With him. Our mate, she purred, playful and insistent.
I smiled, rubbing my chest. She wanted him to see us.
Thaddeus halted in the hallway, dressed only in a long nightshirt—clearly not prepared for the occasion he thought he was attending.
“Why are you—” he began, then stopped short when Madadh pressed into the bond.“Oh.”
A slow grin spread across his face as he stepped toward me.
“You’d best remove your clothes,” he said mildly, waggling his brows like a lecherous old man,“unless you fancy having them shredded.”
I shook my head at him.
“Will it hurt?” I asked, a flicker of nerves stirring—grateful now that Madadh had waited before wanting to be free in her wolf form.
“Only the first time,” he said after a moment, rubbing at his jaw as if considering it carefully.“It gets easier with each transition, until it feels as though it was always meant to be there.”
It was time to be brave.
? ? ?
I stood just inside the back entrance, bare feet on cold tile, shivering as the door creaked open. Winter air spilled in, sharp and bright, raising gooseflesh along my arms.
Thaddeus didn’t look back at me.
He stepped out into the night like he’d been waiting for it—then he leapt.
Not away from the house, but into the air itself, coat flaring, body stretching impossibly mid-arc. I gasped as bones shifted with a sound like deep thunder under skin. His silhouette broke apart and reformed before he ever touched the ground.
He landed softly in the snow.
Wulfric.
Massive. Black. Moonlight slid over his fur as if it belonged there. He shook himself once, then bounded forward, rolling and twirling through the powder with unapologetic delight, chuffing like a creature who had waited far too long to be free.
Madadh surged.
The force of her joy drove me forward so suddenly I barely had time to drop to my hands. My palms slapped against the cold tile as my body betrayed me.
Then it began.
My skin stretched tight, burning and itching as though it were being pulled over something too large to contain. Bones cracked—sharp, brutal sounds that tore from my throat as my spine bowed and reshaped. My jaw locked, teeth grinding as my face lengthened, pressure building until it felt like my skull might split apart.
I screamed—but it broke apart into something raw and animal before it ever left me.
Fur erupted along my arms, dark and coarse, crawling over skin that no longer felt like skin at all. My fingers fused, lengthened—claws scraping against stone as my hands became paws. My chest burned as my lungs expanded, then—
I panted.
Not through my mouth.
Through my nose.
Cold air rushed in, sharp and clean, filling me in a way breath never had before. I stood there, trembling, heart hammering, senses exploding outward until the world felt too big and impossibly vivid.
I sniffed.
Him.
