Lyra’s POV.

The forest burned with silver light. The Blood Moon hung swollen above the Vale cliffs and every wolf in the territory howled its name.

Their voices were a hymn of power, but beneath the harmony, I could hear the truth, a pulse of fear. It threaded through the smoke and the drums and the crackle of fire, whispering of something no one dared speak aloud.

That fear had a name, which is mine. I stood at the edge of the bonfire circle, the flames painting my skin in restless gold. Every gaze cut toward me, not with reverence, but with calculation. Waiting for me to stumble. Waiting for the curse to show.

“You don’t belong here, Lyra.” Rowan’s voice sliced through the night like a blade. The son of the Beta, drunk on his father’s pride, his teeth gleaming as if he already tasted victory. Around him, the pack watched, eager for blood disguised as laughter.

I smiled, sharp and dangerous. “Funny, Rowan. I thought the invitation said all pack members, not just the idiots.”

A ripple of laughter broke, uneasy but real. His smirk faltered... Good.

But then he stepped closer, his breath reeking of wine and arrogance. “Your father may be Alpha, but that doesn’t make you one of us. Cursed blood doesn’t make a wolf, Vale.”

The word cursed landed like a blade. For a moment, something ugly burned in my chest: shame, rage and the memory of the whispers that had followed me since I was born under an eclipse. But I didn’t flinch.

“Careful,” I said, letting my voice drop to a low growl. “You keep talking and I might prove how wolf I really am.”

He barked out a laugh. “Prove it tomorrow. If you even shift.” My nails dug into my palms until I felt the bite of skin. I wanted to tear him apart, not just to silence him, but to silence the doubt clawing inside me.

Because what if he was right? What if the moon rose and I didn’t change? What if the curse everyone whispered about finally showed its teeth?

Before I could answer, a change in the air stilled me and there was a shift in the crowd, not fear, but awareness.

That’s when I saw him. Across the circle, standing apart from the Vale wolves like a shadow against flame, was a man whose presence demanded silence. Broad-shouldered, wrapped in black trimmed with silver, marks of another pack. His gaze caught mine and the world dimmed.

Kael Aeson, heir of the Blackthorn Pack and our sworn enemies. What the hell was he doing here?

The stories hadn’t lied: his eyes were black fire and his face carved from command. But what no story had captured was how it felt when he looked at me, like he saw straight through my skin and into the chaos beneath it.

Rowan noticed my distraction and sneered. “Looks like even the Blackthorns came to watch the Alpha’s daughter fail.”

Kael’s lips curved, not in mockery, but in something darker, amusement and recognition.

And damn it, that look made my pulse trip over itself. I lifted my chin. “Enjoying the view, Blackthorn?” He tilted his head, eyes glinting. “I expected more from the infamous Vale girl.”

A pause, deliberate. “Maybe the stories are wrong.” My pride coiled like a living thing. “Careful. I bite.” His smile didn’t reach his eyes. “Then maybe you’re worth my time after all.”

Before I could retort, a voice thundered across the clearing, the one voice I could never ignore.

“Enough.”

The bonfire hissed, as if the flames themselves bowed to him. My father, Alpha Dorian Vale, strode into the circle, power radiating from every measured step. His hair was streaked silver and his eyes as cold as the northern woods.

“Father...” I began, but his glare was enough to silence me. “You shame yourself,” he said, loud enough for the entire pack to hear. “Do not forget who you are.”

Heat rushed to my face, humiliation burning hotter than the fire. Around us, wolves murmured, smirks curving lips that used to bow to my bloodline.

I wanted to scream. I wanted to burn the whole forest down and show them I wasn’t the mistake they whispered about.

The drums began again. The Elders lifted silver chalices, voices rising in sacred unison. “To the Blood Moon and to the Gift of the Shift.”

I raised my head, but before I could drink, the air changed, cold and electric.

A voice rasped from the treeline, hollow and ancient. “The cursed daughter will either crown or bury you all.” Every head snapped toward the sound. The shadows split and a figure emerged, a woman draped in crimson robes that dragged across the earth. Her eyes glowed white, sightless and terrifying.

Gasps rippled through the crowd. “The Crimson Seer,” someone whispered. No one had summoned her and no one ever did.

Her face turned toward me and though her eyes were blind, I felt them pierce straight through my bones.

“She will not save you,” the Seer said, pointing her gnarled hand at my chest. “She will not be your heir. She will be your ruin.”

“No!” my father’s voice thundered. “Your words have no place here, witch!”

