Moon Shattered

(1) Breathe

Claws gashing through air, the whisper of wind that was a product of our own hectic movements, it wasn't really there, it wasn't kissing the earth supporting our feet, it was born from the energy that flowed through our bodies.

War in its purest form.

Airborne shapes of beasts that clashed with my wolves, bones that stuck out through flesh, wounds bleeding out truth, it was our whole world now, nothing more and nothing less.

The pack was finally united but couldn't survive this night. We would all die. Most of them would live.

Crimson was splattering my face, my talons tearing through, his own sinking in, splintering the skin, sailing further inside the liquid blur my body had become, teeth eating down, my own jaws biting back.

The Moon was gone with the approaching dawn. It was that time – the time when the darkness was so thick it rendered you blind.

Yet, we saw. Monsters always do. And each one of us was a monster.

Howls of the wounded and broken echoed around me as my own took their final breath. Defeat clamped its hungry teeth over our necks until the bones snapped in half and the last sliver of life was gone. Spilled red on this field.

Sounds of flesh meeting fur were reaching my ears. I couldn't look away from him to see who had died and who was still alive.

It was all there, in the periphery of my vision but undecipherable for the mind as I never risked a glance away from the man blocking my path.

But there was nothing to stop that knowledge from permeating a mind that had been held captive in the grip of the battle, that knowledge.

She was still here. She was fighting alongside her pack. She didn't leave.

A promise unfulfilled.

I wanted to scream. I wanted to stop death. I wanted to be the only one who died tonight.

'Help me change this cursed fate. Help me prevent them paying the price for my mistakes. Help me grow into my fur and become the alpha I should have been from the very beginning,' I wanted to pray to her but the Moon was already gone. Only the wild were here to give their twisted punishment to this pack.

The claws that grew on his fingertips now were taking chunks of my flesh where they connected, ripping it apart, baring what was lying underneath. His people were doing the same to mine.

Pain was engulfing my world, its reflection was on his face as he gave me more. It was the kind of torture that couldn't be prevented, that you accepted because of both hope and despair. Helpless.

The mockery in his laughter was ringing in my ear. Jaws that were neither human nor wolf snapped in anger at him. He was enjoying this fight, my every effort to block his swings at me and keep myself standing for as long as my wounded body would allow.

"Weak! Worthless!" Words tumbled out of his mouth in rhythm with his body movement. His face was no longer flawlessly perfect, his eyes were no longer dark like an abyss staring back but glowing with certainty.

He was not like the rest of the wildlings who couldn't change back and forth. He could do that. He could be human in appearance one moment and a monster the next.

Blood was trickling down my chest and saturating the fabric where it wasn't torn. It stuck to my skin and then more blood oozed from the gashes he left behind every time he'd get through. He snickered at me when he would hit the mark. I growled back when I managed to wound him.

"Do you see how stupid you really are now? Do you see how out of your league you are now, Regan?" He wasn't even trying to block me now, instead, he was holding himself open for my attacks.