Scarred by Moonlight

Chapter 3: Savages! Barely Even Human

**Trigger warning!!!** This chapter is heavy. Themes of death and gore. I can't manage your triggers, but I will say of you want to skip this one, it's okay.

Hours earlier

Screams filled the air, sharp and unrelenting, like a blade tearing through the heart of the Sacred Dawn Pack. River's lungs burned as she sprinted through the forest, her ears tuned to the chaos around her.

They had come from the woods in a coordinated attack. Hunters. Hundreds of them with their silver bullets, blades, and bolts. f*****g humans! Savages!

Gunshots cracked the air, each one driving her mind deeper into panic. The alpha was dead. The Luna captured. Wolves screamed in pain, and the once vibrant territory known for its temples to the Moon Goddess, was now a battlefield of blood and fire.

River's pack was falling. All that she could do now was hope she could save its future. "Where the hell are the children!?" Rivers mind reeled as she searched the forest for the five children that were yet unaccounted for.

Nyx growled low in her mind, the wolf's presence surging with desperation.

"Shift, River! Let me fight!"

River clenched her jaw, forcing herself to stay focus. "Not yet," she muttered under her breath, though her voice trembled. "The kids come first." River had to find them! She needed to save the future of her home.

Ahead, she spotted them- five small figures crouched at the base of a towering oak, their whimpers of fear barely audible over the cacophony of death around them.

River's heart ached at the sight of their tear-streaked faces, but she had no time to hold them and comfort them. These were some of the youngest of the pack, far too young to defend themselves from the monsters that had strolled into their home. River knew she had to see them to safety before the hunters found them.

"Come on!" River urges, waving them toward her. "Stay close to me. I'm going to get you out of here."

Their tiny legs scrambled to keep up as she led them through the trees, River's head constantly swiveling to scan for threats. Nyx snarled, restless and furious. "Dammit, you're going to get us killed, Riv. Let me protect them! The pups need me!"

River ignored her, focusing on the children's safety. She had just reached a small clearing when she heard the sharp snap of a branch. River froze, her instincts screaming at her to move! Protect the children! But it was too late.

A hunter emerged from the shadows, his face twisted in a sneer. He raised his crossbow, and River reacted on instinct, throwing herself in front of the children. "Run!" She shouted!

The pups scattered, all but one.

"Gigi! Run!" River breathed, her voice breaking. The little girl stood frozen in fear with her wide brown eyes locked on Hunter.

"No!" River lunged forward but it was too late. The hunter released the silver-tipped bolt and it stuck true in Gigi's small chest. River watched in horror as the child crumpled, her tiny body hitting the ground with a sickening thud. It might as well have been an explosion to River, it was deafening.

River stared at the small body on the ground, her breath caught in her throat. The world around her blurred, muffled, as if she were submerged underwater. She could hear herself screaming but it sounded so foreign to her ears.

Gigi, the sweet girl that River used to babysit when she was but a babe, lay lifeless, her beautiful eyes unseeing but frozen in fear. River wanted to rip her own chest open. She'd failed Gigi. Time seemed to freeze as a small puddle of blood formed around the girl.

"Let. Me. Out!" Nyx roared, her voice a thunderclap in River's mind. Nyx's rage burned in River's veins, drowning out the ache of failure.

This time, River didn't resist. She surrendered to the pain, the grief, the fury that consumed her. Her bones snapped, her muscles stretched, and her body contorted as she shifted.

When she landed on all fours she was no longer River. She was Nyx in all her furious glory.

The hunter's eyes widened as the massive black wolf faced him, her shimmering black fur seeming to ripple with an otherworldly light. Her milk white eyes, though they looked blind in appearance, locked on to the man with deadly precision as he attempted to load another bolt.

Nyx moved with terrifying speed, closing the distance in a heartbeat. Her jaws clamped around the man's throat, and with a single violent shake, she ended him.

But it wasn't enough!

"Kill them all!" River screamed in the back of Nyx's mind. "Nyx! Slaughter them all!"

Fueled by rage, Nyx turned to the remaining hunters, who had begun to circle her. They were shouting orders, firing rounds of bullets that barely missed her. But Nyx didn't care. She was faster, stronger, deadlier, and angrier!

"Gladly," Nyx responded in a furious growl.

One by one, she tore through them, her claws slicing through flesh and her teeth snapping bones. Their screams were the sweetest music to her, but she was set on making sure that she silenced them all! She wanted every last one of them! The forest became a blur of red and black, the air thick with the scent of blood, fear, and fury.

For a moment, the hunters seemed endless, but the tide shifted. Reinforcements arrived- wolves from neighboring packs had heard of the attack on the Sacred Dawn. The hunters, now outnumbered, retreated.

Nyx stood in the clearing, her chest heaving, her for matted with blood. Around her, the ground was littered with bodies, hunters and wolves alike. The battle was over, but the cost was staggering.

"Shift back." Rivers voice was a broken whisper in the back of Nyx's mind, gentle but firm.

The wolf hesitated, her instincts screaming for her to hunt, kill, and avenge. But slowly, Nyx obeyed. River emerged, naked and trembling, her brown skin covered in blood and her long black coils soaked in viscera as her knees buckled and she fell to the blood-soaked ground.

Her gaze landed in Gigi's small, lifeless form. Crawling over to the girl, River cradled her in her arms, her tears falling onto Gigi's still face.

"I'm so sorry, angel," she whispered, her voice cracking. "I'm so, so sorry!"

The weight of the loss hit her like a tidal wave. The Sacred Dawn Pack, her family, was gone.

Tilting her head back, River let out a mournful howl, the sound raw and piercing. It echoed through the forest, a haunting tribute to the fallen. The broken survivors of her pack joined the sorrowful howl, a concert of pain and grief.

River stood with Gigi's body still in her arms, her legs unsteady but her resolve stronger than ever.

"This is only the beginning, Riv," Nyx murmured, her voice cold and steady.

River nodded, her fists clenched as she carried the fallen child to the center of her demolished pack to be claimed by her family. She looked down at Gigi's face and knew that whatever came next, she would be ready for it.