But the Seer only smiled, slow and knowing. “You cannot silence prophecy, Alpha. The moon remembers and the Hollow wakes.”

My breath caught. “The Hollow?” I whispered, but no one answered. The Seer turned, her robes sweeping through the dirt like smoke and vanished into the dark.

The silence that followed was thick enough to choke on. Whispers slithered around me again. Cursed...Hollow...Monster.

I couldn’t stand it. I turned and walked, then ran, away from the circle, into the woods and into the dark.

Branches tore at my skin, while my heartbeat echoed in my ears. I didn’t stop until the firelight was gone and the air tasted of rain and ash. That’s when I heard the footsteps behind me.

A hand caught my arm, iron-hard. I spun, but his scent hit me first, cold steel and wild earth, but then it was Kael.

He stepped close enough that the space between us vibrated. His eyes burned under the moonlight, unflinching and merciless.

“If you shift tonight,” he said softly, “I’ll be the one to kill you.”

The words froze me, not because of the threat, but because of the certainty in his tone. He wasn’t taunting. He was warning. “Why?” I breathed.

Kael’s gaze flickered, almost like regret. “Because the prophecy isn’t wrong, Lyra Vale.”

He leaned closer, his voice a blade of silk and danger. “You just don’t know what you are yet.”

The wind howled through the trees and the moon pulsed red above us.

And for the first time in my life, I wasn’t sure if the monster in the prophecy was me... or him. Why would my enemy know more about my fate than I did?

Lyra's POV

“Breathe, Lyra. The moon will not hurt you… unless you let it.”

The words floated through the darkness. It was soft yet firm, like a hand pressing against my chest. That was my best friend’s voice... Eira.

I sucked in a shaky breath, my lungs trembling as if they were about to burst, while the night air tasted sharp and metallic, like blood waiting on my tongue.

The forest clearing had changed since the bonfire. The pack had stripped away their ceremonial robes, which were replaced by raw skin and nerves, each of them waiting for the Blood Moon’s rise. Torches burned low now, as smoke curled into the branches above us like warning fingers.

I stood barefoot at the center of the ritual circle; my pulse was hammering so loud that I swore the others could hear it. My father towered behind me, his hand clamped like iron around my shoulder, keeping me still.

“This is your moment,” he murmured; his voice was low enough that only I could hear what he said. “Do not falter.”

He made the words he uttered sound so easy, like I hadn’t spent my entire life being told I was different, cursed and also a mistake waiting to happen.

I swallowed hard, as my throat was dry. Eira edged closer, with her long braid swaying over her shoulder. She offered me a shaky smile, but her eyes betrayed her, too wide, too glassy and too full of guilt.

“What if it hurts?” I whispered.

She squeezed my hand. “Everything about it is worth becoming hurt.” But the way her voice cracked made something cold sink into my stomach. She knew something and I was so sure that she was hiding something.

The pack shifted restlessly around us, their murmurs filling the air. Some stared at me with open curiosity, while others stared at me with thinly veiled disgust. I caught Rowan’s smirk among them, the Beta’s son; he was practically salivating for me to fail and then, at the far edge of the circle, I saw him again... Kael Aeson.

His dark coat caught the torchlight, his stance as rigid and unyielding as stone. He hadn’t moved since the bonfire, but his eyes were super sharp and those sharp black eyes never left me. They were watching and waiting.

My skin prickled under his gaze. His words from earlier echoed in my skull: If you shift tonight, I will be the one to kill you. My jaw clenched as I looked away, my body shaking as the Elders stepped forward. “The Blood Moon rises,” one of them intoned, as her voice quivered with reverence.

The pack dropped to their knees, heads bowed. Even my father inclined his head, though he did not kneel. Above us, the first sliver of red crested the horizon. The moon dragged itself into the sky, swelling and deepening in color until it hung heavy, crimson and swollen, like an open wound bleeding across the night.

The air thickened as my heart thudded. I have to remind myself that it was time.

“Step forward, Lyra Vale,” the Elder said.

My feet moved of their own accord as they dragged me to the exact center of the circle. The soil was cold beneath my toes and the earth was vibrating as if it recognized what was about to happen.

“Breathe,” Eira whispered again, though she sounded further away this time.

The Elder raised her arms. “Blood of Vale, child of the Alpha, meet your moon and be reborn.” The pack howled as one, the sound shaking the ground and then my body broke.

It started as a fire beneath my skin, tiny sparks racing down my veins, searing every nerve. My knees buckled, while my scream was swallowed by the roar of the wind. My bones cracked, not one by one, but all at once, like my skeleton was shattering into dust.

