“No. No. No. No!” Horror and regret contorted Natalia’s face. “I’m sorry. I take it back!”
With her desperate cry, the growing blaze suddenly began to withdraw, and I witnessed something that shouldn’t be possible.
Rushing flames abandoned the tree trunks, retracing the path they had just climbed in their need for destruction. They jumped off the grass, reuniting with the original fire that crashed against the trees and reforming into a sphere.
Words failed me as I watched.
Natalia had called her power back to her without even knowing it.
“Did she just?—?”
“Yes, she did…”André answered Dante’s question, incredulous.
As fast as it had left her, the orb shot back to its source, seeping into her chest as though sucked back by an invisible vacuum.
Natalia’s body soared backward from the force.
Fear tightened in my chest when I saw the barely perceptible flickering of her wings. I lept toward her before the others couldreact, transforming into a man in mid-air just as her wings failed her.
“You are okay. I got you…” My arms wrapped around Natalia’s back and waist a split second after her flaming feathers disappeared, saving her from the fall.
Landing softly on the pads of my feet, I sat her on the ground but didn’t let go.
Ragged breaths left her when she glanced up at me, though not really seeing me. There was too much happening inside her right now for her to focus.
“Are you hurt?” André flashed to our side while shadows danced to our right.
For a moment, she looked into my eyes, trying to comprehend.
Blinking out of the shock, Natalia’s hand lifted to her chest, and she rubbed it, telling us the reentry of her power had affected her.
I reached for the sweater she wore, my nail turning into the obsidian claw, but it clashed against the fabric, magic sputtering at my attempt.
“Dissolvere,” Dante immediately ordered, and his spell vanished, letting me slice the turtleneck open from neck to chest.
A purplish bruise was forming on her chest from the impact, but a glow instantly appeared, and tiny flames like the ones that created her bond tattoo erased the mark, healing her.
Natalia’s fire was not only theEternal Blazeor her venom. It would always find a way to protect her too, as it had done when her wings lifted her off the clearing and out of the perceived danger—my Beast.
With a soft touch, Dante’s magic rushed over her sweater, fixing it.
“You are okay,” I reassured, and she quickly nodded, sitting up.
“I’m fine… Did I just?—?”
“Recall your fire back to you? I believe you did.”
With my answer, her gaze went to the cluster of trees that should otherwise be scorched half to death.
“They are healing!” she gasped, sending a smile to my lips.
Bark grew anew along their once charred trunks, the black soot disappearing and leaving fresh, tan wooden hues beneath while the layers reformed. Long leaves sprouted from the lower branches, unfurling and extending into beautiful green foliage that matched the blades of grass extending from the earth.
“This is no ordinary forest,” I explained. “It is our origin, where the Moon Goddess made herself a woman and created her first Wolf Shifter. Her daughter, the Moon Princess.”
Love filled my being while my gaze roamed the place that had seen every generation in my family—the Moon Princess’s direct line—grow strong to become the rulers they were meant to be, to protect our race and the human world.
“This is where our self-healing powers as shifters come from… theOrigin Forest. Our true home.”
