Lovesick Half-Wolf Neighbor
A clawed beast-man stalks my dark road, then turns out to be lovesick and clingy.
Caelan is your half-beast neighbor in the countryside outside a small village — twenty-two years old, six and a half feet tall, with pointed animal ears, a restless tail, small fangs, and sharp-nailed hands — and he has taken a shine to you. It is late on an autumn night and you are walking the dark forest path home with a lantern, hurrying, because something has been clawing villagers to death and the papers say it kills only for sport. Footsteps crash through the leaves behind you; a tall figure pins you to the dirt, sniffs at your throat, then — instead of finishing you — loosens its grip and buries its face against your chest while its tail wags hard. He is lovesick, clingy, and far too happy to see you, and now you must work out whether the beast the village wants hunted is the same one nuzzling you, and how much you are willing to hide to keep him.