I fell to my hands and knees, the earth swallowing my fingers as claws tore through my skin. My spine bent backward, snapping, stretching and reshaping. Fur exploded across my body, but it wasn’t silver like my father’s or even brown like my pack’s.

It was black... like pitch black and threaded through the darkness was something else.

Something must surely be wrong. My body flickered between forms, as my shadow was stretching longer than my body, while my face was elongating into a muzzle before snapping back into something half-human and half-wolf. The screams began immediately. “She’s not shifting, she’s breaking!” someone shouted.

“What is she?” another cried.

I tried to rise and equally to steady myself, but my legs twisted and bent the wrong way and forced me back to the ground. My reflection shimmered in the pools of torchlight: my eyes glowed not amber, not gold, but white, hollow and endless.

I guess I wasn’t becoming a wolf; instead, I was becoming a monster.

“Hold your ground!” My father bellowed, though his voice cracked.

The pack had already begun to back away, forming a jagged circle of terror. Mothers clutched their pups and warriors drew halfway into their shifts and were ready to attack.

Just then, I saw it: my father’s eyes. It shows horror, not surprise and also not confusion, but recognition. As if he had been waiting for this, fearing it and at the same time expecting it. He actually knew about this.

My chest caved, a sob clawing at my throat, but it came out as a growl. My claws gouged the earth as my body was flickering between beast and shadow.

The whispers grew louder and shriller, echoing through the clearing: The Hollow Wolf...The Hollow Wolf...The Hollow Wolf and then, through the chaos, Kael moved. He stepped into the circle; his every motion was deliberate and calm, as though he had been waiting for this very moment.

Our eyes locked as the world fell silent and then it hit me, like fire and lightning exploding in my chest. The mate bond.

It seared through my veins, soul-deep and undeniable. My body lurched toward him, pulled by an invisible tether. Every instinct screamed at me: mine, but his lips curled into a snarl.

“So it’s true,” Kael spat, his voice trembling with both rage and awe. “You are the Hollow Wolf.”

The bond burned hotter, twisting between desire and betrayal until I thought it would tear me in half. Immediately, the circle erupted into shouts.

“Kill it before it kills us all!” someone screamed.

Without wasting seconds, warriors surged forward, their eyes wild and their fangs bared. I staggered back, my claws dripping earth, my breath a ragged growl. My father raised his arms as if to protect me, but his hesitation was too long and too heavy.

The circle closed in. The air split with roars and I realized the truth...

They weren’t seeing me anymore. Instead, they were seeing the monster the Seer had promised.

The pack lunged, shadows and fangs closing around me and I had one wild thought before the chaos swallowed me whole: Will I survive my first shift, or will my own family tear me apart?

Lyra’s POV

“Stay back, or I will tear out your throat!” The words ripped from me, half-growl and half-scream. My throat burned with the sound, my voice no longer fully human. The pack’s shadows lunged at me, teeth flashing in the torchlight. Instinct, raw and savage, twisted through my veins. I slashed out, claws carving through the air and wolves scattered back with yelps.

The world was chaos, roars and howls and the crack of bones shifting as warriors half-turned into beasts. My heart thundered in my hollow chest, pounding so violently that it felt like it would split me open.

I had to run before they tore me apart or before I tore them apart.

My body reacted before my mind caught up. My legs bent and I sprang, claws tearing into the earth as I darted through the ring of bodies. Snarls chased me as I plunged into the forest, the shadows swallowing me whole. Branches whipped at my face, while thorns cut into my skin, but none of it slowed me. My monstrous body was stronger and faster.

Behind me, I could still hear their cries. Monster… Hollow… Kill it.

But louder than them all was the echo of the seer’s voice in my head: She will crown or bury you all.

The cursed forest wrapped around me like a trap. The air was heavy with mist, while the trees were gnarled and twisted, their roots reaching like claws. Wolves feared this place, as there are whispers of ghosts and shadows that never left.

But I wasn’t afraid, not anymore, because the real monster was me. I stumbled into a clearing, chest heaving and claws still dripping dirt. My reflection shimmered in a pool of moonlight on the ground, half-wolf, half-shadow and eyes glowing hollow white. My stomach twisted, like this wasn’t me. This wasn’t who I was supposed to be.

A branch snapped behind me. I spun, teeth bared, a growl ripping free and then I saw him.

Kael.

He moved like a predator, silent and controlled, his black coat whispering around him. His eyes glowed in the moonlight, not hollow like mine but sharp, cutting and alive.

“You should have stayed with them,” I snarled, crouching low. “At least then you’d have the numbers to back your threats.”

