I allow myself to look up at him again, to accept the weight of his stare and the power behind it. He shreds me open with one look. I can’t breathe, can’t blink, can barely think. The instinct to trust him, to leave my life in his hands, sends me over the edge and this time I go willingly.
But before my thoughts can completely fizzle out, Iris pipes again.
“Leave her be for tonight,” she says, pretending as though she cares about my wellbeing and not her ulterior motives. “We can try again tomorrow.”
Without looking away from me, Cade’s voice sharpens, colder now, but he’s not speaking to me. “Leave.”
Iris sputters. “Excuse me? Absolutely not. She needs?—”
“Now.” His tone is a snarl that shakes the air.
Liz and Elias don’t hesitate. I peek over at them as they grab Iris by the arms and drag her away, ignoring her hissing protests until her voice finally fades into the manor’s walls. Archie follows after them, his tiny legs managing to keep up just fine.
Within seconds, it’s just us. Cade, me, the moon, and the pressure building under my skin like a storm.
He lowers his forehead to mine, his voice dropping into something rough and intimate. “One more time, Rowan. With me. You can do this. I sense your wolf. She’s right there, and you’re not alone.”
I close my eyes, breathing him in. His strength, his patience, his unyielding certainty that I can, in fact, do this.
This time, when I draw on her presence, my wolf doesn’t grow smaller. She surges forward with a roar that feels like it tears the world in two, light and shadow colliding within me as bone and sinew twist into something new, something vast.
The ground quakes beneath me, like even the earth isbracing for what’s about to happen. Then it hits—white-hot fire racing through my veins, setting every nerve ablaze. My bones groan under the pressure of something ancient and primal, until the first crack splinters through my chest. I gasp, the sound strangled and ripped out of me, as my ribs stretch and warp, reshaping into a cage for something not quite human anymore.
Fur bursts across my skin in a tidal wave of alabaster, shot through with pieces of dark silver, glinting as if the moon herself is painting me with her light. Each strand feels like fire threading its way out of my flesh, prickling and burning, until my body is no longer my own. My muscles tear, reform, and then knot themselves so tight that instead of being stitched together, I feel like I’m being ripped apart in the next breath.
I drop to my knees, palms digging into the earth as claws split through my fingers, nails curling into wicked points. The soil bites back, crumbling under my grip. My jaw shatters next, teeth elongating, reshaping into fangs that ache with a hunger unlike I’ve never known.
My senses fracture, then sharpen, agonizingly so. Every star above is a blade of light that cuts, every rustle in the trees a thunderclap against my ears. The world tilts, alive in ways I never imagined, drowning me in scents—wet earth, pine sap, Cade’s smoke and storm wrapping around me, steadying me when I should be lost.
The pain crests again, violent and merciless. I scream—or maybe I howl—my voice breaking as my spine arches, lengthens, every vertebra snapping into place with brutal precision. My skin can’t contain me anymore.I’m raw power, tearing myself apart just to become whole.
Heat devours me from the inside out, a wildfire ripping through my veins with no mercy, no pause. It’s not the kind of warmth that comforts. It’s the kind that incinerates, blistering my skin and boiling my blood until I swear my bones themselves are smoldering and I’m seconds from becoming nothing more than ash.
My lungs seize and I’m certain death is about to claim me, but then I suck in air. Each ragged breath is a balm, fierce and precious, stitching me back together in ways I didn’t know I could be. I latch onto the hope that this is almost over with a ferocity I didn’t know I contained until only silence remains.
A breathtaking stillness that envelopes me in a peace so pure I wonder if I’ve died and gone to heaven.
I lift my head, and as I focus on the forest ahead, a cathedral of sound and scent assaults me. Every leaf, inch of bark, and even the glowing fireflies become etched into me. A memory I won’t soon forget.
My paws press into the dirt, steady and sure, like they’ve always belonged there. The fire that once threatened to burn me alive cools into something wild, something fierce, somethingmine. In those seconds, there isn’t a doubt in my mind that I’m no longer just Rowan.
I am a wolf.
Finally, a voice—feminine, strong, and threaded through with pride—echoes inside me, and the relief is so vast I nearly collapse.
She’s here.I’m not broken.
When I lift my head, Cade steps into view. His presence is as commanding as ever, but there’s more now. Something reverent in the way he looks at me. And the beast inside me reacts instantly. She salivates at the sight of him, but I can’t tell if the hunger clawing through me is mine or hers.
Ours, she answers clearly.
He drops to one knee, eyes burning with a rawness that pulls at me like a tether straight from my chest to his. It isn’t just attraction. This is deeper, older, unknown yet familiar.
Oh, no.
My wolf starts to pant and, as she takes her first step forward, all I can think is—please, for the love of our dignity, don’t hump him.
Chapter 14
