THE MOON-BINDERS

Chapter Four: The Wendigo(s)

Arielle POV:

The forest thinned the farther I ran.

Trees gave way to skeletal trunks and ash-colored soil that crunched beneath my feet like rotten roots. Even the air felt wrong here.

And I could hear the whispers of every soul that died here.

"Save us," they whispered.

I slowed, clutching the talisman at my chest, trying to steady my breathing.

That was when a scent hit me. A rotten stench of... of a corpse... and extreme hunger!

Something else is here.

I felt fear crept along my spine. The whispers in my head fell silent all at once, as if retreating.

I wasn't alone here.

The smell became thicker. It smelt like Rot. Old blood. Decay layered over decay. My stomach turned uncomfortably as I rushed quickly to an underbrush, retching.

Then I felt a presence behind me.

"s**t," I breathed.

The presence answered me with what sound like a wet lick of the lips and bone grinding against each other.

I spun just as it stepped into the open.

The creature looked extremely tall. Too thin. Its limbs were stretched unnaturally long, joints bent wrong, skin pulled tight over a frame that looked half-starved, half-bloated. Antlers twisted from its skull, splintered and cracked, and its mouth split too wide when as it smiled.

It eyes locked onto me, as it mutter a single word.

"Food."

The word slammed into my mind.

'Am I about to be eaten by this thing?'

I didn't wait to find out.

I ran.

The thing screamed, the sound tore through the Gray Lands, high and shrill. It was nothing like anything I've heard. Branches exploded as it gave chase, moving on all fours, then two, then four again, impossibly fast.

I tripped.

The ground vanished beneath me and I hit hard, pain ripping through my knees and palms. Before I could scramble up, weight slammed onto my back.

I screamed as I felt it claws pierced my shoulder.

Its breath washed over my neck, rancid and sweet, saliva dripping as it mouth lowered.

"A wolf," it crooned inside my skull. "A Moon-marked meat. Healthy food."

Its teeth sank into my arm.

Agony detonated through me.

Then the creature froze.

It jerked violently, recoiling with a shriek as smoke curled where my blood touched its mouth.

"What are you?" It shrieked.

Sliver light pulsed faintly beneath my skin, threading through the blood now coating the ground.

“Stay away from me!” I gasped, scrambling backward.

It purred. "But I'm hungry. I need food and you are."

Before it could lunge again, the world blurred

The creature was ripped off me with brutal force.

A blink of motion . A crack like bone snapping as the creature flew, slamming into a dead tree hard enough to split the trunk.

I gasped, clutching my bleeding arm.

Something landed between us.

Tall. Slender. Still. And Elegant in a way that made my skin prickle.

A man.

His movements were unnaturally smooth as he straightened, pale skin catching the moonlight. Dark hair was tied back at his neck, loose strands framing a sharp, devastatingly handsome face.

His eyes glowed a deep predatory red.

'Who is he?' I wondered, still clutching at my wounds that wasn't yet healing.

"That is mine," he said calmly.

The creature hissed, scrambling to its feet. "She is moon-marked."

The man smiled slightly, it was then I saw the fangs.

'He's a Vampire!' my head screamed.

"Then she is very valuable," he said.

They clashed.

My eyes could barely followed it. Shadows collided, then claws and fangs tearing into each other, the creature shrieking as the Vampire moved faster than sight. Suddenly, a final, wet crack echoes through the clearing.

Then silence...

The vampire wiped blood from his mouth as ash drifted where the creature had been.

Then he turned to me.

"What was that thing?" I stammered.

“That?” he said lightly. “A Wendigo.”

His gaze now locked onto me.

I scrambled back, pain flaring as my injured arm shook. "Don't," I warned weakly. "I'm armed."

His brow arched. "With what? Fear?" he mocked as he moved closer. "Because the only thing a vampire fears is sunlight and a spike. Got any of those?"

I shook my head.

He chuckled. "I thought as much, little pup."

His eyes dropped to my wound. And then he stopped.

Slowly, his expression changed from hunger to curiosity.

He crouched, close enough that I could see it clearly now.

My blood was not just red. It shimmered.

Sliver veins threaded through it, glowing softly against my skin, pulsing in time with my heartbeat.

The vampire inhaled sharply. "Well," he murmured. "That's new."

His hand hovered just short of touching me. His eyes flicked from my blood to my face.

"You're not food," he said slowly.

My pulse raced. "That's... comforting." I managed.

A corner of his mouth lifted. "Oh, don't misunderstand. You are food of course...."

His gaze darkened. "Just that you're something much worse and hated around here."

I swallowed. "And what is that?"

He smirked, fangs glinting in the moonlight.

