POV: Ash Ryder"Is that a growl? Rhea, tell me you heard that. Please tell me I’m not losing my mind."Ash’s voice was a jagged rasp, barely audible over the whistling wind of the High Pass. He was leaning against a crystalline outcrop, his human fingers numb and blue-tinged, clutching the hilt of his iron sword like a lifeline. His body felt like a foreign country—heavy, slow, and prone to the biting chill of the mountain. But then he heard it again. A low, vibrating thrum that didn't come from the earth, but from the throat of something alive."I hear it, Ash," Rhea whispered, her eyes wide as she scanned the treeline. "But it’s wrong. It doesn’t sound like the pack. It doesn’t sound like home."Suddenly, the shadows at the edge of the clearing erupted. A massive, grey-furred shape slammed into a fallen obsidian log, snapping it like a dry twig. It was a wolf—or it had been once. Now, it was a mountain of matted fur and raw, pulsating muscle, its eyes glowing with a feral, neon-viol
Last Updated : 2026-02-11 Read more