Rion’s POV
Monster.
That’s what they whisper when they think I’m out of earshot. Even my own men. Even William, the only one brave enough to look me in the eye. “Born under the blood moon,” they say. “A monster with no heart, no soul, no feelings.” Incapable of joy, sadness, pain. Love? Rage? Happiness? They were all like empty words.
I never understood why they mattered.
As a pup, I’d catch lizards in the woods just to watch them up close. Slice them open slow, curious about the way the insides moved, shiny and wet. Why did they twitch like that? Why did the other kids run screaming? I didn’t feel bad. I didn’t feel anything.
There was that one boy…sixteen, same age as me. I tied him up in the old shed after he called me a freak. Cut shallow lines across his arms, his chest. I watche
