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The night split with screams.
Feet pounded against the muddy earth as villagers tore through the forest, clutching children, dragging the wounded, tripping over roots and stones in their desperation to escape. Behind them came the thunder of paws—heavy, merciless, inhuman. The air itself trembled with the growls of the beasts that hunted them.
At the very front, two sisters ran side by side. One clutched her swollen belly with both arms, her face pale with exhaustion, while the other tugged her along, refusing to let her fall.
"Run! Don't stop, no matter what!" the younger sister shouted, her voice cracking with fear and fury.
The trees shook as shadows leapt between them—wolves, enormous and twisted, their spines ridged with cruel spikes, their claws slicing into bark like knives through silk. Their eyes glowed like molten fire, hungry, merciless.
And then, among them, he appeared.
The King.
He did not run on four legs like the others. He strode on two feet, towering above his pack, his body armored with dark hide that shimmered like steel, his eyes burning crimson. His claws dripped with blood, his teeth gleamed in the moonlight. He did not look at the villagers as prey. No—his gaze fixed only on one.
The pregnant Woman.
Her breath came in sobs as she stumbled, nearly falling. The King's lips curled, exposing fangs that could tear through bone as if it were paper. His voice slithered across the clearing, deep and mocking.
"You think you can run from me?"
The younger sister turned, placing herself between the monster and her sister. Her hands shook, but her eyes burned as fiercely as the torch she held.
"You'll never have her!" she spat, though her voice quivered with terror.
The King laughed. The sound was low, guttural, echoing like thunder. The wolves around him snarled, snapping their jaws in anticipation, the night closing in like a tightening noose.
The pregnant Woman screamed as the ground shook beneath their feet. A howl ripped through the darkness, louder, sharper, crueler than all the others. It was the sound of doom itself.
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