Then the darkness took me, and I knew nothing more.
37
THE FOREST AND THE WOLF
NATE
Darkness had weight and texture, pressing against my consciousness like velvet soaked in blood and starlight. I floated in spaces between heartbeats, between breaths, between the moment when everything ended and whatever came after began.
But slowly, sensation crept back into awareness that had been scattered across realms I didn't have names for.
The first thing I noticed was scent. Not the simple human interpretation of smell, but layers upon layers of information that painted reality in dimensions I'd never known existed. Pine resin sharp and clean, mixing with woodsmoke that carried the memory of burning oak. The metallic tang of blood, both fresh and dried, painting stories of violence across surfaces that had witnessed too much.
And underneath it all, something wild and green and alive. The forest itself, breathing through roots that stretched deeper than mountains, pulsing with life that had been flowing through this place since before humans learned to make fire.
My eyes opened, and the world exploded into clarity that made my old human vision seem like looking through gauze. Colors burned with intensity that belonged in dreams, every shadow holding depths that revealed secrets, every movement tracked with precision that belonged to predators born to hunt.
The pack house ceiling stretched above me, wooden beams that still held the scent of the trees they'd once been. But I could see more than wood and nails now. I could see the grain patterns that spoke of decades of growth, the places where insects had burrowed before death claimed the tree, the way firelight danced across surfaces that held memory like museums held artifacts.
I tried to sit up, and that's when I realized everything had changed.
Four legs instead of two. Paws where hands should have been, claws that clicked against floorboards when I shifted my weight. Fur that caught moonlight streaming through windows, silver and gold and deep forest brown that seemed to shift color depending on how the light hit it.
My body was massive, easily as large as Evan in wolf form, but different. The proportions were wrong for a normal wolf, too broad through the chest, too intelligent in the way I held myself. Power hummed through muscles that had been designed for purposes I was only beginning to understand.
Panic clawed at my throat, but the sound that emerged wasn't human. A low growl that vibrated through my chest, alien and terrifying and absolutely mine.
Around the room, the pack stirred. I could hear their heartbeats, each one distinct as fingerprints. Jonah's quick and excited, Alaric's steady but wary, Dad's racing with fear and wonder in equal measure.
Evan's heartbeat was like music, familiar and comforting even when everything else felt foreign. I turned toward thesound, massive head swiveling to find golden eyes that stared at me with mixture of awe and terror.
“Holy shit,” Jonah whispered, voice carrying clearly despite being barely above a breath. “That's actually Nate.”
Murmurs rippled through the room, voices layering over each other in harmonies that my enhanced hearing parsed into individual conversations. Some gasped, some whispered prayers to gods that probably didn't care about supernatural politics. A few bowed their heads instinctively, recognizing something that demanded respect even if they didn't understand what they were seeing.
But all of it faded to background noise compared to the symphony of scents that told stories no human nose could have detected. Fear-sweat and adrenaline, yes, but also curiosity sharp as winter air, and underneath it all, the deep earth smell of magic that had rewritten fundamental rules.
I tried to stand, legs that were too long and too strong carrying weight that felt both foreign and natural. My paws found purchase on floorboards that creaked under pressure they'd never been designed to bear.
The movement sent new waves of sensation through my transformed body. I could feel the forest beyond the walls, roots and branches and leaves that pulsed with life connected to mine through bonds I didn't understand. Every tree within miles was part of some vast network, and I was plugged into the circuit whether I'd asked for it or not.
Daniel watched from the doorway, Alpha authority radiating from him in waves that my wolf instincts wanted to acknowledge. But there was something else there too, calculation mixed with concern that spoke of someone trying to figure out what my transformation meant for pack dynamics.
Gideon stood beside him, face pale as moonlight and twice as haunted. When he spoke, his voice shook with implications that seemed to terrify him more than any rogue ever could.
“No,” he muttered, shaking his head like denial could change reality through sheer force of will. “It shouldn't be possible. Druids and wolves don't mix. The forest would never allow...”
He trailed off, staring at me with eyes that had seen centuries of impossible things but nothing quite like this. “Unless it chose him.”
I paced across the room, testing this new body that responded to thoughts I hadn't known I was thinking. My senses devoured everything, processing information at speeds that would have given my human brain migraines. The musk of pack wolves, each carrying individual signatures that told stories of where they'd been and what they'd eaten. The iron tang of blood that still clung to clothing despite attempts at washing. The faint thrum of roots growing beneath the floorboards, slow and patient and absolutely eternal.
But most overwhelming was the forest itself. I could feel it breathing with me, ancient and endless and alive in ways that transcended simple biology. Every leaf that fell, every creature that moved through shadow, every drop of rain that nourished earth I was connected to it all through bonds that felt stronger than blood.
It was terrifying and intoxicating and absolutely impossible to process through any framework I'd been given for understanding the world.
“Nate?” Evan's voice cut through the sensory overload, gentle and careful and full of love that transcended species. He stepped forward slowly, hands open and visible, moving like he was approaching something that might bolt or attack depending on how the moment unfolded.
His scent was familiar even through my transformed senses, warm and safe and absolutely right. My wolf instincts bristled at first, recognizing another predator, but something deeper than biology remembered who he was and what he meant to me.
