The Vampire clans and the Tigress tribes had made for uneasy neighbors over the past hundred years. Their presence during the war had been well known to be firmly in support of the rebellion, and the victorious kingdom had paid them in kind, taking whatever warriors they could get their hands on before they could. The intent had been to turn the fangs of the two groups as tools in their subjugation, but too many of the captured maidens chose death over dishonor.

And though the kingdom might have been able to try to subjugate the territories occupied by these two groups, it quickly became evident it was an impossible endeavor. The very war that had guaranteed their victory had poisoned the land with elemental energy so thick it was debilitating to the weaker maidens, and poisonous to humans altogether. It was the perfect place for their respective groups to retreat to and remain outside the reach of the former king’s wrath.

The two very different groups of maidens were forced to share space very close to one another. The Vampires retreated further west and nearer to the shores, constructing high impregnable fortresses in the cliffs, using the ancient world trees the Elves had made during their first war with humanity. Meanwhile, the Tigresses kept a more nomadic lifestyle, moving across the dead-lands and the crooked forests, places where the elemental energies had corrupted everything and where even the average ferals were fierce enough to be compared to the Draconid flocks of Kilmere, or the Orc hordes of Stagfair.

And their alliances had only ever been of convenience and trade.

The tigress tribes would take humans and sell those they weren’t interested in to the Vampires. But it would not be strange for either group to take resources from each other when given the opportunity. A recent commodity they’d been very quick to rob from one another being the new domination bond collars that had begun flooding the kingdom’s underground markets.

Things had appeared to be turning for the better until the collars started to fail.

Soon they were trading all their resources in exchange for the collars, both sides unwilling to return to the submission variants, quite aware these collars gave them too much range of movement they’d been sorely lacking. If only they could stabilize the collars, they could turn their focus towards massing power and properly removing the kingdom’s influence from their lands. Rather than continue hiding within the more toxic regions.

The opportunity presented itself when the queen of Vampires proclaimed she’d planted a spy within the human controlled territories and now they would have the chance to collect on what they needed. Mainly someone with intimate knowledge of the internal workings of the collars that they could use to fix whatever was wrong with the domination collar and made it fail so quickly.

The operation itself had gone smoothly. Everything afterwards had not.

The royal knights had been deployed in force. Hundreds of the most powerful maidens in the kingdom swarm the forest and roads. Ferals were eradicated by the hundreds, and no doubt their presence would trigger south-bound feral rushes, but the king had made clear that capturing them was more important.

And now, heading east to take the long way around. By kidnapping a couple of humans here and there, forcefully bonding them, and then dropping their corpses somewhere visible, they intended to trick the knights into believing their destination was to escape the kingdom and reach Coven. But their goal would be to take a southbound direction before reaching Balet.

In their mad dash across the kingdom, the hope was to give the slip before the royal knights caught up with them. They were confident in their fighting abilities, but not against a handful of fully geared royal knights, let alone dozens of them. The idea had been to only throw clues, clues that would be tied together over time. Clues meant to hint at their presence without outright revealing it.

Apparently, the plan had changed.

“We need to make a scene in Balet.”

As the ritual circle of blood died down, Shal glared at it with narrowed eyes. Her ruby red eyes held no small amount of disdain at the prospect.

Opposite to her in the clearing, Throag used her claws to clean dirt from under her other claws. Her feet rested on the back of a man, their latest tool to keep them from going feral, and likely soon to be discarded.

“Problem?” The Sabertooth asked, not amused, but not quite unamused either.

“Orders from the Queen.”

“Good luck, then.” Tossing the fleck of dirt away, her claws stroked her stripped orange fur. “I’ll wait for your return for… two days.” With a smirk, her ears canted in amusement, as she could hear the glower under Shal’s breath.

“It’ll open a chance to head to Aubria. We need this.”

“You need this. I can take this sad lump of meat and trek straight to the dead-lands.”

“The king sent the sky blues.” Shal spoke with poison in her lips. “If we try to move across the wilderness, we’ll be spotted.”

Throag growled. She hated the sky blues. The two maidens that flew from so far up not even she could discern their presence. And despite the altitude, the maidens’ sight was so powerful they could spot figures moving through a forest or down a road. The only way to get rid of the things was to pretend to be just some other weakling sticking to the roads as if afraid some ferals might eat them.

Throag’s paw touched the leather pouch at her hip. The fact that both had been sent their way meant their catch had indeed been worth the risk. Her brow furrowed.

“What is this ‘scene’ that needs to be made?”

“There is a man in Balet.” Shal spoke, ignoring the scoff from the muscular brute.

“Politics.”

“Don’t be so quick to dismiss this.” Shal frowned. “He is bonded to a Sabertooth.”

Throag’s hackles rose. “A traitor.”

“No, a feralborn.”

“Bullshit.”

“This one was a Tigress until recently.” Shal said, her lips curling slightly upwards. “A white Tigress. Feralborn.”

That put a stop to the glare. She snorted. “Some mutated stray that picked up a human.”

“Ah, it is often hard to remember you weren’t even born during the rebellion.”

“Yes, my cunt doesn’t have cobwebs. What’s your point?”

With a glare, Shal crossed her arms. “If you’re ignorant of your own tribe’s history, I’m not going to give you a free lesson.” She said, smugly grinning at the maiden glaring back at her. “What we have to do is have some fun with the human, rattle him around, maybe take an arm as a souvenir. No killing.”

“Politics.” Throag rolled her eyes. “And if this white cat thinks-?”

Both her ears perked. The maiden bolted to her feet and spun around, staring into the darkness of the forest. Her ears canted backwards, fangs clear as she snarled at the dark, every muscle in her body suddenly tensed.

“How far away are we from that Balet place?”

“A couple days.” The Vampire tilted her head in curiosity. “Did you sense anything?”

“Yes.” The voice dropped into a snarl, her grin turning cruel. “Someone that might be fun.”