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.

Lyra’s POV

“Do it, Father. Strike me down… if you’re brave enough.”

The words left my mouth before I could think, before I could stop them, and once they were out, there was no pulling them back. My voice shook, not with fear, but with fury that burned hotter than the fire still roaring in the clearing behind us.

My father’s hand tightened around the hilt of the silver blade. The firelight made it gleam and for the first time, I saw it clearly, not just a blade and equally not just steel. The markings along the edge shimmered with runes, old and cruel. My stomach twisted. This wasn’t an ordinary weapon; it was made for one purpose. Probably, to kill me.

“You think I won’t?” His voice was low, dangerous and cold enough to make even Rowan flinch behind him. My father’s eyes locked on me, the same pale gray that had once seemed like stone walls keeping me safe, but now they looked like tombstones.

The circle of wolves pressed closer, breaths heavy, growls rumbling in their throats. I felt their hunger for my blood and their fear of what I’d become. My claws dug into the earth. My chest heaved.

Then Kael stepped between us.

Immediately, the world stilled. One heartbeat, two. The crowd rippled with shock as Kael’s broad frame blocked my father’s advance. His coat swayed in the wind, silver embroidery glinting under the blood-red moon, and his scent, earth and steel, cut through the haze of fear choking me.

“If she dies,” Kael said, his voice was steady and commanding, “you’ll start a war you cannot win.”

Gasps spread through the pack like wildfire. Even Rowan’s smug face faltered, confusion breaking his sneer. My father’s jaw tightened. “This is Vale territory. You have no say here.”

Kael’s lips curved, sharp as a blade. “I have every say. She is mine.”

The word hit me like lightning. Just then, I felt my heart stumble, my breath caught and a hundred voices whispered at once... Mate.

The mate bond seared through my chest, undeniable and violent, pulling me toward him like a rope bound in fire. But Kael’s eyes weren’t soft. They weren’t tender. They burned with warning, not devotion.

“You dare claim her?” My father snarled, his grip tightening on the blade.

Kael didn’t flinch. He leaned closer, his voice low but loud enough for all to hear. “She belongs to me now and if you kill her, Vale… then you’ll answer to the Blackthorn pack.”

Chaos erupted. Wolves shouted and growled, some backing away in fear, while others bristled in rage.

But my eyes weren’t on them. They were locked on the blade my father held. The runes gleamed like blood under moonlight. Recognition prickled down my spine.

“The Oathblade,” I whispered.

The air around us shifted. My father froze for the briefest moment and that pause told me everything. He knew I recognized it. He hadn’t expected me to.

The Oathblade is a weapon forged by Elders long before I was born. A blade made not to harm just any wolf, but to kill the Hollow Wolf... that's me.

“You had it ready,” I said, my voice breaking and shaking at the same time. “All this time, you’ve been waiting… waiting for me to fail.”

He didn’t answer. He didn’t have to. His silence was the loudest confession.

The ground tilted beneath me, my chest caving in. My father, the man I had spent my whole life trying to please, hadn’t been protecting me. He had been preparing to kill me.

“Lyra!”

I turned at the sound of my name, my hope clawing for someone, anyone, to be real. Eira stood near the edge of the circle, her braid messy, her hands raised like she wanted to run to me while her lips trembled. Her eyes were too wide and too wet.

“Don’t,” I said, the word ripping from my throat.

“Please...”

But then I heard it. A whisper, too soft for anyone else but my ears, sharpened by the monstrous shift still simmering in my blood, caught it. The words weren’t pleasing and they weren’t comforting. They were spells. A chant, low and sharp, slipping from her lips. My heart cracked.

“You,” I gasped. My claws curled into fists. “You were chanting that night, too. You hexed me.”

Her face crumpled, guilt spilling out of her like blood. “I... I only wanted to protect you...”

“Protect me?” My laugh was broken, sharp and raw. “You lied to me, Eira. You knew.”

The pack murmured, whispers darting like knives. Betrayal burned through me hotter than fire. First, it was my father and now it's my best friend. Who else? Who else would show me their teeth before the night was over?

“Enough!” Rowan’s voice cut through the chaos, dripping with triumph. His smug grin widened as he stepped forward. “Why waste time? She’s cursed. The Seer said it herself. We all saw what she became. Kill her now before she destroys us all!”

The crowd roared in agreement. Wolves snarled, some shifting halfway, their teeth bared and eyes wild.

“The Elders will decide!” My father snapped, though his voice was strained, fraying at the edges.

The oldest Elder stepped forward, her white hair gleaming under the moonlight. Her eyes were sharp as glass. She lifted her hand and immediately, silence fell.

“The Blood Oath,” she said. Her voice carried like thunder, no matter how soft. “By the law of the packs, the cursed one must prove her worth. A trial, by combat or by execution, before the Blood Moon sets.”

My breath caught and at the same time, my blood froze. They wanted me to fight for my life.

“Who will face her?” the Elder asked.

Before anyone else could speak, Kael’s voice broke through the night.

“I will.”

The clearing erupted again, louder, wilder. My heart slammed against my ribs. “What?”

He turned to me, his face carved from stone. “If you are the Hollow Wolf, I will kill you. If you are not, then I will be bound to you forever.”

His words rang with finality, with prophecy and with something older than either of us. The bond between us pulsed, searing my veins, while reminding me that he wasn’t just a rival. He was fate.

I staggered back, my breath catching on my sob. Bound to me… or my executioner.

The pack stared, breathless and hungry for blood. My father’s hand trembled around the Oathblade. Eira’s tears streaked her face, guilt dripping from every look, while Rowan’s grin stretched wider, already tasting my death and then, the world broke.

My shadow stretched across the ground, darker than night and longer than it should have been. I froze. My breath stilled. It moved, without me.

The Hollow Wolf. Its shape rippled on the earth, its white eyes gleaming, its jaws snapping with hunger. It wasn’t just inside me anymore. It was peeling free, a beast made of nothing but darkness and rage.

The pack stumbled back, horror twisting their faces. Even Kael’s breath hitched, though his stance never faltered.

My knees buckled as I stared at it... ooh! At me... At what I was becoming. The Hollow Wolf turned its head, its glowing gaze locking on mine and it smiled.

The ground split with growls and the night was thick with terror. My heart screamed one thought louder than the chaos: If the Hollow Wolf no longer needs me to exist, then what am I? And if killing me won’t stop it… what will?