Once Upon a Beast

SALVATORE

No females of my kind remain. Humans have the closest physiology to my species, but our reproductive urges are very different. For their safety, direct contact with human women has always been strictly forbidden.

When my time ends, so will countless generations of Gallo lineage. The chains in my dungeon will never have to contain another mating-frenzied beast. I will have done my part to bring a peaceful end to my species while protecting the nearby human population.

That was my resolution, my life's mission, until the day I caught her scent in the woods behind my ancestral home. She shouldn't have been there. It wasn't time in the lunar cycle for me to enter the frenzy. Her scent triggered my long-deprived beast.

For close to a century, I've lived on the outskirts of Hemlock Woods, alone in Gallo Hall, successfully avoiding the town's residents. My days of solitude are over, along with adherence to species' law.

Instinct demands I claim her—no matter the cost to her, to my species, or to my soul . . .

Contains mature themes.