Epilogue
The morning air wascrisp and sharp, carrying the scent of dew and pine through the forest.Hunter stretched his arms above his head, his whole body vibrating with restless energy the run he and Lennox had just completed did absolutely nothing to assuage.Something had been humming under his skin since dawn, a low thrumming that made his teeth ache and his blood race.
“Feel that?”Lennox asked beside him, his brother’s face pale and wide-eyed.
“Yeah,” Hunter muttered.“Feels like I’m about to ...explode.”
A beat later, they did.
The shift tore through him, ripping and glorious.His body convulsed, skin shredding into fur, bones cracking and reforming until he landed on all fours with a grunt.A massive paw dug into the loam, claws biting deep.Hunter blinked, the world suddenly sharper, scents flooding in like a tidal wave.His breath came out a rumble, a sound so deep it shook the trees.
Beside him, Lennox bellowed.Hunter turned his massive head and froze.Where his brother once stood, there was now a bear.A massive, shaggy-furred bear.
Hunter snorted—a sound that came out as a wheezing roar.Lennox blinked at him, then looked down at his own hulking frame and promptly rolled onto his back in the dirt, legs kicking as he made the strangest, booming chuffing noise.
“Holy shit,”Hunter thought.“We’re bears.”
Lennox rolled back up, his shoulders shaking with ursine laughter.Hunter lumbered over and shoved him with one paw, sending him crashing into a tree.The impact rattled branches, but Lennox only growled and charged him.They collided, two titans of muscle and fur, until both finally collapsed in a heap, panting, the earth beneath them churned to mud.
They shifted back in a rush of heat and bone, lying naked and gasping in the dirt.Hunter stared at the sky, then at his equally stunned brother.“We’re fucking bears.”
Lennox wheezed a laugh, his chest heaving.“That explains a lot, actually.”
Hunter barked out a laugh and covered his face with his hands.“How the hell did we not know?”
“Physics?Genetics?Bad luck?A curse?”Lennox shrugged.“Pick one of the above.”
“Yeah, I’ll go with curse.”Hunter’s laughter died, replaced with a pang.“So why now?Why today?”
The air shimmered, turning silver.They sat up as a woman appeared between the trees—glowing, robed in white, her hair streaming like moonlight.Her eyes were calm and knowing as she looked between them.
“The curse is broken,” she said, her voice like bells and thunder.“Your forms were locked away until this day.But now you are free.Free to fight, to protect, to love.”
Hunter swallowed hard.“Love?”
Her smile deepened.“You have a mate.”
Lennox glanced at Hunter.“We?As in both of us?”
“Yes,” the Goddess said simply, her voice wrapping around them like silk.“One mate, shared between you.”
Hunter’s heart stuttered.He tried to sound casual, but his voice cracked.“Who?”
“You already know,” she replied, her body beginning to fade into the morning light.
Hunter looked at Lennox.They both said it at once.“Brielle.”
The name hung heavy in the air, undeniable, inevitable.Hunter’s gut clenched with both terror and fierce relief.He had always felt it—that pull toward her bruised smile, that impossible sense of recognition.
“She’s been hurt and, unfortunately, will be again” the Goddess said, her voice growing faint.“Her strength lies locked inside her.You must help her release it.You must protect her, convince her to take a chance on you both.Only then will she be whole.”
Hunter clenched his fists, his jaw set.“We’ll do it.We’ll protect her.No matter what it takes.”
Lennox nodded fiercely.“We don’t know how, but we’ll figure it out.”
The Goddess faded completely, leaving only the shimmer of moonlight in the clearing.
The brothers sat together in silence for a moment before Hunter huffed a disbelieving laugh.“Well, fuck.We’re bears.And Brielle’s ours.”
