Bound by Blood and Fang

Alora The Heat has always been held on the Long Night. It's the one evening every year when the sun surrenders completely, and the world belongs to the creatures who were born in the shadows. By the time the last few rays of daylight had vanished just beyond the tops of the trees, the air had already gone sharp with cold. Frost already glittered across the forest floor, sparkling in the low light like shattered glass. Crunching beneath the weight of bare feet and thin soles as we were herded toward the clearing. White dresses that were far too light for the season, and far more revealing for the purpose they served, fluttered around trembling legs. They said the cold made us run faster. That it gave the monsters in the forest the chase that they desired. Most of the human women kept their heads down, eyes pinned to the ground just in front of them as they walked the path, too afraid to look anywhere else. But me? I chose not to shy away from what was ahead. My fingers curled tight around the hem of my skirt as the Dark Forest swallowed us whole in its shadow. The trees here had always loomed taller than anywhere else in Elyndor. Their branches tangled like grasping fingers overhead, blotting out what little starlight dared to reach the ground. Somewhere deeper within the woods, something howled—low, distant, and full of promise. Or threat. The Dark Forest was considered no man’s land among everyone from Elyndor. It was the only place in all of Elyndor where you would find both vampires and werewolves on equal ground instead of at one another's throats. It's a dense strip of wilderness that had been carved between Sanguivar, the vampire's territory. And Fenryth, the land of the wolves. It is said that the land there was soaked in old magic and even older blood. And tonight was the one night a year that the two sides of Elyndor would come together. The ritual has been happening for centuries. Long enough that no one even dared to question the reason behind it anymore. Long enough that fear had become tradition, and that tradition had become law. Every unbonded woman within the borders of the continent is required to attend The Heat—human, vampire, and wolf alike. Those who refused didn’t live long enough to regret their decision. I watched as the line of women slowed ahead of me as the clearing opened up before them like a wound in the night. Fires burned just along its edges, casting flickering bands of golden light across multiple faces that were pale with dread and full of anticipation of what was to come next. The bonded women moved among us with a rehearsed efficiency, their expressions unreadable as they pressed tiny wooden cups into our hands. They had stood here once, too. Bare. Silent and forced into the very same traditions that should have died centuries ago, but still seem to reign throughout the continent. Now these women are claimed by monsters. The marks at the base of their throats prove this when they catch in the moonlight. And now the cycle continues. The concoction inside the cup steamed faintly in the cold air. The scent is sharp and herbal, with the hint of something slightly bitter hidden beneath it that makes my stomach twist the second it touches my nose. I hesitated as a cup was pressed into my hands. The human woman in front of me shoots a nervous glance over her shoulder at me; her eyes are glassy already, cheeks flushed pink as if the drink had begun its work before it had ever had a chance to touch her lips. “Once consumed, the Heat will begin. There is no stopping it. No, containing it at that point. You need to be prepared, Alora,” my mother's words echoed through my mind. I watched as the other human woman who was standing a few feet away lifted her cup with trembling fingers, while on the other side of the opening, the she-wolves and vampires drank from their cups with barely contained excitement. I guess for them this night might be seen more as a rite of passage, but for many of the human women that were forced into participating, it was anything but. Right now, I wanted nothing more than to pour the liquid on the ground at my feet, but with so many eyes around, I knew that I would not have gotten away with it. Almost as if on cue, a voice startled me from my troublesome thoughts. “Drink,” one of the bonded women said quietly when she noticed that my cup was still full. Her voice was stern, leaving no room for refusal. I hesitated for half a second before I did as I was told. The liquid burned as it slid past my lips and down my throat, a strange warmth blooming in my chest almost immediately. It felt unnatural, invasive even as the Heat's potion began to spread through my body. I felt the way my pulse quickened, and the way my blood thrummed beneath my skin in a way that made my breath catch in my chest. I clenched my fists, fighting to remain upright when a sudden wave of dizziness came over me. The forest seemed to blur into smudges of color and light from the fires. “It’s a side effect of the potion,” my mother had said as she crushed the herbs into dust. “It is meant to dull your senses. Meant to make it easier for them to catch you. More compliant once you are caught.” There is a murmur that ripples through the clearing as the last cup is collected. That's it. Everyone has taken their dose of the mythical magic, and the night is truly about to begin. The bonded women stepped back, their forms retreating toward the fires as if they wanted more distance from what came next. From what we were about to become. “You know the rules,” a thick voice called from somewhere in the shadows of the Dark Forest. Deep. Male. Clearly not human. A shiver traced its way down my spine in anticipation as the voice continued. “When the horn sounds for the last time,” the voice continued, “you run.” Run. The single action was all we were afforded during The Heat, but with the potion running through our veins, many of us wouldn’t get very far. Some would fall. Some would be caught before they made it ten feet into the darkness, while some would give themselves willingly to the creatures of the night. A silence fell across the opening, heavy