The Crimson Moon
886 Words
Chapter 1: Crimson Moon
The moon bled red the night Adira's world ended.
It hovered above the stone courtyard like an omen, a full crimson eye watching without mercy. The air stank of iron and ash. Every breath burned as if the stars themselves had turned to cinders. Torches lined the edges of the high walls, their flames flickering against the carved emblems of the pack’s crest: a wolf, teeth bared, beneath the sigil of the Crescent Dominion.
Adira's knees dug into the cold, cracked stone as she clutched the chains that bound her wrists. Her skin was scraped raw. Her voice had gone hoarse from screaming. But it was the silence that broke her.
Kael.
He stood among the council at the top of the stairs, above the execution circle, wrapped in the dark armor of the Alpha-in-waiting. His expression was unreadable, eyes like shards of ice beneath the hooded brows of a boy who had become a man too fast. He said nothing. Not when they dragged her mother by the hair. Not when they threw her father to the ground like an animal. Not when she screamed his name and begged him to speak.
He looked at her. And then he looked away.
The High Chancellor's voice rang out, sharp as a blade.
"By decree of the Crescent Council, and under the blood moon's witness, Maren and Elira Vale are sentenced to death for high treason. Their crimes: collusion with rogue wolves, illegal magic, and conspiracy against the Alpha's line."
Adira's mother fought against her restraints. "We did nothing! You know this is a lie!"
The guards struck her across the face. Her father lunged, and another slammed a knee into his spine. They forced him down. Made them kneel like common criminals. Like traitors. Her mother bled from the mouth but kept her head high.
"You will regret this! The truth will come out."
"Silence her," the Chancellor snapped.
Adira looked up at Kael again. Her heart hammered, a snarl rising in her throat. Do something.
But Kael only tightened his jaw. And stepped back.
The sound of steel being drawn felt louder than the crowd's murmur. The executioners wore black masks, but Adira could still smell the stench of cruelty on them. Her vision blurred as she fought against her chains, raw wrists digging against iron.
"No! No, please—" She sobbed, reaching out. "I—I—they're innocent! You know this, Kael!"
He flinched. Just slightly.
Then the blades came down.
Her parents died without ceremony. Her mother held her head high. Her father whispered her name until his throat was cut.
Something inside Adira snapped.
A sound tore from her chest that wasn’t human. Her body convulsed as the chains rattled. Her wolf howled behind her ribs, desperate to break free. It clawed and screamed and slammed against her skin.
But nothing happened.
No one moved.
Except for Kael.
He turned his back and walked away.
---
They called her a traitor’s daughter. A cursed omega. A girl touched by death.
Three guards dragged her across the courtyard as the crowd jeered and spit. Somewhere in the back, a child asked if the witch would bleed silver. Her body was bruised, her lips split, but she didn’t cry anymore.
Her tears had dried with the last beat of her mother’s heart.
At the gates, the Chancellor tossed a rolled scroll at her feet. It was the decree of exile. Signed and sealed by Kael himself.
"If you return, you die," the Chancellor said.
Adira met his eyes. Her voice, though raw, was steady.
"You think this ends me?"
He smiled. "No, girl. You ended yourself."
The gates opened.
The forest beyond yawned like a beast with a hundred thousand teeth.
They threw her in, bleeding and broken.
And shut the gates behind her.
---
She ran until her feet bled.
Branches whipped her face. Thorns tore her dress. The night was cold and starless. Somewhere, wolves howled. Not hers. Not anymore.
Adira collapsed beside a creek, mud soaking her bones. Her wolf whimpered inside her chest, wounded but alive. She clutched the earth and screamed into it.
Screamed until her voice vanished.
Screamed until she swore revenge.
Screamed until the only thing she remembered was fire and Kael's silence.
Her eyes locked on the blood moon through the trees.
"I swear to the goddess," she whispered. "I will kill them all. Every last one."
Then darkness took her.
---
Somewhere deep in the wild, a pair of eyes watched the broken girl fall.
A man stepped from the shadows. Tall, broad, wearing old leathers stained with rogue blood. His face was weathered. Eyes like storms.
He didn’t speak.
He knelt. Touched her pulse. Faint, but there.
He stared at her for a long moment.
Then lifted her into his arms.
And disappeared into the woods before the sun could rise.
---
That night, the blood moon faded. But the oath it witnessed did not.
Adira Vale died that night.
In her place, something colder, sharper, and far more dangerous was born.
The world would come to know her as Rina Hollowbrook.
But the ones who'd wronged her would remember the name Adira Vale.
They would remember it as the last word on their lips before they died.
- Writer
