The Red Moon
835 Words
The peace of the morning was shattered not by a scream, but by a sound far more chilling: the frantic, collective howling of the northern sentries. Maya bolted upright in the massive bed, the silk sheets tangled around her legs. Beside her, the space where Kaelen had slept was already cold.
She ran to the balcony, her heart hammered against her ribs. Below, the estate was a hive of controlled chaos. Men and women were shifting mid-stride, their human forms giving way to powerful wolves as they blurred toward the tree line.
"Stay inside, Maya!" Elias, the Beta, shouted from the courtyard below. He was already half-shifted, his eyes a piercing, lupine blue. "The Red Moon has breached the creek!"
Maya watched as a group of three black wolves emerged from the forest, carrying a fourth between them. Even from this distance, she could see the crimson staining the grey fur of the wounded wolf. Her scientific mind overrode her terror. Those wolves weren't just soldiers; they were people. And they were dying.
Ignoring Kaelen’s earlier command to stay in the room, Maya grabbed her medical kit and the satchel of herbs she had collected before her capture. She raced down the private staircase, her breath coming in ragged gasps.
She found the makeshift infirmary in a stone-walled room near the kitchens. The air was thick with the scent of metallic blood and wet fur. Two healers were hunched over the wounded warrior, their hands glowing with a faint, shimmering light that Maya couldn't explain, but the wolf was still convulsing.
"He's in shock," Maya blurted out, pushing her way into the room.
"Get out, human!" one of the healers snapped, his face pale with exhaustion. "This is pack business."
"He has a severed artery in his hind leg," Maya countered, her voice steady despite her shaking hands. She knelt by the wolf, who had shifted back into a young man no older than twenty. "Your magic is closing the surface, but he’s bleeding out internally. If you don't clamp that vessel now, he’ll be dead in three minutes."
The healers hesitated, but the boy’s pulse was fading. "Do it," the older one whispered.
Maya moved with surgical precision. She used her forceps to find the bleeder, her fingers slick with blood. She didn't have their magic, but she had years of field medicine and a deep knowledge of anatomy. As she worked, she felt a presence behind her—a heavy, dark heat that made the hair on her neck stand up.
Kaelen stood in the doorway. He was covered in soot and blood that wasn't his, his chest heaving. He watched in stunned silence as the "weak" human he had imprisoned saved one of his strongest warriors.
When the boy’s breathing finally stabilized, Maya slumped back against the stone wall, her hands trembling. Kaelen was at her side in an instant. He didn't care about the blood on her clothes; he pulled her into his arms, his face buried in the crook of her neck.
"You should have stayed upstairs," he growled, though his voice lacked any real bite. He sounded relieved.
"He would have died," Maya whispered into his chest.
Kaelen pulled back, looking at her with a new kind of intensity. It wasn't just possessiveness anymore; it was respect. "My people saw what you did, Maya. You didn't just save a soldier. You showed them why the Moon Goddess chose you to be our Luna."
"I did it because it was right, not because of a title," she snapped, though her body leaned into his warmth.
Before Kaelen could respond, a scout burst into the room, his face mask-like with dread. "Alpha! They didn't come to fight. It was a distraction."
Kaelen’s grip on Maya tightened until it was almost painful. "What do you mean?"
"The Red Moon... they didn't want the territory," the scout gasped. "While we were at the creek, they circled back. They found the human’s truck. They found her ID, Kaelen. They know exactly where her family lives."
The world seemed to tilt beneath Maya’s feet. The blood she had just saved felt cold in her veins. Kaelen’s eyes turned a lethal, glowing gold, and a snarl ripped from his throat that shook the very foundations of the infirmary.
"Assemble the war party," Kaelen commanded, his voice vibrating with a promise of slaughter. "We aren't waiting for them to come to us anymore. We’re going to burn their camp to the ground."
Maya grabbed his arm, her eyes wide with desperation. "Kaelen, wait! My mother... my sister... they don't know anything about this! You can't just leave them unprotected!"
"I'm not leaving them, Maya," Kaelen said, his gaze locking onto hers. "We're going to get them. And then, I'm going to kill every single person who thought they could threaten what belongs to me."
- Writer
