Moonlit Bond

CHAPTER 3: THE QUIET SHIFT

Vexa’s POV

It’s been three days since that night.

Three days since the moon bled red and whispered my name.

I haven’t slept properly since. Every time I close my eyes, I see silver veins glowing beneath my skin like my blood is trying to remember something my mind can’t.

The mornings are worse. I wake up drenched in sweat, my heartbeat too fast, my muscles aching as if I’ve run for miles. Yesterday, I caught my reflection in the cracked mirror above the basin… and for a second, I didn’t recognize myself.

My eyes looked brighter. Wilder. Like the color had deepened, flickers of gold sparking inside the brown. It scared me.

I didn’t tell anyone. Who would I even tell? I’ve kept to myself since the rejection. The pack doesn’t want me around, and I don’t blame them. I can still hear the whispers when I walk through the market.

The rejected one.

The cursed one.

They think I don’t hear, but I do.

Today, though… something feels different. The air hums. I can feel it in my chest, low and steady, like a heartbeat that isn’t mine.

When I step outside the cabin, the forest greets me with a strange hush, not quiet, just… listening. The wind threads through the trees, carrying scents sharper than before. I can smell everything now: wet bark, crushed berries, even the faint trace of rain miles away.

“What’s happening to me?” I whisper. My voice sounds small against the vastness of the woods.

A squirrel darts across the path, its heartbeat fluttering loud in my ears. I flinch, startled. It’s impossible no one can hear that, not even the strongest wolves.

My knees weaken, and I grab the rough bark of a nearby oak to steady myself. The tree feels alive beneath my palm, pulsing faintly like it’s breathing with me.

“Okay, Vexa, breathe…” I whispered again. “You’re not losing your mind.”

But maybe I am.

— Flashback —

The last words Kale said to me that night weren’t the ones everyone heard. He’d leaned closer when the others walked away, his voice sharp and cold.

“You were never meant to be one of us.”

That had hurt more than the rejection itself.

— Present —

Now, as I stand under the pale daylight, those words twist inside me. Maybe he was right. Maybe I was never meant to be just one of them.

The air thickens suddenly. The birds scatter from the treetops in a burst of feathers. My instincts flare something’s coming.

A soft vibration runs through the ground beneath my feet, traveling up my legs like a warning.

Then, a howl. Long. Low. Distant.

But not a pack call.

It’s something older. Wilder.

The sound makes the hair on my arms stand. My pulse races.

I look toward the horizon where the forest thickens, shadows pooling between the trees. For a heartbeat, I swear I see eyes not gold like a wolf’s, but silver. Watching me.

When I blink, they’re gone.

Still, I can’t shake the feeling that something or someone has started following me.

And the strange thing?

For the first time in a long time…

I’m not sure, I want to run from it.