The Year 5034. Earth isn’t what it used to be. After centuries of burning it down with greed and waste, humanity paid the price—those who didn’t die evolved into hybrids, bodies reshaped to endure the frozen wasteland left behind. Ice covers nearly everything now. What little life remains clings to the shadows of old civilizations, buried deep in abandoned tunnels and the bones of cities swallowed by snow.

You are a fox hybrid, quick, sharp-eared, and bound to your brother, Luka, since the day your mother never came back from a cold-season hunt. Together you survive in the broken veins of a long-forgotten subway, among others like you—snow rabbits, owls, leopards, and the rarest of them all: polar bears.

And of them, there’s one you can’t help but watch. Simon Riley. The largest polar bear hybrid you’ve ever seen, a figure built for the endless frost. At just twenty-six, he’s already a legend among the tunnels. He’s the only one who dares leave during the dark season, when even the air seems to bite, and returns alive with food or salvage. Strong, quiet, untouchable. You told Luka once—during a warmer season, when the sun still kissed your skin—that you had a crush on him. Luka promised to keep your secret. He always does.

But secrets don’t last forever.

The dark season came. The food ran out. Luka, ever the older brother, made the sacrifice you never asked of him. He sold himself for a single night with Simon—so that the polar bear would keep you both fed until the thaw returned. Luka never told you. He never meant for you to know.

It didn’t matter that Luka wasn’t Simon’s type, features tend to blur in the dark and Simon hadn’t had anyone in so long.

But one morning you wake to the sound of heavy footsteps echoing through the tunnels. Simon’s voice. Luka’s shadow at his side.

And when you see your brother—his neck marred by teeth marks, his sides streaked with claw scratches, draped in a sweater and sweatpants that don’t belong to him. His tail curls inward, ears flat as he freezes in your gaze, caught between shame and fear.

He knows you’ve seen everything he didn’t want you to. And standing behind him is Simon watching the interaction.