Chapter 1 Blood on the moon

**FLASHBACK**

The full moon was high in the sky, draped in a crimson hue like it mourned the blood about to be spilled. The night air was thick with tension, the kind that curled its fingers around a man's throat and whispered promises of ruin.

Alpha Reece stood at the edge of the forest clearing, the red glow of his shifting claw flickering at his side like a warning. His heart thundered in his chest, not from fear, but from fury, icy, calculated rage that built with every step he took toward the woman standing just beyond the circle of torchlight.

Maya.

His mate.

His curse.

She was cloaked in white, a twisted irony that did nothing to hide the betrayal smoldering in her gaze. Her silver-blond hair cascaded in waves, and her pale skin glowed beneath the moonlight. Reece had once thought she was the most beautiful creature the Goddess had ever created. Now, all he saw was a lie wrapped in silk.

"You weren't supposed to find out," Maya said quietly, her voice almost carried away by the wind.

Reece's jaw tightened. "But I did."

He took a slow step forward, the dry leaves crackling beneath his boots. His wolf strained beneath his skin, begging to take over, to do what needed to be done. But Reece held it back. He needed to hear it, from her mouth. From the one person the moon had chosen for him. The one person who had pledged her loyalty to him with her body, her scent, her blood.

"Say it," he growled, eyes flashing gold. "Tell me you planned to overthrow me."

Maya didn't flinch. She never had, not even when he first became Alpha, when others feared the power that pulsed through his veins. Maya had met him head-on then, a smirk in place of fear, her head tilted in challenge. That was the woman he'd fallen for. But this wasn't that woman.

This was someone else. Someone shaped by the twisted hunger for power. Someone made in Ryder's image.

"My brother was right," she said, taking a step closer. "You're powerful, yes. But foolish. You never saw it coming, did you? Never once wondered why an Alpha's daughter from Bloodmoon would want to be mated to a Redclaw beast."

Reece's chest burned, not with anger this time, but something deeper. Something colder.

"You were never mine," he whispered.

Maya's smirk faltered. "I was. For a time. But you..." she gestured around, to the forest, the distant howl of Reece's patrol wolves echoing in the distance. "You were too soft. You wanted peace. Unity. My brother and I... we were born for dominion."

"And so you betrayed your mate," he said, voice thick with venom. "To help Ryder take my pack from within."

A silence fell between them, broken only by the sound of Reece unsheathing the ceremonial dagger at his waist.

The blade gleamed under the blood moon, inscribed with ancient Redclaw runes, meant to protect, meant to judge.

"I don't want to do this," he admitted, stepping closer. "But the Luna Laws are clear."

"You'll kill your own mate?" Maya asked, laughter bubbling in her throat. "Even the cursed ones won't dare it. You think the Goddess will let you go unpunished?"

"I think," Reece said, his voice low and dark, "that if I let you live, I will lose everything my ancestors built. My pack. My wolves. My honor."

Maya looked at him for a long time, her eyes, those haunting silver eyes, softening for just a heartbeat. "We could've ruled together."

"You never wanted to rule beside me," he said. "Only above me."

And with that, Reece lunged.

Their bodies collided with the force of colliding storms. She was fast, faster than most wolves, her Bloodmoon lineage lending her an edge. But Reece was stronger. His red claws slashed through the night like fire, colliding with her white daggers. It was more than a fight; it was a mourning, a tragedy played out in flashes of silver and crimson.

She landed a cut across his chest. He tore through her shoulder.

She pinned him to the ground.

He flipped her over and held the blade to her throat.

Her eyes met his, glassy now, not with fear but with regret.

"You were everything," she whispered.

"And you were nothing but a lie."

The blade sank deep.

Blood sprayed across the ground, staining the forest floor. Maya gasped once, her body trembling beneath his hands before going still. Her blood pooled into the soil, seeping into the roots of the Redclaw territory she tried to destroy.

Reece stumbled back, clutching his chest. Not from the wound, his healing had already begun but from the pain in his soul.

He dropped to his knees, staring at her lifeless body as the full moon cast its judgment down upon him.

And then everything shifted.

The wind died. The trees stopped rustling. The air turned to ice.

A voice filled the silence, one that sounded like thunder and whisper all at once.

"Reece of Redclaw... you have slain your fated mate."

His head shot up, and there she stood-a vision of divine fury-the Luna Goddess herself, cloaked in moonlight and stars.

Reece dropped his gaze to the ground. "She betrayed me. She tried to destroy everything."

"Yet she was your mate. The bond was sacred, chosen by me. And you severed it."

"She left me no choice," he gritted.

"I did not curse you for choosing justice," the Goddess said, her voice like the chime of a thousand bells. "But for failing love. You killed her without mercy. You chose vengeance over hope."

Reece felt the cold creep into his bones.

"What... do you mean?"

"You shall walk this world without a mate. No bond shall settle in your heart again. Any who try to claim you will find emptiness. You are bound by blood... and howls of your own making."

The wind howled again, swirling around him in a cyclone of silver light. The curse seared itself into his soul like molten steel. He screamed, half-man, half-wolf, as the magic took hold.

Then, silence.

When he looked up again, the Goddess was gone. The body of Maya lay cold before him. The blood moon had begun to fade, its crimson hue melting back to silver.

And far away, miles beyond the forest edge, another scream split the night.

Ryder.

He had felt the death of his sister. Felt the severance of the bond they shared through blood and conspiracy.

He stood in the shadows of his own territory, eyes wild with grief and wrath, fists clenched at his side.

"They will pay," he whispered. "He will pay. And I will burn Redclaw to the ground if it's the last thing I do."

As the first howls of mourning rose from the Redclaw wolves, so too did the promise of vengeance from Bloodmoon. And so, under the light of a blood-stained moon, the war began.