Bound By The Blood Moon

Chapter 2

Chapter 2 – The Weight of the Moon

Aiden’s Point of View

The forest never truly sleeps. Not for those of us bound to it. Even under the soft cloak of night, the trees whispered, the wind hummed against the old bark, and the undergrowth shifted as if something beneath the earth itself stirred. The wolves were silent, resting in their dens, but I felt them every heartbeat, every breath, every muscle coiled and waiting. I always felt them, in a way no human could. In a way that had been born into me, in the blood of my pack, in the weight of a role I had inherited before I could even understand it.

I walked alone along the cliffside, the jagged rocks below slick with moss. The Blood Moon had not yet risen, but I could feel it approaching, creeping along the edges of the world like a predator in the dark. There was a pull tonight, subtle but unmistakable, tugging at the threads woven into my bloodline. Something stirred beyond the borders of our territory. Something I had been waiting for, whether I wanted it or not.

It had been eighteen years since that night. Eighteen years since Aria’s death, since the forest had been painted in her blood, and since the human who carried her curse had fled into obscurity.

I clenched my fists and exhaled slowly, trying to center myself. Every step I took, every breath I drew, reminded me that the past was never truly gone. The scent of that night lingered in the wind, in the memory of the underbrush, in the faint trace of gunpowder that no human could ever erase.

I remembered her clearly Aria, small and laughing, reaching for the moonlight as though she could catch it in her tiny hands. And then the shot. The flash of silver, the way her eyes widened, the sound that tore my soul apart. She had been mine, my sister, and in one instant, she was gone.

The forest had never forgiven me for failing her.

I paused at the edge of the clearing, the air thick with the scent of rain and something else. Something unfamiliar, human. My nostrils flared, but it was faint just a trace. A pulse. A heartbeat, out of place, echoing across the edges of our territory.

I knew it was there before I saw it, before any sense could confirm it. The pack had always trusted me for my instincts, but even I had limits. And yet, tonight, the threads were pulling me toward something new. Something alive, something human.

I closed my eyes and let the senses wash over me. A tremor in the wind, a shift in the brush, a faint metallic scent beneath the sweetness of earth and rain. I inhaled slowly, measured. The pulse was growing stronger. Closer.

And then I felt it.

A connection I could not name. Something ancient, tethered to me by blood and curse, stretching across the years, reaching for me in ways that no human life should.

I opened my eyes and stared toward the forest. Somewhere, beyond the trees, the bond had awakened.

I did not move immediately. I never acted without certainty. The Silverfangs had taught me discipline from the moment I could walk, but life had carved into me the understanding that some forces could not be confronted without preparation. I would not fail my pack again. Not like I had failed Aria.

The faint pull of the bloodline of the human child was insistent, almost pleading. I did not understand why, but I felt the weight of it, heavy and relentless.

And I did not trust it.

My cousin Ronan appeared from the shadows as silently as the mist rising from the moss. His presence, as always, was an intrusion I tolerated but did not welcome. He had grown ambitious over the years, subtle in his scheming, and always eager to find weaknesses in my rule. I knew him as well as I knew my own heart. And yet, even I felt a flicker of unease in his gaze tonight.

“You’ve been restless,” he said, voice low, almost teasing, but beneath it, a sharpened edge. “Even for you.”

I did not respond immediately. I kept walking, measuring my steps. Ronan fell into stride beside me, matching my pace without invitation.

“I can feel it too,” he said finally. “The stir of the blood beyond the forest. I’ve smelled it, felt it. You know what I’m talking about.”

I kept my eyes forward, controlling the tremor in my jaw. “You speak in riddles,” I said evenly.

He smirked, just enough to show that he knew I was aware. “Don’t pretend you don’t feel it. It’s calling to you. Something human has trespassed into our world. And if you do not act, someone else will.”

I glanced at him briefly. “And what would you have me do, cousin? Hunt it down before it realizes its own power? Or wait for it to come to me?”

Ronan’s smile faded, replaced by a seriousness that mirrored my own. “The pack will not wait. And neither will our enemies. You feel it, don’t you? That… pull.”

I did. And I hated it.

I reached the ridge overlooking the northern forest, where the trees thickened, almost black in the fading twilight. The wind carried a faint warmth, a human scent entwined with something far older. My claws itched, even though I did not extend them. My wolf, the part of me I had trained to dominate, stirred, restless, alert.

I tried to ignore it, to focus on the task at hand. The pack was restless, the full moon approaching, and yet my thoughts refused to remain on my responsibilities. Something had shifted. Something I could not yet name.

And the more I denied it, the more persistent it became.

Memories clawed at me, unbidden. I saw her face again Aria small, golden-eyed, laughing as she ran through the forest. I remembered the night as though it had happened only moments ago. I had heard the gunshot, had felt the rip of death through the air, had seen her fall in my arms. I had known then, and I knew now, that I had failed her in every conceivable way.

I clenched my fists, fighting the rage that rose like wildfire. The pack would not see me falter. They would not see the old grief that still lingered in my chest, still burned at the edges of my soul. Discipline demanded control. The Alpha must always control.

But the pull… the pull was different now.

It was not just the echo of her death. It was something new. Something alive.

And I was certain, though I could not yet name it, that it was connected to the curse I had carried in silence all these years.

Ronan’s presence shifted beside me. “You are thinking of her,” he said. “Aria.”

I did not answer immediately. I stared into the northern forest, the shadows thickening like ink. “I am always thinking of her,” I said finally, voice low. “Do not mistake silence for ignorance, cousin.”

Ronan chuckled softly, the sound more dangerous than mirth. “Oh, I know. But you cannot fight the world alone, Aiden. There is a human one that stirs old bonds, old debts. And I suspect… they carry what we thought lost forever.”

I did not move, did not speak. Only the wind answered me, carrying with it the faint scent of something I had never encountered before, yet somehow recognized.

Something human.

And yet… not entirely.

I turned to leave, my mind running through every possibility, every threat, every contingency. The pack must be protected. My position must remain unchallenged. Ronan’s words echoed in my mind.

“Old debts.”

I did not like him. Not ever. But for the first time, I realized he might be right.

I would need to find the source. I would need to understand what had awakened. And I would need to ensure it did not threaten the pack or me.

The forest seemed to tense around me, the shadows deepening as the sun sank lower. The howl of distant wolves pierced the night, warning, perhaps, of the change to come.

I knew I would not rest until I had found it.

Because the bloodline was stirring.

And the Blood Moon would not be denied.

The mark of the past, the weight of grief, and the curse of fate all pressed against my mind. The human life that had eluded me for eighteen years had begun to call. And I stoic, controlled, Alpha of the Silverfangs could feel its pull, irresistible and terrifying.

I did not yet know who it was. I did not know her name. I did not know that this child, hidden among humans, was the same blood tied to Aria’s death.

But I would find her.

And when I did…

I would decide whether she was a threat to my pack—or something far more dangerous: the only chance at redemption I had ever been given.

The forest waited silently, anticipating. The Blood Moon would rise.

And so would I.