Page 2

Three massive shadows blocked the doorway.Too large for men, too deliberately still for animals.Their eyes caught what little light filtered through the trees… amber, silver, and obsidian, all fixed on me with terrible intelligence.The amber-eyed one stepped forward, paws—no, feet—no, something in between… crossing onto the wooden floor.

Its growl filled the cabin, a sound I felt more than heard.Not anger.Assessment.Curiosity.

The silver-eyed one snarled something that sounded impossibly like words, though my terror-addled brain couldn't decipher them.The black-eyed one remained silent, but it's stare burned into me with unnerving intensity.

I should have screamed.Should have fought.Should have at least died with dignity.Instead, a broken laugh escaped my lips.

"Dwarves," I whispered, the irony of the village tales hitting me as darkness swallowed my consciousness whole."They said you were dwarves."

The last thing I felt was powerful arms lifting me from the floor, cradling me against a chest that burned like a furnace.The last thing I heard was a voice, rough with disuse but unmistakably human, rumbling above me.

"She knows what we are."

CHAPTER2

The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was a pair of glowing amber irises—too high off the ground, too wide, too wrong.My muscles seized.Not dream-terror, but something ancient and instinctual that screamed danger through every nerve ending.The cabin darkness pressed against my skin as I counted them slowly, seven pairs of eyes surrounding the place I'd foolishly thought safe, all gleaming with hunger that felt impossibly human.

Something moved to my left, slow and hulking.The floorboards vibrated with each step.Too massive for any normal forest predator.Too deliberate for a mindless beast.My throat closed, air struggling against the tightness as my vision adjusted to reveal massive shadows shifting against the night.

My body screamed run, but my legs refused to obey.Pain throbbed through my head.The blood that had kept me racing through the forest all night now felt frozen in my veins.I moved to sit up, realizing I was on a soft mattress instead of the rough wooden floor where I'd collapsed.I didn't remember climbing into a bed.Movement caught my attention.

They didn't break down the door.They didn't roar or charge.They just...circled.Watching.Waiting.The silence terrified me more than any growl.

I forced my fingers to move, reaching for the knife strapped to my thigh, the only possession I'd grabbed when fleeing my stepmother's blade.My fingertips brushed the hilt, but a deep, rumbling growl stopped me cold.A warning.Unmistakable.

Another form stalked past the window: shaggy fur, impossibly wide shoulders, claws that scraped against wood as it passed.The sound crawled up my spine and nested at the base of my skull.Primal.Ancient.Hungry.

The cabin creaked, but not from wind.The sound came from weight… steady, deliberate weight pacing across the porch.I curled into myself, heart slamming against my ribs so violently I feared they might crack.Death had found me, after all.Just not the one I'd been running from.Why hadn't they eaten me while I'd been unconscious?That would have been a better way to die.

When the door pushed open, it did so without a touch… hinges sighing in protest against some invisible force.I bit down on my lip until I tasted blood, desperately swallowing a scream.

A bear padded in first.Not a normal bear… this one stood taller than any I'd ever seen, muscles rippling beneath brown fur that absorbed the faint moonlight streaming through the windows.Its eyes gleamed like gold coins in the dark, fixed directly on me with terrifying intelligence.

Behind it came a wolf, its fur so black it devoured the shadows around it.Silver eyes tracked my every twitch.Then a sleek panther, low to the ground and utterly silent, moving like liquid night.

A stag followed, antlers jagged and sharp as blades, scraping the ceiling as it entered.After came a hawk that swooped through the door to land on the rafter above, talons curling into the wood as it tilted its head to examine me.

A fox with glowing green eyes slipped in next, its movements playful despite the tension.And last...a serpent.Long and thick as my thigh, its scales iridescent like spilled oil in moonlight.It slid across the threshold with unnatural grace.

I pressed myself against the headboard, my spine grinding painfully against the wood.My voice remained trapped in my throat, cold sweat sliding down between my shoulder blades.The beasts formed a perfect circle around me… predators surrounding prey.

Yet they didn't attack.They didn't move closer.Were they guarding me?Trapping me?I couldn't tell.My instincts shrieked at me to run, but something held me in place.Curiosity burned through my fear.Or something deeper… some strange pull in my blood I couldn't name.

Time stretched in agonizing silence.The only sounds were my ragged breaths and the occasional shift of weight on the wooden floor.Then, slowly, impossibly, the beasts began to change.

The panther moved first.Its body contorted violently, muscles spasming beneath sleek fur.Bones cracked—loud, sharp sounds that echoed in the small cabin.The creature snarled, pain evident as limbs lengthened, fur receded into olive-toned skin that steamed in the cold air.Where the beast had crouched, a man now knelt, head bowed, chest heaving.

The bear's transformation was even more violent—massive frame twisting as shoulders narrowed and spine straightened.Thick muscle rearranged itself beneath bronze skin.Dark hair remained, but now only on his head and jaw.His huge hands splayed against the floor, fingers curling as the last claws retracted.

The wolf thrashed, its transformation more painful than the others.Bones broke and reformed with sickening cracks.Its muzzle shortened, teeth receding into human gums even as the creature's mouth twisted in agony.Sandy hair replaced black fur, and piercing gray eyes remained fixed on mine even through the change.

The stag curled in on himself, antlers dissolving like mist as his human form emerged.Tall, solemn, with russet hair falling past his shoulders.The hawk's feathers drifted through the air like snow as wings became arms, beak softened to lips, and a handsome man with sharp, unblinking eyes took the stag's place.

The fox grinned even mid-shift, body lengthening, auburn hair replacing rust-colored fur, green eyes maintaining their mischievous glint as if the whole process amused him.

And the serpent...the last to change, didn't make a sound.Its transformation was eerily beautiful, scales melting into pale skin so translucent I could track blue veins beneath.White-blonde hair emerged from nothing, eyes remaining wrong… slitted pupils in icy blue-green irises that examined me without blinking.

They all stood before me… seven men.Beautiful, terrifying, primal.All naked but utterly unbothered by their nudity.I scrambled backward, bouncing off the headboard again as my cheeks blazed with heat that had nothing to do with fear.