Chapter 1 Moon Rising

• Lyra POV
• It all started at midnight, loud and glinting noise that can rip ears into two.
• I pressed my small body against the wooden wall of the Omega quarters, my four-year-old hands trembling as the sounds of terror echoed through our village like a tornado.
• The other children huddled together in the center of the room, but something pulled me toward the window. I had to see, to know what was actually happening outside.
• The moon hung like a crying wound in the sky, casting everything in crimson light. Below, our pack warriors shifted into their massive wolf forms, their howls mixing with sounds I had never heard before, sounds that made my bones ache with fear and something I can not really phantom.
• The Kanimas had come again.
• I watched through the cracked glass as the shadow beasts zoomed between our homes like living nightmares. They moved wrong, too fluid and too fast with terrifying speed that can make someone go crazy, their serpentine bodies crowned with heads that seemed carved from darkness itself. Their eyes burned red as the cursed moon above, and wherever they touched, our beautiful territory scattered.
• "Get away from there, little one." Old Martha, who helped care for us Omega children, reached for me with shaking fingers. But before she could pull me back, the world exploded.
• A massive Kanima crashed through our roof in a shower of splintered wood and stone. The creature's head shifted toward us like a devil who is about to try out new death skills, and I saw death in its glowing gaze. The other children screamed, scattering like leaves in a hurricane.
• I ran, my feet nearly touching my skull.
• My bare feet slapped against the cold earth as I fled into the chaos outside. Smoke burned my lungs and stung my eyes, but I kept running. Behind me, I could hear Martha calling my name, but her voice grew fainter with each step, but by bit.
• The village I knew was gone. In its place stood a battlefield painted in blood and shadow. Warriors fought desperately against creatures that shouldn't exist, their claws and fangs useless against enemies that reformed from darkness itself. I saw Beta Marcus fall, his wolf form crumpling as a Kanima's tail whipped across his throat, oops!!
• Terror made me stumble, and I crashed to my knees beside the pack's central fountain. The water had turned black, reflecting the cursed moon like a mirror to hell.
• That's when I heard them.
• Child of two worlds...
• The whispers drove into my mind, speaking in voices that sounded like wind through dead leaves. I turned around, searching for the source, but saw only destruction and desperation.
• Blood calls to blood...
• My hands began to tingle, a strange warmth spreading up my arms. When I looked down, silver light flickered beneath my skin like captured starlight. I didn't understand what was happening to me, but the whispers grew louder, more insistent.
• Awaken, daughter of shadows...
• "Stop," I whimpered, pressing my palms against my ears. But the voices weren't coming from outside, they lived inside my head, growing stronger with each passing second, deep and scary sounds.
• The silver light pulsed brighter, and suddenly I could see things differently. The Kanimas weren't just mindless beasts, they were searching for something. Their burning eyes swept over the fleeing pack members, dismissing them, hunting for... what?
• One of the creatures turned toward me, its massive head hovering like a predator recognizing prey. Our eyes locked, and I saw something that chilled me to the bone, something that makes my bone cold to the brim.
• Recognition.
• It knew me. Somehow, impossibly, this nightmare creature knew exactly who I was.
• The Kanima began to move toward me, its movements suddenly purposeful. I tried to run, but my legs wouldn't work. The silver light under my skin grew so bright it hurt, and the whispers became a roar. Then everything went black…
• ::::::::::::::::::::::
• Sixteen years later...
• "Move, freak."
• Cassandra's shoulder crashed into mine as she passed harder like someone who'd hate my existence, sending the herbs I gathered for Selene scattering across the ground.
• Her followers giggled like this was the height of entertainment, watching me scramble to collect the precious plants before they were trampled and wasted.
• "Careful, Cass," Maya whispered from beside me, her voice barely audible. "What if she curses you?"
• The laughter died instantly. Even as a joke, the word 'curse' carried weight in our pack. Too much weight, especially when applied to me, everyone literally believed I was a beast sent from a pit of hell.
• I kept my head down, focusing on retrieving the scattered chamomile and sage. After sixteen years of this treatment, I have learned that reaction only makes things worse. Better to be invisible, forgettable.
• But invisibility was impossible when you looked like me.
• I caught my reflection in a puddle as I reached for a fallen sprig of lavender. Silver eyes stared back at me, not the gold or amber of normal werewolves, but true silver, like moonlight on water. My hair fell in waves of pure black, so dark it seemed to absorb light rather than reflect it.
• Beautiful, they called me. Unnaturally beautiful. And in a world where different meant dangerous, witty, beauty became a burden, a load not worth carrying.
• "The Moon Ceremony is tonight," Cassandra announced, her voice carrying across the square. "I wonder if any of the unmated males will be desperate enough to claim our little oddity."
• My hands stilled on the herbs. The Moon Ceremony, the monthly gathering where unmated wolves hoped to find their destined partners. I have never been allowed to attend, but this year would be different. I was twenty now, old enough that even the pack's strict traditions couldn't keep me away, NEVER.
• "I heard Alpha Donovan himself plans to choose a mate tonight," one of Cassandra's friends added with a dreamy sigh. "Can you imagine? Being chosen by an Alpha like him?"
• I could imagine. In the quiet moments before sleep, I had imagined it many times. Alpha Donovan was everything our pack admired, strong, decisive, devastatingly handsome, everything about him is extremely complete.
• At twenty-three, he had already elevated our pack to the third-highest rank among all werewolf territories. He was the kind of male who made unmated females forget how to breathe, so hot.
• Not that someone like him would ever notice someone like me.
• "Don't even think about it," Cassandra hissed, apparently reading my expression. "The Alpha needs a mate worthy of his station. Not some Omega foundling with freaky eyes."
• The words hit their mark, just as she'd intended. I wasn't pack-born, everyone knew that. Selene had found me during the Blood Moon attack that killed my parents, whoever they'd been. I had no lineage, no status, no family name to recommend me to, everyone hated me, disgust me like I'm a curse.
• All I had were strange dreams I couldn't explain and whispers that followed me through the darkness.
• As if summoned by my thoughts, the whispers stirred now, soft and seductive in the back of my mind. They'd returned three months ago, growing stronger each day. Sometimes I caught myself responding to them, holding conversations with voices only I could hear.
• Soon, they promised. Soon you'll understand.
• Understand what exactly, huh? I'd given up asking. The voices never answered direct questions, preferring to speak in riddles and half-truths that left me more confused than before.
• I gathered the last of my scattered herbs and stood, brushing dirt from my simple dress. Around me, the pack buzzed with excitement for tonight's ceremony. Unmated females preened and prepared, while males strutted and postured, hoping to catch the right eye.
• But as I walked toward Selene's healing cottage, a different kind of anticipation built in my chest. Tonight felt different. Important. Like standing on the edge of a cliff, knowing that one step forward would change everything.
• I just didn't know yet whether I'd fly or fall. Anything can happen, for good or for bad, but the bad is obvious, nobody really likes me.
• The whispers laughed softly in my mind, and for the first time in months, I thought I heard actual words buried in their ethereal chorus.
• Tonight, daughter of shadows. Tonight, everything begins.
• My steps became weaker as silver light flickered beneath my skin, so brief I might have imagined it. But the warmth spreading through my veins was real enough, along with the sudden certainty that my life was about to shatter into a thousand pieces.
• Something ancient and powerful was awakening within me, and this time, there would be no forgetting…