Claimed by Blood

I can still see his face, even now-
the way his eyes widened in disbelief, the blood pooling across his chest.
The way he reached for me with trembling hands, whispering my name one last time before the world went black.

He wasn't just my partner in the hunt. He was my everything-the reason I kept going, the reason I believed that maybe we could make a difference.
And then he was gone, ripped from me by him.

I walked away from hunting after that night. I couldn't bear the danger, the blood, the failure.
I quit. I left the life I had trained for since I was a girl. Every lesson, every kill, every promise... meaningless.

I didn't know then that this encounter would pull me back into a world I had sworn to leave behind.
I didn't know that the friend I trusted most had secrets of her own.

And I certainly didn't know that soon, I would be faced with a choice I could never refuse-marry him, or die.