Chapter 141
KASMINE
The crowd grew still.
I tilted my head back and stared up at the sky. The moon was almost there–gliding slowly and painfully toward the center of the heavens. It wasn’t full tonight. Just a gentle crescent. But that didn’t matter. Everyone knew–on your twenty–first birthday, the second the moon touched the center of the sky, the magic awakened. The wolf either came or it didn’t.
My chest rose and fell quickly.
Almost there.
Almost.
Then-
It happened.
A sharp, stabbing pain shot through my spine like lightning. My legs buckled. I hit the ground hard, knees slamming into the grass as my hands dug into the earth.
A scream tore from my throat before I could stop it.
It felt like fire was eating me from the inside out. Like my skin was being peeled, my bones shattered and glued back together wrong, I could hear them–cracking, shifting snapping–over and over again like a thousand sticks breaking at once,
I couldn’t breathe.
I couldn’t even think
I was writhing and gasping, my body folding in on itself. Every nerve was burning. My hands were stretching- elongating–fingers tearing and reshaping into paws. My back arched violently. My spine curved. I clawed at the ground, screaming into the dirt, barely aware of the sobs and groans around me from the others going through the same thing.
Then–just when I thought I would pass out-
It stopped.
Silence fell.
Everything in me was still.
Everything outside me was different.
I opened my eyes. Everything looked clearer. Sharper. Brighter. I could hear everything–even the thump of Jake’s heart from where he stood. I could smell the grass, the fire, the sweat, the fear, the excitement.
I didn’t feel the grass anymore, I didn’t feel the tremble in my limbs or the ache where my knees had slammed
into the ground. All I felt was light bursting, surging, and rippling through me like a river that had finally broken through its dani,
1 stood, but not as me.
I was on four legs, not two.
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Chapter 141
Deep, glistening, golden–brown fur wrapped around my new form. My paws dug into the dirt with an instinct I’d never known but suddenly understood completely.
Everyone cheered and clapped, and I felt powerful
Like this was the real me, finally let loose after years of being trapped in a too–small body.
Following instinct, I tipped my head back, let out a howl, and then ran.
It was required, sure–but even if it hadn’t been, I would have done it anyway. My paws barely touched the ground as I tore into the forest beyond the altar, past the ring of trees that bordered the ceremonial circle.
The wind ripped through my fur. My heart pounded in rhythm with the earth. I was moving so fast that the world blurred around me, but somehow, I could still see everything–every leaf, every root, every drop of dew hanging from the branches. It was like my soul had never truly opened its eyes until now.
I didn’t want to stop.
But I had to,
I looped around and slowed just as I broke back through the tree line, back into the crowd, and shifted back to my human form.
Maids rushed forward with a soft white robe, draping it around my now naked form.
I pulled it tight around my shoulders, fingers still buzzing with aftershocks.
And then-
The scent hit me.
Holy. Fucking, Hell.
I staggered
It was like someone had punched me in the lungs. My knees buckled slightly, and I reached out to steady myself, but there was nothing neart
to hold on to.
It was him.
Whoever it was–wherever he was–his scent was burning through the crowd like wildfire.
It was sharp and rich, like cedar and smoke–drenched earth after rain. Powerful. Dark. Thick. It was sex and danger and dominance–everything a wolf could crave in one breath–stealing pull.
But not like Jake’s subtle warmth. Jake smelled like cinnamon and safety.
This scent?
This scent could bring empires to their knees.
This scent demanded submission. And my wolf–traitorous bitch that she was–immediately rolled over inside me like she’d found home. My chest ached. My eyes burned My legs locked
An Alpha. Or a Beta, maybe. But definitely not Jake.
And that mean
My throat went dry.
But my heart didn’t have the time to fall because I turned slowly, my heart hammering so hard I thanake –
thou
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whole world could hear it. My eyes scanned the sea of faces one by one. I could barely focus and barely breathe. The scent was so strong it made my head swim. I felt hot and dizzy like I was going to fall apart at the seams.
Where was it coming from?
Who?
My eyes stopped just before the edge of the crowd. They were still cheering and celebrating. No one else seemed to feel what I was feeling.
him, eyes locking onto him with the kind of fear a prey recognizing its predator would.
And then I saw hi
He was standing slightly apart from the others.
Tall. Broad. Impossibly built. Impossibly Kester… My stepbrother.
The moment our eyes met, a seismic rupture cracked through my chest, stealing the air from my lungs and flattening the world around me.
The bond snapped in.
My knees trembled.
My pulse went wild.
The monster who’d haunted my every breath since I was sixteen.
The man I’d been wishing to outrun–trying to forget.
No. No. It can’t be. This was a sick joke from the Moon Goddess.
I stappered back a step, my hand clamping over my belly on instinct.
He moved.
Just a shift. A tilt of his body in my direction.
But it was enough to send fear screaming down my spine.
His voice slid into my mind through the mind link I didn’t even realize I could also feel now.
“Hello, mate. Nice to finally meet you.” Slowly, his lips stretched into a dangerously victorious smirk. And behind that smirk was fire.
Possession.
Danger.
Gods help me.
I was mated to him.
And now, he was n
