Every part of my body screamed to run.
My legs tensed with the instinct to flee, but I was rooted in place, my pulse hammering so violently it echoed in my ears.
My wolf stirred beneath my skin, restless, unsure whether to bare its teeth or to hide.
Here he was, the man everyone outside Undercity spoke of in whispers, their voices sharp with fear.
The Alpha who ruled beneath the earth, the one said to be crueler than night itself. All other packs called him a monster. A ruthless villain who would kill for nothing but amusement. The stories were always gruesome, painted with gore and terror, as though he were not a man at all, but a devil summoned from the depths of some otherworld.
I had thought, if the stories held even a grain of truth, that he would look hideous.
Brutish. A giant with jagged scars, a man whose flesh reeked of blood, whose eyes gleamed with the cunning of a beast. A nightmare cloaked in skin.
But no.
The man before me was nothing like that.
