The night the moon turned red was the night my life stopped belonging to me.
I remember the air first. Thick. Heavy. Like the forest itself was holding its breath. Even the crickets were silent, and in my village, that was never a good sign. I had just finished closing the small provision shop my aunt left me when the wind changed direction. It carried a scent—wild, metallic, and strangely sweet.
Blood.
My heart began to pound for reasons I couldn't explain. I had lived in Asaba all my life, on the quiet edge where the town slowly gives way to forest. I knew the sounds of night hunters and restless dogs. But this was different. This felt like something ancient had awakened.
The full moon hung low and swollen in the sky, but it wasn't its usual pale silver. It glowed crimson.
"Don't look at it too long," my aunt used to warn me before she died. "The moon sees more than you think."
I used to laugh at her stories about spirits and shapeshifters. Old village myths meant to scare children indoors. But standing there under that blood-red moon, I didn't feel like laughing.
I felt watched.
A sharp pain tore through my chest.
I gasped, dropping my keys. My knees buckled, and I grabbed the shop's metal door to steady myself. The pain spread like fire through my veins. My skin burned. My ears rang.
And then I heard it.
A howl.
It wasn't far. It wasn't near either. It was everywhere.
The sound vibrated inside me like it belonged there.
"No…" I whispered, though I didn't know what I was denying.
Another wave of pain crashed over me. My fingers curled into claws against the metal door. My nails—no, not nails anymore—lengthened, sharp and curved. I stared at them in horror.
This isn't real.
But reality doesn't ask permission before it changes.
My bones shifted with sickening cracks. My spine arched. I fell to the ground, screaming as heat flooded my body. The world blurred. Smells became stronger—earth, rust, rain from hours ago, and something else.
Wolves.
I could smell them.
Panic exploded in my chest. Wolves didn't live here. Not real ones. Not in these forests anymore.
Yet I could sense them moving between the trees. Multiple. Powerful. Watching.
"Hold her!" a deep male voice commanded from somewhere beyond the shop.
Footsteps approached rapidly. Heavy. Controlled.
I tried to stand, but my legs refused to obey. My vision sharpened unnaturally, catching every detail in the darkness. I saw them before they stepped fully into the light.
Three men.
No. Not men.
The tallest stood in front, broad shoulders stretching his black shirt, his eyes glowing faint gold under the red moon. His presence pressed down on me like gravity itself had increased.
The other two flanked him, silent and alert.
"Shift is starting early," one of them muttered.
Shift?
I tried to speak, but my teeth felt wrong in my mouth—sharper, longer.
The tall one stepped closer. The scent from the wind earlier—it was him. Wild. Powerful. Dominant.
Alpha.
The word slipped into my mind without explanation.
His eyes locked onto mine, and something inside me stilled. Not fear. Recognition.
Impossible.
"I told you she was the one," he said quietly.
The one?
My body convulsed again. This time, I didn't fight it. A strange instinct told me resistance would only make it worse. Heat consumed me, reshaping me from the inside out. My scream turned into something else—a growl that didn't sound human.
My senses exploded.
I could hear the alpha's heartbeat. Slow. Steady. Controlled.
I could hear the nervous swallow of the man to his left.
I could hear my own pulse syncing with something deeper, older.
Fur rippled across my skin like liquid shadow. My hands hit the ground, but they weren't hands anymore. They were paws.
The pain stopped.
Silence fell.
I stood—no, I towered—on four powerful legs. The world looked different from this height. Clearer. Sharper. Alive.
I wasn't human.
I was a wolf.
A large, silver-white wolf with streaks of black along my back.
The alpha inhaled sharply. "A silver," he murmured.
The other two exchanged looks.
"She's rare."
"She's dangerous."
Dangerous?
I lowered my head, confused but aware. I felt strength coiled inside me like lightning waiting to strike. But along with it came something else.
A pull.
It drew me toward him—the alpha. Toward his scent, his heartbeat, his golden eyes.
He took another step forward, slow and deliberate. "Easy," he said softly.
Why did I understand him?
Because you are one of us now.
The voice wasn't his. It was inside me.
My wolf.
The realization hit harder than the transformation. I wasn't possessed. I wasn't cursed.
This was me.
Memories flickered—my aunt's stories, her knowing smile, the way she never let me wander too deep into the forest on full moons.
She knew.
"You've been hiding in plain sight," the alpha said, almost amused. "All this time."
I wanted to demand answers, but only a low growl escaped me.
He smiled slightly. Not mocking. Calculating.
"My name is Kael," he said. "Alpha of the Midnight Pack."
The title meant something instinctive. Authority. Leadership. Strength.
"And you," he continued, eyes burning into mine, "are my mate."
The word slammed into me like thunder.
Mate.
A bond deeper than choice. Stronger than fear.
My wolf surged forward at the sound, eager and possessive. But the human part of me rebelled.
No. I don't even know you.
Kael stepped close enough that I could feel his warmth. His hand slowly reached out, stopping just before touching my fur.
"If you reject me now, the bond will scar us both," he said quietly. "But if you accept it… no one will ever hurt you again."
A promise.
Or a threat.
Behind him, the forest shifted. More wolves emerging from shadow. Their eyes reflected the crimson moon.
They were waiting.
For my answer.
I didn't know this world. I didn't understand the rules. Yesterday, I was just a girl running a small shop, worrying about bills and broken refrigerators.
Now I was a silver wolf under a blood moon, claimed by an alpha I had just met.
Fear trembled through me—but beneath it was something stronger.
Power.
I lifted my head and howled.
The sound tore through the night, fierce and commanding. The forest answered with silence first… then submission. One by one, the wolves lowered their heads.
Even the two beside Kael.
His golden eyes widened slightly. Respect flickered across his face.
"You feel it too," he said.
Yes.
I didn't know how, but I knew this: I wasn't just some hidden wolf.
I was something more.
The moon burned brighter above us, as if satisfied.
Kael finally let his fingers brush against my fur. The moment he touched me, a spark shot through our bond, sealing something ancient and unbreakable.
"You belong with us," he said.
But deep inside, a whisper warned me—
I didn't just belong to the pack.
The pack would one day belong to me.
And somewhere far beyond the forest, another howl echoed.
Not in submission.
In challenge.
The blood moon had risen.
And the war for the Midnight Pack had just begun.