CRESCENT BOUND

Blood and Promises

Kaelen's POV

The vibration of my phone had cut through the quiet hum of the library. I dropped the marker, seeing the girls' expressions change slightly. When I tapped the screen and held it to my ear, Beta Gavin's gruff, urgent voice barked through the speaker.

"Kaelen, we need backup. Fourth territory. The rogues are pushing hard, they've taken a lot of pack members and human hostages. We're holding the perimeter, but we need you now."

"Understood. I'm on my way," I replied, keeping my voice flat as I hung up and grabbed my bag, leaving Elara and Xena behind at the table looking dumbfounded.

I practically ran out of the library doors, ripping off my suffocating mask and shoving it into my pocket.

"About damn time you took that ridiculous filter off," Caspian's dark, sarcastic voice echoed inside my skull. "You i***t, you made me miss the chance of smelling our mate's sweet scent."

"Shut up, Caspian. She is not our mate," I snapped back mentally as I sprinted deep into the woods toward the fourth space. "We have work to do."

"Oh, now we have work to do?" Caspian scoffed, his claws digging into my subconscious. "The work we need is to claim our mate before anything bad happens to her, and stop being a pup to your dad."

He wasn't wrong, and that irritated me to my core.

Within minutes, the thick smell of iron and raw, decay-like rogue scents filled the air. The scene before me was absolute chaos.

Beta Gavin was in the thick of it, taking the rogues down one by one with his fierce claws.

A massive rogue snarled, lunging at Gavin's left flank with a serrated dagger, but Gavin caught the creature by the throat midair, slamming him hard into a tree trunk before crushing his windpipe with a single, swift strike. He had served my father for decades, but to me, he was the closest thing to a real father. He was the one who taught me everything. He taught me how to lead without fear.

Beside him fought Gamma Marion, the most strict and fierce wolf I had ever met. Two rogues tried to flank Marion at once, but Marion spun on his heel, his claws tearing through the first attacker's chest while sweeping his heavy leg to shatter the knee of the second. His combat style was terrifyingly precise. Every strike broke bone or tore flesh, leaving a trail of fallen rogues in his wake.

"Kaelen!" Gavin shouted, dodging a massive rogue's wild s***h. "They are holding the hostages near the old stone altar! There are too many of them!"

Three rogues lunged directly at me. Without my wolf, I had to rely entirely on raw human combat skills and my heightened speed.

I ducked under the first rogue’s wild swing, driving my elbow hard into his windpipe. Bones crunched, but another rogue tackled me from behind, slamming me hard into the muddy earth. Blood sprayed across my vision as a rogue’s jagged blade sliced open my forearm. Pain exploded down my arm. Without Caspian’s full wolf strength, I was taking real damage far too easily.

"You're getting torn to shreds, i***t," Caspian’s voice barked inside my mind, though this time there was genuine concern buried under his sharp humor. "Is this how the future Alpha dies? On his knees in the mud because he's too stubborn to fix his mistakes?"

I stood up, breathing heavily, blood dripping from my knuckles.

"What do you want from me, Caspian?!" I demanded silently, blocking another sharp strike with a heavy fallen branch.

"I want you to stop lying to yourself!" Caspian roared back, his power surging against the barriers of my mind like a tidal wave. "Stop pushing Elara away! Stop treating her like trash! She is our mate, Kaelen not Lila, not anyone else! Promise me you’ll treat her right. Promise me you’ll protect her and stop acting like a cold-hearted bastard every time she's around you!"

I spat blood onto the grass, ducking under another strike as Gavin fought off two rogues to keep them from swarming me.

"I promise!" I snarled internally, the sheer desperation and adrenaline overriding my pride. "I promise I'll be better at her!"

A sudden, blinding surge of golden energy erupted through my veins. The link in my mind shattered. Bones cracked and re-aligned with deafening snaps as my body expanded, dark fur bursting through my skin as Caspian took full control. The pain I felt in my bones was intense. It had been a while since I shifted.

A massive, pitch-black furred wolf emerged, towering over the battlefield. Caspian unleashed a deafening, earth-shattering roar that sent shock waves through the forest, freezing every rogue in their tracks with pure terror.

Gavin let out a savage grin, wiping blood from his brow as he parried another rogue's attack.

Caspian moved like a shadow of death. He lunged forward, his massive jaws snapping around the throat of the rogue who had cut my arm, crushing his windpipe instantly.

Another rogue lunged at Caspian's side, but Caspian threw his heavy hind leg back, sending the attacker flying into a boulder with a sickening c***k.

Seeing Caspian clear the center, Beta Gavin drove his claws into the chest of the rogue holding the perimeter line, throwing the body aside to clear a path. Gamma Marion used the distraction to breach the inner line, cutting down two more rogues with brutal precision before breaking the heavy iron chains binding the terrified omegas and human hostages.

"Get them back to the main pack house! Now!" Marion ordered the surrounding guards, his strict voice cutting through the chaotic clearing.

Most of the hostages were unconscious, and most were terrified. The humans in the town didn't know about our existence, so, as usual, we would have to wipe out their memories of us once they were safe.

The remaining rogues realized they were completely outmatched.

Caspian ripped through their ranks with merciless speed, claws tearing through hide, muscle, and bone alongside Gavin and Marion until the clearing fell into a heavy, suffocating silence, stained red with enemy blood.

Breathing heavily, Caspian slowly shifted back, leaving me standing in the center of the clearing, covered in mud, sweat, and crimson splatters. Gavin walked over, handing me a clean cloth to wipe my hands and a fresh set of clothes.

"Excellent work, Kaelen," Gavin said, his voice laced with pride and relief. "For a second there, I thought we were going to lose the perimeter."

"They were organized, Uncle," I replied, my voice raspy as I put on the fresh clothes given to me by him. "Too organized for mindless rogues. Someone is coordinating them."

Gamma Marion stepped up, his expression grim as he pointed toward the tall oak tree at the edge of the fourth territory border. "Look up there."

Gavin and I walked slowly toward the ancient tree. My blood ran cold, the victory instantly turning to ash in my mouth.

Hanging high from one of the thickest branches was a lifeless body, swaying gently in the night breeze. Nailed directly into his chest with a silver dagger was a weathered piece of parchment, written in fresh, dark crimson blood.

I stepped closer, my eyes narrowing as I read the terrifying message aloud:

"Missed me, little Alpha? See you soon."