Chapter 1: Blood Moon Night

Lynne's POV

I placed my hands on my waist, lifted my chin slightly, and ordered Nina: "Bring me that green lace dress."

For that seventeen-inch waist dress, I had barely eaten for three weeks straight and ran in the forest for an hour every day, even though those annoying Gamma wolves were always telling me to stay home.

But I always found a way to sneak out. I'd bet it was the smallest waist in three Packs around.

Nina didn't move. I tilted my head slightly. "Miss Lynne, are you sure you want to focus on getting dressed at a time like this?" Nina said with a complaint in her voice.

"What did you just say!"

"Miss Lynne, the Alpha has been gone for three months. The northern border was attacked. The entire Moonshadow Pack is consumed by grief and fear.

The Gamma wolves patrol every day. Everyone knows how serious things are. Only you — only thinking about your lace dress, complaining about when the next gathering will be!" Nina said it all in one breath with a frown, her face flushed red.

For the first few seconds, I didn't quite register what had happened. I stared at Nina's face, and when it finally hit me —

"Slap —"

Nina's head snapped to the side from the blow. She covered her face, her lips turning pale.

I curled my fingers back and watched her tears fall. But how dare she speak to me like that — my chest flared with heat. Nina was nothing but a maid in the Alpha's villa. And I was Lynne Vale — princess of the Moonshadow Pack!

"Oh! Moon Goddess, what happened?" The butler, Julian Neumann, walked in quickly.

He glanced at Nina crumpled on the floor in tears and drew a sharp breath.

"Miss Lynne, you cannot strike the servants. This is against the rules!"

"Julian, why don't you ask what this fool did first!"

"Whatever she did, you have no right to punish Nina. She simply works in the Alpha's villa. There are no slaves in this Pack." Julian said firmly.

Nina sat up, her face already red and swollen, on the verge of tears. "Mr. Julian, please don't say that. Miss Lynne is still just a child."

Julian helped Nina up and said quietly, "Go on, step outside."

Nina nodded with red-rimmed eyes. Before she left, she looked back at me as if she wanted to say something but held it back. I turned away sharply.

"Please stop causing trouble, Miss Lynne." Julian's weary voice followed, making me feel even more stifled. He gave me a small nod and left the room.

Leaving me standing there in a daze.

I knew none of the servants liked me. They were jealous of me — jealous of everything about me. My father was the Alpha of the Moonshadow Pack, a hero to his wolves. The Lunas of other Packs always wore long gowns and prayed by the Moon Goddess's altar. My mother carried a gun and patrolled with the Gamma wolves well into the night. And me?

Well, I hadn't inherited my mother's fighting ability, or my father's wisdom. But they had never once blamed me for it.

I made up my mind and headed toward my mother's study. This time, I had to teach Julian and Nina a lesson — make sure they never dared look down on me again.

As I lifted my skirt and stomped angrily past my father's study in my green flats, Beta Caleb's deliberately lowered voice drifted out: "They came prepared. That night there was almost no growling or howling. The ground was covered in wolf blood. The search team found a wolf crest belonging to the Crimson Howl Pack."

"And what about my Jim?"

I stopped in my tracks. It was my mother's choked voice. This was the first time I had ever heard her cry. Jim was her nickname for my father. She had always been a strong she-wolf — her Gamma bloodline had protected the Alpha family for generations.

I had never imagined that one day she would cry. For some reason, the urge to cry crept into my chest.

I hadn't seen my father for three months. The servants whispered that he had led the Gamma warriors in a bloody assault on the Crimson Howl Pack. No one ever brought it up in front of me.

In their eyes, I was still just a child — even though I was already seventeen. On the wolf continent, many she-wolves my age had already found their mates, some even raising pups. And I still hadn't shifted.

Other than my parents, I hated everyone in the Alpha's villa. They always spoke to me with either coddling or lecturing tones, as if I truly were some fragile little child.

