THE LUNA HE REFUSED TO CLAIM

The night smelled like blood and burning pine. The moon hung low in the sky, swollen and red, as if it had been wounded too. Wolves screamed—not the kind of sounds I had heard during training nights, but something sharper and broken, filled with pain. Every howl made my chest tighten and my stomach knot with fear. The sounds were everywhere—snapping branches, the crackle of fire, the distant yells of my neighbors—and I didn’t know where to run first. I didn’t know what war was. I only knew that my ears hurt and my heart pounded so hard I could barely breathe as my mother dragged me through the forest. Her hand wrapped around mine so tightly it burned, but I didn’t dare complain. Afraid of losing her, I let her pull me faster than my legs thought possible. I could have stayed home. But that was where the attack had started. The walls of our small house had been torn open by claws and fire, and screams had filled the air long before we ran. All I could remember was the smoke, the blood, and the howls—wolves fighting wolves, humans screaming, everything blending into a terrible, endless noise. “Don’t stop,” my mother urged, her voice shaking, almost breaking with every step. “Keep moving, Calista!” I tried not to cry. I tried to be fast. I tried to be brave. Fire cracked behind us, and trees groaned as if the forest itself were alive and in pain. Somewhere to our left, a wolf howled—and then went silent. The sudden quiet made my chest ache worse than the noise had. I looked back once. I saw my father. He was covered in blood, his eyes wild, searching through the chaos as if he could find us before it was too late. His mouth opened, shouting something I couldn’t hear. Before I could reach him, a massive wolf lunged at him. He stumbled, fighting it off with every ounce of strength he had, while my mother dragged me away. The ground shook beneath my small feet. I tripped. Pain exploded through my knees as I hit the forest floor. My mother’s hand slipped from mine. “Calista—” She turned back for me. That was when the world fell apart. A giant tree cracked and toppled, smashing where she had just been. Wolves surged from the shadows, their snarls sharp and merciless. I screamed, twisting to look for my father—but he was gone. The wolf he had been fighting was gone too. There was only blood, smoke, and fire, and the sound of my mother’s terrified cry. “RUN!” she screamed. I ran. I ran blindly, tears blurring my vision. Branches clawed at my skin, and the uneven ground threatened to swallow me with every step. My lungs burned, my legs screamed for rest, but I couldn’t stop. My heart shouted for my mother, for my father, for anything familiar. I stumbled, my hands scraping against dirt and roots. I tripped again. The forest tilted and spun, and then darkness swallowed me. When I opened my eyes, it wasn’t the familiar forest or the firelight I had been running from. The air was colder, heavier, filled with the scent of something strange but familiar—wolves. Many of them. Watching. Waiting. And somewhere deep in the shadows, I heard a low growl… one that didn’t belong to the wolves I had known.