Chapter 2 The Curse in His Blood

The night Selene dreamt of the red moon, something shifted.

Not in the world around her, but inside.

She did not speak of it. Not to the other marked women who whispered in corners, not to the guards who escorted her back and forth across the fortress halls, and certainly not to the Alpha. But she felt it, the pull. A humming, steady and low, in her bones. Like something ancient had begun to recognise her.

She was nobody. A servant. A girl scraped from ash and spared by chance. And yet, when she walked the halls of the western wing, she no longer felt invisible.

She felt watched.

Not in fear.

But in expectation.

Each morning now, her duties began before sunrise. She swept through the Alpha's chambers with silent precision, tending to his clothing, his water, his scrolls, his unread letters. Sometimes he was already gone, vanished before dawn like a ghost. Other times, he remained seated near the great arched window, staring out toward the cliffs, unmoving.

He never greeted her.

But he never dismissed her either.

And that, in itself, was something.

One morning, as she arranged fresh towels beside the bathing basin, she noticed a torn page discarded near his desk. It was stained, not with ink, but blood. A name was scrawled across the margin in bold script:

"Elira."

It was not his name.

It was not hers.

But something in the word made her hand tremble.

Before she could tuck it away, his voice cut across the silence.

"Leave it."

She froze. He had not turned, but she knew he had seen her.

"I am sorry"

"You are not."

He finally stood, his presence pulling the very air around him inward like gravity.

"You are curious. That is different."

Selene's gaze dropped. "I did not mean to"

"Good."

She blinked, unsure what he meant.

"Curiosity is useful," he said. "Until it gets you killed."

That was the first time he asked her a question.

"What do you fear most, Selene?"

It was not a casual query. It was not laced with amusement or teasing. It was sharp, meant to cut.

She did not hesitate.

"Being forgotten."

He stared at her for so long she thought he had not heard. But then he said, almost too softly:

"Then we are alike."

She learned to recognise the signs.

The days Kade bled were never the same. They came without warning. Sometimes once a week, sometimes only after the full moon. But when it happened, the fortress grew still. Doors closed. Guards disappeared. Even the wolves retreated into silence.

It always began the same way.

With the sound of iron locking from the inside.

Selene had never seen him shift. Not fully. She would only find him after, chest torn open, skin clawed from within, face pale and glistening with pain. She would clean the wounds without speaking, replace the bloodied cloths, and leave before he could speak.

But one night, the silence broke.

"You think I am cursed?"

She looked up from the basin, startled. "I think... You are not like the others."

"I am not," he said flatly. "I am worse."

He stood then, unsteady but upright. His bare chest was streaked with fading red, muscles taut beneath skin that shimmered unnaturally in the candlelight.

"I was not born this way, Selene. I was made."

She did not ask how.

He answered anyway.

"There was a girl. Once. Her blood saved me. Her name was Elira."

The name from the letter.

"She gave me her life to stop the dying. But the moon..." He laughed bitterly. "The moon does not accept bargains. It just changes the terms."

"What happened to her?"

He did not speak.

But his silence screamed.

That night, Selene didn't return to the servant quarters.

She stayed, seated beside the hearth, the blanket he never used draped over her knees. Kade lay in bed, half-conscious from blood loss, his breathing shallow but steady. The moonlight spilt across the floor like silver threads, and Selene stared at it, unblinking.

She did not know when she began to hum.

A song from her mother.

A lullaby from the days before fire and fear.

She thought he was asleep.

But as the last note fell into silence, he whispered:

"She used to sing that too."

The fortress had many wings, but only one was forbidden.

The northern wing.

No one spoke of what lay beyond its locked iron gate. Even the wolves skirted it, their noses lowered, tails stiff. But one night, when the moon was thin and Kade was gone, Selene passed near it during her rounds.

A whisper touched her ear.

Not a voice. A presence.

The gate was warm.

Too warm.

And the sigil carved into its centre pulsed like a heartbeat.

She reached toward it, her hand trembling.

"Don't."

Kade's voice.

He stood in the shadows, eyes brighter than they should have been.

"I told you never to come here."

"I was not going to open it," she said.

"It does not matter. The door listens."

She frowned. "To what?"

"To blood," he said. "And pain. And promises."

He took a step forward.

"That wing holds the price of my survival."

Another step.

"And if you ever go near it again, I won't stop what waits behind it."

The next morning, he was gone.

Not for hours.

For days.

Selene was reassigned to kitchen duty, scrubbing pots and slicing roots until her hands blistered. The others whispered about the Alpha's absence. Some claimed he had turned fully. Others said he'd gone to bargain with the Moon Priestess beyond the cliffs.

Only Selene knew the truth.

He was hiding from himself.

And from her.

He returned on the fourth day, ragged and bloodstained, walking through the main gate alone.

No guards.

No wolves.

Just a man with the weight of centuries in his step.

Selene found him in the western wing, seated by the hearth.

"I thought you had left," she said.

