Just 12

Posted by Adminh, ? Views, Released on August 31, 2025

#Chapter 7: Lunar Eclipse

Lyra

It was the night of a lunar eclipse

The moon did not cast its pale light across the forest, and yet strangely, it wasn’t dark. No, it was a strange, grayscale sort of light–not silver and glowing like a full moon, but rather everything was contrasted, like someone had put a black and white filter over the world

On a night like tonight, no one should have been able to shift. The lunar eclipse was a night of quiet reflection, of diminished magic. The Moon Goddess was in the midst of her slumber, and no one dared wake her.

But I had shifted.

It was my thirteenth birthday, the day that most young werewolves received their wolf for the first time

It happened while I was out walking in the peaceful forest behind my family’s castle. I hadn’t been able to sleep, so I’d snuck out in my nightgown for a brief walk; something that I often did when I couldn’t rest. The quiet forest and the feeling of the pine needles bendath my bare feet soothed me.

Unexpectedly, just as I looked up at the black circle ringed with pale silver overhead, it happened. Bones cracked. Muscles changed. A lifetime of pain compressed into one moment, and then…

Release.

Where I once stood on two legs, I now stood on four. Every sense was amplified–every sound was louder and more intense, every smell assaulted me at once. In the distance, I picked up the scent of smoke. A woodfire, perhaps?

I looked down and saw dark purple fur that seemed to shimmer in the strange gray light. Like a nebula dancing with tiny stars, winking in and out of existence with each ripple of my fur in the gentle breeze.

“How is this possible?” I thought, reaching down into the soul bond that had always been there as long as I could remember but had only just snapped into place tonight. “We shouldn’t be able to shift.”

My wolf’s voice started off quiet, but grew louder as she gained her strength. Tm a Shadow Wolf.”

A Shadow Wolf.

I didn’t know exactly what that meant, but I did know that it meant I was special. Or perhaps cursed, because after all, only wolves created with dark magic could shift during a lunar eclipse.

I needed to know how this was possible. My parents would certainly tell me–and so I turned, racing through the woods, feeling the wind in my fur. This was exciting and terrifying and so, so perfect all at once.

But as I neared the castle, the scent of smoke grew stronger, and then the sound of screams reached my ears.

I skidded to a halt at the edge of the forest as the bright orange flames filled my vision. My castle–my home–was in a blaze, people running and screaming, dead bodies littering the beautiful gardens…

And blood. So much blood.

I could only stand there in shock as I saw two figures being dragged out of the castle by the maws of wolves who, like me, thouldn’t have been able to shift. Their fur was as black as night, blacker than mine, so dark that I couldn’t even see the

individual hairs

It was as if they were simply voids in the fabric of reality. Black shapes of wolves with no distinctive features other than glowing red eyes

They dragged the two people across the lawn, and it took only an instant to recognize my parents.

My mother, tall and slender, her pale blonde hair loose down her back and coated in crimson liquid. Blood. She kicked and

screamed and fought valiantly.

+25 BONUS

And then there was my father, a god in my eyes, broad and muscular with a beard that I often braided for fun when I was little, and he would always laugh and pat me on the head. He was limp and not laughing now. I’d never seen him like that before he was the best warrior in Silvercrest. The best warrior in the entire world. And yet he had been beaten.

The attackers threw them down on the lawn, and my mother scrambled over to my father on her hands and knees, She shook him, crying out his name, but he didn’t move. Then, she sat up and clasped her hands together just as one of the voids began to move toward her.

“Please! Please spare me! Wait–Lyra, no!”

I hadn’t realized it, but in my panic, I had shifted and begun to run toward my parents. Tears streamed down my face, both from the burn of smoke in my eyes and the horror of it all. My mother’s eyes were wide as she turned to me.

“Mom!”

But it wa

But it was too late.

“Lyr-

One of the black wolves opened its jaws and snapped her head clean off, cutting her off mid–scream.

Blood splattered across my nightgown, my face, my hair. I froze, mouth hanging open. All I could do was stand there as the wold casually walked over to my father’s limp body and did the same.

Then, it began moving toward me.

Suddenly, something slammed into me. Warm arms wrapped around me, and before I knew it, I was being carried away. I

screamed and cried, reaching for my parents. And then they were gone.

A little while later, once we were far enough from the chaos, Ronan set me down and crouched to my level, gripping me by my shoulders. Blood was running down his temple, and there was a large gash in his side.

“Ronan, you’re injured-

“Don’t worry about me Lyra, you have to listen to me.” The Gamma gripped me tighter, silver eyes taking on an ethereal glow. “Lyra, you will not shift until you are of age. You must keep your identity a secret.”

“But-‘

“Lyra, you must obey.”

My mouth snapped shut of its own accord, and in that moment, I felt my wolf’s presence–the presence that had been so strong and perfect just minutes ago–fade.

I gasped “What have you done?”

“A shifting seal,” Ronan explained. His voice grew hoarse as the blood stain on his abdomen grew, blossoming outwards like a crimson flower I helped him over to a nearby tree and leaned him against it. “You won’t shift until you’re older. Until it’s safe. Until then, you mustn’t break the seal, do you understand? Your wolf will die. You will die ”

I nodded vigorously, realizing the stakes. Ronan looked relieved, and tilted his head back against the tree, looking up at the silver ring above us “Moon Goddess, spare me…”

“Ronan, we have to go- Howls were echoing in the distance.

“No. You have to go. I won’t make it.” Ronan cupped my face in one hand and smiled thinly, blood coating his teeth. “Run, Lyrn Run and don’t look back. If anyone asks, you are my daughter, not your parents‘. You mustn’t let anyone know your true identity*

The howls were getting closer. They were coming for me. One last loose end. “Ronan-

VE

+25 BONUS

“Go”

I staggered to my feet just as the first void burst through the trees.

And I ran.

I ran until my feet bled and my heart ached from the strain of it. I ran and ran and ran until I stopped recognizing the forest I grew up in. I ran until I could no longer stand, until I tripped over rocks and exposed tree roots, tearing my skin on the ground

I ran until I ran straight into someone’s chest

“Woah” The boy caught me with ease. His voice was deep, although when I looked up at his face, I saw features not much older than mine. He had black hair and onyx eyes that flickered in the early morning light. “Who are you?”

I opened my mouth to respond, but remembered Ronan’s warning. My legs began to give out as the boy supported me, and all I could manage was a weak, “Help”

The boy didn’t hesitate. He scooped me up into his arms and began to carry me away. “My pack isn’t far,” he said “Stay awake

I’ll get you help

That was the moment I began to fall in love with Kael

Over the months, Karl visited me every day in the infirmary. He held my hand throughout the painful physical therapy–I had sustained multiple injuries in my legs, lungs, and heart from how far and fast I had run–and every time I had a nightmare, I would wake up and he would be there, whispering soothing words and stroking my hair.

He became my friend.

More than that he became the person who held my heart in his hands.

But as we grew older, as his family took me in and I grew past the age that normal people received their wolves, it came out that I was wolfless. And being unable to tell anyone, even him, the truth about my past, I had no choice but to let him believe that I truly had no wolf, that I was the daughter of a Gamma and not the sole living heir to Silvercrest.