Blood Moon Rising

Chapter 7 : The Night Everything Changed

Cade didn’t remember the first time he shifted.

Not really.

He remembered the pain—the way it ripped through him like wildfire, his bones cracking, stretching, breaking apart and knitting themselves back together into something else.

He remembered the smell of the woods, the way every scent sharpened into something unbearable. The damp earth. The sweat on his own skin.

And he remembered the hunger.

But most of all, he remembered her.

That night, ten years ago, Lena was supposed to be safe.

He’d told her to go home. Begged her.

But she never listened.

She had followed him deep into the forest, where the air was thick with the scent of coming rain, where the shadows stretched long beneath the moonlight.

“Cade,” she had whispered, reaching for him. “What’s wrong?”

He had felt it then, the pull of the moon, the way his skin prickled with it, his blood pounding like a war drum.

“Lena, you need to leave.” His voice was strained, his vision already shifting—colors deepening, details sharpening to an almost painful clarity.

She frowned. “Cade—”

Then the howling started.

Not his.

Not yet.

Something else had been hunting that night.

Something bigger. Older.

Something that had been waiting for him.

Cade barely had time to react before the first shadow moved between the trees.

A second later, red eyes gleamed from the darkness.

A growl rumbled through the air, low and hungry.

Cade’s heart slammed against his ribs. No.

It was here.

The thing that had been haunting the woods since before he was born. The thing that had taken his father. The thing that had been waiting for Cade to come of age.

And it had found him.

Lena must have seen it too, because she screamed.

The creature lunged.

Cade barely had time to shove Lena out of the way before the impact hit him like a freight train, sending him crashing into the dirt.

Pain exploded through his ribs. He gasped, twisting just in time to see claws flashing in the moonlight.

The thing—whatever it was—was massive. Larger than any normal wolf, its body all sinew and black fur, its red eyes glowing with something wrong. Its teeth gleamed, dripping with saliva, and its breath was hot, reeking of blood and rot.

Cade felt something in his chest snap open—like a floodgate bursting.

And then he was burning.

His bones stretched. His skin tore. He felt his body give way to something else, something primal, something ancient.

The pain was unbearable.

Then suddenly, it wasn’t pain at all.

Suddenly, it was power.

His vision sharpened. His muscles locked into something stronger, faster.

And the next thing he knew, he was howling, answering the call of the blood moon above.

The world went red.

And when Cade woke up the next morning, Lena was gone.

And the beast that attacked him?

It had disappeared.

But not before whispering one final promise into the night:

“You are mine now.”