Those words, simple as they were, tugged at something deep and long-buried in me. My thoughts drifted back to a pale and gleaming future that had been laid out since birth, one I’d quietly defied when Bronc stormed into my world. I still couldn’t believe the forces that had brought me here. How I went from hiding bruises and swallowing down desperation to claiming my place in this fierce new life.
“When the time comes,” Bronc said, his voice a low rumble like distant thunder, “you need to relax as much as you can. It’s vital that you don’t fight it. Talk to your wolf. Welcome her.” His hands lifted to reinforce his words, laying down the foundations of this alien ritual. “She’ll help you through.”
I’d never seen him like this. Intensity poured from him.
“What if it doesn’t work?” The words slipped out, bare and raw and unguarded. “What if I can’t do this?”
He looked up sharply, brows drawing together. “Juliet.”
I ached at the urgency in his voice. “You can’t be sure.”
His gaze softened but didn’t waver. A promise shot through with steel. “I know my mate.”
“Mate.” I whispered it, still in awe that this was real, that he would be so sure.
I ran my fingers along the edge of the table, grounding myself in the mundane and familiar. It should have been easier by now to take him at his word, to let it settle in the hollow places, but doubt was still my most faithful companion.
“When you fight the shift, it hurts like hell.” His mouth pulled tight with the memory of pain. “You’ve got to let go, baby.”
I felt his words crash through me, relentless. Let go. I’d fought against everything, my nature most of all. But this time, for the first time, I wanted to surrender.
His hand moved across the table, finding mine. “I’ll be with you,” he said, a quiet assurance. “Every second. I’m not letting you face this alone. I’ll lend you every ounce of strength I have.”
My breath caught, heart twisting in my chest. He’d been saying the same kinds of things since I stepped off that bus. But the promise felt new every time, shattering the pieces of me that still believed I was unworthy. My eyes stayed fixed on our joined hands as if to memorize this moment and its impossible truth.
“I know you will,” I said softly, swallowing against the thick emotions rising in my throat.
He held my gaze, the determination there a lifeline as the weight of what was to come pressed down. “When the moon rises to its highest peak, your bones will shift, stretching and reshaping. It’s a lot to go through, even for someone with more wolf blood.”
There it was again, the unspoken doubt of what I truly was. Even Bronc couldn’t be sure.
“I’m tougher than I look.”
“Always said you were.” The hint of humor in his eyes quickly turned to seriousness again. “I won’t shift until you do. Then we’ll run together. Just like in your dreams.”
I could feel my heart thumping, a feral beat keeping time with my racing thoughts. Every detail he laid out came with the potential to change everything, to either fulfill or shatter the life we were building.
Pearl’s form came into focus at the periphery of my vision, and she approached with the kind of authority that suggested she knew what was best, just like her son.
“Don’t you fret,” she said, her warm smile fixing on me as if I were one of her own, and maybe I was. “It’s gonna be a beautifulthing, darlin’.”
My nod was half grateful, and I glanced at Bronc who wore a patient look that said he agreed with her but wouldn’t push too hard.
“Thank you.” My voice barely rose above a whisper as I tucked loose strands of hair behind my ears. The comforting weight of Bronc’s hand stayed on mine.
Pearl refilled our coffee, her presence as steadying as the caffeine she poured, before she made her way back to the counter where she settled an old timer’s bill and added some local flair to his drink by topping it off with a slug of whiskey.
The conversation at the tables around us barely registered as background noise, with the urgency of Bronc’s instructions cutting through everything else like static. I tuned back into the quiet power of his voice, trying to commit every word to memory.
“I must be insane,” I said, shaking my head in wonder, “to be so excited about something that sounds so awful.”
Bronc’s grin almost softened his features, if a man like him could ever be that. “Not like you’ve ever done things the easy way.”
The way he looked at me, with unwavering faith, was almost too much to bear. It filled me to the breaking point, where fear couldn’t find a foothold because there wasn’t room for anything but him.
I watched as he closed his notepad with a decisive thud, and the last of my doubts scattered like shadows. How did I get here? How did a sheltered, mousy girl from the east coast land in Dairyville, Texas, at the center of this man’s universe and on the brink of becoming something more than anyone ever thought I could be?
“I’m going to shift,” I said, letting the certainty bloom between us.
