Chapter 33: A Ritual of Blood and Moonlight

CLARA

Even inside the forest, everything felt strangely still.

The softest of snowflakes caressed my cheek, alighting on the leaves around us. I focused on the warmth of Elias’s hand and my white breath in the moonlight that trickled down through the canopy above to keep myself sane.

I thought we’d be heading for the cave Elias had shown me before, but instead the Seer led us farther south. The snow began falling more and more heavily, and a bitter wind began to blow.

Elias’s eyebrows furrowed, and his grip on my fingers tightened.

We walked and walked, and my feet began to grow tired. Yet the ancient woman leading us didn’t slow down, so neither did I.

If this who-knows-how-old lady could keep going, I wasn’t going to be the wimpy one!

While we walked, I opened myself to what I’d started to call the “pack channel,” which was full of chatter tonight.

I heard Elias say, “There has been a change of location. I don’t know if everyone is supposed to be there for the ritual, so hang back for thirty minutes or so and follow our scent. We need to be on our toes in case anything goes awry.”

“I’ve never been in this part of the forest,” Elias whispered in my ear after we’d been traveling for nearly two hours.

That did nothing to calm my racing heart, though I suppose the physical exertion could have been partially to blame for it.

The Seer hadn’t said a single word the entire trip. We’d walked yet another hour before she paused and turned back to look at us.

She finally spoke, saying, “We have arrived. This is a sacred place. Take off your shoes and leave them by this tree. Moon-Chosen, bare your torso also.”

I blinked a few times at the Seer, sure I’d heard her wrong. She wanted me to get practically naked in a snowstorm?

But Elias had already begun removing his shoes, so I reluctantly followed suit. I leaned against the tree and took off my boots, grimacing as my feet sank into the snow.

“Elias, are you sure we should start before the rest of the pack gets here?” I asked as I unzipped my coat and immediately regretted it. But I continued doing as the Seer had instructed, compelled by the power in her voice.

“I don’t know if they should be here at all,” he replied. “But if you have to do the ritual topless, I don’t want them around anyway.”

Okay, that was a fair point. I finished undressing and shivered until Elias wrapped his arms around me to share his heat.

The Seer smiled and gestured forward with her stick.

Elias pushed me forward without removing his arms, our feet easily falling into a natural rhythm with each other.

We passed under a particularly thick branch and stepped into a wide-open meadow.

Despite the trees around it being covered in snow, the meadow itself was green with tall grasses that tickled our knees as we walked. The temperature rose steadily until I was no longer cold, though it still felt strange walking around topless.

The Seer led us to the center of the clearing where a stone altar stood in the moonlight. As we approached, symbols carved into the stone began glowing in many shades of blue and green.

I was so fascinated with the whole area that my eyes didn’t know what to settle on. They darted from the summer grass to the altar, to Elias and the Seer, to the glowing symbols.

They finally came to rest on a golden chalice next to a pile of herbs.

The Seer gestured for Elias and me to kneel on either side of the altar, and I could smell the fragrant dried lavender and sage.

I knelt in the grass and gave Elias a weak smile, fear beginning to color my fascination. He reached across the stone and took my hands, giving them a firm squeeze.

“~You’ve got this.~”

I smiled as his voice echoed through the chambers of my mind and took a deep breath.

We both looked to the Seer, who had donned a headdress in elaborate colors. Her gnarled hands began crumbling the herbs into the chalice, further releasing their scent. When she was finished, she looked each of us in the eyes.

“We will begin. Alpha Elias, you will repeat after me first. Then, Clara the Moon-Chosen, you will repeat after me as well. Think of this ritual as a wedding ceremony, for there is no marriage that can bind you more closely to each other than this.”

That was a little sudden and strong, but I realized…I was okay with that.

In the six weeks I’d known him, Elias had been more of a husband to me than Grant ever had. I stared at the sharp angles of his face and the way the moonlight settled in his hair. He gave me a rare smile, causing my heart to jump.

Yup. I was going to marry this man, and I was going to be happy about it.

“If both of you are in agreement, we’ll begin.” The Seer waited for both of us to nod, then turned her body toward Elias. “I am Alpha Elias, leader of the Northfang Pack. I swear to protect you, Clara Moon-Chosen, for all my days.”

Elias’s eyes softened as they locked onto mine, and he began to speak. “I am Alpha Elias, leader of the Northfang Pack. I swear to protect you, Clara Moon-Chosen, for all my days.”

