Chapter 61: The Blood Moon
ARIA POV
The knife sliced across my hand, blood dripping onto the ancient stone altar. Around me, the surviving members of seven packs watched in silence as I finished the Blood Moon ritual that no female Alpha had ever performed.
"With my blood, I call to the Moon Goddess," I said, my voice stronger than I felt. "Show us the path through darkness."
The blood on the stone started to glow with an eerie red light. We had dodged the human-wolf hybrids by fleeing into the sacred caves beneath the mountain, but we couldn’t hide forever. Our only hope was the old magic of the Blood Moon ritual.
The crimson full moon hung straight overhead through the cave’s opening, bathing us all in its strange light. My heart pounded as the air grew thick with magic.
"The Blood Moon comes once every fifty years," Alpha Marcus had explained. "It’s the only time when the veil between our world and the spirit realm thins enough for visions to pass through."
Suddenly, the cave disappeared around me. I stood in a misty forest that felt both real and unreal at the same time. Before me stood a beautiful woman with silver hair and sparkling eyes.
"Moon Goddess," I whispered, dropping to my knees.
"Rise, daughter of my chosen," she said, her voice like music. "Your path is not one of submission."
I stood shakily. "We need your help. The humans—they’ve found a way to become dogs. They’re hunting us, using my father—"
"I know," she interrupted. "The balance has been broken. What was never meant to be has come to pass."