The Mate They Threw Away
The clone lunged.
It moved the way lightning moves, there and everywhere, claws extended, hands already morphed into something sharp and dark that caught the light wrong. The real Asher caught every strike with one hand. Just his left. He barely shifted his weight. Around us, the few surviving servants who’d pressed themselves into corners made the mistake of staying too close when the clone let loose a roar.
I don’t have adequate words for what that sound was. It went through the walls. It went through me. The low-ranking wolves nearby crumpled, hands over their ears, faces twisted in agony. Then they, too, came apart.