BLOODBOUND:BENEATH THE MOON

Noah woke up choking on a scream.,he just had a nightmare called dream.

His body shot upright in bed, lungs burning, heart slamming so hard it hurt. Sweat soaked through the expensive sheets, hair all scattered his forehead, breath coming out in sharp, broken gasps like he'd just outrun death,or maybe he just did.

For a second, he didn't know where he was.

Then the ceiling came into focus , smooth white, faint reflection of city lights ,and the familiar weight of his favorite expensive sheets tangled around his legs.

In his penthouse,the top floor and very safe

Except his hands were shaking.

Noah slowly lifted them into the dim light spilling through the glass wall.

They were clean,no blood or burns I could swear I saw blood on my hands,he panted.

But he could still feel it,the heat.

The sticky drag of blood between his fingers.

The sound God that sound,the screams,the voices were in dozens, both men,women and children.

A whole village crying out at once.

He squeezed his eyes shut, jaw clenched so hard it ached, dang not this again. He has been having hr dreams since when he was little.

The dream clung to him like smoke.

He'd been running.

Barefoot across dirt soaked dark and warm beneath his feet.

Fire everywhere , houses burning, roofs collapsing, sparks flying into a moon so bright it looked painted across the sky.

Like a silver color.

And then the woman.

She always came at the end.

Standing in the middle of the chaos like the flames couldn't touch her.

Long dark hair tangled down her back, dress torn and stained, silver eyes glowing so bright they hurt to look at.

Holding a baby,him.

She had looked straight at him, tears streaming down her face.

"Noah," she cried out.

Always his name,always that voice,soft ,breaking.

Like she'd been calling him his whole life.

Then the claws,very long and he couldn't explain.

Huge shadows leaping from the fire.

Steel flashing.

The baby screaming.

And blood ,so much blood .

Noah dragged a hand down his face, breathing hard.

"Jesus..." he whispered to the empty room.

His alarm clock Showed 3:17 a.m.

Again,same damn time

Every full moon.

Like clockwork.

He swung his legs off the bed and stood, bare feet sinking into the cold marble floor. The city stretched beneath his windows , lights, traffic, life going on like nothing in the universe was wrong.

Thirty floors below, people laughed in bars, fought in taxis, fell in love, broke up.

Normal people,very lucky people indeed

Noah walked to the glass wall and pressed his palm against it.

His reflection stared back.

Tall,handsome with his broad shoulders,sharp jaw,dark hair falling into his eyes he looked breath taken.

The face that covered magazines and business journals.

Youngest billionaire CEO in the country.

Everyone's golden boy.

No one ever wrote about the part where he woke up shaking from nightmares that felt more real than memory.

His phone buzzed on the nightstand.

A text.

Ethan:

Bro it's 3am. If you're still awake you need therapy or a boyfriend. Preferably both.

Noah huffed out a weak laugh.

Shut up bro, he muttered, typing back and smiling.

Noah:

Go to sleep. Some of us have real problems.

Ethan:

Yeah yeah. Try not to dream about murdering villages again.

Noah immediately froze,and slowly looked down his again

For half a second ,just half -

He swore they were red,wet,dripping ,whe he blinked his eyes

They were normal,dry ,clean

His pulse thundered in his ears.

You're losing it.

That's what he'd been telling himself for years.

Stress,too much work, not enough sleep

When you run a billion-dollar empire before thirty, your brain does weird shit.

That's what therapists said, one day,and Ethan his friend.

That's what Noah told himself.

Still...

He moved to the sink and turned on the tap, splashing cold water on his face. When he looked up, his reflection looked pale.

Tired,scared and thats the part no one ever saw.

Noah Vale didn't get scared.

He crushed competitors.

Fired executives without blinking.

Walked into boardrooms full of men twice his age and made them nervous.

But dreams? Nah,

Dreams had started owning him.

And they were getting worse, every time he had one.

He wiped his face and glanced back at the bed.

For a moment, he almost expected to see ash on the sheets.

Or claw marks in the mattress.

Or footprints that weren't his,but he saw nothing just his Gucci sheets and silence.

Noah exhaled slowly.

"Get it together," he told himself.

Tomorrow was important.

**********

His birthday, his big thirty and he is also in need of an assistant to relieve him of some stress.

Big board meeting.

Press conference.

Investors flying in from three continents.

Life didn't pause for nightmares.

Still...

As he crawled back into bed, the image of the silver-eyed woman burned behind his eyelids.

And somewhere deep in his chest, something stirred,like he feels something is trying to connect with him.

Like a part of him had heard his name being called...

And had finally started waking up.

**********