"I did," he replied. "But you followed."

She stiffened. "I did not"

"In my dreams," he said softly. "You were there."

Silence.

He looked at her, and for the first time, there was no command in his eyes.

Only a question.

"Why?"

She did not know what to say. Did not know what he meant.

So she told the truth.

"Because you looked alone."

Something changed after that night.

Kade began to speak more.

Not often. Not easily.

But enough.

He spoke of the burden of blood, of ancient oaths sworn under eclipsed moons, of a curse passed down not through lineage but through choice. He spoke of Elira, the girl with silver eyes and sacrificial blood. And of the pact that kept him alive while everyone he loved was devoured by time.

"Every Alpha of Bloodfang dies," he said once. "Except me."

"Why?"

"Because I killed the one who could have replaced me."

The fire crackled between them. He looked at her then, quiet, hollow.

"I did not want to be saved."

Selene reached for his hand.

He did not pull away.

She dreamt again.

This time, of herself.

Standing in a clearing.

Barefoot, hair wild, arms outstretched under a moon that bled red into the earth.

Wolves circled her.

But none attacked.

They waited.

And when she opened her mouth, the sound that came was not a scream.

It was a howl.

The next morning, Selene awoke with the taste of earth in her mouth and the echo of a howl lodged deep in her chest. It took her several heartbeats to realise she was still in her quarters and not in that moon-drenched forest from her dream. But the sensation, that strange pull, that thrumming in her bones, lingered.

She didn't tell Kade. Some things felt too intimate to speak aloud.

Instead, she resumed her duties in silence. But the energy in the fortress had changed. Guards stood a little straighter. The wind howled louder through the stone corridors. Something was coming.

And it came that evening.

Selene was summoned to the inner courtyard. A full moon hung fat and golden above the tower. The moment she stepped outside, she knew it wasn't a routine summons.

The courtyard blazed with torchlight. Wolves lined the edges, fully shifted and silent. Warriors in dark leather stood beside them, forming a living circle.

Kade stood in the centre.

Beside him, three elders of the pack, ancient men with silver tattoos across their faces and eyes clouded by age or power.

One of them spoke.

"The girl must be tested."

Selene's stomach dropped.

"She has crossed into sacred space," the elder continued. "And the moon demands balance."

Kade's face was unreadable. "She did not open the door."

"But she heard it call. That is enough."

They beckoned her forward.

Kade took a step toward her. His voice was low, urgent. "You don't have to do this. I can speak for you."

But Selene, to her surprise, stepped forward.

"I will face the test."

A slow murmur spread around the circle.

The elder nodded once. "Let the moon judge."

She was stripped of weapons, not that she had any, and led into a hollow ring of earth known as the Lunaris Circle. The ground was packed hard beneath her feet. A single torch lit the centre, and around it stood three shapes.

Three wolves.

But these were not ordinary wolves. They shimmered in and out of form, half-shadow, half-beast. One was pure white, one mottled grey, and one black as pitch. The Moon Sentinels.

"You must stand," the elder intoned, "and not run. You must look them in the eyes, and not flinch. If they strike, you may bleed. If you fall, you fail."

Selene swallowed hard.

The torch was extinguished.

Darkness.

And then, growling.

The first wolf approached, the white one. It came within inches of her face, its breath hot and heavy. Selene's knees trembled, but she did not move. Its eyes glowed gold, ancient and endless.

It circled. Sniffed. Growled.

Then backed away.

The grey wolf came next. It lunged. Selene gasped but held her ground. Its claws scraped her arm, drawing blood. She staggered but remained upright.

Then came the black one.

It did not growl. It did not sniff. It simply stared.

And Selene stared back.

She felt the moon press against her chest like a hand. She felt the dream rise in her throat.

And she howled.

The sound startled even herself. A cry raw and aching and defiant.

The black wolf tilted its head. Then it bowed.

The torches flared.

Silence.

And then.

"She is accepted," the eldest said.

The circle dissolved.

Kade looked at her, eyes wide. Not in fear.

In recognition.

They walked in silence back to the western wing.

When the doors closed behind them, Kade turned.

"You don't know what you have done."

"Then tell me."

"They have marked you. You are not just a servant now. You are... part of the bloodline."

She froze. "What does that mean?"

"It means," he said, stepping closer, "you have tied your fate to mine."

"Then unbind it."

His voice dropped. "I cannot."

And then, for the first time, Kade touched her face.

Not with hunger.

With grief.

"Elira stood in that circle. Once."

Selene's breath caught.

"And she didn't survive."

Their eyes met. Something passed between them, old and new, painful and inevitable.

Selene spoke softly. "Then maybe I am not her."

"No," Kade whispered. "You are not."

He stepped back.

"You might be worse."

That night, the wind howled louder.

And the moon, for the first time in centuries, turned red before its time.

Selene stood at her window and knew the story had begun.

Not with a girl who survived.

But with a woman who would not bow.