~HOLLY~
The door handle barely moves before Damien’s hand drops from it.
His head lifts slowly. Too slowly.
His entire body goes rigid, every muscle locking like stone beneath skin. The storm is quiet now….wrongly quiet, and I can feel it in my bones that whatever howled back at him is close. Very close.
“Holly,” he says without looking at me, voice tight with warning, “stay in the car. No matter what you hear.”
My heart slams.
“Damien, what is out there?” I whisper.
He doesn’t answer.
The trees to our left suddenly explode with movement.
Snow showers into the air as something massive crashes through the undergrowth.
I see claws first. Then glowing eyes.
Then a body so large it doesn’t look real—thick fur matted with ice, shoulders humped unnaturally high, mouth stretched open t
