Chapter 7 : The Blood Moon Choice
339 Words
**The scent of blood woke her first.**
Splintered wood cracked under clawed weight as moonlight sliced through the shattered window, pinning wolf-shadows to the wall—three, no, four of them, saliva stretching like silver threads between fangs. And blocking her path, the black wolf with the unmistakable jagged scar on its left ear.
"Liam..."
Her whisper shattered the frozen air. The lead rogue in human form threw back his head and laughed, claws scraping sparks from the wooden table. "Look! The Alpha hasn’t even marked her," he tilted his neck to expose a savage bite, "afraid of breaking his little pet?"
The black wolf’s muscles coiled.
**The first drop of blood hit Clara’s knuckles.**
Chaos erupted. The sound of fangs tearing flesh was like wet cloth ripping. A bookshelf exploded in a rain of paint tubes, their contents splattering like arterial spray. She fell backward, her palm landing on an open journal page—
> *Full Moon Entry:*
> *When the hunt takes over, I stare at human hands. Five fingers. No webbing. No fur. Proof I’m not yet a monster.*
"Down!"
Instinct made her grab the iron candlestick. A rogue’s claws stopped three centimeters from her eye. His golden pupils constricted. "The doctor knows how to—"
Shattering glass cut him off.
The black wolf crashed through the window with another’s throat in its jaws, slamming her into the night. As they tumbled, she saw the moon turn blood-red above them. The wolf atop her trembled violently, bones grinding like cracking ice.
"...*Run*." Liam’s human fingers dug into her shoulder, his voice shredded by the beast. "They’re using you... to make me... lose control..."
Twenty meters away, the pack regrouped.
Clara suddenly seized his bloodied hand and pressed it to her neck—to the faint crescent bite he’d left last night in restraint. "You taught me," she said, steadier than she’d ever been holding a gun, "wolves only obey one language."
His pupils dilated between man and monster.
**And the bleeding moon reached its zenith.**
- Writer
