He leapt.
His body collided with it mid-roar, teeth finding the soft place beneath its jaw. He bit down hard, feeling the crunch of cartilage and the hot rush of blood. The hybrid’s claws tore at him, once, twice, but he held on, pushing the thing backward, driving it into the rocks.
Its movements began to falter.
Dominic didn’t let up. He pressed forward, all instinct and fury, forcing it down inch by inch. The air was filled with the sound of snarling, of impact, of snow turning red beneath their feet.
He could hear Theodore panting nearby, Julian’s claws tearing into the creature’s arm, but his own focus had tunneled to the rhythm of its heartbeat under his teeth. Fast. Slowing. Fading.
The hybrid spasmed, shuddered, and threw its head back with a sound that wasn’t quite a roar. Something closer to a laugh, raw and broken.
Then it went limp.
Dominic released it and stepped back, chest heaving, fur matted with blood. The air was thick with the stench of blood. Steam rose from the hybrid’s body where it touched the snow, black veins spiderwebbing out from its wounds.
For a moment, none of them moved.
Julian stood to his left, chest heaving, eyes sharp and unreadable. Theodore limped a few feet away, one paw lifted, an ear torn and bleeding.
Dominic’s ribs burned where the claws had struck him. He could feel blood trickling down his flank, hot against the cold. But it didn’t matter. The hybrid wasn’t moving.
The world around them was suddenly too quiet. No wind, no rain, only the echo of their ragged breathing.
He turned his head slowly, scanning the clearing for movement. Nothing. Only snow, broken branches, and blood-streaked rock.
Then, a sound.
Soft. Human.
He froze.
Layla.
She was still there, a few yards away, half-hidden by a fallen tree. She was on her knees, hands pressed to the ground, her face pale under the moonlight. Her knife lay abandoned beside her, its blade glinting faintly.
Her eyes were wide and unfocused, locked on the monster’s body. She looked as though she couldn’t quite believe it was over, that she was expecting it to attack again.
Dominic’s heart lurched.
He took one step toward her, then another, each movement deliberate. The snow crunched beneath his paws.
Theodore circled the corpse, teeth glinting,“Is it dead?”he rasped.
Julian didn’t answer. His wolf form stilled beside the corpse, eyes fixed on it as though waiting for it to rise again.
Dominic lowered his head, sniffed the air. The stench of death was overwhelming, thick and final.
Yes. It was dead.
But the wrongness lingered. He couldfeelit. Hybrids were not natural creatures.
He turned back toward Layla. She hadn’t moved. Her breathing came in short, shallow bursts.
For a heartbeat, he didn’t know what to do. The part of him still wild with adrenaline wanted to close the distance, to nudge her, tofeelthat she was alive, unharmed. But another part, the human part, was afraid of what she’d see in him right now.
Blood. Fangs. Fury.
Monster.
