The full moon rose like a silver eye over the canopy, bathing the forest in pale, ethereal light. The trees groaned in the wind, and the air crackled with unseen energy. Every branch, every leaf, every shadow whispered Kael's name.
He stood alone at the edge of the hollow.
Behind him, the Silent Pack waited in a wide ring beneath the oaks, watching with solemn eyes. They had said little since nightfall. The ceremony was not one of words. It was instinct, surrender, and pain.
Kael could feel it in his blood. Something ancient. Restless.
The wolf within was stirring.
His breath came in shallow bursts as the heat bloomed in his chest. The rune on his palm—once only a faint shimmer—now glowed with fierce, pulsing light. It throbbed with every heartbeat. The wind around him picked up, wrapping around his limbs like invisible vines.
Then it began.
Pain struck like lightning down his spine. Kael fell to one knee, gasping, hands buried in the moss as his bones seemed to grind against each other. His skin rippled. Muscles seized, stretched. The world narrowed to sensation—burning, tearing, reshaping.
A scream tore from his throat, but it turned into something else halfway—deeper, rawer, like a wolf's howl struggling to escape a human cage.
The forest fell silent.
Kael collapsed forward, clutching the ground as fire tore through his body. His nails blackened and lengthened into claws. His arms twisted, reshaping themselves into limbs not meant for a man. His jaw cracked, extending into a muzzle. Fur sprouted across his skin, and his eyes—already wild—turned gold.
Through the haze of agony, Kael heard Thalia's voice in his mind.
"Do not fight it. Let the wolf in. Let it remember who you are."
And just when he thought he could take no more, the world broke open inside him.
The fear shattered. The pain dulled. His senses exploded.
He smelled every leaf in the forest, every footstep in the underbrush. He heard the breath of owls in the trees, the skittering of insects beneath the soil. The moon above burned into him—not like fire, but like truth. And with a final gasp, Kael rose—not as a man, but as something more.
A great wolf stood in the clearing, silvery fur streaked with ash, eyes glowing like coals. Power thrummed in his limbs, wild and untamed. The Pack howled in unison, a sound that split the night sky, and Kael threw his head back and joined them, his own howl rising in perfect harmony.
The Run of Shadows
What followed was a blur of motion and moonlight.
The newly awakened Kael bounded through the forest with the Pack, their bodies little more than streaks of silver and gray beneath the trees. Every footfall was perfect. Every scent a story. The bond between them was instant—he knew where they would turn before they did, felt their emotions pulse through the strange, silent link that connected all Moonbound.
Riven ran at his flank, letting out a yip of encouragement. Kael responded with a playful snarl and surged ahead, lungs burning, heart pounding with exhilaration. They leapt fallen logs, wove through the roots of ancient trees, drank from moonlit streams. The night was a blur of wild joy.
But not all of it was joy.
As they passed deeper into the old woods, Kael felt it—like an itch beneath his fur. A wrongness. The forest dimmed, the trees closer together, too silent. The scent of rot clung to the air.
The Pack slowed.
They reached a grove where the grass was blackened, twisted into curling shapes. Trees here bled sap the color of pitch. No animals stirred. Even the wind held its breath.
Kael stepped forward and sniffed the air.
Death.
Old and unnatural.
Thalia shifted into human form beside him, placing a hand on the trunk of a dying tree. Her face was grim.
"It's spreading faster than we thought."
"What is it?" Kael asked, his voice gravelly, still laced with his wolf instincts.
"Corruption," she replied. "Something has poisoned the wild's heart. And wherever it touches, it leaves a scar."
Riven padded up beside them, eyes fixed on the darkness ahead. "We need to return. If it's reaching this far, the border villages are in danger."
Kael's pulse quickened. "Eldoria?"
Thalia's expression tightened. "Soon, if not already."
Back at the Hollow
They returned at dawn.
Kael shifted slowly, painfully, the change no longer forced but still difficult. As his human form returned, he collapsed to the moss, trembling and covered in sweat. Riven tossed him a cloak, and Thalia crouched beside him, her sharp eyes measuring.
"You did well. Most don't hold their form the first night. But the power in you… it's old."
Kael managed a weak smile. "So I'm a natural?"
Thalia didn't smile back. "No one is. But you're something more than you were. And what comes next will demand everything you've got."
She stood and turned to the rest of the Pack. "Prepare yourselves. We move at dusk. The corruption is near. We'll scout the western border and send warning to the Elders."
Kael forced himself to sit up. "I want to go."
"You will," she said, pausing. "But first, you need to speak with the Lorekeeper. Before the next moon, you must know what your bloodline carries—and what it awakens."
That night, Kael sat at the edge of the glade, staring up at the moon now high above the trees.
He was no longer just a wanderer. No longer a villager looking for meaning in the forest.
He was Moonbound.
And the wild had accepted him.
But with that acceptance came a burden—and Kael could feel it looming ahead. A darkness rising not just in the woods, but in the world.
And something told him… it knew who he was.