Page 4 of Ravaging Red (Monsters of the Hollow Realm #1)

THE WOLF

RAEL

T hey call me Rael.

My name whispered like a curse, or a prayer, depending on who dares to say it.

I was born beneath the first Blood Moon of the Hollow Veil, the son of a Beta who should have kept his head low and his mouth shut.

And like my father, I never learned how to kneel.

Not to alphas. Not to kings. Not to rules carved into stone by old beasts who feared change more than death.

I earned my scars young, bleeding for territory that wasn’t mine just to prove I could take the hit.

I fought for dominance not because I wanted power, but because I hated being told what I couldn’t have.

So, I proved it by tearing it from the last alpha’s throat. One who thought he could threaten me into falling in line with his rules. I took his title, his beloved pack, and his fucking silence. And then I left them without an Alpha, as lost and alone as I’d been for years.

I didn’t want the pack. I didn’t want the structure.

I wanted the freedom to breathe, to hunt, to fuck, rage, and sleep under the stars without someone behind me counting every howl.

So I disappeared into the Hollow woods. I built my den with my bare claws, tucked deep into the bones of the realm, where no other monster dared to step into without permission.

And for a while, it was enough. For a while, I thought building my own empire, alone, was what I wanted. Until she showed up.

I knew the female didn’t belong the moment I saw her step through the trees about a year ago.

She was barefoot and trembling, hair a mess of silver strands that glinted in the moonlight like spider silk, her eyes wide but glassy.

She smelled like lavender and slow decay, like time had forgotten her and she’d wandered into my forest hoping it would finish the job.

I watched her from my perch in the shadows, one clawed hand curled around the bark of a tree, my breath still, my heart beating louder than it should have been.

She was human, and humans didn’t come into this realm of the woods. Not unless they were lost, or they were pulled by something unknown.

The Hollow Woods weren’t kind to humans.

This realm wasn’t just made up of trees and animals.

It lived and it hungered. It pulled at people in the dead of night, when their sorrow was deepest, when their hope had dwindled.

It whispered to the broken, the damned, the ones who no longer trusted the light to save them.

Some thought it was madness. Some thought it was fate. But the truth was simpler.

The realm called for them. And the ones who stepped into it? They wanted to be taken.

The woman didn’t flinch when the trees groaned under the weight of her old bones.

She didn’t so much as blink when a branch cracked like a warning snap just behind her.

She didn’t run when the cold sank its teeth into her skin.

She walked forward like she was in a trance.

Like something old and unseen had wrapped its fingers around her spine and was pulling her deeper, dragging her step by step into the mouth of darkness.

I followed her.

Not because I had to, but because I couldn’t stop myself.

I was curious to know where she was headed, why she had come this way.

She wasn’t the first human to step into my territory, but there was something different about her.

Something that stirred the beast inside me, not with rage, but with an overwhelming need.

At first, I thought she’d gotten lost. Then I thought maybe she was bait, a trap set by the Council or some clever blood witch trying to lure me into another war. But no. She wasn’t trying to find me . She was trying to remember herself .

And there was something in her scent, something faint that brushed the underside of my mind.

Almost like a memory that was never fully built upon.

It was a familiar feeling, yet distant. Almost like a dream you forget after waking, only to taste it again on the tip of your tongue hours later.

There was a thread connecting us, though I couldn’t name it, couldn’t see it.

But I felt it wrap around me just the same.

I stalked her and followed her through the trails, watching the way the woods welcomed her. The same way they had welcomed me.

And just before dawn, she reached the Veil.

I should have turned back then. I should have stayed in the Hollow where I belonged, where monsters keep to monsters, and humans to their filth, and fire, and fragile little hearts.

But the Veil had grown thin under the weight of that cursed Blood Moon, the one that hadn’t left the sky for three cycles now, the one that stained the Hollow, bringing with it heat and hunger, breaking the rules we had lived by for centuries.

The Blood Moon had been hanging too long in the sky, twisting the Hollow’s magic, bleeding into the barrier between worlds like an open wound. Why was it out this long? No one could say. But murmurs of a demon trying to play a god lurked among the Monsters.

