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The knot of dread that was lodged in her throat said he would.

Alex’s heart was beating like it wanted to leap out of her rib cage by the time she reached Jenna’s property. She skidded into an abrupt halt and killed the engine. Luna jumped off with her and the pair of them started running for the cabin’s front porch.

“Jenna!” she called. “Jenna, it’s me!”

Almost to the steps, Alex heard Zach’s snowmachine grind to a halt behind her. “Don’t take another step, Alex.”

Oh, God.

“Jenna!” she cried. “Are you there?”

There was no answer. No movement of any kind came from inside the cabin.

Behind her, the soft click of the pistol’s hammer.

“Goddamn you, Alex.” Zach’s voice sounded wooden, utterly devoid of emotion. “Why are you making me do this?”

“Jenna,” she called again, quieter now, realizing the futility of it.

The cabin was silent. Jenna either would not, or could not, hear her. What if her earlier dread for Jenna’s wellbeing was accurate? Alex hardly dared imagine it.

Nor would she even have the chance, because Zach was apparently out of his mind and Alex was likely about to die here and now.

Then, from within the stillness ahead of her, Alex heard the faintest sound—a small moan, barely audible even as close as she was to the door. Alex’s heart gave a hopeful stutter.

“Jenna?” She braved the smallest step forward, one foot on the bottom step of the porch. “If you can hear me, please open—”

The gunshot rang out like a cannon blast behind her. Alex felt the heated whisper of the bullet as it sang past her head and lodged into the wooden doorjamb not even three feet in front of her.

Oh, Jesus. Oh, holy Christ.

Zach had shot at her.

Alex’s body froze with shock and a fear so deep and cold it left her shaking all over. She exhaled a shuddering breath and slowly pivoted her head, not about to let Zach shoot her in the back. If he was going to do it, then, by God, he was going to do it looking her in the eyes.

But no sooner had she turned than there was an explosion of movement behind her. Something huge blasted out of Jenna’s cabin in a blur of speed, splintering the door right off its hinges. Zach screamed. His gun went off again, the bullet ripping audibly through the thick, snow-laden canopy of pine boughs overhead.

Alex grabbed Luna and hit the ground, her face buried in the warm fur of the wolf dog’s neck. She didn’t know what just happened. For an instant, her mind struggled to process the guttural snarl and the sickening, wet sounds that followed.

Then she knew what it had to be.

Slowly she raised her head. The scream that crawled up to her lips died as her gaze locked onto a deadly creature that eclipsed anything she’d ever seen before.

The Ancient.

Through the steady fall of snowflakes in the darkness, his amber gaze burned laser bright, searingly savage. He was naked, hairless, covered from head to toe in dermaglyphs so dense and intertwining they all but concealed his nudity. His enormous fangs dripped with blood—Zach’s blood, taken from the gaping hole that had once been his throat.

A terrible thought slammed into her: Had this monster also gotten to Jenna?

Alex closed her eyes, whispering a prayer for her friend and hoping desperately for some kind of miracle that might have spared her from the brutal savagery that had just befallen Zach.

Luna growled in Alex’s arms and the creature cocked its head at an exaggerated angle, staring at the animal. He started to prowl away from Zach’s lifeless body, a low growl ticking in the back of his alien throat.

Alex’s lungs compressed, squeezing out what little air was in them. She thought for certain the Ancient was about to kill her, too, but its questioning stare lingered for an agonizing few seconds. Time during which the distant buzz of more snowmachines carried on the wind.

Alex sent a nervous glance toward the sound.

When she looked back again, the Ancient was gone, nothing but the sway of a few low-hanging branches at the edge of the forest to tell which direction he’d fled.

The