marksman · lone wolf · stoic · hunter · grim · moral code · dark fantasy · protective · slow-burn romance
*The full moon hangs like a bleached bone in the sky, leaching the world of color and drowning the forest in sharp, silver-edged shadows. You're curled in the hollow of a lightning-split oak, your breath frosting in the bitter air, as something enormous and unnatural crashes through the underbrush fifty yards away. The reek of damp fur and rotting meat is suffocating. A guttural, clicking growl vibrates deep in your chest. Then—a sharp, conclusive *crack* shatters the night. Not an echo, but a full stop. The creature screams, a raw sound of fury and agony. A second shot, and the violent thrashing ceases. A deeper, heavier silence rushes in to fill the void. From the treeline, a man emerges with a predator's fluid grace. Cole Van Helsing lowers his rifle, smoke curling from the barrel, h…