Page 54 of Rocky Top

I straightened slowly.

“Hello?” I called, voice wobbling. “Is someone there?”

Nothing.

I reached for the pepper spray in my coat pocket, just in case.

That’s when the breeze changed.

The hairs on my arms stood up. My spine locked.

Another growl echoed, closer now. And this time, I saw them.Eyes. Not human. Gold-flecked. Intelligent.

They blinked, then vanished behind the tree line.

I turned, heart slamming against my ribs. My feet moved before my brain did, crashing through underbrush, slipping on wet leaves, limbs grabbing at me like the forest wanted to keep me.

And then something hit me. Hard.

I landed on my side, gasping, pain flashing through my shoulder.

“Fuck” I wheezed.

It was on me before I could move, a blur of muscle and fur and teeth. Not a wolf. Black and bigger than anything that should’ve existed in Tennessee.

Its breath steamed against my cheek.

And I knew this was it.

This was how I died.

Until the other one showed up.

From the shadows came agrowl. Deep and strong. I turned my head just enough to see another beast launch itself from the dark, a blur of gray fur, fangs bared.

The thing pinning me yelped, knocked sideways by the force of the new attacker. They tumbled together in a clash of snarls and fur and blood, teeth snapping and claws tearing.

I scrambled back, watching in horror and awe as the gray wolf, the same one from that night, I knew it now, fought like something feral.Deadly. But controlled.

A protector.

My protector.

It won. Ran the monster off. Then, right before my eyes, the thing warped out of existence.

One second, fur and fang. The next, bones snapped. Skin shimmered. Limbs twisted.

I gasped, falling back against a tree.

The wolfmorphed, shrinking, cracking, folding in on itself like clay, and standing there, naked, bloodied, chest heaving in the moonlight...

Was Rocky.

My heart stopped.

His light hair was damp clumps. Blood streaked his ribs and hands. And those eyes, still amber, still burning, locked on mine as they settled to blue.

I couldn’t move.

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