Nightfalls mate

naline still hums through my veins, a fierce echo of last night's nightmare in the alley. My jacket is shre

an abandoned warehouse. My boots squeak on rusted metal steps as I slip inside, blade drawn. Flickering fluorescents overhead sputter in

y knife in my hand, thumb tracing the bevel as I search for signs: fur caught on splintered wood, paw prints

od-thicker, funkier. Wolf sweat. My pulse tightens. This is fresh. Whoever-or whatever-shed t

ette emerges: the lone wolf I've been chasing for nights, fur matted, ribs showing beneath r

oice rough. "I'm not here to kill you... unless you force me." My fingers flex around th

scles ripple beneath fur as it counterattacks, fangs snapping an inch from my wrist. I twist

fury. I sidestep, drive with both heels into its flank. It stumbles but doesn't break. I s

ind legs, claws extended. I press a momentary prayer to what

a dark coat slicing through the di

ard, calm as a mountain. His amber eyes gleam, and I remember the ra

ling sigh from the wolf, and its claws jettison. The beast buckles. He twists its arm, pivoting on his heel, and hu

n, fist colliding with the creature's muzzle. A flash of impact sends fur flying. The wolf shrieks, staggering b

e-time stalling in the wreckage of fur and blood. His expression is blank, the faintest quirk of curiosity in hi

through holes in the roof, plinking onto fur. I test the wolf's throat-no pulse. These

a breath I hadn't realized

le light, hands tucked into his coat pockets. His coat is but

he says, voice low. He pause

ion of a second. Pain radiates in my side, b

hings alone." He pauses. "They're feeding on something-or someone-out t

littered with overturned dumpsters and scattered trash. The cit

ng?" I ask, voice ti

shing a single golden hair caught on a shard. He brings it close to his nose,

. Fear and fascination blur together. I tuck the hair

together." His voice

ad. Teaming up with him is a risk I shouldn't take. But the scen

teadying. "Teamwork."

he nods once and turns toward the exit. I follow,

t asphalt echoes as a car tears past. We move toward

knot in my thr

, we find out who-or what-sparked tonight's hunt.

y heartbeat pulls me deeper into a world I can't escape-and toward a wolf i