Crimson Moon

Prologue

The wind howled past her ears, which, despite the fur cap she wore, were still numb. She couldn't feel her toes or fingers either. She hated that she couldn't shift all the time, but this situation took the cake. She was a Lycan, which meant her body temperature was hotter than the average human's, but that didn't do much for her when it was negative temperatures outside in the middle of a blizzard. Unfortunately, she had to take the risk; it was the only chance she had of escaping. But now, it appeared she was going to die out here.

Luana "Lou" Black, daughter of Alpha Reid Black, forced herself to take another step, lifting her mitten-clad hand to shield her eyes from the relentless snowfall. She had no idea how long she'd been walking; it felt like days. She just needed to find a village, somewhere that could harbor her until she could figure out what to do, and hope that her pack's trackers didn't find her. They had probably already figured out that she was gone, but thanks to the blizzard, her scent and tracks would be well covered. Hence why she ran away in the middle of a snowstorm. She looked around, wondering where the hell she was. For all she knew, she was just making a giant circle and would run right into one of her pack's patrols. Except, they wouldn't be out during the blizzard. Only insane people would risk walking around in this weather. At least she was able to self-diagnose.

The skin around her eyes, the only skin not covered, stung in the intense wind. She was developing some nasty frost-bite, she could feel it. If only she could shift to have the warmth of her wolf form, but there hadn't been a female wolf that could shift in a long time. There hadn't been a female wolf at all in a long time. She was the last purebred female, as far as most of the Lycan community was aware. Any other female wolf had been bitten, not born, but only about one percent of those women lived through the shift.

    She pulled her hood tighter around her face and whimpered, looking around. Just a wall of white. Her sense of smell was useless as well. The only sense that was giving her any information about her surroundings was her hearing, and all that was telling her was that it was very, very windy.

    Her boot got stuck in the snow and she fell face first into the powder, her arms doing nothing to stop her descent into the cold, white fluff. She tried to wrestle to her feet, but her numb limbs didn't want to do anything for her. She struggled for a moment before giving in. She wasn't going anywhere. It was either die here or die somewhere shortly after. She had no idea if she had even managed to escape her pack's territory. That would really stick it to them though, finding her dead body once the storm had passed. She chuckled to herself. This was a good as anything.

    And she waited for death to come for her. At least it would be peaceful, just a lot of cold and then nothing.