CHAPTER TWO The Monster Who Chose Me
200 Words
POV: Astridr, Son of Blood
Her pulse was deafening.
I could hear it through stone, through fear, through the thin lie of courage she wore like a cloak. Twenty‑one. Fresh. Untouched by our world. Perfect. She smells different from others.
My family watched from the battlements—ancient eyes, cold mouths. They expected me to feed and discard her. But her pull is something I cant explain.
Instead, I breathed her in.
Human. Salt. Terror. Defiance.
When I bit her, I did not kill her. I tore flesh, yes—because restraint is a lie—but I stopped. Blood filled my mouth and the old hunger roared, but beneath it something worse stirred.
Want. Need. Something unwritten telling me my fate.
She did not faint. She did not beg.
Her nails dug into my arms until skin split.
“She fights,” my brother laughed. “Break her.”
“No,” I said.
The word echoed, dangerous.
The elders went still.
I pressed my mouth to her ear. “You don’t know it yet,” I whispered, “but you’re already mine.”
Above us, thunder rolled.
I had just declared war on my own blood.
- Writer