I pressed my back against the wall for a moment, then finally turned and walked down the corridor. My heavy footsteps made the slightly loose floorboards rattle. The soft wool rugs that used to line this hallway were gone — I had no idea when they had taken them away.

"Bang —"

The rumble of an armored vehicle suddenly erupted outside the front gate. The patrolling Gamma wolves sprinted toward the entrance. I leaned against a Roman column and watched their hurried figures rush past.

They seemed to be moving something. "Hey, what's going on?" I stopped one of the Gamma wolves rushing past me.

"A lot of wounded have arrived from the northern border, Miss Lynne."

"What?"

Before I could ask anything else, the Gamma hurried off, leaving me standing there in a daze.

My mother and the Beta came running out as well. They seemed to be saying something, but my hearing wasn't sharp enough to catch it — I could only sense that the situation was serious.

The wounded were taken to the healing ward in the Pack House. Moans drifted from the wing to the left of the Alpha's villa all through the night. I pulled the covers over my head, but the groaning and wailing kept coming through, one after another.

The sounds were like howling right beside my ear.

But what hurt more was that everyone in the entire Alpha's villa was in the healing ward helping — except me. No one called for me.

I lay bundled in my blanket. I had never felt so alone.

The next morning, I was lying on my bed in a daze when my mother's bright and energetic voice suddenly rang out downstairs. "Lynne, baby, come down quick! Your father is on his way back!"

"What?!"

"Mom? What's going on?"

I hadn't heard my mother's lively voice in so long. I shot out of bed, ran barefoot out of my room, eyes already brimming with tears.

"Baby, it's okay. Your father won again. The Crimson Howl Pack has asked for a ceasefire. The Moonshadow Pack won." She flashed a wide smile and opened her arms to me.

I threw myself into her embrace and looked up at her with suspicion. "Crimson Howl Pack?"

"Yes. Well, I think you'll understand one day. Either way, you can go to the gathering again — and the dance you've been looking forward to." My mother said gently, with a tired smile.

"Okay." I didn't ask anything more.

I was used to it. I only needed to know what they wanted me to know. Even if I wasn't all that excited about the dance anymore.

That afternoon, the stone path in front of the Moon Goddess statue was packed with Pack members. The market lights had been lit early. Gamma wolves blew victory horns at every street corner. Men and women were still pouring into the square from all directions. The heavy mood from the day before was swept away almost instantly, and the joy kept building.

I put on the green lace dress, cinched the corset as tight as it would go, and paired it with the green flats my father had once brought back from the northern border. All dressed up, I walked through the corridor to find my father.

Alright, I still loved gatherings. Walking down the corridor, I was singing on the inside.

The Alpha's office was still filled with low voices. My father and Beta Caleb were discussing something.

"Lynne, what is it?" My father's wolf ears picked up my footsteps right away.

I glanced a little sheepishly at the two of them, having interrupted whatever they were doing, and put on my brightest smile.

"I wanted to ask if you'd like to come with us to the Pack market, Father." My voice was full of hope.

My father looked at me. He seemed like he wanted to say something, but in the end, he slowly smiled — warm and gentle. "Sorry, baby. I still have a few things to take care of."

"Oh, alright." I gave a well-behaved smile, nodded slightly at Beta Caleb, and turned to leave.

But right at the moment I turned —

"Boom!!!"

A massive explosion went off just outside the villa. The entire Pack House shook, and the force threw me briefly off balance.

"Ugh..."

A pained gasp sounded behind me. I turned around, my pupils dilating instantly. Blood was spurting from my father's side, between his ribs. His gaze was fixed straight on me. My mind went completely blank —

"Dad!"

"Dad! Dad!"

I rushed to him. My father's whole body was trembling. He reached out a blood-soaked hand, and I grabbed it fast, pulling him tight against me with my other arm — as if I were the one who had been shot.

"Dad, why is this happening? What's going on?" I pleaded, my voice already raw.

Outside the window, the celebration lights had turned in an instant into roaring flames of war.

