This chapter contains gore aftermath, vomiting, trauma response, physical assault, misogynistic social control, and references to sexual violence and forced breeding.
…
Odette vomited until there was almost nothing left inside her.
The retching tore through her like claws ripping her insides.
Bitter bile mixed with the metallic tang of the baboon’s blood she’d swallowed during the fight, and chunks of half-digested roots came up in thick strings.
Her body bent over the mud as her throat burned, and even when only bitter water came out, she still could not stop.
Her body shook like a dying prey animal, legs splayed in the mud, feathers matted flat against her skull.
Every heave brought back the wet crunch of stone on bone, the baboon’s eye bursting in a spray of jelly and dark fluid, the way his leg had torn open like overripe fruit when the snare bit deep.
She had survived, but her animal mind didn’t believe it, it kept screaming that the next set of fangs was already behind her.
Odette pressed one hand against her stomach and tried to breathe, but the smell of blood was everywhere.
It was on her skin, under her nails, in her mouth, and in her hair.
She wanted to scrape herself clean, but there was no time for that.
A living female who stayed too long beside fresh blood would become fresh blood too.
She forced herself to crawl back to the dead guard.
The guard’s bone knife was still near his hand, and Odette took it with shaking fingers.
She did not want to touch him, but she still lowered her head once, because he had died protecting his female, and in this world even that devotion was rare enough to be remembered.
Then she cut the snare vine free from the root and wrapped the strongest part around her wrist.
Baboons rarely stayed alone.
If one came, others could follow.
That thought made her move faster.
She grabbed more mud and smeared it over her arms, her neck, and her face until her own skin felt buried.
She rubbed crushed leaves against her hair and pressed blood over the parts where her female scent might still rise through.
It was disgusting, but disgust belonged to females who were already safe.
Odette was not safe.
She had only taken a few steps when she saw movement between the trees.
Three males came out of the dark, all wearing rough hide skirts around their waists, their bare chests marked with blood, mud, and claw wounds.
Odette recognized them from Thorn Hollow, and instead of feeling relief, her whole body went cold.
They had seen too much.
They had seen the dead baboon behind her.
They had seen the knife in her hand.
Females were not supposed to kill.
Females were not supposed to fight.
Females were supposed to stay inside a Thorn Hollow while males bled outside for them, and because Odette had broken that rule with her own hands, she already knew they would not look at her like someone who had survived.
“Stay away from me,” Odette said, her voice shaking badly as she stepped back.
“Do not come near me.”
One of the males bared his teeth, not in a smile, but in anger.
“You proud, stubborn, useless female.
Do you know how many males died tonight while you ran?”
“I did not run for you,” Odette said, but the words barely left her mouth before the first male grabbed her arm.
She twisted and kicked because she still wanted to live, but her strength meant nothing against them.
One male caught her wrists.
Another grabbed her by the back of her neck.
When she tried to bite, the third male shoved her face toward the mud hard enough that pain flashed through her jaw.
“Let go of me!” Odette struggled until her injured knee gave out, but they dragged her anyway, rough and angry, like she was a trapped beast they were taking back before it caused more trouble.
By the time they reached Thorn Hollow, dusk had stained the sky dark red.
The hidden female settlement looked half dead.
The giant roots were split.
The thorn walls were broken in places.
Some of the guarded tunnels had caved in, and blood ran into the mud where males had fallen trying to hold the attackers back.
Females sat in groups, crying or staring with empty eyes.
Children clung to their mothers or older females and whimpered.
Injured males lay against the walls, their hide skirts soaked with blood while other males pressed leaves and mud against their wounds.
When the guards threw Odette onto the ground, every eye turned to her.
She landed hard on her side and tasted blood again, but she did not cry out.
She looked around at the ruin of Thorn Hollow and felt something bitter and ugly rise in her chest.
She had warned them.
She had told the elders the prey paths had changed, the river smell had gone wrong, and the night birds had started leaving too early.
They had laughed, because to them she was only an unmated female with a loud mouth.
Now they were staring at her as if she had crawled out from a dead beast’s stomach.
Odette pushed herself up on one hand and glared at the elders.
The oldest male elder stepped forward, his face tight with anger and fear.
Beside him, a snake beastman lowered his head and tasted the air with his tongue.
The thin forked tip flicked out, then slid back in, and his eyes narrowed with disgust.
Odette made a low, sharp sound at him before she could stop herself.
The snake beastman’s face changed.
“Baboon blood.”
The elders stiffened.
For one moment they looked relieved, because they thought she had only been close to a baboon and had somehow been dragged back before being taken.
Thorn Hollow had already lost too many females that night, and even rebellious Odette was still a female they could not afford to lose.
The elder’s voice grew harsh.
“Did it touch you?
Was your scent exposed?
Did you lead danger back here?”
Odette stared at him, and something inside her turned cold.
But before she could speak again, one of the males who dragged her back stepped forward, his face pale beneath the blood.
“She killed it.”
The whole hollow went still.
The male swallowed hard and pointed toward the forest.
“This unmated female killed the baboon.
We saw it with our own eyes.”
Every elder stared at Odette.
Then Odette saw it, small but real, a flicker of fear flashing through the male’s eyes.