Her Mateless Prince

EMMA

The werewolves came on the night of the blood moon. The sky turned red when they tore through town and pulled girls and women from their homes. Chaos broke loose when the first girl was killed. Her name was Hannah and she was my best friend.

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I look out my bedroom window and notice the red tinge to the sky. It looks threatening compared to a sunset. I can see Hannah walking towards our house at the end of the street. Her eyes are cerulean blue and her hair is a hazelnut brown that reaches her lower back. I’ve always been a little bit jealous of Hannah for her straight and manageable hair.

“Mom, can I go outside for a minute? Hannah is here.” I shout to my mother downstairs.

The melodic voice of my mother comes through the stairwell. “Only for a little while, okay Sweetie? I need your help with this cake.”

“Yes, I promise.”

“Is there cake?” Lucas calls from his room and peers his head out the door. His blonde hair is as messy as ever.

“Of course, there is cake, dummy. It’s my birthday.” I sing and ignore my annoying brother as he throws back a remark.

I run down the stairs and towards the front door. We live in a white-painted house on the smallest street in Aldea. It usually is very lively with lots of green plants in the front yards and people talking to each other, but there hangs a cold chill in the air today.

I watch how a man in a black uniform and black leather boots walks into our little street. I know everyone who lives here, but this man is unfamiliar.

He walks up to Hannah and I watch how claws grow from his hand and pierce through her heart. I watch the blood soak her dress and how life disappears from her cerulean blue eyes.

I scream and my mother appears at the door beside me. The man looks our way with a vicious glint in his eyes. More men appear and walk into our little street and surround the man.

My mother pulls me away from the door and urges me to run out the back door and towards the dark forest behind our house. She doesn’t stop to look for my brother or father. She just pulls me away from the chaos.

Like she knows why they’re here and what they’re after.

The houses from the town disappear behind us and are replaced by an endless extent of pine trees. The high pine trees cast shadows over the earth. The ground trembles beneath my feet as the monsters come closer. My mother pulls on my arm, her fingers digging hard into my skin as she urges me to run faster through the woods.

The memory of blood dripping on the sidewalk where the werewolf tore through flesh consumes my mind.

I can’t run faster, my chest heaves and my muscles burn. My legs are weak and beg me to slow down. We run until the wooden cabin comes into view. The hunter’s cabin is old and abandoned. There are holes in the roof and the windows are shattered.

Me and my friends would sneak in here from time to time and tell scary stories at night, but no story was ever as scary as this one.

My chest heaves when we stop running. I can taste the forest in the damp air. We step over pinecones and broken tree branches to the porch.

The wooden door creaks in protest as my mother brings us inside. The floor is covered in dead leaves, blown in through the window.

My legs finally give out and my mother pulls me in a tight hug. The only sound around us is our labored breath. She pulls me back and looks me straight in the eye. My vision is blurry, but I can still see that her sky-blue eyes are hard and cold, something I’ve never seen before.

“We only have little time, so listen closely.”

My hands tremble as the adrenaline starts to settle. “Mom, I’m scared.” The cabin is cold without sunlight and it leaves goosebumps on my skin.

She rubs her hands up and down my bare arms. “I know sweetie, but you have to listen to me, okay?”

I nod and clutch the necklace my mother gave me on my tenth birthday, exactly four years ago. I touch it when I’m nervous or scared. The charm is made of hand-blown glass and is shaped into a waxing moon. It’s see-through and dangles on a silver chain necklace.

My mother covers her hand over mine. “I need you to be very careful with this, okay?”

I nod again.

“Now, stay very still.” My mother says and her eyes turn black.

I instinctively pull away from her, but her grip on me is relentless. Her mouth moves as she starts to mumble a string of words in a language I cannot understand.

“Mom, what’s happening?” A sharp pain ignites in my chest. A scream wants to leave my lips, but my mother covers her hand tightly over my mouth.

The pain pierces through my heart and spreads out to the rest of my body. It reaches the crown of my head and the tips of my fingers. I squeeze my eyes shut as I inwardly beg for her to stop.

After a minute that feels like hours, the pain eventually leaves my body through my chest. When I open my eyes, there is a sad look in her blue eyes.

The tremble beneath us returns and I watch my mother as fear replaces her determination.

Her words are barely a whisper. “They’re close. You have to hide.”

She looks around the room for a moment. Then her gaze settles on the kitchen cabinets. The once-red cabinet doors are barely attached to their hinges.

She guides me inside the dark space. “Listen closely, no matter what happens. Promise me you won’t move and won’t make a sound.”

I want to ask what is going on. I want to ask where Lucas and Dad are, but the ice-cold look in her eyes stops me. “I promise,” I whisper.

She closes the doors tightly shut, forcing the wood in place. I’m crouched down in the dark confined space, but I can still see everything through the gap between the doors.

The door swings open and clatters against the wall. The middle-aged man in black leather boots and a black uniform walks into the cabin. He has three golden stars embroidered on his uniform. His black hair is cropped short. The lines in his face are deep and his eyes are a muddy brown. He walks through the room and looks around as if he's judging the choice of interior.

“What do you want?” My mother asks with her back towards me.

“You know what we want.” His voice is grating and painful to my ears.

His footsteps are heavy as he comes closer to my mom and he towers over her. “Where is she? I know you’re hiding one.”

My mother isn’t as tall but doesn’t back down. “There is nobody left, you killed them all.”

The man chuckles and his eyes turn black. A sinister smile reveals the canines in his mouth and I smother a gasp.

“Not all.”

The words still echo in the room and I can barely see his next move. From his hands grow long sharp claws. Everything seems to happen in slow motion. In less than a breath, the claws tear through my mother's chest. She falls to the ground and her blood seeps into the wooden floor.

My hands tremble as I cover my mouth to keep a scream from escaping. Tears blur my vision and fall down my cheeks. My chest hurts, like I'm torn from the inside.

After a short minute of silence, the sound of heavy boots echoes through the cabin again. He takes slow steps over broken glass and groaning wood.

“Your mother is a cunning woman, but I estimated her to be smarter than this.” The footsteps come closer and I can see the gleam of his black leather boots.

“I could smell you from outside.” He tears the cabinet doors from their hinges. A large hand grips me by the neck and he pulls me in the air. Sharp canines appear when he shows his terrifying teeth.

I break the promise I just made and let out a bloodcurdling scream.