Blood Marked: The Bone Moon Alphas

CHAPTER 11 The First Shift

Lucien didn't give me a choice.

"Run!" he shouted as the second moon — the Bone Moon — flickered in the sky like a bad signal, there and gone. "Now! To the Hollow Woods! If you shift here, in the Academy, with 300 Alphas watching and Ossara watching through the veil, he will take you mid-shift!"

"What does that mean!" I yelled, but Kieran was already grabbing my hand, pulling me.

"It means your wolf is too big to be born in a cage," he snapped, shadows wrapping my waist and launching us both out the shattered dining hall window.

We fell three stories. His shadows caught us, soft as smoke. Jax was already there, lightning in his legs making him run so fast he was a blur, scouting ahead. Silas had his hand to his temple, broadcasting CLEAR THE WOODS CLEAR THE WOODS so hard that deer three miles away ran.

Rhys was last, carrying me now because Kieran's shadows hurt my newly sensitive skin.

"Put me down, I can run," I gasped.

"You can barely stand," Rhys muttered, but he held me tighter. "Your bones are trying to break already. Feel it?"

I did. My spine was on fire. My teeth ached like they wanted to fall out and regrow. My nails were already claws, black and silver.

The Hollow Woods were forbidden. They grew inside the volcano crater, trees made of obsidian and ash that never burned. No one went there because wolves who went in sometimes came out without their wolves.

Perfect place for a first shift.

The Four stopped at the tree line.

"You have to go alone," Kieran said, his shadows receding from me like they were scared to hurt me. "First shift is sacred. No one can see."

"Like hell," Jax snarled. "I'm not leaving her!"

"She's our mate," Silas said, more to himself, like he was realizing it. "If Ossara tries to take her mid-shift, we need to be there to anchor her."

Rhys looked at me, his green eyes full of fear. "Kaia, it will hurt. First shifts always hurt. But yours — you have nineteen years of locked shifting to do at once. Scream if you need to. We won't think less."

I nodded, teeth gritted, and stumbled past the tree line.

The second I crossed, the Bone Moon appeared fully overhead, huge, white, cracked down the middle like a broken skull, staring directly at me. It hadn't been visible from the dining hall for more than a second. Here, it was permanent.

Finally, Nyx said, and she didn't sound sarcastic anymore. She sounded like a queen returning to her castle. My turn. Let go, little bone.

I fell to my knees in ash. My uniform ripped.

The pain was everything Lucien promised and worse. My spine snapped — literally snapped and reformed longer. My ribs cracked outward. My hands hit the ground and turned to paws, white fur exploding up my arms.

I screamed. It came out as a howl halfway through.

Bones breaking, reforming, growing. A tail tearing out of my spine. My face pushing forward into a muzzle. My human thoughts getting bigger, wilder, less human.

And then — relief. Cool ash under paws that were bigger than dinner plates.

I opened my eyes — silver eyes — and saw the world as wolves do. Smell was color. Sound was texture. I could smell Kieran's fear as black smoke, Jax's worry as ozone, Silas's awe as old paper, Rhys's love as warm blood.

I looked down at myself.

I was massive. Not grey, not black. Bone-white, with faint silver skeletal markings that glowed, like my fur was transparent and you could see moonlight underneath. My paws left silver prints that stayed for seconds. My tail was as long as a man. My teeth — gods, my teeth.

I tried to whine and it came out as a rumble that shook ash off trees.

We are beautiful, Nyx said, and for once we were in agreement. We were the same.

Behind me, a twig snapped.

I whirled, snarling, hackles up taller than a man.

Four wolves stood at the tree line, staring.

They were huge — Alpha wolves are always huge — but I was bigger than all of them.

Kieran's wolf was pure black, made of shadow that moved even when he stood still, eyes winter blue. Jax's was storm-grey with lightning crackling in his fur, gold eyes. Silas's was silver-white, too beautiful, eyes that saw everything. Rhys's was deep blood-red, gentle even in wolf form.

They stared at me.

Then, one by one, they lowered their heads. Not in submission from an Alpha command. In reverence.

Kieran's black wolf was first. He approached slowly, then rolled over, exposing his throat and belly to me — the ultimate wolf submission that an Alpha of his rank would never give to anyone.

Mine, he thought, and I heard it clearly now, wolf-speak. My Prime.

Jax's wolf yipped and tackled him, then tackled me, playfully biting my ear, making me sneeze — which came out as a small silver flame.

Silas's wolf circled me, sniffing every inch, memorizing, then licked my muzzle, tasting my new scent.

Rhys's wolf was last, gentle, pressing his big red head under my chin, grooming the fur there.

Pack, they all thought together. Pack pack pack.

Nyx took over and ran. Just ran. And they chased me.

We ran through the Hollow Woods, four shadows chasing a bone-white ghost, leaping over obsidian rivers, howling. My howl was deepest, and when I howled, the Bone Moon overhead pulsed.

We ran until dawn, until I was too tired to stay wolf, and shifted back in a nest of ash and their jackets.

I woke human, naked, covered in four jackets and four sleeping boys in human form, all curled around me, all holding some part of me — Kieran's hand on my marked collarbone, Jax's arm over my waist, Silas's head on my stomach, Rhys's breath on my neck.

Above us, the Bone Moon was gone. But in its place, the normal moon had a thin white ring around it.

A countdown.

Nyx yawned in my head, sleepy and full. We have two weeks until we have to kill a god. But first...

One of the boys — Jax — snored and pulled me closer, his lightning mark on my wrist sparking against my skin.

...first, we should probably tell them we are not wearing any underwear.

I blushed so hard my silver veins lit up like Christmas lights, waking all four at once.

Kieran's eyes went black instantly.

"Kaia," he growled, voice rough with sleep and wolf.

"Don't look!" I shrieked, pulling jackets tighter.

Too late. They had all looked.