Chapter 1: Escape Into Darkness

Quinn pressed her back against the cold stone wall, her breath escaping in shallow puffs of mist as she made her way through the darkness, hoping to get to safety as soon as possible.

Watching her entire pack wipeout before her very eyes was not something so light, but she knew that at that moment, staying alive was more important than mourning her loved ones.

Someone had unleashed the blood moon curse upon the entire wolf clan, and it had led to a massive fallout in the number of werewolves within the wolf clan.

She had survived the blood moon curse, and now, for some unknown reasons, one of the Alphas had sent his werewolves to get her, and to avoid being caught by them, she had to flee.

“No matter what happens, you have to stay alive,” her mother’s last words kept echoing in her head.

She clutched the frayed edges of her cloak, her fingers trembling, though not from the cold.

From behind her, she could hear the voices of her pursuers slicing through the night air, carried by the icy wind.

“Find the healer!” one man shouted, his voice a guttural snarl that made Quinn’s blood run cold. “She couldn’t have gone so far by now,”

“The Alpha wants her alive. Don’t kill her.” Another angry voice shouted right behind her. The words “Alpha” and “healer” echoed in her ears, and she could hear her heart pound in her chest.

She bit down on her lip to stifle the gasp that threatened to escape. ‘They know’. They know about her abilities.

Healing a child earlier that day was a risk, one she had taken without thinking, but it had come at a cost.

Word travels fast in Starfalls, and that singular act from her, had put her in this mess. But what could she have done? She just couldn’t allow the child to die, not after she had discovered that she could heal her.

She wished she knew about her healing abilities early enough, then she could have saved her pack from the curse of the blood moon. But she only got to know when her mother was about to die, and by that time it was already too late.

Blake Damien’s enforcers have ears in every shadow, and they’ve found out about her healing abilities, and were following every of her trail. But for what reason, Quinn couldn’t get herself to provide the answers.

Slowly, she peeked around the corner.

The red moon cast long, menacing shadows that looked like her pursuers. Quinn drew a shaky breath and clutched the small leather satchel slung across her chest.

Inside it, a handful of herbs, a cracked mirror, and a pendant—the only possession left to her by her mother—offered her little comfort. Her heart pounded against her ribcage as she thought of her next move.

“I can’t stay here,” she whispered to herself, her voice barely audible over the howling wind.

She moved silently, darting from one shadow to the next.

Her feet sank into the thickening snow, but she pressed on, her every step calculated to avoid detection. The slums were her home; she knows every hidden path, every loose board, and every wall she can scale.

But Blake’s men are not fools. They moved fiercely, like wolves working together to corner their prey.

Quinn ducked behind a stack of broken barrels just as two enforcers pass by, their voices low but clear enough to make her heart seize.

“But what does finding this healer has to do with the blood moon curse?” one of them muttered.

The other sneered. “The Blood Moon’s rise stirred the curse again. The Alpha believes the healer’s bloodline is connected to it. She is the key to—”

A low growl cut off the man’s words. Quinn didn’t dare listen further. Suddenly, a howl erupted from nearby, sharp and deafening.

‘They’ve picked up her scent.’

Panic set in. Quinn bolted forward, abandoning stealth in favor of speed. Her boots pounded against the snow-covered cobblestones as she raced through the maze of alleys, her cloak billowing behind her.

The snarls and growls of wolves grew louder, closer. They were faster than her, and she knew it.

“Don’t let her escape!” a voice roared behind her.

Quinn’s mind raced as she ran, her amber eyes scanning for an escape. A rooftop? A hidden passage? ‘Anything.’ Ahead, she spot a narrow alley leading to a section of the slums that bordered the forest.

If she can make it there, she might be able to lose them in the thick trees.

There was no time to think, Quinn galvanized into action. She needed a place to hide – a little to her left were some boxes.

All she had to do was creep inside one and hide till her pursuers leave and, then she’d creep out and head out.

She felt relieved as she crept in without being detected, but her relief soon turned to dismay as the Werewolves suddenly moved to where the boxes were, and the next thing she began to hear was how they’d pack the boxes and leave.

“Some of you should go ahead and deliver the few spoils in these boxes to the Alpha, and then the rest of us would continue to look for the healer,” One of the werewolves instructed.

Quinn suppressed a sneeze, trying to breathe inside the box that, as she felt the box she was in being lifted from the floor.

“There’s no way we are losing her,” She heard another werewolf say.

Quinn tried to count the minutes – or hours she spent scrounged up in the box, but in spite of her awkward position, she soon fell asleep. When she woke up, the box she was in was still, she had a feeling it had been placed on the floor.

Everywhere was silent, then she heard “Alpha Blake, these are some of the spoils from Starfalls.”

Alpha Blake! Quinn’s heart slammed against her chest for the second time that day as her pulse quickened.

“And the healer? Did you find her?” She heard the Alpha ask the Werewolves who had brought her in.

She shivered violently, even though the inside of the box was stuffy and hot. Quinn soon found it was impossible for her to breathe.

Her lungs burned, and her muscles screamed, but she knew she had to remain still, and hope that the Alpha doesn’t request for the boxes to be opened, so she could slip away the moment they leave.

The darkness in the box made her feel like she was seeing Snow flurries whip around her like needles. Just then, she felt someone opening the box she was in.

Quinn gasped as the light filtered through the box and then a massive figure stepped forward. Blake Damien.