I’ve never been one for fairy tales. They’re just sugar-coated lies people tell themselves to get through the day. Happy endings aren’t real, and life is messy and unfair. That’s why I moved here, to this tiny, middle-of-nowhere town surrounded by endless woods. I didn’t need happy endings—I needed quiet.The townsfolk tried to warn me, though. They told me not to wander into the forest, especially not at night. “You’ll hear the howls,” they said. “You’ll see the shadows.” I dismissed it as the usual small-town nonsense. Superstition and ghost stories.But tonight, I heard it.The howl stopped me dead in my tracks. It wasn’t some distant sound carried on the wind—it was close. Too close. Low and mournful, it vibrated in my chest, making the hair on my arms stand on end.My pulse quickened, and I turned to leave, but before I could take a step, someone stepped into my path.I froze.He was tall—taller than anyone I’d ever seen—with a broad frame that seemed to soak up the moonlight. His eyes, glowing an unnatural amber, locked onto mine, pinning me in place. His chest rose and fell in deep, steady breaths, and his presence felt… wrong. Too wild. Too dangerous.“Lost, little lamb?” His voice was deep, rough, and far too calm.I bristled, crossing my arms over my chest to hide the trembling in my hands. “I’m fine. I was just leaving.”He smirked, a sharp, almost predatory expression that made my stomach twist. “Not yet, you’re not.”I should have felt afraid. Any normal person would have bolted or screamed, but I couldn’t. There was something about him—something magnetic and raw that rooted me to the spot.“What do you want?” I asked, hating how unsteady my voice sounded.His lip curled into something between a smirk and a snarl. He stepped closer, and I caught his scent—musky, earthy, and entirely too intoxicating. My heart raced as he leaned in slightly, his gaze never leaving mine.“You already know,” he murmured, his voice low and rough like a growl.And that’s when it hit me. The whispers I’d ignored, the stories I’d dismissed, all came flooding back. The howls in the night. The shadows in the trees. The warnings.This wasn’t a fairy tale. And this man—this beast—was no prince.