My name is Aria Gross. I was born on the night the sky turned red; they say the moon bled for me.
In my village, that meant only one thing: I was cursed. Everyone ran away from me as a child. My mother hated me, even the women who helped bring me into the world. They wrapped me in cloth and left me at the edge of the forest, believing the wolves would claim what belonged to them.
For days, nothing happened; I was still in the position they kept me. Something happened that very night before I was retrieved from the forest. I remember that night, the eyes were glowing gold in the darkness. I wasn't afraid. The forest felt familiar, like it knew my name before I ever learned it.
Years passed, and I grew up between two worlds: the human world that hated me and the vision of wolves that hunted me. By day, I lived among humans who whispered when I walked by, but by night, I wandered the forest, drawn by something I couldn't explain.
On my eighteenth birthday, the truth found me. It started with pain, the kind that steals your breath and shatters your bones from the inside. I collapsed in the middle of the forest, screaming as my body twisted, reshaped, broke, and rebuilt itself. I thought I was dying.
Fur burst from my skin, claws replaced my fingers, and my senses exploded into something wild. I could hear the heartbeat of a rabbit miles away and smell fear drifting through the trees.
I heard them. Howls. My howls.
I ran without thinking, my body moving on instinct, faster than any human ever could. The forest blurred around me until I reached a clearing bathed in silver light. There were dozens of them waiting for me. Wolves
These were not ordinary wolves. Their eyes held intelligence, their stance carried authority, and at the center of them all stood a massive black wolf, larger than the rest, his gaze fixed on me like he had been waiting his whole life.
"You're late," a voice echoed in my mind.
The black wolf stepped closer, and with each step, his form shifted, bones cracking, fur retreating until a man stood before me. So tall and powerful, with eyes that still glowed gold.
"You…" My voice trembled. "What are you?"
He smiled. "The better question is, what are you?"
Before I could answer, the others began to change too, wolves turning into humans, forming a circle around me.
"You are one of us," he said. "But not just any of us."
"That's impossible. I'm human."
"No. You were raised by humans. "Your blood belongs to the Blood Moon line."
The name sent a strange shiver through me.
"What does that mean?"
"It means," he said, stepping closer until I could feel the heat of his presence, "you are the heir to a power that was thought to be extinct."
"Heir to what?"
"To the Alpha of Alphas."
Every wolf bowed its head.
"That's ridiculous, "I don't even know how to control this thing."
"You will," he said calmly. "Or it will control you."
"And if I refuse?"
"Then others will come for you."
"Others?"
"Those who would rather see you dead than crowned."
"Why are you helping me?" I asked.
"I swore to your father I would."
"My… father?"
"The last Blood Moon Alpha."
"I thought the line was extinct."
"Except for you."
"What happens now?"
He stepped back, giving me space, his eyes never leaving mine.
"Now, "you learn to survive."
A distant howl echoed through the night, so sharp and a danger.
"They've found you."
"Who?"
He shifted back into his wolf form, larger and more terrifying than before.
"Run."
"But—"
"RUN."
I didn't understand any of it.
But I ran.
And for the first time in my life, I understood the truth.
I wasn't just cursed; my birth was for a purpose.
I was prey. I must learn to become the monster they feared, so I could survive long enough to become the one they would bow to.
The Blood Moon had chosen me.