"What is that? Dad, didn't we win?" Tears were already streaming down my face.

"Lynne, someone betrayed us."

My father's voice was faint. His face was ashen, twisted with pain.

"What? No, Father."

This was the first time I had ever seen my Alpha father fall. I had always believed he never would.

Tears were running down my face. My father seemed to use his last bit of strength to push me behind him. He pressed down on the Alpha ring on his finger — with a creak — the wall began to move. The door to the hidden room opened.

"Hide, Lynne. Stay alive." The words came through the Mind Link. I stared at the fading light in my father's eyes. He no longer had the strength to speak.

It was a silver bullet dipped in poison. I clutched my father's hand and shook my head in despair, voice cracking and hoarse. "No, don't leave me, Father. I'll go get the Pack doctor."

"Lynne, be good. Live on, my baby."

It was my mother's voice. But when I looked up, there was only my father, barely clinging to life.

"Mom. I miss you. Come out, please." I sobbed — then slowly realized it had been her Mind Link. Her voice just as faint as my father's, followed by the howl of a wounded wolf.

I sent a Mind Link to her. My mother didn't respond.

Tears fell onto my father's face and scattered. My father didn't move — not even a trace of life. "No, Dad!" I cried out.

I collapsed onto him, wailing in utter despair and ruin.

Outside, a shell suddenly exploded. I lifted my head. I thought I heard a dull thud and footsteps at the stairwell. I scrambled into the hidden compartment.

A group of men kicked open the study door and stormed in. Through the small opening in the hidden room, I saw a man with one finger missing, the other three bent at grotesque angles — blood dripping from his fingertips.

I still hadn't shifted. He stood in the middle of my father's study and sniffed hard — catching no scent. I held my breath anyway. Then suddenly he spun around. I squeezed my eyes shut in despair, certain he had found me.

He was only staring at the wolf crest. With a low scoff, he walked toward my side of the room. I was sure I was going to die. My heart was contracting violently, nearly leaping out of my throat. He ripped down the triangular banner of the Moonshadow Pack hanging beneath the crest, stomped on it with contempt, and left with his men.

Leaving me to slowly breathe out.

I hid in the secret room for three days without food or water. I planned to die there — together with my Pack, my parents. But just as I was drifting into a haze, a gentle voice seemed to reach me: "Lynne, my child, live on. Be brave, be strong, my daughter."

"Mom."

Tears slipped into my hair. Finally, I forced my eyes open with great difficulty, struggled to my feet, and pressed my palm against the sensor stone.

With a soft click, the door opened.

The blood had long dried. Several more bodies of Gamma guards now lay in the study. The tears broke through again.

I wanted to collapse on the floor and cry. But I couldn't. I could only drag myself, one unsteady step at a time, out of the Alpha's villa — the place I had lived for seventeen years.

The territory of the Moonshadow Pack had already been surrounded by the Crimson Howl Pack. They had colonized it. Taking advantage of a moment when the Gamma guards weren't watching, I ran for the back mountain. There was a forbidden forest there, a place where Rogues lurked — but I had no other choice. I had to escape, to reach the central territory and find my aunt.

When I stumbled into the main hall of the Sterling family's villa, my aunt Briar stared at me in shock.

"Oh my God! Moon Goddess!"

Her face was pale and haggard. I knew she must have heard everything that had happened to the Moonshadow Pack. She pulled me inside, carefully glanced around, and once she was sure it was safe, locked the door behind her.

"Oh, Lynne. I can't believe it — you're actually alive."

Briar's eyes reddened. One hand covered her mouth, and she still seemed unable to recover from the shock.

"Aunt Briar." I sobbed and reached out, stumbling toward her — but just as I was about to touch her, Lady Briar suddenly let out a startled cry and stepped back. She frowned, looking up and down at my dress, caked in mud and blood, as if she were looking at a piece of trash.

"Hey! Lynne, what do you think you're doing?"