He didn’t flinch. Didn’t even blink. Instead, he stepped closer, his lips curling into that same mocking smirk.

“You think you’re strong enough to face me, Hollow Wolf?” His voice was smooth, but there was steel under it. “You’re not.”

“I’m not your prey.”

“Then prove it.”

Just then, he lunged. The impact slammed through me like thunder. His body collided with mine, claws raking against my arms as my own struck across his chest. Sparks exploded where we touched, painful, searing sparks that weren’t just claws and teeth.

The mate bond. Every time our bodies met, it burned through me, tethering me tighter to him even as we tried to destroy each other.

I roared, slamming him back into a tree. The bark cracked, but he didn’t crumble. His knee drove into my ribs and I snarled as pain shot through me. My claws arced for his throat, but he caught my wrist mid-swing, his grip unbreakable.

“You feel it too,” he hissed, his face inches from mine. As his breath was fire against my skin.

I jerked my head forward, my teeth snapping, nearly catching his cheek. “I feel nothing but the urge to rip you apart.”

But it was a lie. The pull between us was unbearable. Every breath he took dragged at my lungs. Every snarl he gave made something in me scream mine.

He must have felt it too, because for one instant… just one, he hesitated. His claws pressed to my throat, but he didn’t pierce the skin. His eyes flickered, torn between duty and something deeper.

That hesitation nearly broke him. I shoved him off with a surge of strength, sending him skidding across the forest floor.

“Stay down,” I growled, voice shaking.

But he rose, blood staining his lip, his smirk returning even through the pain. “If you lose control again, I will kill you. Mate bond or not.”

The words sliced deeper than any claw.

“Lyra!”

My head whipped around at the sound of my name and that was Eira. She burst into the clearing, her braid half-undone, her face pale and stricken. She carried something in her hand, a charm that glowed faintly blue.

“No!” I roared, stepping back. “Stay away!”

“Please, listen to me!” Her voice cracked as she spoke, while her eyes were glassy with tears. “You can’t fight it on your own. This will help. Just… just let me…” The charm flared brighter and instantly, I felt it. My monstrous form trembled, my muscles weakening and shadows peeling away from me like smoke.

My breath hitched. My strength was fading, not by choice, but because of her.

“Eira…” My voice broke, caught between a growl and a sob. “You knew. You knew all along.”

Her lips parted, but no words came out. That silence was answer enough.

My knees buckled and I crashed to the ground. My claws dug into the soil, desperate to hold on, but the shift was tearing me apart. Bones cracked again, skin split and reshaped and fur slid back into my flesh. The Hollow Wolf form slipped away, leaving me naked and trembling in the dirt.

I curled into myself, shivering. Shame burned hotter than the moonlight above. Then footsteps drew near, not from Eira’s, but from Kael’s.

He crouched beside me and for the first time, his expression wasn’t mocking. It was unreadable, dark and sharp, but softer at the edges. Without a word, he stripped off his coat and draped it around my shoulders.

“You’re reckless,” he muttered. “You’ll freeze before sunrise.”

Gosh! ...I wanted to spit at him. I wanted to scream. But my throat was raw and my body was too weak.

Then the forest shifted again. Leaves trembled as if the earth itself recoiled and footsteps broke through the night, heavy, purposeful and far too familiar.

That was my father. Alpha Dorian Vale stormed into the clearing, his presence blotting out the moonlight. Shadows clung to him, flanked by warriors who moved like a wall of steel at his back. His face was carved in fury, each line etched deep as though anger itself had made him a mask. His eyes, bright and unrelenting, burned like wildfire.

“Step away from her,” he growled, his voice carrying the kind of command that bent lesser wolves to their knees.

But Kael didn’t move, not an inch. His hand tightened on my shoulder, steady and unyielding, as though he had staked his claim before the entire world. His voice came cold, calm and sharp enough to cut through the night.

“She’s not your Alpha’s daughter anymore.” He met my father’s glare without flinching. “She belongs to me now.”

The words struck like lightning, fast, searing and impossible to undo. Silence swallowed the clearing. Even the wind seemed to hold its breath and then, with a motion so swift it split the night in two, my father drew his blade, not at Kael… But at me.

The silver edge gleamed in the ghostly light of the moon, a flash of death in his hands. His face, twisted in anguish and rage, was more terrifying than any enemy I had ever faced.

Why? Why would the man who raised me, the Alpha who once swore to protect me against the world, lift his blade not at my captor, not at my enemy, but at his own blood? At his daughter, at me.