Chosen

Introduction

This is a small introduction (did the title give it away?) to set the story, to give you a glimpse into the world I'm tossing at you. You can skip it if you really, REALLY want to but I guarantee you'll be confused.

Aside from that, feel free to feedback. Triple F's. It's much appreciated, even the negative stuff. 

Ta!

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Three years ago, the world went upside down.

Suddenly, we weren't alone anymore. And I'm not talking about aliens. I'm talking vampires.

Yup. They emerged from the shadows in the form of various press releases. It was all very civilized and modern. This new, beautiful, deadly species was determined to integrate within humanity. I remembered the day it had happened - me and my best friend had been playing an old board game with tequila when my mom had called and told me to switch on the news.

For the first four months or so, everything was great. Well, not exactly. It really wasn't as bad as it could have been. There were riots, and modernized witch trials and deer hunters suddenly picked up a new hobby - but for the most part, things were looking up. Laws were about to come into place announcing vampires as human beings. There were new work laws, tax laws etc to cater for the living dead and chemical companies were attempting to create blood substitutes.. It was, honestly, pretty exciting. History in the making.

But then things changed. The number of vamp attacks on humans rose dramatically from one week to the next. News reports of humans being captured and forced into slavery were an every-day thing. And suddenly I was afraid to step out my own apartment.

And then werewolves came out the closet. Now that was a shock. There were no press conferences for these people - there were videos of them attacking the vampires, saving the humans and one or two growling into a microphone and staring directly at the camera. They managed to push back the threat of the vampires, killing them and standing up for humanity in a way that humans couldn't, even if it wasn't pretty.

But their rescue came at a price. Even though werewolves as a race were stronger, there was also less of them due to the rarity of a female werewolf. They wouldn't be able to keep up the fight without going extinct themselves. So the we made a deal. If the wolves would continue fighting, train humans how to fight vampires and continue to guard them, then humans would sacrifice women to be their 'mates.'

I couldn't believe it when I'd read it on a newspaper. I'd called my parents, checked the news, and still found it hard to believe. I mean, that kind of thing just . . . didn't happen. I'd found it ironic that I was freaking out about this and not the appearance of two new, previously mythical, species and the war that was happening all around us. But the possibility of me or someone I knew being taken and forced to marry a . . . freaking werewolf . . . that pushed me over the edge.

Every healthy, single woman between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five were forced to sign a contract that meant, at any time, they could be chosen and dragged off to marry one of the werewolves.

Yeah. Long story short, I stocked up on tequila.