Chapter 5 When The Moon Howls

It began with the howling.

Low. Guttural. Wrong.

Not the howl of wolves mourning. Not even the war-cry of a pack in heat or battle.

This howl carried something darker. Wild. Shattered.

Seren felt it before the wind even shifted.

Before the leaves trembled. Before the sky shuddered in response.

He's losing control.

She stood alone on the southern ridge, arms folded tight against the chill. Below, the Blackthorn Keep loomed like a forgotten god-its spires piercing the silver clouds, its walls bristling with runes and blood-stained stone.

She didn't want to go back.

Not tonight. Not ever.

But then she heard it again-this time laced with pain.

Not just physical. Soul pain.

The kind that cracks through time and memory and rips you open from the inside.

Her fingers curled into fists.

"Damn it," she whispered, already moving.

Inside the Keep

Chaos. That was the only word for it.

Guards scrambled down the halls, silver weapons drawn, but fear painted every face. Magic cracked in the walls, and the torches flickered like the Keep itself had gone feral.

Kael had locked himself in the old war chamber.

The one no one used. The one laced in iron and ancestral wards-the kind built not to protect him, but to protect the world from him.

"He's not fully shifted," a warrior choked out, armor dented, eyes wide. "He tore through the west wing door like it was paper. He's... snarling, but it's not him. It's something else. Something-wrong."

Seren pushed past him.

"You're not going in there-" he tried.

"I am."

"You'll die."

She didn't flinch. "I already did," she said coldly. "Five years ago."

The War Room

Wreckage.

That was her first impression.

Books, torn and scorched. Tables splintered. Iron chandeliers melted and twisted like vines. Runes bleeding light. Blood smeared in patterns that almost looked like symbols-like the wolf wasn't just shifting.

He was marking.

And in the center of it all-Kael Blackthorn, or what was left of him.

Half-shifted. Gasps tearing from his throat. His spine arched unnaturally, caught between the shift that wouldn't finish and the man who wouldn't return.

His limbs were too long. Muscles twitching. Bone pushing against flesh like it was rejecting its own form. His gold eyes had turned void black-bottomless pits with no moonlight left.

"Kael," Seren called gently.

No answer.

His breath rasped. Skin stretched. Veins darkened.

The wolf was winning.

Or something worse was.

She stepped closer. Carefully. Quietly.

The magic pulsed around him like a living heartbeat.

"Kael," she said again, firmer now.

His head snapped toward her.

And in that moment-he wasn't Kael.

He lunged.

The Bond That Burns

Seren didn't flinch.

She moved on instinct-Moonblood instinct-twisting just in time. He slammed into the wall behind her with enough force to send cracks splintering across the stone.

Dust rained from the ceiling.

When he turned again, panting, snarling, she stood still.

Blade drawn. But lowered.

"Do it," she whispered, her voice shaking with rage and sorrow. "Rip me apart. Finish what you started under the cursed moon."

His growl rattled the walls.

Then she did the unthinkable.

She dropped the blade.

And walked into his arms.

He roared.

Claws scraped her ribs. But she didn't stop.

She pressed her hands-bare and glowing-to his chest. Her pulse thrummed with ancient power. Moonlight poured from her palms like starlight made liquid.

"Remember me," she breathed.

Kael's breath hitched.

"Remember what you touched and threw away."

Another roar.

"REMEMBER ME!"

Then-

Something cracked.

Not bone. Not stone.

But deeper. Soul deep.

He dropped to his knees, body convulsing. Mid-fall, the shift reversed-muscles shivering, bones snapping back, skin reweaving itself like magic trying to remember how to be human.

And he was.

Seren caught him before he hit the ground.

The Aftermath

Hours later, when the guards dared enter, they found the war chamber silenced under a dome of silver mist.

Kael lay unconscious, head in Seren's lap.

Her eyes were closed. Her lips stained red.

She wasn't asleep.

She was in a trance.

Holding the bond.

Holding him together.

But it had cost her. Again.

And this time, the price felt heavier.

Awakening

It was nearly dawn before Kael stirred.

He blinked slowly, the light stinging his eyes. His body ached like he'd been ripped from the inside out.

Because he had.

His head was on Seren's lap. Her hands-still warm-rested on his chest.

He turned slightly, throat raw. "I'm sorry."

"You should be," she murmured. She wasn't looking at him.

"I would've killed you."

"No. You would've killed yourself."

A beat.

"Why did you stop me?"

"Because I need you alive."

He looked up, hope flickering in the corners of his ruined gaze.

"To complete the bond?"

Seren finally looked at him.

"No," she said. "To learn why it still matters."

The Well of Memory

Kael hadn't meant to follow her.

But Seren's presence was a storm he could never ignore. She moved through the forest like she belonged to it, and maybe she did.

Moonlight and fire.

Carved from prophecy and pain.

She knelt at the edge of the old well, tracing runes into the dirt.

Power rippled from her fingers.

Kael stepped into the clearing. "You're bleeding magic into my land."

Seren stood slowly, her expression unreadable. "It's not your land anymore. It remembers me, Kael. Even if you don't."

His wolf snarled behind his ribs. "I remember everything."

"Do you?" Her voice broke. "Then you should remember the night I begged you not to let go."

Silence.

Kael's jaw clenched, muscles twitching.

"You think you're punishing yourself by staying cold," she whispered. "But you're punishing me too."

The wind shifted.

The symbols on the ground began to glow.

Her rage had teeth now. Ancient. Untamed.

"Seren," Kael warned, "Breathe."

"You don't get to tell me to breathe."

Her eyes flared-silver-white, ancient, burning.

The well cracked behind her.

Kael lunged.

But before he reached her-she screamed.

The trees bent. The sky split. Wolves howled from miles away. A tidal wave of power burst from her skin, knocking Kael back.

The air shimmered.

Every creature-human or not-within miles felt it.

The Moonblood had awakened.

Author's Note – Read This

Hi, wild hearts.

You just read Chapter One of The Alpha's Redemption, and if your chest is tight or your soul's screaming... that's exactly how I felt writing it.

This story was born from everything I once kept buried-grief, longing, rage, and the fire to be seen. Seren is not your soft fantasy heroine. She's pain, power, and prophecy all in one. And Kael? He's the wolf who broke her-and the one who'll fight like hell to deserve her again.

This chapter is your warning:

This story doesn't pull punches. It burns, bleeds, and claws through every lie they were told about who they could be.

And this?

This was only the beginning.

The curse is breaking. The Moonblood is rising.

And the Elders?

They're watching.

🩸🖤

-Aurella King

Author. Dreamer. Story sorceress.