“Don’t touch me,” I snarled, jerking away from Knox with more force than I’d intended.
The twins were curled asleep on the bed beside me, and I pulled them closer protectively, needing the barrier between us. They mumbled sleepily but didn’t wake, trusting even in unconsciousness that Mama would keep them safe.
“You bit me,” I accused, my voice rising despite trying not to wake the kids. “You put your fucking teeth in my neck without permission!”
Knox sat back on his heels beside the bed, those gray eyes full of emotions I didn’t want to see or acknowledge. Regret, pain, longing, and underneath it all, a possessiveness that made my skin prickle with awareness.
“You were dying,” he said softly, as if that explained everything. “The bite saved your life-”
“So you decided to what, mark me like property? Like I belong to you?” My voice climbed higher, fury overriding the lingering weakness in my body. “You don’t get to make those choices for me! You don’t get to decide what happens to my body!”
“I had no choice,” he said, and the raw pain in his voice almost made me falter. Almost. “The poison was hours from your heart. Maybe less.”
“There’s always a choice,” I shot back. “You just picked the one that benefited you. Marked me like some kind of possession sowhat, you could play happy families? Pretend the last five years didn’t happen?”
“You would have died,” his voice cracked on the words, desperation leaking through. “Our children would have been orphans. I had to-”
“Ourchildren?” I cut him off, the words like acid on my tongue. “They’remine. You don’t get to claim them now. Not after everything.”
His face crumpled at that, but I didn’t care. He’d lost any right to claim them when he’d walked out before they were even born. When he’d reduced me to nothing and disappeared without looking back.
“I want to leave. Now.” I struggled to stand, my legs shaky but determination overriding physical weakness. “We’re going home.”
Knox moved between me and the door, not touching but definitely blocking. The audacity of this man.
“You can’t,” he said carefully, hands raised like he was dealing with a wild animal. Which, given the way I wanted to claw his eyes out, wasn’t far off. “The bite - it changed things. You need time to adjust. At least three days. Your senses will be different, your healing faster. And the twins-”
“What about my babies?” My voice went deadly quiet, the kind of quiet that preceded very bad things.
Noah appeared in the doorway, looking exhausted but alert. Great, another werewolf to deal with. Just what I needed.
“They’re half-wolves, Lina,” Noah said gently, like he was delivering news of a death. “They need to learn control. Pine Valley isn’t safe for them anymore.”
“Half...” The word stuck in my throat like broken glass.
I’d known, deep down. All those strange behaviors, the impossible things they could do, the way they’d howled at that documentary. But hearing it confirmed out loud made my legs weak all over again.
“No,” I said firmly, shaking my head. “That’s not... they can’t be...”
“Mama?” Thea stirred, blinking sleepily and reaching for me. “The nice man fixed you! His wolf is happy now.”
The innocent words shattered my denial into a million pieces. My four-year-old daughter was talking about his wolf like it was a normal Tuesday conversation topic.
“How can you... how can you know about his wolf, baby?”
Thea tilted her head, considering the question with that serious expression she got when trying to explain something obvious to confused adults. “We can feel it. It was so sad before, but now it’s doing happy circles.”
“We feel it,” Rowan said, also waking and studying me intently. “Like we feel yours now. It’s small and scared.”
I stared at my son, my brilliant, perceptive son who could apparently sense things that shouldn’t exist. Including, apparently, whatever was now inside me.
“Mine?” The word came out strangled. “I don’t have a...”
But I could feel it, couldn’t I? Some new presence in my mind, curious and frightened and very, very small. Not a separate consciousness exactly, but a new part of me that hadn’t existed before.
“What did you do to us?” I whispered, the horror of it all crashing down. “What did you do?!”
“The bite,” Knox said carefully, still maintaining his position between me and freedom, “it won’t turn you into a wolf. Humans can’t shift. But it will enhance things. Healing, senses, strength. You’ll be able to protect them better.”
