Blood And Asphalt

ARIA'S POV 

“Please don’t cancel, please don’t cancel,” I mutter as I jog down Ravencrest’s cracked sidewalk with a sad-looking takeout bag swinging from my hand.

“If this person cancels, that’s my transport money gone. My destiny? Finished.”

I check the order again. 

NAME: Blackfang 

LOCATION: Auto shop district

DELIVERY TYPE: Noodles 

Of course. Nothing good ever comes out of that place except broken headlights and guys who think revving at 2 a.m. is a personality trait. And isn't it a little odd for the feared Blackfang bikers to be ordering noodles at this time of the night, it's pretty sassy for a bunch of biker kings.

But I keep moving, the street is quiet and too quiet at that. The type of quiet that makes you think God muted the world.

I stop in front of the shop listed on the order.

Lights off. Door locked.

I blink.

“Don’t annoy me,” I whisper to the universe.

I knock. No answer.

I knock harder. “Hello? I have your overpriced noodles.”

Still nothing.

I sigh dramatically and lean back. “Great. Fantastic. Beautiful. I love wasting my life on jobs that don’t pay me enough—”

A loud crash cuts into my rant.

I turn.

It’s coming from the alley behind the shop.

“Nope,” I whisper. “Nope, not my business.”

Another crash.

My feet, being the irresponsible idiots they are, start moving toward the sound anyway.

“Aria,” I hiss to myself, “You don’t have insurance. Don’t do this.”

But I’m already halfway down the alley.

The shouting hits first.

“Take him down!”

“Don’t let him shift—!”

My steps stop.

Shift?

Before I can rethink any of my life choices, I peek around the corner.

And everything goes to hell.

There’s a group of guys….five, maybe six, surrounding one man. Or… something. They’re all huge, all leather with tattoos, like biker energy turned violent. The ones attacking have this strange, hungry look in their eyes.

The man in the middle?

Tall. Broad shoulders. Dark hair. And his back turned to me.

But the energy coming off him? It’s wrong and felt heavy. Like static in the air.

One of the attackers rushes him with a blade.

The man lifts his head slightly.

His voice is low. “You should’ve stayed in your territory.”

Then everything explodes.

His bones crack, and it's loud and beastly. His shoulders split wider. His spine arches. His hands lengthen into claws. Fur grows across his skin like it was always waiting underneath.

I clamp my hand over my mouth.

“What the actual—”

He fully shifts.

Not like a costume or a dog. Or anything remotely sane.

A monster. A massive, terrifying wolf….on two legs, and jaws locked in a snarl that makes my organs consider relocating.

He’s enormous, dark, and absolutely lethal.

The attackers panic instantly. One doesn’t even get the chance to run before the wolf; Damon, I later learn is the one who ordered the food, grabs him and slams him into the concrete like he’s nothing but laundry.

The others scream and scatter.

Too late.

He moves too fast, with sharp looking claws. They fall one by one; groaning, bleeding, and definitely regretting their entire bloodline.

I should run.

Any normal girl would run. But I've seen too many unnatural events to be normal. More like developed an immunity to abnormality. After all Ravencrest had always been a city of supernatural happenings, but this…this was peak.

I whisper, “Wow.”

His head snaps toward me.

Oh no.

His glowing eyes lock directly on mine.

Double oh no.

We just… stare at each other.

I can’t even breathe. Well metaphorically.

Then he steps toward me; huge, monstrous, and shifting back mid-walk. His fur retracts. His bones snap back and his muscles twist. In seconds he’s a man again; still huge, still terrifying, but now very shirtless and very glaring.

He looks furious.

“What,” he growls, “Are you doing here?”

I lift the takeout bag weakly. “Uhmm….delivering noodles?”

His expression does this thing…like his anger glitches for a second. Then his voice drops really low, like it hits the air differently. “Look at me.”

My whole body shivers.

That voice isn’t normal. It’s commanding.

Like hypnotic, trying to sink inside my mind.

I look him dead in the face. “No.”

His eyes widen.

He steps closer. “Aria Vale.”

“How…how do you know my name?” My voice jumps embarrassingly.

“It’s on your badge.”

Oh. Right. The badge. Wow. I immediately regret asking.

He takes another step, invading my personal space like personal space owes him money.

“Listen carefully.” His tone goes colder, deeper, and a voodoo like feeling threaded into every syllable. “Forget everything you just saw.”

I blink.

He waits.

Nothing happens.

“…Did you hear me?” he asks.

“Yup.”

“Then forget it.”

“No?”

He stares at me like I just reprogrammed his brain with HTML code.

“Why didn’t that work?” he mutters.

I shrug. “Maybe I’m stubborn.”

“That wasn’t stubborn.” His voice returns to normal. “Humans can’t resist alpha command.”

