Bound by Moonlight

Chapter One: The Family I Lost Kaia’s POV Chapter One: The Family I Lost “The night I was meant to awaken… was the night my world began to die.” The first time you shift is supposed to change everything. They say the Moon calls you on your sixteenth birthday—power surges, bones break and reform, your heart races with a wild rhythm that finally feels like your own. You’re no longer just human. You’re wolf. You’re free. It’s the night every wolf dreams of. The night you meet the other half of your soul. But me? When my sixteenth moon came… there was nothing. No call. No wolf. Just silence. My name is Kaia Emerson, and I was born into the Bloodridge Pack—one of the most feared in the Northern Territories. My father, Warrick, was head warrior. My mother, Kaela, was the pack’s fiercest female fighter. Together, they were the backbone of Bloodridge, respected and unbreakable. Everyone thought I would follow them. Everyone expected me to awaken with a wolf as strong as theirs, to take my place as a warrior child of warriors. Instead, I became the disappointment. At my ceremony, when nothing happened, I felt the weight of every eye on me. The whispers. The pity. Even my best friend, Mira, slipped away in silence, as if my wolflessness was contagious. But my parents never faltered. “You’re just a late bloomer, my little moon,” my mother whispered as she crushed me into her arms. “The Goddess hasn’t forgotten you. She never makes mistakes.” My father smiled at me, steady as ever. “I’m proud of you, kiddo. Don’t forget that.” I nodded, swallowing the tears. They carried me through the humiliation, even managed to steer me back to cake and laughter, but now—looking back—I realize they knew. The way they exchanged secret glances that night, the quiet edge to their comfort… it was like they expected this. And still, they loved me. For months, their love was my armor against the pack’s cruelty. Against the names—cursed, wolfless, weak. Against the hollow stares. Against the feeling of becoming invisible in the place I had once belonged. Until the night everything was taken. I came home from school to fire and blood. Our house burned with a hungry rage, smoke clawing at the sky. Shadows moved inside—shapes too familiar to mistake. They weren’t intruders. They weren’t strangers. They were pack. Warriors my father had trained. Wolves my mother had sparred with. Traitors. They struck with silence and precision. My father barely had time to lift his blade before one drove him to his knees. My mother’s roar split the night, her claws flashing—but there were too many. One twisted her arm behind her back, another pinned her by the throat. They didn’t speak. They didn’t hesitate. They weren’t acting alone. They were following an order. The Alpha’s order. I hid in the shadows, frozen, my heart slamming against my ribs. I wanted to run to them, but terror rooted me in place. “They plotted against the Alpha,” someone muttered, the lie sharp and rehearsed. I knew better. My father’s eyes found mine in the chaos. Blood on his lips, pain carved into every line of his face—yet there was no fear. Only strength. He gave me the smallest nod. My mother twisted against the hands that held her, her eyes burning with defiance until she turned, straining to see me. And in that final heartbeat, her voice brushed against my mind. Stay strong. Remember we love you. A mindlink. Impossible—because I had no wolf. And then—blood. Claws. Ripped hearts. My parents crumpled to the ground, lifeless. The scream that tore from me didn’t sound human. It shattered something inside me, ripped out of my chest like the last breath I had left. I clawed at the dirt, nails splitting, lungs burning as if grief itself could suffocate me. It wasn’t just pain. It was devastation. My vision blurred. My heartbeat slowed. The world dimmed at the edges, sound warping like I’d been dragged underwater. Flames roared. Smoke burned. My parents’ blood stained the earth. And I collapsed. Darkness swallowed me whole. I didn’t know it then, but the darkness that took me was only the beginning.