“Nobody likes a wolf out here.”

***** **** *****

He rose slowly, his pale skin still catching the moonlight. I listened hard for the sound of a heartbeat.

There was nothing.

He really is a vampire, I thought.

Up close, his looks was even more breathtaking.

Not in the monstrous way the stories warned us about, but in something... maybe graceful. He wasn’t violently loud, feral or decayed and ugly, as the vampires looks we were made to believe. His face was sharply handsome, carved with precision, softened only by a hint of warmth he seemed to keep carefully hidden. High cheekbones. A strong mouth that looked more accustomed to smiling than snarling. And eyes so dark they almost passed for human—until the moonlight struck them and red burned along their edges.

He looked too alive to be a monster.

And far too pale to be a man.

He straightened his coat as he approached me with that smooth, elegant movements akin to royalties.

He must be of royal blood, my mind whispered.

“You’re bleeding,” he said mildly.

“I noticed,” I snapped, tightening my grip on my arm as my heart thundered in fear against my ribs.

I was standing right in front of a real vampire!

His gaze lingered on the wound. On the silver-threaded glow beneath my skin. And for a moment his eyes glow red in hunger.

I moved my bleeding arm from his sight.

'Better not to tempt the devil further,' i thought.

“Warden blood,” he murmured. “I haven’t seen that since before the packs warred.”

My heart slammed. “You know what I am.”

“I know what you aren’t,” he corrected calmly. “You’re not prey. Not really.”

I was confused again. I didn't know if to take his sentence lightly or seriously.

'What does he mean by prey? Is he planning to eat me also?'

He took a step closer.

I flinched.

“Relax,” he said softly. “If I wanted you drained, you’d already be cold.”

“That’s supposed to comfort me?”

A faint curious smile touched his lips.

“My name is Lucien Vale,” he said. “Half vampire. Half human. Fully unwelcome in most places. Even here.”

I stared at him. “That’s supposed to make me trust you?”

“No,” he replied. “It’s supposed to make you understand why I haven’t killed you yet.”

The whispers of the dead stirred faintly in my head.

'Never trust a vampire.'

And so I stayed silent, watching him carefully.

Lucien crouched again, eyes level with mine. “Your blood doesn’t call to me the way normal blood does,” he admitted. “It smells differently. Like it’s… layered.”

“Layered with what?” I asked.

He dipped a finger in the little pool of my blood that formed on the ground right beside my feet, and licked it his eyes glowing red.

“Taste like memories,” he said smacking his lips. "Old ones.”

My breath caught.

“That silver threading,” he continued, “it burns creatures like the Wendigo. To me, it’s intoxicating in a different way.”

His gaze lifted to meet mine.

“It means the moon hasn’t fully claimed you yet.”

Something dark flickered behind his eyes.

“And that makes you very dangerous.”

A cry echoed in a distance.

Wendigos!

Lucien’s head snapped toward the sound, jaw tightening. “You crossed a boundary tonight.”

“I know,” I whispered. “And trust me wolves won't follow. It's just me.”

“They won’t,” he agreed. “But others that live here will.”

He reached for me.

I recoiled instantly. “Don’t touch me.”

His hand froze midair.

“Fair,” he said. “But you’re injured, shaking, and standing in territory that eats the weak.”

“I can walk.”

“You can barely breathe.”

Another sound rolled through the Gray Lands—low, hungry, closer.

Lucien sighed, clearly irritated. “I was hoping to avoid this.”

Before I could react, he scooped me up.

I gasped as my feet left the ground, his grip firm but careful, one arm braced beneath my knees, the other supporting my back.

“Put me down!” I struggled.

“If you stay here and keep bleeding, you’ll attract worse things than Wendigos,” he said calmly. “I've taken a curiosity to you. And I don’t share my curiosities.”

“I didn’t agree to this!”

He leaned closer, his face inches from mine, eyes glinting with dangerous amusement.

“You’re alive because of me, Arielle Norman,” he said softly. “You don’t have the luxury of consent right now.”

My name!

My heart skipped.

“How do you know my name?” I demanded.

Lucien gave that subtle and knowing smiled.

“Because,” he said, as the forest blurred around us, “your mother made sure some of us remembered.”

“Is that why you’re helping me?” I asked quietly.

“No,” he replied without hesitation. “I haven’t decided yet whether to eat you… or keep you.”

Cold settled in my chest.

'So it isn’t over,' I thought. 'Not by a long shot.'

'Nyax… please be alive.'

The moon followed us as he carried me deeper into the Gray Lands.

And for the first time since I ran, I realized something far more terrifying than being hunted.

I had just been claimed by someone who wasn’t sure whether he wanted to eat me—

—or keep me.