I felt the hair on my arms lift as his deep voice tumbled across the altar toward me.

“I swear to protect our pack as we unite our people, long separated by greed. I pledge my life to stand by your side as your alpha and our pack’s alpha. I will support you in your role as Moon-Chosen and true leader of our land.”

Elias repeated each line dutifully, not even flinching as he handed over his authority to me.

I felt my eyes beginning to well with tears. Not just tears of love for the man across from me, but also tears of fear as I thought about the responsibility I was accepting. And tears of sadness for what Elias was giving up.

But Elias seemed to be feeling nothing but joy. I’d never seen him smile so brightly or his eyes burn so warmly. He finished his lines, and the Seer turned to me.

“I am Clara Moon-Chosen. I have no pack, being rejected before birth. I have come to right the wrongs of our ancestors and take my place at your side as leaders of the united Forest Echo Pack.”

Though I struggled to believe what I was saying, I repeated the lines word for word.

Elias seemed surprised by the new pack name but didn’t say anything.

Once I’d finished, the Seer continued, “I pledge my loyalty to you, Alpha Elias, and swear to be your equal partner in all we do. I swear to end the pack war and reunite our people.

“And should war loom again within our lifetimes, I promise to remain loyal to the Forest Echo Pack and do everything in my power to keep it whole.”

It was a lot. I was giving up my life for so much more than the man in front of me. But it was too late to back out now.

I repeated the words and felt the wind pick up around us as I spoke.

The herbs in the chalice began to spin, and the sound of howling filled the air. As soon as the final word passed my lips, the entire clearing went still.

“So you have promised,” the Seer said. “Now we must seal the ritual. Each of you must spill your blood into the chalice.”

She pulled a pair of silver knives from a pocket on the underside of her wolf pelt and extended them toward us.

I stared at my reflection in the blade, hesitant to take it. This whole thing was just getting weirder and weirder.

Had I accidentally joined a cult? Because this was cult shit.

Elias took his, though, so I put on my big girl pants and took the damn knife. I gripped the blade with my left hand and pulled it swiftly back with my right before my nerves could take over, and blood immediately began pooling in my palm.

I let the blood drip into the chalice for a few seconds, as did Elias.

“That’s enough,” the Seer said and began stirring the contents with her finger.

I clenched my fist closed to get the bleeding to stop, wishing I had a piece of gauze or something to put over it. The wound was itchy. When I opened my hand because I couldn’t take it anymore, my eyes went wide.

Fresh, pink skin had closed over the cut.

“Well…that’s new,” I muttered.

Elias showed me his hand, which had also sealed over. “It’s working already. Your wolf’s healing has kicked in.”

Immediate benefit. I was down for that.

Elias and I watched the Seer as she continued stirring the nasty mixture of blood and herbs while mumbling under her breath. The glowing symbols on the altar pulsed, and the breeze began to pick up again. Then she withdrew her finger and smeared the blood mixture across the stone.

Something rumbled beneath our feet, then went still.

The Seer nodded and looked at Elias. “Alpha Elias. Dip your finger in the chalice and use the blood to draw the crescent on the Moon-Chosen’s right wrist. In doing so, you are pledging your very blood to this bond.”

Elias nodded and did as he was instructed, dipping his pointer finger in the blood and gently taking my hand. He turned it over and began to draw a moon on my skin.

It was cold, and his finger tickled as it glided across my wrist, but I did my best not to wiggle.

As soon as he withdrew his finger, the blood began to glow faintly. It grew hot like a branding iron and seemed to soak into my skin, leaving behind a crescent-shaped burn. It healed almost immediately, but the scar remained.

“There. Now you carry your bond’s blood inside of you. Only one step remains. Across the altar, press your right hand to each other’s hearts. You may close your eyes if you wish. This will unlock your wolf, Moon-Chosen, and you will know when the ritual is complete.”

This was easily the least weird part of the entire process.

I leaned forward so I could reach Elias’s chest and pressed my palm to his warm skin. I could feel his heart pounding, which was validating. His stone face had convinced me that he was cool, calm, and collected through all this weirdness, but his heart told the real story.

A smile spread across my face as I closed my eyes.

For a moment I focused on Elias’s heartbeat and the warmth of his hand on my bare chest. But I didn’t get to focus on that for long, because no sooner had my skin acclimated to his touch than a rush of images and emotions began dragging me under.