The moon hung low over Briar Glen, a town that s
melled like pine and secrets.
I wasn’t supposed to end up here. Exile wasn’t a
punishment. It was a death sentence.
But the elders had made their choice.
"Go live among the mortals. Learn humility. Or n
ever come home."
I landed in Briar Glen on a Friday night. The to
wn was buzzing with a football game, red and gol
d banners fluttering under strings of lights.
I didn’t come to play.
I came to survive.
“New here?”
The voice was deep, smooth, and laced with somet
hing sharp. I turned.
A man stood in the shadows of the bleachers. Tal
l. Built like a soldier. Wearing a leather jacke
t and a stare that said don’t test me.
“I don’t bite,” I said.
He smirked. “Good. I do.”
His name was Kade. Former NFL linebacker. Curren
t town ghost.
We were both hiding.
He didn’t know I was a vampire.
I didn’t know he was a werewolf.
Not yet.
The game ended. The crowd spilled into the stree
ts.
I followed instinct, not reason, into a dive bar
tucked behind the old theater.
Kade was already there.
He leaned against the counter, nursing a beer li
ke it owed him money.
“You’re not from here,” he said.
“Neither are you,” I replied.
He lifted his glass. “Touché.”
There was something about him. A pull. A hum in
the air.
Fate.
I didn’t believe in it. Not until now.
He looked at me like he could see through my ski
n, into the cold heart I tried to hide.
I looked at him and saw the war he’d fought, the
pack he’d left behind.
“You’re running,” I said.
He didn’t flinch. “You are too.”
We didn’t talk about it.
Not that night.
Or the next.
But every night after, we met at the bar.
Drank. Talked. Fought. Kissed.
He was fire wrapped in muscle. I was ice carved
into a smile.
Opposites.
Fated mates.
It wasn’t the elders who found me first.
It was hunters.
They came for Kade.
Werewolves and vampires don’t mix. Not in their
world.
They said he was weak. Tainted.
I said they were dead men walking.
Kade stood in front of me, shoulders squared.
“They don’t know what I am,” he said.
“They will,” I said.
We didn’t run.
We fought.
And we won.
The hunters didn’t come back.
But the world found out.
The town turned.
Coaches called for his head. Reporters dug into
his past.
And the elders? They sent a message.
"Come home. Or choose exile forever."
Kade looked at me, eyes burning.
“You don’t owe me anything,” he said.
I grabbed his face in my hands.
“I choose you.”
We left Briar Glen together.
Found a new town. A new life.
One where the moon shines for both of us.
