Moonlight's Last Embrace

The Blood Moon rises tonight.

It bleeds across the sky in slow, cruel strokes, painting the forest in the same shade as her last breath. I used to believe the moon was beautiful - a silver lantern guiding my kind through darkness. Now I know better. Now I know it can be a thief.

The wind carries her scent, even though it's been years since I held her. Wildflowers and rain. My curse is that I can smell her as if she's only steps away, waiting for me to find her.

My claws dig into the frozen soil where she lies. The grave is shallow, not because I didn't love her enough to dig deeper, but because I couldn't bear to bury her at all. My hands... these hands that once brushed hair from her cheek... they were the same hands that tore her from me.

The Blood Moon watches me, its light spilling over the stone I carved myself. There is no name on it - no dates. She was never mine to mark.

I close my eyes, and it's the same night again. Her voice, whispering that she would choose me again, even knowing it would end like this. Her warmth fading in my arms.

My howl rips through the mountains, raw and endless. Somewhere in the darkness, the pack hears it and knows: the Alpha still mourns the human girl who should have lived.

And when the last echo dies... so will I.

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