If you hadn’t…
This time I cut my inner bitch off.We’re not doing thisnow, remember?
I feel her mood shift, begrudging but intrigued, like she’s testing me. Good. She wants to see me take charge? Then I’ll give her something to watch.
“Do you sense what you are yet?” Cade asks, and my stomach knots because…no. I haven’t the slightest clue what he’s talking about.
I wait for the wolf-girl commentary, but she stays quiet. And somehow, that silence is worse than her sass.
I want to talk to Cade, to ask what I’m supposed to do next, but my words don’t echo out loud in this form. Just empty air and the sound of my own breathing.
Oh, no.
If I can’t talk to him, how am I going to ask how to go back into…me?
You ask me.
Great. I’m left to trust the being who doesn’t seem to really like me for reasons that aren’t even my fault. I’m going to be a wolf forever.
You’re right, she says and defeat washes over me before she continues.About before. You didn’t know, but you also don’t know how long I’ve waited for this moment. I’ve been trapped for twenty-nine years, and for most of that, I didn’t understand why.
There’s a sadness in her voice that guts me.I’m sorry. If I’d known…
Thank you.
Before I can figure out what else to say, Cade’s voice cuts in, low and rough. “Do you want to run with me?”
The question snatches the breath from my lungs. Do I? My wolf’s answer is immediate—pure excitement that surges through my veins like lightning. And honestly, Ican’t deny it. Sprinting through the forest sounds like freedom and release.
Even though the shift nearly shattered me, there’s a pulse thrumming inside this body that’s dangerously addictive. Like I could get lost in it and never claw my way back to human. All the heavy questions, the betrayals, the prophecy—they fade until it’s just the three of us.
Four of us, she corrects.Cade has his wolf, too.
She nips at his hand, an action to me that seems to come out of nowhere, and I’m certain he’s going to be furious, but then, a smile graces his face that leaves me breathless.
Oh, that’s dangerous.
No,that’sours.
“Then let’s go,” he says. While it’s an answer to his previous question, it also feels like a command that makes my fur bristle and not in a good way.
That’s because he’s not our alpha, Wolf says.Nobody is.
I’ve read about the packs, about how there are six of them, each with their own distinctions, but I haven’t gotten to the hierarchy of what it means to be a part of one yet. Something I should probably do soon.
So, does that mean when he tells me what to do, that’s going to be a turn-off from now on?I ask her, hoping she doesn’t choose this moment to make fun of me, because I’m thinking what a disappointment that will be…
She actually laughs, but not harshly.Not necessarily. Once we’re used to this power that’s growing within us, we’ll be able to control it better.
As Cade backs up, presumably to start his shift, I askher one more question.How do you know this if you’ve been trapped all this time?
After she said that earlier, I expected her to only know as much as I did.
Archie, she says.When he first arrived, I wanted to eat him for a snack, but then his energy ignited my own. I still don’t know how, but his presence awakened a piece of me I didn’t know existed. I was able to transcend to my ancestors. I couldn’t communicate with them, but I could access their knowledge for a short time.
Well, that’s going to be helpful. No wonder she was so smug before.
I glance at the forest beyond us, the dark line of trees feels both welcoming and terrifying. Our paws itch against the dirt. The energy inside bouncing like a kid at recess.
