rage screamed louder. She wasn't going to die here. Not before she made them pay.
Kai and his opponent were locked in a brutal duel—teeth snapping, claws raking, each blow shaking the ground. Riven danced between her targets, slicing tendons and dodging swipes with inhuman grace. Selene turned back to the one that had cut her. It was rising, snarling.
Not today.
She charged.
Her blade met its ribs, burying itself deep. The creature howled, jaws gnashing, but she twisted hard. Silver blood spilled across her arms. It grabbed her throat. Lifted her.
She howled.
But it wasn't a cry of fear or pain—it was something else. Deeper. Older. Her voice rang out through the forest, piercing the air, shaking leaves from branches. Even the Oldbloods stopped.
That sound…
It was not just a girl's scream.
It was Moonbound.
The creature hesitated. Just long enough. Selene shoved the blade higher—into its heart. Its eyes widened. It stumbled back and fell, twitching, still trying to rise even as its blood soaked into the soil.
"Tell your gods I'm coming," she whispered.
The last of the Oldbloods tried to flee. Riven hurled a blade through its leg. Kai tackled it. Moments later, it was pinned by rune-chains, snarling and hissing.
They'd won. Barely.
Selene dropped to her knees. Blood soaked her clothes, her mouth tasted of iron and dirt, and her limbs trembled with exhaustion. But she was alive.
And more than that—she was feared.
Later, back at the ruined fortress they called shelter, Riven interrogated the chained Oldblood. Kai sat by the fire, silent, while Selene cleaned the blood from her blade. She could still hear the creature's voice as it laughed at them through its broken teeth.
"You lit the beacon," it said.
"What beacon?" Selene had demanded.
"Not a place," it whispered. "A howl. A pulse. The kind that wakes the old things."
"What do you mean?"
"Your voice," it spat, grinning with bloody teeth. "They heard it. And they're coming."
She didn't sleep that night.
Kai paced, tense, as always. Riven watched the horizon.
Selene sat alone, clutching her sword.
When the moonlight touched her skin, it didn't burn.
It welcomed her.
Something inside her had shifted. The wolf within no longer paced in chains—it roared. Not in madness.
In purpose.
She found Kai near the edge of the ruined wall.
"What do you know about them?" she asked.
He didn't answer at first. Then: "Oldbloods were born from the Moonfall. Not turned. Not made. Forged."
"Why would they care about me?"
Kai's eyes met hers, haunted. "Because you weren't turned either."
Her stomach dropped. "What?"
"You're a natural-born. There hasn't been one in centuries."
"No," she whispered. "I… I was bitten—"
"No," he said firmly. "You were sealed. Hidden. That mark on your back? That wasn't decoration. That was a lock. Someone tried to keep you buried."
Her mind reeled. She remembered the night her mother carved that symbol into her skin. Remembered the fire. The screaming.
A ward. Not a curse.
A crown.
She stumbled back, heart pounding. "Why me?"
"I don't know," Kai said. "But they do. And now they're hunting you."
She turned to him. "Will you run?"
He didn't hesitate. "Never."
That night, under the bleeding moon, she stood alone outside.
Her breath steamed in the air. The trees bent in the wind.
She didn't speak. Just stared up.
Something in the sky stared back.
She could feel it. The pull. The hunger. The destiny.
She didn't ask for it.
But she wasn't going to run from it.
Not anymore.
A branch snapped behind her.
She turned, expecting an enemy.
It was Kai.
He didn't speak. He didn't have to.
He walked to her side. They stood shoulder to shoulder.
The space between them thrummed with heat—not just from battle, not just from shared blood—but something deeper. He looked at her, jaw tight. She looked back.
Their fingers brushed.
Then interlocked.
And for the first time in what felt like centuries, she didn't feel hunted.
She felt chosen.
She leaned into him, her voice barely a whisper.
"If I really am what they say I am…"
He looked at her, voice low and certain.
"Then you're more than they feared."
And Selene, Moonborn, last of the line the Oldbloods tried to erase…
Smiled.
Because now?
She knew who she was.
And she was ready to make them bleed.