Mated to the Apex Three
"Row Four gate failure! The shadow-hound is loose!"
My head snapped toward the noise.
Out of the dark, dusty mouth of the eastern tunnel burst a Razor-Tusk Shadow-Hound.
It wasn't a full Alpha war-beast, but a wild, mid-tier predator captured from the jagged crags of the northern wastes. The creature was the size of an iron forge-anvil, its skin covered in sleek, midnight-black scales instead of fur, with twin ivory tusks curving from its lower jaw. Its yellow eyes were wild, bloodshot, and frantic, driven into a rabid frenzy by the suffocating smell of silver blood, white smoke, and the roaring noise of ten thousand screaming wolves.