Blood Moon Academy

Chapter Four: The Blood Oath

The bell woke the building.

A low, iron clang rolled through the stone walls and rattled the glass in the window. My chest jolted like it had been struck from the inside, and for a moment I couldn’t tell if it was the bell or my heart making the sound.

Voices swelled in the corridors. Doors slammed. Boots pounded on the stairs. All from afar. The Academy seemed to lurch awake at once, the quiet gone like a snuffed flame.

I sat on the edge of my bed, pulling on my boots with fingers that wouldn’t stop shaking. My body knew before my mind caught up—today was the beginning.

The Trials.

The word clanged through me harder than the bell.

I wanted to stay in this cold little room with its four safe walls and bolt on the door. But the bell rang again, and I knew if I didn’t move, someone would come drag me.

And then I’d be exposed.

I tied my laces too tight and stood, my legs unsteady, and stepped into the corridor.

The press of bodies swallowed me immediately. Dozens of students—wolves, every one—shoving, laughing, snarling at each other as they funnelled toward the main stair. I kept my head down, arms folded close, slipping between shoulders. I didn’t meet their eyes. Meeting eyes was a challenge, and challenges ended in blood.

The stairs opened into the courtyard.

I froze.

The air smelled of pine and rain, but beneath it, something heavier, iron and smoke, lay. A raised dais had been built at the far end, flags draped in red and black. The Academy's symbol—a wolf skull with a crescent moon in its jaws—glared down at us.

And in front of the dais: the Alphas.

Three of them.

Their presence was a weight that pressed the crowd silent and cold. Even the wind seemed to hush.

The one in the center wore black armour that caught the moonlight on its edges, every line sharp enough to cut. His hair was silvered at the temples, but there was nothing old about him. His stance screamed power, and when his gaze swept the students, something primal inside me wanted to kneel.

Headmaster Riven.

I’d heard his name whispered on our ride to the Academy. Wolf of a hundred battles. Slayer of kings. The man who’d carved this Academy out of stone and fear.

When he raised his hand, silence turned absolute.

“Children of the Blood Moon,” he said, voice carrying like thunder. “Tonight, you stand at the threshold.”

The crowd shifted, a ripple of excitement, of terror. My stomach churned.

“The Trials are not a game,” he went on. “They are not a tradition. They are law. They are survival. To fail them is to be broken. To pass them—” His smile was a s***h of teeth. “—is to prove your blood worthy of the moon.”

A shiver rattled my spine.

The boy next to me muttered, “Gods, I’ve been waiting for this,” and clenched his fists like he could already taste victory.

I wanted to vomit.

Headmaster Riven’s gaze slid over us, sharp and heavy, and landed on me.

For a second, I couldn’t breathe.

It was only a glance. He didn’t linger. But my skin prickled all over, like he’d peeled back my flesh and glimpsed what I was hiding.

Beside the Headmaster, a boy stood.

Not a boy. Kai.

Of course.

He wore the Academy uniform—black shirt, black trousers, a crimson sash knotted at his hip—but on him it looked like it had been made to be torn off. His posture was lazy, careless, but his eyes… his eyes scanned the crowd like a predator choosing which throat to tear first.

When they locked on mine, the world narrowed to a pinpoint.

Heat surged through me. My wolf slammed against her cage, howling his name, desperate. I gritted my teeth until my jaw ached. Not here. Not in front of everyone.

Kai didn’t look away. Not when the Headmaster spoke, not when the other students jostled, and not even when someone shouted an oath from the back. He stared storm-grey and emotionless, like he was waiting for me to slip.

Headmaster Riven lifted his hand again. “The Blood Oath.”

The students around me dropped to their knees as one, fists pressed to the ground. My body hesitated. Too slow. A girl shot me a glare, lips peeling back in warning, and I forced myself down. My knees hit stone.

“Repeat after me,” the Headmaster said.

And the courtyard filled with voices.

“My blood for the moon.”

“My blood for the moon,” I whispered, lips barely moving.

“My strength for the pack.”

“My strength for the pack.” My throat closed on the words. I had no pack. Not anymore.

“My life for the law.”

The words stuck. My tongue rebelled. I tasted bile.

Kai’s gaze burned on me like fire.

I forced the words out. “My life for the law.”

Silence.

The oath hung in the air, binding like chains. I felt it settle in my bones, heavy, sharp-edged, a promise I didn’t want to make.

When the students rose, my legs almost locked.

Headmaster Riven’s smile was cruel. “The moon sees you. The Trials begin at dawn.”

A roar went up—howls, cheers, fists pounding the air. The sound shook the stones under my feet.

I wanted to disappear.

But Kai was still staring at me, unblinking. His expression unreadable.

Students surged toward the gates, spilling into the night, but I couldn’t move. My heart was hammering too fast. My wolf was frantic, screaming, clawing to get free.

The Blood Oath was supposed to bind us to the Academy, to obedience, to loyalty.

But in my veins, under my skin, something was wrong.

I felt it the moment the words left my mouth.

The bond didn’t settle the way it should. It scraped. It resisted. It twisted like my blood was trying to spit it out.

And Kai felt it.

I saw it in the way his head tilted slightly, the faint curve of his mouth. He knew something about me did not fit.

Panic clawed up my throat. I shoved into the crowd, desperate to lose myself in the tide of bodies, to hide before he decided to corner me again.

The night swallowed me, but the weight of his gaze clung like chains.

Tomorrow, the Trials would begin.

And if the oath hadn’t already betrayed me, the Trials would.

I had no choice but to fight.

The problem was—I wasn’t sure which enemy I feared more.

The beasts in the arena.

Or Kai Blackthorn himself