Page 3

CHAPTER 3

M y skin prickled under the bear-man's stare, his massive shadow stretching across the small cabin space. They were all huge men, larger than I'd seen before from my kingdom. I couldn't quite understand how they all fit in the cabin. The cabin smelled of pine, ash, and something else… something wild and male that made my heart pound for reasons beyond just fear.

I didn't need to see the others moving restlessly around the room to know I'd stumbled into something ancient and dangerous. My instincts screamed to run, but my body refused to move. My heart demanded I stay and stand my ground, but I wasn't sure why. Not that running had done me any good when the forest closed in around me last night.

"You shouldn't be here, little one," the bear-man said again, his voice a low rumble that sank into my bones.

I stayed on the bed, heart still slamming against my ribs, but I lifted my chin. "Too late," I said, surprised my voice didn't tremble. They surrounded the bed in a crescent shape, so I didn't really have a way to get past them anyway.

His jaw tightened, muscles working beneath his bronze skin. The others exchanged unreadable glances, a silent conversation passing between them. One of them… lean, golden-haired, with a sharp grin and sharper eyes, stepped forward.

"The forest let her in," he said with a shrug. "That counts for something."

"Or it's a trap," the wolf-man muttered from the corner, arms crossed, gaze sharp and cold. "It's always a trap."

I looked at him, at his narrowed eyes and clenched jaw, and something about him pricked at me… familiar, like the scent of a coming storm. Pain shot through my eye like a blacksmith's iron. A memory fluttered, just out of reach. Had I seen him before? My back ached where it pressed against the rough wooden headboard, but I didn't dare move.

The fox-man flopped into the nearest chair and gestured lazily. "Might as well tell her. She already saw the worst of us." His mouth curved into a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "Well, almost the worst."

The stag-man, tall and quiet with gentle brown eyes, shook his head. His russet hair caught the firelight, glowing like autumn leaves. "We don't know what she is yet."

That chilled me more than the air. My fingers curled against the blanket, nails digging into the fabric. "I'm not anything," I whispered. "Just someone trying not to die."

The panther, dark-eyed and silent, watched me from the shadows while radiating danger like heat. He hadn't moved, hadn't spoken, but I felt his gaze on me like a physical touch. He knew. Somehow, he knew I wasn't telling them everything.

Another man, smaller than the others, perched on a windowsill with restless energy cocked his head. Feathers still clung to his hair, brown and gold. The hawk. "You saw us," he said softly. "In our true forms. That shouldn't be possible."

I swallowed hard, remembering something from my childhood. I'd forgotten, but now there was a tickle of a memory. The massive bear crashing through the undergrowth. The wolf circling. The panther's eyes glowing in the darkness. The stag's antlers silhouetted against the moon. The forest had been alive with them. My step-mother's soldiers had dragged me back to the kingdom where I'd been thoroughly punished.

"You're human," the fox said, staring straight at me with eyes so green they burned. "But not entirely."

My mouth went dry. The truth crawled up my throat desperate to escape. I shouldn't trust them… I couldn't trust anyone. But my step-mother's soldiers would drag me back to my death. These men… these creatures… they weren't ordinary. Maybe they'd understand what made me different, what made my stepmother lock me away, study me, prepare me for my sacrifice.

"My heart," I murmured, and seven sets of eyes locked on me like I'd just set fire to the room. "My stepmother wants it. Says it'll make her live forever."

Something passed through them then… recognition, fury, pain. Their bodies tensed as one, a ripple of tension so strong I could almost taste it. The bear-man looked like he might shift again from sheer rage. His fingers lengthened slightly, nails darkening into claws before he forced them back.

"Winterbourne," he growled. "You're a Winterbourne."

I nodded, and the temperature in the cabin dropped ten degrees. The wolf cursed under his breath, pushing off the wall he'd been leaning against. "Of course she is." His laugh cut like glass.

"That name cursed us," the hawk-man spat, suddenly on his feet. He moved too fast, inhumanly fast. Hawk talons erupted from his human hands, the tips reaching for my throat. "That bloodline damned us."

I stared at them, my voice hoarse. "What does that mean?" I struggled to sit up, arms trembling beneath me. I wasn't sure I wanted the answer.