The Veil had always kept humans out and monsters in . But not anymore. It breathed now. And it craved .

Just like we all did .

I stood in the shadows, amazed at how she crossed the Veil back and forth, so easily, as if she belonged here. I followed, stepping into that infernal human realm. I’d never actually stepped fully onto their world. Not because I couldn’t, but because I didn’t care to .

Their realm was too loud. Too bright. Their cities and towns were filled with empty distractions, pretending at safety while their shadows writhed with everything they refused to see.

I preferred my corner of the woods. Where things with claws still hunted, and the rules were older than language.

But even out here, the remnants of their world sometimes crept too close.

With the Blood Moon hanging high, the border between their realm and monsters had thinned, and I could smell them as they passed by.

They reeked of denial, death, and desperation.

Still, I knew better than to show myself outright.

Humans had a way of reacting poorly to anything they didn’t understand, and they understood nothing about me or of the monsters that dwelled only feet away.

They couldn’t. I was the nightmare they outgrew and still feared.

The monster they mocked by daylight but prayed against at night.

To them, I was a story, a myth with sharp teeth and cruel intentions.

A warning carved into folklore to scare children from wandering too far into the dark.

But I was real.

And if they ever saw me clearly, if they caught more than a flicker of shadow or a flash of fang, they’d lose their minds. Their fragile little hearts would either seize with terror, or worse… awaken to a terror buried so deep inside them, they’d never be able to sleep again.

So, I stayed in the shadows.

Let them pretend I didn’t exist. Let them tell tales, over a firelight, of beasts that stalked the woods and devoured pretty little girls in red cloaks. Let them laugh nervously and get drunk on their alcohol, never knowing how close the truth clawed at their throats.

Because monsters weren’t just real.

We were watching .

Waiting.

And sometimes… We hungered for more than just flesh.

I continued to follow the old lady, taking in the quaint town, slightly different to our own.

There were strange smells, some sweet, some bitter, and then there were the weak-bodied creatures, with loud mouths and softer spines, walking up and down paved roads.

I hated it instantly. But I endured the punishment because on the other side of this cursed Blood Mooned Veil, I found her .

Forgetting all about the decaying old lady, I began to stalk my prey.

She moved through town like temptation personified, her scent flooding the air with the taste of ripe berries, crushed petals, and slick, golden heat.

Her hair was a flame, vivid red with wild curls that caught the light and threatened to encumber the air around her.

Her eyes were a green so sharp, I thought I might be able to get lost in them.

They were the color of moss and starlight.

And her body, Gods above and below, her body was lush and sweet, thighs meant for bracing, hips made to anchor a beast, tits full and round and soft enough to suffocate in.

She was curvy and full in all the ways that made my palms itch and my cock throb so hard it hurt.

I wanted her.

Not like the way monsters’ hunger for prey.

No.

I wanted to wrap my tongue around her clit and drink every drop of cream she made until she was nothing but gasps, and pleas, and ruined innocence.

I wanted to hear her scream while my knot swelled inside her and locked us together so I could keep her full and dripping.

Mine for as long as the moon allowed it.

I wanted to keep her.

It was an off thought for one of my kind.

I had heard rumors of those who liked to feast upon humans.

Trapping them and enjoying the fruits of their humanity.

Their laughter, their tears, and of course, their sexual appetites.

They’d use and discard them, but never actually keep them.

They weren’t ours to keep, yet this one called for it. For her monster.

At dawn, I returned to the hollow before any human could see me. I tried to keep my mind occupied, but thoughts of her kept drifting in, and a deep frustration settled in my chest.

Weeks passed, and I couldn’t sleep. And the dreams…

Fuck. The dreams shredded me.

Every time I closed my eyes, she was there. Running barefoot through the Hollow, breathless and terrified, glancing over her shoulder while I chased her through thorns and fog. Sometimes she fought me. Sometimes she fell to her knees and spread her thighs and begged.