Chapter 1 The Alpha in the Shadows

The city streets were quiet, almost too quiet, for someone like me, someone who had learned to notice danger in the smallest movements. My heels clicked against the cobblestones, echoing in the narrow alleyway as I pulled my coat tighter around me. The night was cold, but there was something else in the air an electricity, a tension I couldn't name.

And then I saw him.

He was leaning against the brick wall at the corner, tall, impossibly broad, and still. Shadows clung to him like a cloak, but even in the dim light of the streetlamp, I could see the sharp line of his jaw, the intensity in his dark eyes. My heart stuttered, a pulse too fast to ignore, I froze.

He didn't move at first. He just watched. The kind of watching that feels like it sees through everything you're hiding-the kind that makes your skin prickle and your breath catch.

"Who's there?" I asked, my voice steadier than I felt.

He stepped forward, slow, deliberate. Every motion radiated control, power, and danger. I wanted to look away, but I couldn't. My body refused.

"You shouldn't be here," he said, low and smooth, the kind of voice that felt like velvet over steel.

"I... I live nearby," I managed, my fingers curling around my coat lapels.

He tilted his head, observing me like I was a puzzle he intended to solve. "I think you've noticed me," he said, almost amused.

I swallowed hard. "Maybe."

For a moment, the world narrowed to just us. The alley, the streetlamp, the cold air-they all disappeared. His presence was magnetic, impossible to ignore. And beneath it, I sensed something darker, something untamed hiding just beneath the surface, A low growl rolled in my chest no, not mine. His.

I froze again, terror and fascination colliding. There was something in him that didn't belong to the normal world. The city felt too small for the aura of danger he carried, and yet, here he was, watching me as if he'd been waiting for me all along. "I should go," I whispered, backing away.

"Not yet," he said, and for the first time, a corner of a smirk curved across his lips. "The night isn't done with you, Not yet. "The way he said it sent a shiver down my spine. Not the shiver of cold, but something hotter, something that hinted at danger and desire in equal measure.

I wanted to run. And at the same time... I wanted to stay, that was the moment I realized that whoever or whatever he was, my life was about to change forever.

The shadow in the alley moved closer, and even as my instincts screamed to flee, my heart betrayed me. There was no turning back now.

Not with him watching. Not with him waiting. Not with the dark, unspoken promise in his eyes that whispered, I'm yours if you dare.

He disappeared into the shadows, I felt goosebumps but I was desperate to know who or what he really is.