Lunar Vow

The Search

Approaching the hillside, the moon is hanging low behind the trees, indicating the beginning of the lunar vow, where all of the wolves prepare to shift when the moon reaches its highest peak.

The moonlight causes the trees and rocks to fade into the haze like ghostly shapes. The air is cool and damp, filling our noses with the faint scent of the earth and wildflowers. Every sound is muted—footsteps swallowed by the fog, distant rustling of leaves barely audible. The hillside has the perfect eerie feeling of enchantment.

*Awhoooo* the first wolf howls out for his or her mate from a distance. “Let the games begin,” I think to myself as the moon slowly appears from its hidden spot behind the trees. A wolf’s first transformation is a savage rebirth, leaving the shifter raw, vulnerable, and utterly changed.

First, there will be a searing heat radiating from beneath my skin, indicating the beginning of my shift. My muscles will start to convulse uncontrollably as my joints start to snap and realign with every sickening c***k. My skin will stretch and split as coarse fur erupts in ragged patches all over my body, spreading rapidly like wildfire.

Next, every bone in my body will begin to elongate and thicken, reshaping my body into something primal and fierce, while claws burst forth from my fingertips.

Finally, my face will begin contorting itself as my teeth grind and reshape into jagged fangs, causing my eyes to glow with a wild, feral light. Every breath I take will feel ragged, with every move I make a struggle against the agony coursing through my body.

Once my shift is complete, my primal instinct to find a mate is immediate. I instinctively start running towards the tree line to find my fated mate, howling in an attempt to call her to me over and over, louder and louder, hoping she sees me soon.

With each tree I pass, I rub against it, leaving a trail of my scent leading straight to my location. When I come upon a cliff looking over a field, I howl again as loud as I possibly can, calling for my mate, praying she finds me soon. Sitting at the edge of this cliff, watching as all of his pack mates unite with their Lunas.

In the stillness of the forest, where the moonlight filtered through the leaves, a deep ache started making its way into Fenri's chest as he watched the shadows dance. The scent of pine mingled with the crisp night air as he waited for his fated mate to appear.

Every whisper of the wind seemed to echo, seemed to mock him, igniting a yearning that coursed through his veins like wildfire.

In that moment, Fenris was acutely aware of his solitude, a void that only the bond of his mate could fill, forming in his soul.

Feeling the sadness grow in his wolf, the painstaking loneliness that lurked beside him was growing with every passing second. He heard something rustling in the tree line, his body spun around in excitement that his mate had finally arrived, but he and his wolf were saddened by the realization that it was just the wind.

As the night went on, Fenris lay at the edge of the cliff, waiting, longing for his mate, listening as the noises around him haunted his thoughts, watching as the bonded wolves made their way back to their families to celebrate the joining of their souls, as the feeling of sadness grew larger and larger.

The lunar vow had come to an end as he watched the last of his pack disappear out of sight. The absence of his mate echoed around him like a haunting melody, each rustle of leaves a reminder of his unbound soul. His fur, once bristling with the excitement of companionship, now felt heavy and unkempt, as if the weight of his solitude clung to him.

He howled at the moon, slowly sinking back behind the tree tops. The emptiness around him swallowed the sound. His howl was a cry of despair, the acknowledgment of the jagged void that his wolf felt. As he lay at the edge of the cliff alone, the cold autumn breeze nipping at his nose, blowing the leaves across the ground, he knew that the ache he felt was not merely the absence of a mate but a haunting reminder of unformed unity, leaving him in a realm of complete solitude, marking him forever unbound.