One of the men smiled, but it was sad. His earlier playfulness vanished like smoke. "Your ancestor, hundreds of years ago, she bound us with a spell. We were men. Warriors. Brothers." He gestured around the room. "Now we're beasts."

"By day, we lose ourselves," Another said quietly, the stag-man's voice gentle despite the horror of his words. "By night, we remember what we were... and what we lost. Worse, when we do find people to interact with, they see dwarves instead of the men we are. They're terrified of us."

"And now," the bear-man said, stepping closer, looming over me, "the curse has brought you back to us."

Finally, I managed to sit up, drawing my knees to my chest. The cabin spun around me. My stepmother's cold smiles made sense now. The ancient books in her study. The way she'd muttered about bloodlines while drawing my blood. She hadn't just wanted immortality… There had to be more to the spell, and she'd wanted to finish what my ancestor had started.

I wanted to run. I wanted to scream. But I couldn't move. At this point the headache had evolved into a migraine which made it impossible to think clearly.

"How do you break it?" I asked, barely breathing.

They looked at each other, then at me. The silence stretched, broken only by the pop of embers in the fireplace. It was the fox-man who answered, voice unusually serious.

"You have to give us your heart. Willingly. Fully."

I swallowed hard. "Like... love?"

His smirk faded, eyes darkening to forest shadows. "Like... death."

The silence that followed was thick enough to drown in. My heart hammered against my ribs, desperate to escape the cage of my chest. The irony wasn't lost on me… that's exactly what they needed.

"If I break the curse," I whispered, "I die."

"Yes," the bear-man said, no gentleness in his voice.

My mouth tasted of copper and fear. "And if I don't?"

"We stay monsters," One of the others finally spoke up, voice low and rasping from disuse. His dark eyes burned into mine. "Forever."

I wrapped my arms around myself, shivering despite the fire they'd built. The choice they presented wasn't a choice at all. My life, or their humanity. Either way, blood would be spilled. Either way, I would die so someone else could live.

"So what now?" I asked, surprised at the steadiness in my voice.

The wolf-man's mouth curled in a bitter smile. "Now? You stay." The words hung between us, both promise and threat.

"Until when?" I demanded.

Panther-man's eyes darkened, pupils elongating slightly… a reminder of the beast within. "Until we figure out what the hell we're going to do with you."

I straightened my spine, refusing to cower. I'd spent my life being caged, studied, prepared for sacrifice. I wouldn't make it easy for them. "And if I try to leave?"

The panther-man stepped forward then, his movement liquid grace. "The forest won't let you." He crouched beside me, close enough that I felt his heat. "It brought you here for a reason."

His proximity stole my breath. Up close, I saw the flecks of gold in his dark eyes, the scar that bisected his lower lip. His gaze dropped to my throat, where my pulse hammered wildly.

"Your heart," he whispered, so low I could barely hear. "Is already pounding like prey."

I didn't flinch. Didn't look away. If I was to die here, in this cabin of monsters, I wouldn't do it cowering. "I'm not prey," I breathed back.

Something flickered in his eyes… surprise, maybe even respect. He stood in one fluid motion and backed away. The others watched, a new tension crackling in the air.

"Dawn comes in three hours," one of them said, breaking the silence. "We should prepare."

My blood went cold. "Prepare for what?"

Fox-man's smile returned, brittle and sharp. "For the change, little Winterbourne. When the sun rises, we lose our minds." He gestured to the walls, to the scratches and gouges in the wood. "And it would be a shame if we accidentally ate you in our madness."

The bear-man nodded once, decision made. "Kade, take her to the cellar. Lock it."

Before I could protest, Kade hauled me to my feet. His grip was firm but not cruel, his body heat burning through my tattered clothes. I stumbled against him, legs still weak from hours of running through the forest whenever that was…

"What happens in the cellar?" I asked, dreading the answer.

He looked down at me, something like regret darkening his features. "Like Garret said. You hide. We hunt."

As he led me away, I caught Garrett watching us, his expression unreadable. But behind his eyes, something burned… something just as dangerous as the beast he became by day.

And in that moment, I wondered which was more terrifying: being hunted by the monsters these men became, or facing the hunger I'd glimpsed in their human eyes.