Under the cruel glow of twin moons, the Crescent Forest and the Realm of Eternal Shadow have been waging a silent war for millennia.
At the center of it all are the **Hundred Hearts** — not precious stones, not jewels, but a hundred living beats, sentient fragments of the first emotion that ever existed in the world: the desperate desire to never be alone.
Lyra, scarred daughter of the Blood Moon, leads a pack that withers with each eclipse.
Eldrin Vaelthar, crown prince of the throne of obsidian and stolen light, carries the weight of a crown he never wanted.
When the Great Eclipse Awakening causes the Hundred Hearts to sing for the first time in seven centuries, both sides realize: whoever controls the Hearts will not just rule—they will rewrite what it means to be a monster, fairy, wolf, or lover.
Between fangs, shadows, ancient betrayals and a love that shouldn't exist, there remains only one question that no one dares to answer out loud:
What if the salvation of both races... requires the complete destruction of both?
**Chapter 1 – The Night the Blood Remembered**
Beaverton, Oregon — October 17, 2025
23:47
Ana Torres stepped on the accelerator of the heavy vehicle, the roar of the engine almost completely drowning out the radio.
— Unit 17, we have confirmation of a victim trapped on the third floor. Compromised structure. You are the first on site.
She didn't respond. It didn't need to.
The apartment building on Hawthorne Boulevard was already spewing black smoke thick as tar. Flames licked at the third-floor windows like hungry tongues.
But it wasn't the fire that made Ana's heart beat wrong that night.
It was the irrational, almost unhealthy certainty that he was inside.
Karma.
The man who for six months taught her everything about knots, safety knots, lifelines, anchor points, panic control — and, unintentionally, also about what happens when someone looks at you as if you were the only real thing in the chaos.
The same Karma who, three weeks ago, showed up at the barracks with a grotesque new tattoo covering half of his left forearm: a circle of black spikes that seemed to move when no one was looking directly.
A tattoo he refused to explain.
A tattoo that, in some way, changed everything between them.
Ana parked sideways and jumped out of the car before it even came to a complete stop. The sergeant shouted something about protocol. She didn't listen.
Helmet. Mask. Hose already in hand.
He took the outside stairs two at a time.
Second floor. Unbearable heat.
Third floor. The hallway was already a tunnel of smoke and floating embers.
—Karma! — Her voice came out hoarse, swallowed by the mask.
Silence. Just the roar of the fire and the crack of the beams giving way.
Then she saw him.
Leaning against the wall of apartment 304, sitting on the floor, legs bent, tattooed arm outstretched as if offering his skin to demons.
The black ink seemed to...pulse.
Like veins. Like tiny hearts beating under the skin.
He raised his face.
Deep brown eyes met hers through the visor of his helmet.
And smiled.
A sad, almost apologetic smile.
— You shouldn't have come, Ana.
"Shut up and get up," she growled, already extending her hand.
That's when it happened.
The tattoo exploded in black light.
Not fire. Don't call.
A liquid darkness that spread throughout the entire corridor in less than a second, swallowing sound, light, heat.
Ana felt the floor disappear.
And then... absolute silence.
When she opened her eyes again, she was lying on her back in the damp grass.
Full moon. Two full moons, in fact. A silvery white one. The other, dark red, like blood diluted in water.
The air smelled of pine and moss and something metallic. Blood. Lots of blood.
Ana sat up suddenly.
She was no longer in her firefighter uniform.
He wore reinforced leather, sewn furs, and heavy boots. A curved knife hung from his waist.
And your hands...
His nails were black. Long. Bent over. Claws.
She looked at her arm.
A crescent-shaped scar marked his olive skin, right where Karma's hideous tattoo used to be.
A deep, ancient and calm voice spoke behind her:
—Welcome back, Daughter of the Blood Moon.
The eclipse is over.
And the Hundred Hearts... are singing again.
Ana slowly turned around.
An immense wolf, larger than any animal she had ever seen, stood just a few meters away. Silver-gray coat. Yellow eyes that seemed to know every mistake she had ever made.
And still... even with the changed body, even with two moons in the sky, even with the name "Ana" seeming strangely small now...
She knew, with a certainty that hurt her bones:
That wolf was Karma.
Or rather...
what Karma became when the tattoo finished rewriting him.
And she, Ana Torres, firefighter from Beaverton,
I had just gone back in time.
Or maybe...
for the right time.
Just a time that was never exactly hers.
**End of Chapter 1**