Eugene braced for the inevitable—the crushing weight, the fangs tearing into him—but when the impact came, it wasn't what he expected.
His arm shot up, and instead of crumpling beneath the force of the attack, his hand caught the creature by its shoulder. For a moment, Eugene froze in disbelief. The thing—it felt light. He was holding it back with one arm, a feat that should've been impossible.
"What the fuck..." The words barely escaped his lips before he noticed something else.
A sharp pain flared through his forearm—no, not pain exactly, but heat. His skin began to shift before his eyes, dark hair sprouting along the exposed flesh as his fingers lengthened unnaturally. The nails at their tips thickened and grew jagged, curving into crude claws.