Ch. 7 The Blood Moon
Ch. 7 The Blood Moon
The air grew thick with tension as the blood moon approached, its ominous glow looming on the horizon like a predator stalking its prey, a harbinger of the chaos that was sure to follow. I stood at the edge of our territory, my heart pounding as I surveyed the treeline where shadows shifted and whispered secrets, each rustle a haunting reminder of what was at stake. My pack prepared for the worst; whispers of vampire incursions flitted through our ranks like smoke in the wind, curling around us, filling the atmosphere with unease.
“Zane!” Lucas’s voice sliced through the heavy silence, urgency lacing his tone. He rushed up to me, his expression a mixture of determination and concern, his eyes wide and glinting with unspoken fears. “We need to tighten the borders. If they come tonight—”
“I know.” I rubbed a hand over my face, exhaustion weighing heavily on my bones, dragging me down like a leaden anchor. “We’ll set up patrols along the western edge first.” My voice was steadier than I felt, but deep down, I could sense the storm brewing inside me.
“Eira wouldn’t want you to carry this burden alone.” Lucas’s gaze softened momentarily, a flicker of empathy flashing across his features before he glanced away, the discomfort palpable between us like a thick fog. His words struck a chord, reverberating through the hollow spaces in my heart.
“I’m not alone,” I snapped, the sharpness of my tone surprising even me, but even as I said it, I felt the weight of my isolation pressing down harder than ever, a cold reminder of my solitude. Lyra lingered in my mind—her violet eyes glinting with something I didn’t dare name yet, a magnetism that drew me closer while simultaneously pushing me further into a conflict I didn’t know how to navigate.
“What do you want from me?” The words escaped before I could swallow them back down, a raw confession laced with frustration. Lucas stared at me, caught off guard by my sudden outburst, his brows furrowing in concern.
“You’ve been distant.” He stepped closer, lowering his voice as if afraid of disturbing the fragile calm that surrounded us. “It’s like you’re here but somewhere else entirely.” His words dripped with concern, yet they only served to deepen the fissures in my already fractured heart.
I turned away from him, focusing on the treetops swaying gently in the wind as if they understood my struggle, their leaves whispering secrets of their own. “I’m fine.” The assertion felt weak, even to my own ears.
“Fine doesn’t look like this.” Lucas gestured vaguely toward me, frustration and pity etched across his face like a map of my inner turmoil. “You’re torn between your duty and… whatever it is you feel for that vampire.”
“Lyra isn’t just some vampire.” The heat surged within me, igniting an old anger I thought I had buried beneath layers of grief and guilt. The truth was more complicated than that, and I hated how easy it was for Lucas to simplify it, to dismiss her existence.
“I don’t care who she is!” Lucas’s voice rose slightly before he caught himself, the intensity of his emotions spilling over. “You have to think about your pack.” His words were a stark reminder of the responsibilities I bore, the lives I was meant to protect.
I clenched my fists, nails biting into my palms as if inflicting pain could somehow clear my mind of the chaos swirling in my thoughts. Every part of me knew he was right—the stakes had never been higher—but every time I closed my eyes, her face emerged: enigmatic yet alluring, challenging everything I'd been raised to believe about the divide between our kinds.
“What if we’re wrong?” My voice cracked under the weight of those unspoken fears that had haunted me since meeting her, the deep-rooted doubts clawing at my resolve. “What if this peace we’ve tried to maintain for so long shatters?”
“We prepare for war,” Lucas replied firmly, his conviction unwavering. “But we don’t fight until we have to.” There was a resolute strength in his words, a reminder that we were not without our defenses, that we could stand our ground.
His words echoed in my head as night fell and shadows danced beneath the trees—a stark reminder that conflict was imminent, lurking just beyond the veil of the night.
As we split off into groups to patrol our borders once more, an unsettling thought took root in my mind, burrowing deeper with each passing moment: what if peace wasn’t merely an illusion, a fleeting dream we clung to in the shadow of conflict? What if it was worth fighting for, not just for the sake of my pack, but for the chance of something more profound, something that transcended the stark boundaries of our worlds? The idea flickered like a candle in the dark, igniting a spark of hope within me that perhaps unity was possible, even amidst the chaos.