I didn’t make it ten steps before something crashed out of the trees.
It wasn’t a dog. It wasn’t anything normal. Its eyes glowed faint yellow, its body hulking and wrong, moving on four legs but too big, too fast.
I froze. My breath caught like a scream stuck in my throat.
And then Devon was there.
He blurred between me and the thing, faster than anyone should move. His shoulders hunched forward, his hands curling into claws again, and the sound that ripped from his chest wasn’t human—it was a snarl, deep and violent, vibrating through the air.
The creature lunged. Devon met it head-on.
It happened so fast I barely tracked it—teeth flashing, claws striking, Devon shoving the thing back into the dirt with a force that shook the ground. For one terrible second, its jaws snapped inches