“Well,” I say, “Congratulations, I just did.”

For a moment he looks almost thrown. Damon Black…yes, the Damon Black, leader of the most feared biker gang, everyone is scared of, actually looks confused.

He steps even closer, crowding my space. “Try again,” he murmurs.

“Try what again?” I ask.

“Forget.”

Wave of energy.

Pressure in the air. It felt like gravity tilted for a split second.

And then—

Nothing.

I blink up at him. “…Are you done?”

His jaw clenches. “What the hell?”

“You tell me.”

He stares harder. Like he’s checking my soul for cracked wires.

“This shouldn’t be possible,” he mutters.

“Okay, but hear me out,” I whisper. “Maybe your mojo thing is broken—”

“It’s not broken.” His voice is practically a growl.

“Then maybe I’m special.”

He gives me a look. “Or you’re a problem I don’t need.”

“Well, I didn’t ask to see you turn into a furry death machine!”

“That’s not what I—” He stops, pinches the bridge of his nose. “This night is unbelievable.”

“You’re telling me!”

Suddenly footsteps echo from the far end of the alley.

Damon stiffens instantly. “Get behind me.”

“No.”

“Aria.”

“I don’t know you!”

“You will if you die in the next five seconds.”

Fair point.

I slip behind him just as two remaining attackers drag themselves up, snarling with bloodshot eyes.

They see me.

Their lips pull back.

Damon’s voice drops like thunder. “She’s not yours.”

“She saw everything,” one hisses. “We’ll take her to the Bloodmoon Alpha.”

“No,” Damon snaps. “You won’t.”

They rush him.

He moves before I even realize it. A blur. A crunch. A brutal hit that sends one of them flying across the alley.

The other lunges directly toward me.

I scream.

Damon whips around, grabs the attacker mid-air, and slams him so hard the wall cracks.

The man groans, with barely any consciousness left.

Damon leans down, with a voice adapted from the murder in a horror movie. “If you touch her again, I will tear out your spine and beat your alpha with it.”

The guy whimpers.

Okay, he’s scary. Very scary.

The attackers scramble away, limping, and terrified.

I’m breathing hard. Damon is too, but he still stands like he’s made of stone. Then he turns toward me slowly.

He takes a step. Then another.

I back up until my shoulders hit the wall. He stops right in front of me. Close enough that I can see the tiny cut on his cheek.

“Say your name,” he orders quietly.

I swallow. “Aria Vale.”

He stares at me like the name means something he can’t figure out.

Then he leans in, voice dropping into a low, deadly whisper.

“What the hell are you?”

My heart jams against my ribs.

But I’m me. And I can’t shut up to save my life.

So I reply, “Bruh, I should be asking you that.”

He grabs my arm firmly, and just as he was about to answer back at me. His head snapped toward the other end of the alley.

I followed his gaze.

A shadow unfurled like smoke. Then came the voice:

“Aria…”

I froze.

My stomach bottomed out.

“Who—who said that?” I whispered.

The creature stepped into faint light; tall, humanoid, but distorted. Its eyes glowed dull red like dying coals.

It tilted its head.

“Aria Vale…”

I took a step back instinctively. “How do you know my name?”

The creature growled softly. “We’ve been looking for you.”

“Oh yeah, that makes me feel GREAT—”

Damon moved in front of me so fast I didn’t even see him do it.

“You’re not taking her,” he snarled.

The creature hissed. “She doesn’t belong with you, Alpha.”

The word Alpha hung in the air like a gunshot.

I whispered, “Alpha? Like… wolf pack alpha?”

Damon didn’t answer. He shifted his stance, with tensed muscles. Behind him, the creature laughed—a chilling, half-broken sound.

“You can’t protect her forever. Her blood will call us again.”

And just like that, it slipped back into the shadows and vanished.

I exhaled shakily. “Okay. Okay, nope. I’m calling the cops. I’m calling the…someone…anyone! A priest.”

Damon turned to me slowly.

“We need to leave. Now.”

“Oh, NOW we need to leave? After the demon creature said my government name and ruined my night?”

He ignored that.

“Follow me.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“Stranger danger.”

He grabbed my chin again, but this time with a shock of surprise in his eyes.

“You really don’t feel it, do you?”

“Feel what—your bad attitude?”

“Aria.” He lowered his voice. “You should’ve collapsed the moment I spoke. No human resists an alpha command.”

“Well,” I said, breathless, “Maybe I’m not human.”

He froze. And spoke 

“No. You’re not.”

Before I could react, the alley behind us rustled, and Damon’s head whipped toward the sound.

“Stay behind me.”

“Damon—”

“Run,” he hissed.

“But—”

“RUN.”

I sprinted.

The creature leapt out of the shadows at the same time Damon shifted again, this time fully and violently.

And I…I didn’t stop running.