The night air burned my lungs as I ran.
Barefoot. Bleeding. Desperate.
I didn't know what I was running from anymore—only that I had to keep moving. Something primal was behind me. No, not something—THEM
I could feel it in my bones, in the way the forest held its breath with me.
Branches tore at my arms like jealous fingers. My heartbeat was a drumbeat of panic. Every step I took felt like it echoed in the dark.
Then—NOTHING
No footsteps. No snarls. Just silence… thick and watching.
I slowed, chest heaving, blood dripping down my thigh. I turned.
They were there.
Three figures emerged from the shadows, as if the forest birthed them from the smoke. One had blood on his hands. The second wore a crown of something that looked like bone. The third… his eyes glowed. Not yellow. Not gold — Red
"You really thought you could run from us?" the one with the crown asked, his voice a low purr that made my spine arch.
I didn't answer. I couldn't.
The one with glowing eyes took a step forward.
"Run again," he whispered. "I dare you."
And I realized—I wasn't their prey.
I was already theirs.
I should have felt terror. But standing there, barefoot in the cold forest soil with blood soaking into my dress, I felt something far more dangerous—fascination
The one with glowing eyes tilted his head, studying me like I was some wild thing that had amused him by biting back.
"You didn't cry," he noted.
"I don't give people the satisfaction," I muttered.
My voice surprised me. It sounded calm. Too calm.
The crowned one smirked. "You will. One way or another."
I backed up, bumping into a tree. Bark scratched my shoulder blade, but I didn't dare flinch.
Their presence pressed in on me like gravity—thick, dark, and ancient. It wasn't just fear they fed on. It was submission. Chaos. Desire
"What do you want from me?" I whispered.
The third one—silent until now—moved.
His hand, still blood-streaked, reached out. He touched a strand of my hair, curling it around his finger before letting it drop.
"Everything," he said simply. "We want everything."
My mouth went dry.
"You don't even know me," I said.
Crown leaned forward. His voice brushed against my ear like sin. "But we've dreamed you. Felt you. Hunted you. There's no running from fate, little one."
My heart stuttered at the name.
Little one. As if I belonged to them already.
I should've screamed.
I should've fought.
But the part of me that always felt like it didn't belong—like it was too much, too broken, too wild—suddenly quieted.
Like it recognized them.
Like it had been waiting.
Glowing Eyes stepped closer. "Say it," he murmured.
"Say what?"
"That you feel it too."
I looked at them—three shadows made flesh, hunger in human form. Every nerve in my body was on fire, and somewhere beneath the fear and adrenaline was something else
A slow, burning curiosity.
Something dangerous.
"I don't know what this is," I whispered.
They all smiled.
Crown spoke again. "It's the beginning."
The wind howled around us. Leaves spiraled through the air like dying things.
And as the forest closed in, as three Alpha shadows surrounded me under the bleeding moonlight, I realized something chilling:
Whatever this was...
It wouldn't end with me walking away.