Chapter 2

The coils tightened around Catherine's ribs. Her lungs burned, screaming for oxygen that couldn't enter. A hot tear slipped from the corner of her eye, cutting a clean path through the dirt and blood on her cheek.

This was it. She was going to be crushed into paste and swallowed whole.

She squeezed her eyes shut, her hands falling limply to her sides. She waited for the final, bone-snapping pressure.

It never came.

The heavy, suffocating weight remained, but the constriction stopped. The snake was holding her firmly, locking her in place, but it wasn't crushing her.

A cold, smooth scale brushed against her bare forearm. The movement wasn't violent. It was slow. Hesitant. Almost like a question.

"Do not be afraid."

The voice came from directly above her. It was male. It was incredibly deep, raspy, and resonated with a magnetic vibration that sent a shiver down her spine.

And it was in perfect English.

Catherine gasped, her eyes flying open. She jerked her head up, fully expecting to see a man standing over her.

There was no man. There was only the massive, terrifying head of the black snake.

The golden, slitted eyes were locked onto hers. The cold, predatory emptiness she expected to see wasn't there. Instead, the eyes held a complex, heavy emotion she couldn't decipher.

Slowly, the thick coils wrapped around her waist began to loosen. The snake pulled back.

Catherine scrambled backward until her spine hit the tree root, her chest heaving.

Right in front of her, the snake's massive black body began to emit a blinding, silver light. Catherine threw her hands over her face, squinting through her fingers.

The sound was horrifying. It was the wet, heavy sound of bones breaking, shifting, and reknitting together at lightning speed. The giant shadow shrank within the light.

When the silver glow faded, the snake was gone.

A man knelt on one knee in the dirt in front of her.

He was huge. His shoulders were impossibly broad, his chest sculpted with thick, corded muscle. He was completely naked, but the shadows of the forest clung to him. His hair was pitch black, falling in messy waves around a face that looked like it had been carved from marble. His jaw was sharp, his cheekbones high.

But it was his eyes that made Catherine's breath catch. They were the exact same golden, slitted eyes of the snake.

Catherine's brain refused to process the information. Her lips trembled. "You... you were the snake?"

The man gave a single, stiff nod.

His golden eyes dropped from her eyes to her cheek. He stared at the bleeding cut the flying rock had left. His jaw instantly clenched so hard a muscle ticked in his cheek. A dark, violent storm brewed in his eyes.

He reached out. His fingers were long, his knuckles scarred. He moved his hand toward her face, aiming for the cut.

But halfway there, his hand froze in the air. His fingers twitched. He looked at his own hand as if he was terrified his touch would shatter her into a million pieces.

Catherine saw the violence in his eyes a second before. Her survival instinct flared. She flinched hard, pulling her shoulders up and crossing her arms defensively over her chest.

The man saw her flinch.

He immediately snatched his hand back. He shifted his weight, taking a deliberate half-step backward to give her space.

"My name is Amon Peterson," he said. He kept his voice low, forcing the rasp out of it, trying to sound as harmless as a man his size possibly could. "This is The Shifter World. You encountered a magical beast. It is very dangerous here."

Catherine stared at him. The Shifter World.

The Oracle's mechanical voice echoed in her memory. Host bound. She wasn't on Earth anymore. She had fallen through a stage and landed in a world where giant snakes turned into gorgeous, terrifying men.

She looked at Amon. He was keeping his distance. He had just killed a fire-breathing dinosaur with one hit, but right now, he was looking at her like she was the most fragile, precious thing in existence.

The icy grip of panic around her heart began to thaw. The sheer absurdity of the situation forced her brain to adapt.

Amon watched her chest rise and fall. He saw the terror slowly leaving her eyes. He leaned forward slightly, his voice tight. "Are you alone? Where is your tribe?"

Catherine swallowed hard. Her throat felt like sandpaper. She shook her head. "I don't have a tribe. I don't even know where I am."

A flash of intense, predatory joy ignited in Amon's golden eyes. He blinked, instantly burying the emotion deep down, but Catherine saw it.

He lowered himself fully onto one knee again, bringing himself closer to her eye level. He looked at her with absolute gravity.

"The forest is crawling with high-level magical beasts," Amon said, his voice a low rumble. "A fragile female like you will not survive the night. Come back to my tribe with me. I will protect you."

Catherine looked at him. She looked at his massive, scarred chest. She remembered the sickening crunch of the dinosaur's bones.

She bit her lower lip, her hands still trembling slightly. "Do you... do you promise you won't eat me?"

Amon froze.

For a second, he looked genuinely confused. Then, the corner of his mouth twitched upward into the faintest ghost of a smile. The heat in his eyes flared, burning away the coldness of his snake traits.

"I swear to The Primal God," Amon said, his voice thick with a heavy, solemn vow. "I will never harm a single hair on your head."

The intensity in his eyes made Catherine's stomach do a strange flip. It wasn't fear. It was something else. She knew she had absolutely no other choice. If she stayed here, she would die.

She gave a small, jerky nod.

Amon didn't waste a second. He stood up. He moved with terrifying grace, closing the distance between them. He bent down and slid one thick arm under her knees, the other around her back.

He lifted her off the muddy ground as easily as if she weighed nothing.

Catherine gasped, her hands instinctively grabbing his broad shoulders. His bare skin was burning hot. It didn't feel like a cold-blooded reptile at all. The heat radiating from his chest seeped through her dirty clothes, grounding her.

Amon held her tight against his chest. A second later, the blinding silver light erupted again.

Catherine squeezed her eyes shut. When she opened them, she was no longer in a man's arms. She was sitting high off the ground, straddling the massive, thick neck of the black snake.

The snake turned its head, its golden eye checking on her to make sure she was secure.

Then, it shot forward. The giant black snake moved like a shadow, carrying her deep into the unknown darkness of the forest.