BLOODHOUND SHADOWS

The moon was a sliver of silver slicing through the ink-black sky, casting a cold glow on the bloodstained forest below.

I moved swiftly through the trees with the help of my phantom claw, spectral claws that slice through armor and flesh with magical sharpness. They disappear after use.

My claws were drenched with the blood of the traitors I'd hunted for days.

The last one was still breathing,as he crawled on all fours, leaving a crimson trail on the frost-laced leaves.

I could hear his pulse quickening.

"Please," he whimpered, half-shifted, his fangs glinting with saliva,blood and fear. "They forced us. We didn't know you'd come."

I didn't respond. I never did. The Moonfang code was clear: traitors didn't deserve last words.

With a flick of my wrist, my dagger carved from star-iron and baptized in alpha blood whirled through the air, piercing his heart.

Silence.

I exhaled and turned toward the hills. The moon had begun to shift into crimson. Blood Moon. My power pulsed inside me like a drumbeat. I was stronger under it-faster, dangerously. But tonight, something felt... wrong.

My ears twitched.

Too late.

A blast of raw energy hit my side, sending me flying through the air. I hit a tree with a sickening crack and tumbled into a grove I didn't recognize-a sacred glade that hummed with ancient magic.

My vision blurred.

Figures emerged: cloaked wolves from the Ironhowl Pack, rivals. She counted four... no, five. Their eyes gleamed gold in the moonlight. The high council leadership of lunareth...

"Looks like the little assassin bleeds," one of them sneered, stepping closer.

"LYRA VIRELITH", one who appeared to be the head thundered... "You are sentenced to the curse of silver binding"

A curse that was worse than death..

I smirked as I faced them, "you'll have to survive me first which I doubt you will". I looked at them as they glared at me...

I quickly shifted as I attacked them, slicing and clawing into anything that stepped into my way.

Eldon and I finally stood face to face. Looks like you've been taught well... he said

He quickly attacked, targeting my core.

Realising how badly I was injured I made a run for it running past the forest and bushes that came in my path.

Trying to find my way an invisible arrow hit me and I fell into a ditch, My vision Started to blur, My heart started to burn as I yelped In pain. The silver binding curse.....

It had started to take effect. My inner wolf started to cry for help, as she burned inside of me I burned too

"What is this"..... i asked

As I lay in the ditch muttering my last words I quickly spotted the familiar face the one who had made the shot

Master?... "I cried, why did you?"

Something was wrong.

As he raised his hands to make one last shot.

A sudden pulse of white light burst from the ground beneath me.

The earth groaned. The trees twisted toward the sky like they were reaching for the stars. And my soul was yanked from my body like a leaf in a gale.

Pain.

Light.

Darkness.

And then nothing.

I woke up to the scent of rosemary and ashes clung to the air.

I stirred, groggy and weightless, as if my limbs no longer obeyed me my eyes fluttered open. A cracked wooden ceiling stared back.

Why was the forest? Where were the Iron howl wolves? Eldon..? My inner wolf? Master? I could no longer feel my inner wolf's presence; it was as if she was no longer there..

I sat up abruptly-too fast-and winced. My body was... wrong. Smaller. Fragile. My strength was gone. My senses dulled.

I rushed to the basin across the small room and stared at my reflection.

Not my face.

Wide, black timid eyes. Pale cheeks. Scars that didn't belong to me

Panic rose in my throat. I touched my chest, arms, legs. Nothing felt right.

Then came the whisper-faint and frightened-in the back of my mind.

"Who are you?"

A voice. Not mine.A soul still lingering.

It was softer and I hated it

I had heard of soul merges. A forbidden type of ancient magic. Unstable. Rare. It happened when two souls collided in a sacred place at the exact moment of death.

I'd taken over the body of someone weak maybe, definitely. But why? How?

A knock jolted my thoughts.

The door creaked open,

She blinked "You're awake." Her voice was shrill and bubbly

I stood still, hiding the assassin behind the shell of a servant.

"I-I think I fell and hit my head," I said, mimicking the girl's softer tone.

She tilted her head, studying me. I did the same as well she looked like she had a rank but a lowly one

Maybe head of the maids?

She was a bit taller than me , with blonde hair and fair skin, blue eyes, she was definitely curvy as well. With her stance and aura she was definitely an omega but with a level of power

She was dressed In a gown with an apron

Looks like she works here

"You don't remember who you are? " she paused. "You've been asleep for three days. You were Found near the sacred glade."This is an iron howl pack",

I was in enemy territory..? How, why ?

Sacred glade? I had suddenly remembered that was where I took my last breath and the excruciating pain I went through.

I nodded, my heart thudding. So the owner of this body is a nobody,

A weakling definitely... we definitely won't get along.

I swallowed hard. "I feel different." I said

"My name is Sophie," "I work here, you would be working here too".

"You would be assigned to an alpha in training as their personal maid and attend to them" Sophie continued

"You are needed at the training grounds where we would be having an orientation" she finally said

I bowed my head and followed her, my legs shaky but my mind racing.

I had to figure out why I was here, who owned this body. Who had cast the merge. And more importantly, why the divine magic had spared me.

But first-i had to survive, unseen, inside the shell of someone weak, a nobody.

I had to gain back my strength as well...the battle was far from being over

And I had to stay close to whoever I was under

At the training grounds Sophie kept talking about my responsibilities and how alpha's should be treated.. from the looks of it she was a big yapper

"So what shall I call you we need to give you a name"

I quickly scanned around as if I was searching for a name somewhere then something echoed inside of me, like a memory.

EIRA THORN.. I breathed as if I had a vivid vision of someone calling me that.

What did that mean...

"So we'll call you EIRA then" Sophie said..

At the training grounds I saw the wolves assembled with their opponents

and a tall boy stepped in-no, not a boy, a young man. He wore a training tunic stained with sweat and moon dust. His aura was unsteady but powerful-like wildfire buried under stone.

"Who was he"? I asked Sophie "oh him"? She replied "That's kael, alpha in training, he has been in the ironclaw fortress since birth and he is meant to be the alpha of Moonclaw pack, expect one thing, he has very weak alpha power and barely shifts.sometimes rumoured as the alpha without powers" Sophie said as she scoffed

I look at him and alpha who can't shift? That was a wolf's worst nightmare...

He had muscular build, with well defined abs he looked strong and noble, with tan skin with brown hair and golden eyes..

There was power in him. Power he didn't even know he had.

I could feel it.

And deep in my gut, the assassin in me whispered:

He will be your weapon... or your ruin.