We made our way downstairs in comfortable silence, passing Dad in the hallway without explanation. He watched us go with those sharp gray eyes, but he didn't try to stop us, didn't offer warnings or advice or any of the things I'd expected from an Alpha whose son was about to expose pack secrets to an outsider.
Instead, he just nodded once, a gesture that felt like approval or permission or maybe just acknowledgment that some choices couldn't be made for other people, no matter how much you wanted to protect them from the consequences.
The forest wasalive with moonlight and shadow, ancient pines reaching toward a sky that looked close enough to touch. I could smell the pack already gathering deeper in the trees, could feel the pull of the moon in my bones like a second heartbeat.
Beside me, Nate moved with the careful quiet of someone who'd spent years learning to document the world without disturbing it, camera bag bouncing against his hip as we followed the deer trails that led toward the heart of Evernight Forest.
“Are you sure about this?” he asked as we reached the edge of the clearing where the pack gathered for full moon runs.
I stopped and turned to face him, studying the way moonlight caught in his hair and made his eyes look almost silver.
“No,” I said honestly. “I'm not sure about anything anymore. But I'm tired of being careful, tired of choosing safety over the possibility that you might understand. That you might stay.”
Nate's breath misted in the cool air as he reached out to touch my cheek, fingers warm against skin that was already starting to buzz with the promise of transformation.
“Then show me,” he said simply. “Show me everything.”
The clearing opened up around us like a cathedral, moonlight streaming through the canopy to illuminate the pack that had already begun to gather. Wolves in various stages of undress moved through the shadows, some already shifted, others still clinging to human form as they prepared for the run that would take us deep into territory that belonged to us in ways that had nothing to do with legal ownership.
I could feel their eyes on us as we entered the sacred space, could smell the mix of curiosity and concern that came with bringing an outsider to witness something that had been kept secret for generations.
But I could also smell acceptance, the gradual recognition that Nate belonged here in ways that went beyond simple human friendship.
At the center of the clearing stood Alaric, already shifted, silver fur catching moonlight like polished steel. His yellow eyes tracked our movement with predatory interest, but he didn't challenge our presence. Didn't question my right to bring a human to witness the most sacred of pack rituals.
Even he understood that some bonds transcended the usual rules.
I began to undress slowly, hyperaware of Nate's presence beside me, of the way his breathing had quickened as the reality of what he was about to witness settled into his bones. The cool air bit at exposed skin, but my body was already running hotter than human normal, wolf fire beginning to build beneath the surface.
“Evan,” Nate said, voice barely above a whisper.
I looked at him one last time before I let the change take me, memorizing the expression on his face, the way he was looking at me like I was something precious and dangerous and absolutely worth whatever risk came with staying.
Then I stopped fighting the pull of the moon and let myself become what I really was.
The shift hit me like a tsunami of sensation, bones cracking and reforming themselves according to blueprints that were older than civilization. Pain and pleasure crashed over me in waves as my human form dissolved and reformed itself into something wild and magnificent and absolutely free.
When I emerged from the cocoon of agony and ecstasy that was transformation, I was no longer bound by human limitations. I was wolf, massive and powerful and radiating the primal authority that made even Alaric drop his eyes in acknowledgment of my dominance.
The pack bowed around me, a semicircle of submission that had nothing to do with fear and everything to do with recognition of what I was becoming. Not just Daniel's son, not just the heir to a legacy I'd inherited by accident of birth.
Their Alpha.
I turned to look at Nate, wolf vision picking up details that human eyes would have missed. The way his hands shook slightly as he gripped his camera. The rapid beat of his heart, audible even over the whisper of wind through pine needles.The scent of awe and fear and something deeper, something that tasted like acceptance when I drew it deep into my lungs.
For a heartbeat, we stared at each other across the impossible gulf between human and wolf, predator and prey, monster and man. Then Nate whispered, so quietly that only supernatural hearing could have picked it up.
“It's you.”
Not “it's still you” or “I can see you in there.” Just simple acceptance of what I was, what I'd always been, even when he hadn't known the words to name it.
Dad stepped out from the shadows at the far edge of the clearing, his massive gray wolf form moving with fluid grace. His eyes met mine across the sacred space, and I felt the weight of his approval like a physical thing. Permission granted. Trust extended.
The pack began to surge forward, flowing into the forest like liquid shadow, but I lingered, torn between the call of the hunt and the human who stood at the edge of our sacred space.
Then Nate did something that stopped my heart completely.
He ran after us.
