Blood & Howls: The Forbidden Heir

Chapter One: Shadows Beneath the Moon

The city of Noctis Vale thrived under a sunless sky.

Towering skyscrapers shimmered with eerie blue lights, masking the darkness that clung to every alley and rooftop. Beneath the polished glass and chrome, behind the closed doors of two rival family empires, secrets long buried were beginning to stir.

It began on a Tuesday.

Elian Vortigan, heir to the Vortigan Conglomerate, pressed his forehead to the frosted windowpane of his family's penthouse suite. Rain fell in silver needles, streaking down the glass in rhythmic trails. The city lights below twinkled like dying stars. Thunder rumbled beyond the clouds-distant and brooding-just like his father.

Behind him, a conversation laced with venom carried through the marble halls.

"You will not deal with the Lunars. Not after what they did to your grandfather," snapped Cassian Vortigan, his voice a cold blade. "Our bloodline must remain pure."

Elian didn't reply. He rarely did. His father's hatred of the Lunar family ran bone-deep, centuries-old. He'd grown up with tales of betrayal and bloodshed between the Vortigans and Lunars. The stories were more folklore than fact, embroidered with curses and death.

But outside the myths, there was a girl.

Her name was Lyra Lunar.

And she wasn't a story.

She was real.

She was dangerous.

She was kind.

They met in the unlikeliest of places: a neutral zone.

The Crescent Library-a forgotten place untouched by either family's power.

Among dust-laden books and cracked leather covers, the vampire heir and werewolf princess became... something more.

Friends.

Real ones.

It began with stolen glances over forbidden pages.

Elian: quiet, curious, always reading ahead.

Lyra: wild-eyed, restless, full of fire.

At thirteen, they barely understood friendship.

At fourteen, they started sharing secrets no one else knew.

And that was when the changes began.

Small, strange things.

Elian's reflection shimmered, then vanished.

Lyra's eyes glowed gold beneath the moon.

They were changing.

The truth-hidden for generations-was waking.

Their parents had suppressed it.

Taught them to ignore the signs.

Fed them pills. Prayers. Rules.

But blood cannot be silenced forever.

One night, while sneaking out to see Lyra in an abandoned train station, Elian heard something.

"Elian."

He turned, heart pounding.

His older brother, Thorne, stood in the shadows.

"You've been meeting her."

Elian froze.

Thorne didn't ask.

He accused.

"I've seen you. Do you know what happens if a Vortigan and a Lunar fall for each other?"

Elian's silence was an answer.

"She's not like them," he finally whispered.

Thorne's eyes gleamed red.

"No. She's worse. Because you trust her."

Within days, the Vortigans knew everything.

Elian was confined. Questioned.

Not punished.

Repurposed.

Cassian Vortigan called it Operation Hollow Fang.

"Continue meeting her," he ordered.

"Learn their secrets. Find their weakness."

"You want me to spy on her?" Elian asked.

Cassian smiled.

"For our survival."

Across the city, Lyra paced like a storm in a cage.

Something in Elian had changed.

His touch. His smile. His silence.

And then her world shattered too.

She told her parents everything.

Her mother wept.

Her father grew still.

"So it begins again."

They told her about the prophecy:

If a Vortigan and a Lunar truly loved each other,

they would create the Forbidden Heir.

A being of blood and howl.

The strongest creature alive.

The creature that could unite or destroy them all.

Lyra's blood ran cold.

She remembered how Elian looked at her.

Like she was the last star in his sky.

And how she looked back.

They met again. In secret. Beneath the city, in tunnels long forgotten.

When they saw each other, they didn't speak.

They simply understood.

"They told me what we are," Lyra said.

"Me too," Elian whispered.

"They want us to choose."

"And they want me to betray you."

"Are you?"

"No."

Silence.

"Then we play smarter," Lyra said.

"Give them what they want. But do it our way."

"What do you mean?"

"We pretend. We spy. We lie. We find the Forbidden Heir.

And we end this war."

For a long time, Elian said nothing.

Then he smiled.

Their friendship had become a revolution.

But in the shadows above...

They were being watched.

Red eyes. Gold eyes. Burning eyes.

The old bloodlines had awakened.

And the children were about to learn:

Love was never the beginning.

It was the weapon.