Veymaw is deathly still. The bird calls, the howl of the wind, the murmur of the forest—it all comes to a halt, nature sensing something more sinister encroaching on the village.

I peer through the small square of glass in Casimir's front door, eyes trained on the deserted path. Nobody lingers in the streets. Nobody disturbs the stillness. Nobody walks beneath the crimson moon as it peaks over the trees, dyeing the cobblestones red.

Tension spirals in my chest, making my head pound. With each blink, memories paint my eyelids—blood, terror, death. After what they did to my father, I always thought I'd sense their presence—thick in the air like the stench of blood. But the first indication of their arrival comes from beneath my feet; the ground starts to hum. Outside, the trees shake. There's a howl—low and long and dangerously close.

My breath fogs against the glass window, the edges blurred. I look from the streets to the cabin down the road to the trees, forcing myself to think of anything other than my father, of what memories this anniversary conjures. Casimir must be well in the trees now, Killian close to the mountains—waiting just as I do for something to happen, for someone to follow.

Everything relies on me. And it's all beyond my control.

My fingers itch for a weapon, but all I find in the pocket of my dress is the scratched metal from Myers. I turn it over anxiously, palming the smoothed edges. Eyeing the cabinet across the room, I shun the thought of stashing a dagger under my dress. Any sign of a weapon, and I'll be seen as a threat.

I balance on my heels, rocking back and forth as the time ticks by and the stillness settles once again. Seconds pass like hours. The village holds a collective break.

That's when the first scream echoes through the streets.

My entire body tenses as it dies down. There are screams every year, it's a natural reaction when a monster rampages through your home as if you're not even standing there. And yet, the terror lingers. The terror that someone will resist, that someone will be taken, murdered. The terror that that someone will be Cadence.

Another scream echoes through the air, closer. I clench my fists at my sides and keep my eyes trained on the path outside. They haven't reached our street at the edge of the village, but if the shouts are any indication, it won't be long before they do. A flash of movement breezes across the street opening. I lurch away from the spot by the door, back to the wall, hand to my chest as if I can keep my heart from beating right out of me.

Blood marks the backs of my eyelids.

Screams terrorise my minds.

One, two, three...

The fear crawls in, urges me to yank the closet door open, hide behind the coats and peer through the gap. But there's a pounding voice in the back of my head that keeps me planted on my own two feet.

Thirteen, fourteen, fifteen...

The earth thumps, Casimir's cabin trembling with the power. I wish to evaporate into the wall as I dig my nails into the splintered wood.

Twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty—

The newly secured bolts Casimir fastened to the door fly from their hinges across the room, smacking against the wall inches away from my face. I can't fight my instincts as I slam the bedroom door shut, pressing my eye to the gap in one of the hinges to see into the kitchen. One infiltrates the kitchen, body taking up an immeasurable amount space.

No matter how often we hear of them, see drawings, remember from previous Red Moons; their appearance still comes as a shock. Standing taller than me, hands morphed into razor-sharp claws, faces half torn between animal and human, thick hair, and torn shreds of clothing.

Claws scrape against the kitchen floor. One of them tears open the kitchen cabinet with a long nail, the others tearing down the hall into the bedroom. I could stay silent. I could crawl beneath the bed; I could stand unmoving as they prowled into my bedroom, and they may leave me unharmed.

But that's not what I came here to do.

The bedroom door is knocked from its hinges. The moonlight streams in from the window behind me, bathing the doorframe in blood red. And there it stands, a monster with glowing eyes and snout tainted red. It eyes me, growling as it crouches low, slinking further into the room. I hold myself against the wall, paralysed beneath its gaze as another appears behind it, leaping towards the closet, clawing the wood so that it rattles and falls over, the door open.

The wolf lets out a howl at the empty closet, retreating backwards.

Move, Freya, say something. Tell them who you are.

My mind screams at me to act but my body does not follow suit.

The shifter has not stopped staring at me, eyes burning red in the dark room. It prowls closer as the other room of the cabin is torn apart, piece by piece. I press myself into the wall. It stops, lowering its body, snout tickling across my body.

My heart pounds against my ribcage, sweat beading at the back of my neck as its warm breath caresses my skin. I hold my breath, as if it will deter the shifter, but I do not close my eyes. I stare at the shifter as it scans my body, searching.

It backs away after a yap from the other shifter, and they bolt from the room back out into the street. I stay frozen against the wall, my chest heaving, limbs incapable of movement.

Move.

It's Casimir's voice that I hear, deep from my subconscious. It snaps me into movement. I shove off the wall, climbing over the window frame and out into the street. Its deserted, aside from those I know linger in the trees. Growls and screams howl through the air in the distance. There's no knowing how many of them there are, but beneath the blood red moon, it sounds like hundreds.

I sprint to the cabin across the street. Miss Mhurs, a widowed woman living alone. Low growls echo through the doorway. I hesitate, fear threatening to push my back, but I shove it away, pulling the door open.

Ravaged. Ransacked. Destroyed.

Miss Mhurs crouches in the corner, her small frame appearing impossibly frail as her body quivers. Her face is covered by the sleeve of her blouse, as if not looking at the shifters ransacking her home will allow her to pretend they were never there at all.

The shifter that was just in my cabin eyes me, its growl reverberating through its chest. It scratches its claws down the wooden floor, leaving long marks. The other lets out a howl, the same howl that escaped before the bolted from my cabin only moments before.

Whatever they were searching for, it was not here.

One of them bursts through the half open window, the others heading for the doorframe that I'm blocking. I step back as they sail past, my heart hammering as I stumble after them.

"Stop!" I scream. "Wait!"

They give no indication that they've heard me, tearing past me as if I don't even exist.

"Stop!"

I put my body between them and the forest. The beast sails past, uncaring as it knocks me three feet across the path. I land to the ground with a thud, my head spinning as I watch them pound against the earth away from me, my hope slipping the further their blurry figures grow. Samu slips between my fingers like I'm grasping at sand.

I reach into my pocket, feeling for my dagger, but come up with the scrap metal Myers gave me instead. And because I don't have any choice, no weapon, no way to gain their attention, I throw it.

It brushes off its skin, but the shifter pushes its stomach to the earth, recoiling backwards and spinning around so fast it gives me whiplash. When it looks at me, I'm transported back to my cabin one year ago, to what I saw when I looked at the wolves, to what my father saw as they devoured him.

Cold, red, rage. Murder.

I barely get a chance to breathe before the wolf is on top of me, jaw snapping in my face, claws breaking the skin at my wrist. I can't move, can barely breathe. All training up to this moment is proven futile. This is monster is twice my size, purely muscle.

But despite my fear, I force myself to meet its eye.

"I know what you're looking for."

The horrifying, pointed teeth snap closer, the other shifters crowding in. There are mere millimetres between the skin of my neck and its teeth.

"Y-you took my brother last year!" I scream. "I know what you're looking for!" I gasp, my airway cut off from the weight of the beast. "You took him last year. Take-take me."

The shifter's mouth opens so wide I can see its rows of teeth. It lets out one last howl before I feel the pressure of them against the skin of my neck. But before any skin can break, it's thrown from my body like it's nothing more than a feather.

I crawl backwards along the ground as the shifters crowd around me—at least five—prowling closer, glowing eyes and bared teeth. One at the front steps closer, its eyes scanning my face. I open my mouth to shout, and scream for Casimir, but before anything comes out, the shifter is leaping towards me.

~

Do you think they'll take Freya? Or do they think they'll just kill her?

I'm curious, do you prefer books where the main plot is romance, or books where it's just a subplot? For me it's definitely the second.

What do you think might happen next?