Chapter Three – Silver and Blood
1001 Words
Lucien’s body hit the forest floor with a dull thud, his silver eyes fluttering shut as the tranquilizer dart buried deeper into his muscle.
Ember rushed to him, hands shaking. “Lucien!”
He didn’t move.
The woods vibrated with soft, steady footsteps. She looked up and froze.
Figures emerged from the trees. Not wolves. Not quite human either.
Tall. Broad. Silent. All dressed in black.
The Shadowfangs.
A man stepped forward. Older, lean, cruel eyes and a scar that bisected his face.
“Well, well. The girl is real,” he said, voice low and oily. “And she glows. Just like the prophecy said.”
Ember backed up. “Get away from him.”
The man chuckled. “Protecting the cursed Alpha now? How sweet. But you have no idea who you are, do you?”
One of the others moved to grab her.
Before she could scream, a loud crack split the air, gunfire? No. Magic.
A blinding flare burst between her and the pack. The scent of ash and lavender filled the clearing.
“Aunt Marisol,” Ember gasped as her aunt stepped into view, cloaked in a hooded shawl, eyes blazing with unnatural light.
“I told you not to come into the woods, Ember,” Marisol snapped, lifting her hand again. A second flare sent the Shadowfangs reeling backward.
The leader snarled. “The witch protects her. How quaint.”
“Touch her, and you’ll be dust before dawn.”
The pack vanished into the trees with inhuman speed, their snarls echoing behind them.
Marisol dropped to her knees beside Lucien, muttering something in a language Ember didn’t understand. A soft light formed around his wound. The dart crumbled into ash.
Lucien stirred. “She… she glowed,” he rasped.
“I know,” Marisol whispered. “It’s starting.”
They carried Lucien back to the cabin and laid him on the couch. Ember sat by his side, arms wrapped tightly around her knees, eyes still wide with fear and confusion.
“What the hell is going on?” she demanded. “Who were they? Why do they want me?”
Marisol poured something steaming into a cup. “They’re the Shadowfangs. A rogue pack that’s been looking for a girl like you for years. A girl born with old blood. Lunarborn.”
“What does that mean?”
Marisol sat across from her. “Your father wasn’t the man you think he was. He wasn’t even fully human.”
Ember’s heart stopped. “Are you saying he was… a werewolf?”
“Not just a werewolf,” Marisol said. “He was the Alpha of the Lunarborn Line, the first bloodline, the one gifted by the original moon goddess. Your mother ran from that life to protect you. But it seems destiny has found you anyway.”
Ember looked to Lucien, still unconscious but breathing steadily. “And Lucien?”
“He’s cursed,” Marisol said. “His bloodline was banished by the Elders. Doomed to lose their mates. To destroy what they love most.”
Her voice broke.
“He was born to kill you, Ember. And yet he saved you.”
That night, Ember sat alone outside the cabin, knees hugged to her chest, the stars cold and sharp overhead.
Everything she thought she knew was a lie.
Wolves. Packs. Magic.
Her own blood.
She looked down at her hands, half expecting them to start glowing again. But they didn’t.
Not until Lucien stepped out onto the porch.
His body was bandaged, bruised, but he looked more dangerous than ever, moonlight catching in his silver eyes.
“You should rest,” she said softly.
“So should you.”
They sat in silence for a moment, the space between them alive with tension.
“I didn’t mean to scare you,” he said.
“You didn’t.”
Lucien gave a small smile. “Liar.”
She laughed, soft, raw. “Okay. Maybe a little.”
His gaze dropped to her lips. “You screamed. When the rogue was attacking me. But it wasn’t normal. It… stopped him.”
Ember shivered. “I felt something inside me. Like something woke up.”
Lucien turned his body toward her. “Something did.”
Silence.
Then she asked the question that had been haunting her all day. “Is it true? Are you cursed?”
Lucien hesitated.
“Yes.”
Her throat tightened. “And me?”
He didn’t answer right away. Then: “You’re something older than a curse.”
Her breath hitched.
“I don’t want to hurt you, Ember. But every time I look at you, every time I breathe you in… the bond pulls harder. The beast inside me wants to claim you.”
Her pulse raced. “And you?”
He leaned closer. “I want to kiss you so badly it hurts.”
Her lips parted. “Then do it.”
He did.
The kiss was slow at first. Tense. Charged. Then it deepened wild, aching, like fire meeting gasoline. Her fingers curled into his shirt. He growled low in his chest, pulling her closer
Then he jerked back.
Eyes glowing. Not silver.
Red.
Lucien gasped, hands trembling. “No. No, no it’s waking up.”
Ember stared in horror as his body arched, teeth lengthening, claws tearing through his fingertips.
“Get away from me,” he growled. “Run!”
“I’m not leaving you!”
He roared half man, half monster and dropped to the ground. Bones snapped. His back twisted. His mouth opened in a silent scream.
Then everything went still.
Lucien’s eyes met hers one last time.
And he changed.
Not into a wolf.
But into something else entirely.
His form was larger, darker, glowing with pulsing veins of light beneath his skin. He wasn’t just a werewolf.
He was the cursed Alpha.
The one the prophecy warned about.
And Ember?
She was the one meant to break him…
Or be broken by him.
- Writer
