🩸 Crimson Moon Oath
Chapter Three – When the Wolves Came
By chizzy
Night returned heavy and breathless.
The moon climbed like a pale blade over the forest, silvering the leaves outside Avaline's cottage. Every sound—the creak of wood, the sigh of wind—felt louder than it should, as though the world itself was holding its breath.
Kael hadn't moved from the window since dusk. His stillness unnerved her more than any noise could. He stood like a statue carved from night, eyes fixed on the treeline beyond the field.
"They're close," he said quietly.
Avaline stopped grinding herbs and looked up. "You can sense them?"
He nodded once. "The air changes when they hunt. You'll learn to feel it too, if you live long enough."
"Encouraging," she muttered.
Kael turned from the window, the faintest trace of a smile ghosting across his lips. "You still have time to run."
"Run where?" she asked. "Every road out of Thornewood cuts through the forest. If the wolves are out there, I'd meet them before I reached the gate."
He didn't argue. Instead, he stepped closer, so near she could feel the chill radiating from him. "Then stay behind me when they come. No matter what you see."
Before she could answer, the first howl split the air—long, deep, and close enough to make the glass tremble in the panes.
Kael's eyes glowed faintly red. "Too late."
Avaline grabbed her lantern, its flame shaking as hard as her hands. "How many?"
"Three," he said. "Scouts. They'll test the air before the pack arrives."
"Three I can handle," came a voice from outside.
The door burst inward, slamming against the wall. A man stepped through, tall and broad-shouldered, eyes bright gold under the lantern light.
His smile was almost human.
"Alpha Lycian," Kael said coldly.
Avaline froze. So this was the beast that haunted the forest edges, the name villagers whispered in fear. Yet there was something mesmerizing about him—the way power coiled beneath his calm, the way his gaze fixed on her, not Kael.
"You brought her here," Lycian said, ignoring Kael. "You stained her scent with your blood. Foolish thing to do, vampire."
Kael shifted, barely perceptible, blocking her with his body. "She saved my life."
Lycian's lips curved. "And now she's mine to protect."
Avaline blinked. "Yours?"
"Your blood called to me long before he touched it," Lycian said, voice low, almost a growl. "You don't belong to the dead, healer. You belong to the moon."
Kael's voice sharpened. "She belongs to no one."
The tension between them thickened, like storm air before lightning.
Avaline's heart thudded painfully. "Stop it—both of you. I'm not a prize to be fought over."
But neither seemed to hear her. Kael moved with supernatural speed, drawing steel from beneath his cloak. Lycian's eyes flared gold, his form trembling with the onset of change.
"Wait!" Avaline cried, stepping between them. "You'll bring the whole pack—"
Too late.
A chorus of howls answered from the trees, dozens this time, rising like a single monstrous voice.
Lycian's head tilted slightly. "They're here."
In a blur of movement, Kael seized Avaline's wrist and pulled her toward the back door. "We need to move. Now."
She stumbled after him, heart racing. "You're both mad—what are you doing?"
"Surviving," he said, echoing his words from before.
Outside, the forest came alive with motion—shadows darting between the trees, eyes glinting like embers in the dark. The wolves had come in force.
Kael pushed her behind an old stone wall near the well. "Stay low," he whispered.
Lycian appeared moments later, his body half-shifted—eyes blazing, claws gleaming. He glanced once at Avaline, then faced the encroaching shadows.
"For tonight," he said to Kael, voice rough, "we fight together."
Kael inclined his head, fangs bared. "Agreed."
The first wolf lunged from the darkness. Kael met it midair, his blade flashing. Lycian tore through another with a snarl. Blood splattered the stones, black under moonlight.
Avaline crouched low, covering her ears, heart hammering so loud she barely heard the screams and growls. The night was chaos—steel, claws, and the sound of creatures dying.
Then silence.
When she dared to look up, the ground was littered with still forms. Kael stood panting, eyes dimmed from crimson back to dark. Lycian leaned against the wall, half-blood, half-man, his chest heaving.
The air smelled of rain and iron again.
Avaline rose shakily. "Are you both—?"
"Alive," Kael said.
"Barely," Lycian muttered, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. His gaze softened when it fell on her. "You have no idea what you are, do you?"
Avaline frowned. "What I am?"
Kael stiffened. "Don't."
Lycian ignored him. "The wolves wouldn't have risked attacking me unless they wanted you, girl. Not him. You."
Avaline's skin chilled. "That's impossible. I'm human."
Kael's eyes met hers, filled with something she didn't want to read—pity, or fear. "Perhaps," he said softly. "But the blood that calls to two races at once has never belonged to a mere human."
The moonlight caught her face then—pale, uncertain, trembling—and in that instant Avaline knew her life would never return to what it was before the blood moon rose.
End of Chapter Three