Chapter 6: The Gate of Blood
1155 Words
The Shadowclaw gates exploded inward.
The sound shook the fortress like thunder splitting a mountain.
Warriors stumbled as stone shattered across the courtyard. Dust filled the air, mixing with the crimson glow pouring from the widening cracks beneath the fortress.
Luna's heart slammed against her ribs.
Everything was happening too fast.
The mysterious stranger had appeared from nowhere.
The symbol of the Crimson Fang had awakened.
And now something buried beneath Shadowclaw was trying to claw its way into the world.
"Everyone back!" Kael roared.
His command cut through the chaos instantly.
Warriors retreated, dragging the wounded with them.
But Luna couldn't move.
The ground beneath her feet trembled violently.
Then came another sound.
A heartbeat.
Boom.
Boom.
Boom.
At first, she thought it was her imagination.
Then she realized everyone else heard it too.
The heartbeat wasn't coming from a living creature.
It was coming from beneath the fortress.
The earth itself was beating.
Aria's face drained of color.
"What in the Moon Goddess's name is that?"
No one answered.
Because no one knew.
The stranger standing beyond the destroyed gates smiled as though he had waited years for this moment.
"Do you hear it?" he asked softly.
Kael's eyes narrowed.
"What have you done?"
The stranger laughed.
"I didn't awaken it."
His crimson eyes shifted toward Luna.
"She did."
A chill raced down Luna's spine.
"No."
The word escaped her lips before she could stop it.
The stranger's smile widened.
"Denial changes nothing, Moonblood."
The title struck her like a physical blow.
Moonblood.
The same word the mysterious voice had used in her visions.
The same word she didn't understand.
The heartbeat beneath the fortress grew louder.
Boom.
Boom.
BOOM.
Suddenly, the courtyard split apart.
Massive cracks raced through the stone floor.
Warriors shouted and jumped backward as entire sections collapsed into darkness.
Then a hand emerged.
Not human.
Not wolf.
Something far worse.
A gigantic clawed hand burst through the earth, wrapped in glowing crimson chains.
The chains rattled violently.
Every link was covered in ancient symbols.
And every symbol burned with unnatural light.
The creature beneath them pulled.
The chains strained.
The sound was horrifying.
Metal screamed.
Stone shattered.
And somewhere deep underground, something roared.
The roar wasn't merely heard.
It was felt.
Luna dropped to one knee as pain exploded through her skull.
Images flooded her mind.
Blood.
Fire.
Ancient warriors.
A silver-haired woman standing beneath a black moon.
And a giant beast chained beneath a mountain.
The vision vanished instantly.
Luna gasped for breath.
Kael was beside her immediately.
"What happened?"
Her voice shook.
"I saw it."
His eyes sharpened.
"Saw what?"
Before she could answer, another explosion rocked the fortress.
The creature's second arm burst through the ground.
Warriors screamed.
A watchtower collapsed.
Dust filled the sky.
The stranger began walking toward the fortress.
No fear.
No hesitation.
As if he knew nothing could stop what was happening.
Kael stepped forward.
A deadly aura erupted around him.
"You take one more step and I kill you."
The stranger stopped.
Then smiled.
"You can try."
The confidence in his voice was unsettling.
Even Kael seemed disturbed by it.
Aria moved beside her Alpha.
"What do we do?"
Kael never looked away from the stranger.
"We buy time."
The heartbeat grew faster.
The creature beneath the earth was waking up.
And everyone knew it.
Then the stranger spoke again.
"The Guardian has slept for centuries."
His voice echoed strangely.
"Bound by lies."
The crimson chains glowed brighter.
"The first Alphas feared its power."
A chain snapped.
The sound cracked through the night like lightning.
Luna flinched.
The stranger's smile widened.
"And now the seal weakens."
Kael's expression darkened.
"What is the Guardian?"
The stranger looked directly at Luna.
"The truth."
Silence followed.
The answer made no sense.
And somehow it felt terrifying.
The heartbeat accelerated.
Boom.
Boom.
Boom.
BOOM.
The ground erupted again.
A massive crimson eye opened within the crater.
Every warrior froze.
The eye was enormous.
Ancient.
Filled with intelligence.
And it was staring directly at Luna.
Not Kael.
Not the stranger.
Her.
The creature recognized her.
Luna felt the connection instantly.
Like an invisible thread linking their souls.
The eye narrowed.
The chains rattled violently.
Then a voice echoed inside her mind.
Not through her ears.
Inside her thoughts.
"Moonblood..."
Luna gasped.
"What?"
Kael looked at her sharply.
"What did you hear?"
The voice came again.
"You have returned."
Fear flooded her chest.
She backed away from the crater.
"No."
"The seal weakens."
The eye never blinked.
Never looked away.
"You must remember."
Luna shook her head.
"I don't know you!"
Kael grabbed her shoulders.
"Luna!"
She barely heard him.
The voice continued.
"The darkness is rising."
Then another voice suddenly interrupted.
A female voice.
Gentle.
Powerful.
Familiar.
"Do not listen."
Moonlight exploded across Luna's vision.
For a brief moment she saw Selene.
The Moon Goddess.
Standing between her and the giant eye.
The goddess looked frightened.
Actually frightened.
The sight terrified Luna more than anything else.
Gods weren't supposed to be afraid.
Selene raised a hand.
"The Guardian remembers only half the truth."
The vision shattered.
Luna stumbled backward.
Her breathing became uneven.
Kael caught her before she fell.
"Luna!"
She stared at him.
For the first time, genuine fear entered her eyes.
"The Moon Goddess..."
Kael frowned.
"What about her?"
"She's scared."
The words hung heavily in the air.
Even Aria looked disturbed.
The stranger began laughing.
Slowly at first.
Then louder.
As though he had just heard the funniest joke in existence.
"Of course she's afraid."
His crimson eyes gleamed.
"She created the lie."
Silence.
Every warrior stared at him.
Kael's expression became lethal.
"What lie?"
The stranger pointed toward Luna.
"Ask her."
Luna froze.
The heartbeat stopped.
Completely.
The sudden silence was worse than the noise.
Everyone felt it.
The absence.
The waiting.
Then the giant eye slowly closed.
The chains stopped moving.
The creature became still.
Too still.
Kael immediately sensed the danger.
"Everyone move!"
Nobody understood why.
Until the earth exploded.
A massive wave of crimson energy erupted from the crater.
The shockwave blasted through the fortress.
Walls cracked.
Windows shattered.
Warriors were thrown across the courtyard.
Luna felt herself lifted from the ground.
Kael wrapped an arm around her just before they were hurled backward.
The world became dust and chaos.
Then came the roar.
Louder than before.
Angrier.
Hungrier.
The creature had stopped trying to wake up.
Now it was trying to escape.
And far beyond Shadowclaw's borders, hidden within the darkness of the forest, hundreds of crimson eyes suddenly opened.
Watching.
Waiting.
Answering the call.
The war that destroyed Moonfang had only been the beginning.
Something much older was awakening.
Something powerful enough to make gods afraid.
And somehow, impossibly, it was connected to Luna Blackwood.
The Moonblood.
The key.
The girl everyone believed was powerless.
The girl who might either save the werewolf world...
Or destroy it.
- Writer
