A wolf.
Not just a typical wolf, though. This one was big. Huge, even. I felt the strength in my knees begin to give as I shrank back in fear.
The shadow creatures were close. I had been running from them long enough to know when they were near, but this...beast...seemed far deadlier. Something inside of me churned at the sight of him and a sweet fragrance permeated the air. The wolf sprang towards me, and I braced myself for the pain of its fangs. Instead, it avoided me and sunk its teeth into the shrouded figures that lingered just over my shoulder.
A deafening roar pierced the night, mingling with the horrific shrieks of my pursuers, and I pressed myself against the far wall.
Claws slashed and jaws snapped until the creatures faded away as if they had never existed. I looked on as the wolf began to tremble, a cerulean light engulfing its body. Bones cracked and popped, reforming before my eyes.
If my life had been any different, I would have been shocked into feinting at the sight of a wolf becoming a man. But the things I’d seen over the last ten years had numbed me to the unknown or unfamiliar.
Don’t get me wrong—I was terrified—but I remained coherent and upright. And I couldn’t take my eyes away from the transformation happening before me.
The sleek black fur disintegrated, revealing smooth sun-kissed skin that stretched taut over sculpted muscle. I watched the expansion and contraction of his torso as he breathed raggedly.
Now, there was no wolf. Only a man.
A very nude, very muscular, very attractive man.
Long, silken strands of ebony locks clung to his rain-slick skin. He turned to face me and I felt as though the air had been punched out of my lungs. The weight of his amber gaze kept me anchored in the midst of the storm that raged around us.
He spoke to me in a language I didn’t recognize, confusion evident in his expression. He tried a second time, but I just shook my head, hoping that ‘no’ was the same in every language.
“You do not speak the tongue of your people?” he growled in English.
I ignored his question, too consumed by what I’d just witnessed, “You’re . . . you were a wolf.”
He nodded, his brows drawn together in confusion.
“Like, a real wolf.” I repeated.
“A Shifter, yes. You’ve . . . you’ve never seen one of us before?” His voice was both cautious and uncertain, and for some reason, that alarmed me even more.
“You’re naked.”
The words flew from my lips before I could stop them and an unexpected grin raised the side of his handsome face.
“Is that a question? Because I think the answer’s obvious.”
“No.” I said, trying to keep my eyes focused on his face instead of everything going on below. “I mean—forget it.”
A sharp wind blew through the alley, sending a chill up my spine and blowing my hair into my face. A haze of hair obscured my view and I quickly grabbed at the loose tendrils, removing them from my lashes. The beast before me didn’t seem like the kind of man you turned your back on—and lived.
I glanced up again toward his face, only to see that in those few seconds, his entire posture had changed. He was stiff, back rigid and nostrils flaring. Heat radiated from his eyes and his pupils were dilated beneath the patches of flickering light.
My breath hitched in my throat and my heart thundered wildly. Everything about the look on his face screamed RUN, but I didn’t.
Instead, my stomach fluttered in anticipation and a warmth spread through every inch of my flesh, down to the deepest parts of me.
It took me a moment to fully register this feeling for what it actually was: desire.
I’d probably hit my head at some point because it was the only explanation for my inappropriate reaction. Especially considering that the last time I even felt a glimmer of this was before the shadows had found me, ten years ago.
And it wasn’t just because he was, well, hot and naked. If a woman had needs, even a woman who was running for her life, she could still have them met quite easily.
No. This was on an entirely different level—one that would likely only lead to trouble.
Whoever this man-beast was, I couldn’t risk sticking around to find out. I had barely taken a step back, when faster than I could blink, he was right in front of me.
* * *
Chapter Two
Elosel
The fair-haired beauty that stood before me pulled her bottom lip between her teeth, causing the flesh to plump.
My heartbeat thrummed wildly in my chest as her small hand pressed against my bare chest to keep me at bay. I shivered at her touch.
Her scent was unique, a heady mixture of pheromones I could not place. Our breaths floated between us like fog upon a placid lake.
“Who are you?” she whispered, husky notes coloring her voice.
It had been a long time since I came upon a fae that did not know my face.
She looked fae and even smelled fae, but there was something about the icy hues of blue speckled in her otherwise emerald eyes that spoke of something much more complex.
Whoever—no, whatever—this creature was...she seemed lost. “My name is Elosel. I am Alpha and King of the Blueblood pack. You are in my territory.”
Her brow furrowed as she took a step away from me.
“Your territory?”
I craned my neck down to take a closer look at her. A pink flush appeared on her cheeks, but she did not back down.
“You have no idea what you are, do you? No idea that you just stumbled into the middle of a war between beings like me and those like you.”
“I don’t know
