Chapter 1

Cora opened her eyes. A wave of dizziness slammed into her skull, making the world tilt violently. She squeezed her eyes shut again, waiting for the spinning to stop. When she opened them once more, her breath caught in her throat.

Giant ferns, the size of cars, blocked out the sky. Their fronds were a sickly, unnatural green, casting heavy shadows over the damp forest floor. The air was thick, humid, and smelled of wet earth and something else-something rotten and metallic.

This wasn't Yosemite.

Panic, cold and sharp, clawed at her chest. She patted her shorts pocket frantically, her fingers closing around the familiar smooth rectangle of her phone. She yanked it out, her thumbs fumbling to unlock the screen.

No Service.

The two words stared back at her, a digital death sentence. The signal bars were completely empty. She held it up to the canopy, waving it around like a lifeline. Nothing.

A tremor ran through her hands. She wasn't just lost. She was somewhere else entirely.

She forced herself to breathe. Panic wouldn't help. Panic never helped. That was what the self-defense instructor had drilled into them-breathe, assess, act. Three years of Krav Maga classes at the Midtown gym, and the ballet training that had sculpted her body since childhood-none of it had prepared her for this. She was Cora, principal dancer of the New York ballet, and she had been in the middle of rehearsals for Giselle when the world had simply... shattered. One moment, the practice room mirror. The next, this nightmare of giant ferns and rotting air.

A violent rustle from the thick bushes to her left shattered the silence. The ground beneath her vibrated, a deep tremor that felt like a localized earthquake. Heavy footsteps. Thud. Thud. Thud.

Cora froze. Her survival instincts screamed at her to hide. She scrambled backward on her hands and knees, dirt scraping under her nails, until her spine hit the rough bark of a massive tree. She pressed herself against it, holding her breath, and slapped a hand over her mouth to stifle the sound of her ragged breathing.

The bushes parted.

A beast stepped out. It looked like a saber-toothed tiger on steroids. It was the size of a delivery truck. Its fur was a matted, dirty orange, crisscrossed with old scars. Two massive fangs, each as long as Cora's arm, curved down from its upper jaw, glistening with thick, viscous drool.

The tiger beast swung its massive head. Its nostrils flared, inhaling the air. Then, its huge, slitted pupils locked directly onto the tree where Cora was hiding.

A roar erupted from its throat. The sound was a physical force, slamming into Cora's chest like a sledgehammer, vibrating her bones. Leaves shook loose from the canopy above.

Cora's legs turned to jelly. The primal fear of prey in the presence of an apex predator short-circuited her brain. Run. She had to run.

She turned and bolted. Branches whipped at her face and arms, tearing her skin. Her lungs burned immediately, gasping for oxygen in the thick air. Her sneakers slipped on the wet moss.

Behind her, the tiger beast moved. It didn't run; it leaped. It covered ten meters in a single bound. The shadow of the beast fell over her, blotting out the light.

Cora's foot caught on a thick, exposed root. She pitched forward, slamming into the muddy ground hard. Her knee exploded in pain, a hot, wet sensation blooming against the dirt. She tasted blood and copper.

The beast was above her. The stench of rotting meat washed over her. She rolled onto her back, looking up into the gaping maw of the tiger. Its fangs were aimed right for her throat.

This is it.

Cora squeezed her eyes shut and threw her arms up over her face, a useless, instinctive gesture. She waited for the agony of teeth tearing into her flesh.

A silver blur exploded from the trees on her right.

The impact was deafening. It sounded like two cars colliding head-on at highway speed. The force of the hit sent a shockwave of wind and debris over Cora, flattening the ferns around her.

She opened her eyes.

The tiger beast was no longer above her. It was flying through the air, crashing backward. It slammed into three massive trees in a row, snapping them like twigs before crumpling to the ground in a heap of broken wood and fur.

Standing between Cora and the tiger was a wolf.

It was enormous. Bigger than the tiger beast. Its fur was a brilliant, metallic silver that seemed to glow in the dappled forest light. Its muscles bunched and rolled under its pelt as it planted its front paws deep into the soil, lowering its head in a threat display.

A low, rumbling growl vibrated the air. It wasn't just a sound; it was a physical pressure that made Cora's eardrums ache.

