The snow fell in silence, thick, slow, and relentless. It covered the forest like a burial shroud, each flake a quiet witness to the darkness stirring beneath the frozen earth.
Kael Draven stood alone, barefoot, bare-chested, the cold biting into his skin like a thousand blades. But he didn't flinch. The cold had long since become a friend, a constant companion since the night he stopped being human.
If he had ever been human.
The mark on his back pulsed again, deep red, shaped like a claw wrapped around a crescent moon. It glowed faintly through the skin, as if whispering to the shadows.
The Crimson Moon was coming.
He could feel it in his blood. In the ache behind his ribs. In the way the wind had started to carry voices that didn't belong to the living.
Tonight was the anniversary.
The night his mother died.
The night everything changed.
Kael closed his eyes. He could still remember the screams. The fire. The scent of blood. The betrayal. They had come for her like wolves but they weren't wolves. Not entirely. Not like him.
Half wolf. Half vampire. Cursed by both. Claimed by none.
They called him abomination.
A rustle behind him broke his memory.
Kael didn't turn.
"I know you're there," he said coldly.
Silence.
Then, a snarl.
The first one lunged from the trees, fur bristling, eyes glowing amber. A full-blooded werewolf. Not a rogue, too disciplined. Sent here. Trained.
Kael moved before the beast hit the ground. One step, two, and then he vanished, his body shifting in a flash of shadow and speed.
The wolf landed where he had stood seconds ago, snow exploding around its paws.
Kael reappeared behind it, grabbing the creature by the throat, lifting it off the ground with inhuman strength. Its claws raked across his chest, but he didn't bleed.
He only stared.
"Tell your pack Alpha," Kael growled, "I don't run anymore."
Then he slammed the beast into a tree with a sickening crunch.
Two more attacked.
Fangs. Claws. Speed.
But Kael was faster. Stronger. Colder.
His fists moved like lightning, his eyes glowing faintly red, the mark on his back now burning brighter. He tore through them like shadows through mist, every strike controlled, every move precise.
Within seconds, the snow was stained red.
Three wolves lay groaning, broken. One whimpered and tried to crawl away.
Kael stepped over it.
"You should've brought more."
The wolf whimpered louder.
Kael turned away, eyes toward the sky.
The moon was full. But not yet crimson.
Not yet.
Behind him, the air shifted. A new presence.
Soft.
Humans.
But not afraid.
He felt her gaze before she even stepped into view.
"You fight like a man who has nothing to lose," said a calm, feminine voice.
Kael turned slowly.
She stood at the edge of the blood-stained clearing, cloak fluttering, dark eyes fixed on him. Her hair was long and black, her skin pale, lips curved just slightly, as if amused. But her scent gave her away.
Not werewolves. Not fully human. Not a vampire either.
Something... in between.
Like him.
"Who are you?" he asked, eyes narrowing.
She took a few steps forward, graceful like a blade. "A traveler. A shadow. A messenger, maybe."
Kael didn't move. "You watched me kill them."
"I watched you survive," she corrected. "There's a difference."
He hated how calm she was. Like she wasn't even surprised to see death.
Like she'd seen much worse.
"What do you want?" Kael demanded.
She looked up at the sky. The moon was rising higher, clouds parting.
"The Crimson Moon awakens soon," she said. "And when it does… you will have to choose."
"Choose what?"
She tilted her head.
"Whether to save this world… or burn it."
Then she vanished, like a whisper on the wind.
Kael stood alone again, surrounded by blood and snow and a prophecy he had never believed.
But something inside him had shifted.
The moon was watching.
And for the first time in years…
Kael Draven felt afraid.