and suffocating as the crowd of women waited. My heart hammered so loudly in my chest that I was sure the other women around me could hear it too. I told myself to breathe. To remember what my mother had taught me. To stay sharp. To stay fast. To fight with everything that I had. Because once the hunt began, there would be no mercy afforded to us. Somewhere in the forest, in the darkness of the shadows, something moved. It sounded massive, and it seemed as if even the shadows moved out of its way as it approached the clearing, making sure that it did not reveal itself yet. And for the first time tonight, the strange warmness that was burning beneath my skin flared a little brighter—burning a little hotter, almost as if it recognized what was lurking in the night. I took a deep breath, fighting to make the forest stop moving and control the strange swelling feeling in my chest. I carefully let my fingers skim over the hilt of the small dagger that was pressed to the inside of my thigh. Thankfully, we weren’t searched beforehand—or the dagger would already be gone. And I would probably already be dead by now if they had found it. The cool metal of the blade pressed against my heated skin is a small comfort to know that I will at least have some extra layer of protection against these monsters that are about to be hunting us. “You hide Alora. Don't let them find you, and if they by chance do… You fight, child.” I could still feel my mother's hands on my shoulders as she reminded me before I was brought here. She never lied to me about what this night would be. She never softened the truth or pretended that surviving this night would be easy. But my mother did her best to make sure that I was prepared. That I would be able to make it out of the forest unharmed and unbonded. The forest goes still around us. The wind stops, and the only sound that can be heard is the popping of the fires behind us. It's as if every living thing within the forest is now waiting for the inevitable. Time seemed to warp a little, stretching to the point that it might fracture at any moment. Seconds dragged on like hours, each heartbeat now loud enough to feel like a betrayal. I could feel the eyes within the forest watching us—waiting to see who would break first. The cold air caused my breath to fog in front of me in tiny clouds of smoke. The other women shifted as the tension in the air increased; some were rocking on their heels, while others clutched at their skirts like talismans. One woman had even begun to cry softly, her tears running down the sides of her cheeks in thick, wet ribbons. While another woman whispered a prayer under her breath to the Fates. I wasn't sure if her prayers were for protection or guidance, but I highly doubt the Fates would bother to answer her tonight. The fires crackled along the edge of the clearing, their light flickering lower, growing weaker as more time passed. I rolled my shoulders once, forcing the tension that had been building in my muscles to release. The potion burned hotter now, its effects slowly starting to crawl their way through my veins, before pooling low in my belly in a way that made my teeth grit together. Focus, I told myself. Breathe. Move. A low note cut through the air. It vibrated through the trees before sliding through our bodies violently. The sound seemed to come from everywhere at once, rolling out of the forest itself and echoing through the trees and into my chest. The horn. The first blast faded, leaving behind a ringing silence of anticipation that made my heart pound even harder than before. I swallowed as we all waited. A second note soon followed. This one is a little longer than the last. It carried with it something else that the first did not possess — a hunger. My skin prickled as if there were multiple pairs of invisible eyes already locked onto me from the darkness beyond the firelight. One of the human women whimpered beside me. Her entire body was shaking as sobs raked through her. She wouldn't make it far before she was caught by one of them. The potion flared sharply inside my body, a warmth spiking so suddenly that my knees nearly buckled beneath me. There is a ripple of movement that tore through the line of women as panic began to take hold, as the others felt the effects of the potion. Bright white dresses fluttered in the cold night air as their feet shifted, and their breath came fast and shallow. Then— The horn sounded for the third and final time of the night. One single, final blast that split the night wide open around us. “Run.” My mother's voice screamed at me from inside my head. The word barely registered before my body reacted. I launched forward as the clearing erupted into chaos—women in white dresses scattering in every direction, screams tearing free as the firelight was left behind. The forest swallowed us whole, its branches whipping at bare skin, and its roots clawing at feet that were desperate to find purchase in the dark. I didn’t look back because I couldn’t afford to see what was behind me. Instead, I pressed forward as the darkness closed in on me, the shadows becoming thick and moving as if they were alive. And somewhere behind me, I felt it—the way the air shifted. The change that took place the moment the monsters were unleashed. They were allowed to hide within the forest before we arrived, but they could not move until after the final horn blast and the last of the women had entered the forest. And now they were free, and they were hunting. The distinct sound of footsteps thundering through the undergrowth surrounds me in every direction. A creature snarled off in the distance, the suddenness of the sound causing me to jump in surprise. But somewhere beneath the terror that was now clawing at my chest, there is a fever inside me that answered with a pulse of its own—sharp, bright, and far more dangerous than what's in the shadows. A howl broke through the night, deep, powerful, and undeniably dangerous. Goosebumps scattered across every inch of my skin as if the howl had been meant for me. That whatever was now hunting me already knew exactly who I was and was coming to claim me.