The tiger beast, broken and bleeding, struggled to its feet. It roared in defiance and lunged at the silver wolf.

The wolf moved with terrifying speed. It didn't dodge; it met the attack head-on. Its massive jaws opened and clamped down on the tiger's throat with a sickening crunch.

The tiger screamed. It was a high-pitched, agonizing sound that cut off abruptly with a wet, tearing noise. The wolf whipped its head to the side, the tiger's limp body following the motion like a ragdoll. Bones shattered. The tiger's neck was completely severed.

The tiger's huge corpse hit the ground with a heavy thud. Blood pooled rapidly, turning the green moss black.

The silver wolf released the mangled throat. It shook its head, sending drops of crimson flying from its muzzle. Then, slowly, it turned around.

Its ice-blue eyes locked onto Cora.

Cora's heart, which had momentarily stopped, now hammered against her ribs so hard she thought it would break through. She was still sprawled in the mud, her injured knee throbbing. She couldn't move. The sheer predatory presence of this creature pinned her in place.

The wolf began to walk toward her. Its pace was unhurried, elegant. Each paw step was silent despite its size. The pressure in the air increased with every inch it closed between them.

It stopped right in front of her. Its head was level with hers. Cora stared into those icy depths, seeing her own terrified reflection.

The wolf lowered its massive head. Cora flinched, expecting teeth. Instead, a wet, warm nose pressed against her neck. The wolf inhaled deeply, its hot breath fanning across her collarbone.

It sniffed her again, moving from her neck to her hair, then down to her shoulder. It was smelling her. Specifically, it was smelling the faint trace of vanilla body wash she had used that morning.

The wolf froze. The killing intent in its ice-blue eyes flickered, replaced by a sudden, jarring confusion. It tilted its massive head, its ears twitching as it processed the alien scent. It stepped closer, its nose twitching as it took another, deeper breath. The scent was unlike anything it had ever encountered-pure, intoxicating, utterly female, yet completely foreign to this world. In a realm where females were so rare that tribes warred over a single one, where a woman could command a dozen males with a single glance, this creature smelled like a queen. The hesitation morphed into intense curiosity. It sniffed her again, slower this time, tracing the invisible line of the scent in the air. The primal rage vanished completely. It was replaced by something else. Something intense and feverish. Not the predatory hunger of a beast, but the desperate hope of a male who had never dared to dream of being chosen. A possessive gleam that was somehow more terrifying than the violence of a moment ago, because it held the weight of a lifetime of loneliness.

A low sound rumbled in the wolf's chest. It wasn't a growl this time. It was a purr. A deep, vibrating sound of satisfaction.

The wolf moved its head and gently butted its massive skull against her shoulder. The touch was surprisingly tender, like a giant dog asking for attention.

Cora was stunned into immobility. Her brain couldn't process the shift from man-eating monster to affectionate pet. Her body acted on its own.

With a trembling hand, she reached out. Her fingers brushed against the coarse, silver fur on the wolf's neck.

The wolf's eyes half-closed. It leaned into her touch.

Then, without warning, a blinding white light erupted from the wolf's body.

Cora cried out, throwing her arm over her eyes again. The light was searing, turning her vision red even through her closed eyelids. A bizarre sound followed-a wet, grinding noise of bones snapping and reforming, of flesh stretching and reshaping.

The light faded.

Cora lowered her arm, blinking away the spots dancing in her vision.

The silver wolf was gone.

In its place, crouching on the ground where the wolf had been, was a man.

He was naked. Completely, utterly naked. His skin was pale and covered in a sheen of sweat. His hair was long and silver, matching the wolf's fur exactly. His body was a sculpture of muscle, broad shoulders tapering to a narrow waist and powerful thighs.

And he was staring at her.

His eyes were still that same ice-blue, but now they held an expression that made Cora's breath catch. It wasn't the predatory hunger she expected. It was a desperate, aching reverence-the look of a man who had just found something he had never dared to hope existed. He looked at her not as prey, but as a supplicant before a goddess. In this world where females held absolute power over males, where a single woman could choose as many mates as she desired and discard them at will, he was not a conqueror. He was a petitioner. And he was looking at her like she was the only thing in the world that mattered, because in this moment, to him, she was.