I didn't know who he was when I found him by the river, lacerations slathering his body with dark blood. I was in my wolf form. Blood dripped from my jaws as I slowly moved toward him. He turned his head to assess me. Before he could react to the large wolf before him he slipped into darkness.
My hand, decorated with my engagement ring, laid over the bump of my stomach. I closed my eyes and focused on the life forming. I knew I was having twins.
I was first in line for the throne but I had to marry to succeed my parents. With my twins I didn't know if the prince from the rival pack would accept me but I couldn't put it off any longer. He was waiting outside my bedroom.
I walked outside and into the hall where he sat on the fur sofa. He couldn't see yet that I was pregnant; I wore a silk, flowing gown with a shawl.
"I have something to tell you."
"Alright."
"This happened before we got together, about two months ago. I met a wounded man and after I tended to him we had sex. I'm pregnant."
His face turned severe and I instinctively covered my stomach with both my hands, intensifying his glower.
"You knew I'd want a virgin."
I didn't know what to say. I looked down at my stomach.
Don't listen to him. It was stupid; they obviously couldn't hear him, but it made me feel better to at least pretend to shelter them.
"Who was it?"
"He said his name was Adrian Black," I said, giving my attention back to him and regretting it immediately.
"Do you know who that is?"
"Should I?"
"You slept with someone you don't even know," He scoffed, disgust poisoning his words, "He's a flamebringer."
"No. He isn't. It was a different Adrian I met."
"Did he have one eye?"
I paled, my head turning down to my stomach again. I could feel them as if they were warning me and when I returned my attention to him I saw his blade and lunged out of the way, sending him slamming into the wall. He turned to come for me again but I locked myself in the bathroom and twisted into myself as my body began to transform. Before I knew it I was on all fours and forcing the door open. He stood before me in a fighting stance, his blade pointed at my face. I growled.
He lunged forward again and I dodged his swing, leaping behind him and sinking my teeth into the back of his legs only to receive his blade sinking into my front leg. I heard a jarring crunch and the sound of my maid screaming. As he bled on the floor I turned and ran to my room and onto the balcony. I leapt to the ground below and raced through the woods.
I could hear him screaming for someone to catch me and I knew what they'd do if they did. I ran until my legs were numb and my lungs burned. My fur was wet with sweat and blood.
Eventually I came to a farm. The world was on a tilt. I could see a short blonde girl holding a mug as she watched the sun set. When she turned to look at me her body morphed to stone. It was then I shifted and let myself collapse. She ran to me and fell to her knees. The look of horror on her face as she took in my wound gave me the hope that at least she wouldn't kill me, and I let my body succumb to blood loss.
Shifters and humans lived separate from each other. There were conflicts but we mostly lived in peace. Often shifters were employed to guard farmlands because of our powerful senses and stronger bodies.
The flamebringers on the other hand lived in the tunnels below. They were forged from the earth's core and bred with shifters. They were immortal. They were notorious for their bloodlust and hatred.
Adrian Black was the prince. I'd heard stories of him but I knew nothing of his appearance, his demeanor, his voice, or his laugh. It hadn't clicked how charming he was. How loving.
He'd left the tunnels below and worked as a mercenary, accepting jobs from the most depraved our society had to offer.
When I came to I felt sick. I found myself laying in bed. I was naked and bandaged. I turned my head to see the farmgirl. She was sitting in a rocking chair and knitting a scarf as a little boy played at her feet.
She had soft, shining hair that fell to her chest. She was short and curvy. Her face was round and cute with big blue eyes.
"Are you feeling alright?"
"Yeah," I said sitting up as I held the blanket over my chest, "Thank you."
"No need to thank me. What happened?"
Again my fingers wandered over my stomach, "I became pregnant with another man's child."
"Your husband hurt you?"
"My fiancée."
"That monster. I'm so sorry."
Monster. The same word would be used for the spawn of a shifter and a flamebringer. They didn't feel like monsters. I felt that beings of love lived inside of me despite what I felt for their father.
What I felt for their father now that I accepted who he truly was. The night I met him I'd lifted him onto my back and carried him to my hunting cabin. I laid him by the fireplace and shifted back. After tending his wounds I held a warm cloth to his forehead and sat there with him. When one eye of dark amber and one pure black was in my sight I took in a breath of relief.
I was bare, his head on my lap and my long hair acting as curtains shutting out the rest of the world.
"Good morning."
He smiled, "It is now."
He looked only at my face.
"How do you feel?"
"Like I'm in paradise."
I rolled my eyes but couldn't hide my flattered giggle, "I'm trying to help you."
"You have."
His voice was low, rumbling, and warm. Nothing existed but him. Nothing else needed to exist.
"What's on your mind?" The farmgirl asked.
I shook my head free of the memories, "Him."
She laid her work aside and picked up her toddler to sit beside me with him on her lap. He crawled off of her to make his way toward me. I greeted the chubby little man with a warm grin. His tiny hands tangled in my hair.
"He's sweet."
"He is," She said, running her hand through his thin hair, "You can stay here. My husband is also a shifter. He taught me to fight. You're safe."
"I don't want to put you in danger."
"I won't be. Please don't worry. You can leave once you've given birth. Little Thomas is half shifter and he only took seven months."
"Half shifters don't exist."
She scoffed, "You're just like my husband. There must be a difference."
"There isn't."
I heard a door shut and she turned instinctively. She gathered her son into her arms and smiled at me.
"That's him. I'll be back with breakfast soon. I'm Sarah, by the way."
"Kara."
She left and I went over the memories in my head again and again. I couldn't believe Adrian was a flamebringer. I knew he would come for me. Even if he didn't I couldn't be sure what my babies were capable of.