Chapter 1 DOG FIGHT

Ezra's POV

I hated my life and everything about it.

The rain had finally stopped, leaving everything damp and smelling like earth and simultaneously, pollution. My shoes— cheap sneakers from the thrift held together with super glue and a prayer— squelched through puddles as I stepped in them due to the darkness. My backpack, stuffed with art supplies and textbooks responsible for the hunger strike I was on right now, felt like it weighed a thousand pounds.

But on and on, I walked.

I was so tired I couldn't think straight. I hadn't slept more than four hours in the last three days. Between classes, work, and trying to finish my portfolio for my senior exhibition next week, I was running on caffeine and fear of failure.

I must be getting close, I thought. I didn't recognize the path but I had been walking for a while now.

I heard the snarling first. Low, vicious, coming from the trees to my left. My first thought was dog fighting, which had to be strays because the park closed at sunset and besides, who would let their their dog fight in the middle of the night?

The universe clearly decided I needed more problems because I knew that I'd go see what it was almost immediately.

I couldn't just leave them to kill themselves over food, probably, and what would not be more than a measly morsel. I'd just scare them bad enough to run off, and be on thier way.

Wishing I had something to give them to eat, I veered off the path toward the sound, pulling the straps of my bag tighter over my shoulders. The trees were thick here, old growth that the city had preserved, and the darkness was even worse.

After about a minute, I glanced back, worried. I had gone really off the path, and any further I may lose my way. But I could still hear them, and so I pressed forward.

Then I saw them.

Not two scraggly dogs, with ribs poking out from skin, no. It was three men, big guys, wearing dark clothes that blended into the darkness. They had guns— actual fucking guns— pointed at something I couldn't see yet.

I stopped at the sight, partially hidden behind a tree. Where were the dogs?

"Come on out, wolf," one of them said. "We know you're here. We've tracked you all here way from downtown and we're not stopping now."

What the hell? Were they hunting a person?

That was when I saw it.

A massive black shape moved in the shadows. At first I thought it was a dog, one of the ones I was looking for. But a really big dog, maybe a Great Dane or something, too robust to be a stray.

Then it stepped into the moonlight and my brain just stopped working.

They weren't chasing Wolf, a person. They were chasing a wolf.

Except it was huge, easily the size of a small horse, with fur so black it seemed to absorb light, and eyes that glowed amber in the darkness.

"There you are," the man with the gun said, smiling. "You hid well, we almost thought you didn't have it in you.”

The wolf's lips pulled back, revealing teeth that were way too long to be natural. It snarled, and the sound made every hair on my body stand up. What the fuck was this?

"Take him down," the leader ordered.

They fired.

The wolf moved so fast I barely saw it. One second it was ten feet away, the next it was on the first man, jaws locked around his throat. Blood sprayed in an arc that looked black in the moonlight. The man's scream cut off with a wet gurgle.

The other two fired wildly. I ducked as bullets hit trees and kicked up dirt opposite where I was, but the wolf was already moving. It took down the second man with a vicious swipe of claws that tore his chest open.

The third man backed up, terror written across his face. "Wait! We can—"

The wolf pounced. The man's head hit a tree too close to me with a crack that made me want to throw up. His body crumpled, and the wolf tore into him with savage efficiency.

I couldn't move nor do anything but stand there watching this nightmare unfold.

It stepped back, looking around at its handiwork with what couldn't have been a scoff. Unconsciously, I backed away and the world's head turned to look at me.

Our eyes met. It felt as if I was suspended it time, staring down at the muzzle of this murderous animal. But there, beneath the predator, I saw something in those amber depths that wasn't animal. Something intelligent… something human.

Then the wolf started changing.

I didn't believe in gods, the supernatural, magic, any of it. I was a man of science, even though I was one with art in my soul. I needed the data, the proof, the facts… and there was no way to scientifically explain what I was seeing.

The wolf's body convulsed. Fur retracted into skin. Bones cracked, poking underneath elastic skin and reformed with sounds that made my stomach heave. The massive body shrank, reshaped, became something else.

Became human.

A naked human man stood where the wolf had been.

What? I wanted to fucking pass out.

The sight of him kept my eyes wide open. I felt like if I blinked, the world as I knew it would implode around me.

The man, formally thing, was gorgeous. Tall, probably around six-three or four, with the kind of body that came from serious gym time, cut with harsh ridges. Dark hair, sharp cheekbones, and those same amber eyes that still glowed slightly in the darkness.

He was also covered in blood and completely naked, which my brain tried very hard not to process.

"You saw," he said, his voice was deep, rough and accusing.

Fuck me.