The shift takes me like an avalanche.
Pain rips through my body as bones reshape themselves for the first time, muscles stretching and reforming. But it’s a good pain, like the burn after a hard training session with Dana. Like finally stretching muscles that have been held still for so long they ache and cramp. My vision blurs, sharpens, then changes as my face elongates into a muzzle. Fur sprouts across my skin—pure white, like freshly fallen snow, marking me as something rare and unique.
When the transformation completes, I tower over normal wolves. My senses explode with new input—scents that tell entire stories, sounds that paint pictures in my mind. Colors I never knew existed dance at the edges of my vision. Through the pack bond, I feel everyone’s shock. Even the fae have stopped fighting, staring at me with expressions ranging from awe to terror.
But what I feel most is power. Ancient magic thrums through my veins, gifts passed down through generations of Pack Onyx wolves. I can taste it on my tongue, sharp and deadly—the venom that made my ancestors so feared by the fae, dripping from my elongated canine fangs. This is what I was always meant to be. Not broken, not wrong, but exactly what my pack needed. Deadly and fierce.
Lord Hule takes a step back, violet eyes wide with genuine fear for the first time. “Impossible. The venom line died out decades ago. We killed them all.”
I bare my fangs at him, feeling venom glands pulse and activate just inside my mouth. This is why they destroyed my pack. This is what they’ve been trying to prevent by keeping me from shifting all these years. Their greatest weakness, passed down through my bloodline.
Time seems to slow as I launch myself at him. He’s fast, but I’m faster, spurred by years of training without the supernatural gifts I now have that make me so much stronger. My jaws close around his arm as he tries to dodge, venom pulsing through my fangs, and I taste something ancient and corrupt. His scream of pain and fear echoes through the streets.
“The bite!” he shrieks, clawing at the wound. “It burns! Get her off me!”
Black corruption spreads from where my fangs pierced him, turning his perfectly white skin dark and necrotic. The might of Pack Onyx flows through me—not just the venom, but generations of strength and courage. I am my parents’ daughter, my pack’s legacy, finally come into my own might.
And I show it by breaking through the lines of our enemies fangs-first, leaping and biting with all my anger, taking revenge against the fae for every one of my people lost to their brutality.
The battle shifts dramatically. Those fae I manage to bite fall screaming, trapped in our realm and unable to heal. The others retreat in terror, their magic weakening in my presence, my parents’ curse still blessing me with some immunity to them.
Gran’s voice rings out with fierce pride: “Pack Onyx’s gift—venom that can trap fae in this realm, unable to return home. Unable to heal.”
Through it all, I feel Kieran’s love and pride through our bond. His bronze wolf fights beside my white one in perfect synchronization, as if we’ve been doing this our whole lives. This is what we were meant to be—true mates, stronger together than apart, capable of defending our pack against anything.
When it’s over, when the remaining fae have fled with their wounded leader, I shift back to human form with surprising ease, not caring one bit how naked I am. I finally get it—I get what it is to have a wolf, tobea shifter. The moment Kieran hands me clothes, he pulls me into his arms, his skin warm as he gathers me close.
“You’re magnificent,” he breathes against my hair, joy and pride radiating through our bond. “I always knew you were strong, but that was… incredible.”
But we can’t celebrate yet. Somewhere in the heart of pack territory, Cade is still preparing for a ritual that could doom us all. The corruption in the pack lands’ magic grows stronger with each passing moment.
Looking up at Kieran, I see my own determination reflected in his ice blue eyes. “Together?”
He takes my hand, squeezing once. “Together. Let’s end this.”
As we race toward the heart of pack territory, I feel the dual nature of my power—shifter and human, venomous wolf and cold iron warrior. For the first time in my life, I don’t feel broken or less than those around me.
I am exactly what I was meant to be. And I’m ready to fight for my pack, my mate, and everything we hold dear.
The real battle is just beginning.
Chapter 39
Kieran
The sight of Aurora in her wolf form took my breath away and filled me with the strongest pride I’ve ever felt. Pure white fur gleaming in the moonlight, she moved with a deadly grace that made my heart race, terrifying and brave as she tore through our enemies.
Through our bond, I feel her joy at finally being complete, her fierce pride in who and what she is as she carries the Pack Onyx legacy into the present. My wolf howls in triumph—this is our mate, magnificent and powerful, exactly as she was always meant to be, right at our side.
“The north entrance is heavily guarded,” Dana reports, pulling my attention back to the matter at hand. We’re grouped together in one of the storage facilities at the outskirts of town, gathered around a hastily drawn map of the pack’s central compound that someone taped to a folding table. “At least twenty warriors are still loyal to Cade, most of them suffering from some form of the madness, plus whatever fae survived Aurora’s initial assault and didn’t high tail it back home with their tails tucked.”
Aurora, back in human form, studies the map intently. The quiet confidence on her face is new—or perhaps it was alwaysthere, and I was too blind to see it. All I know is that she’s mine now, and I’m never letting her go. “The fae will be on high alert now that they know what I can do. They’ll try to keep me from getting close enough to bite them.”
“Then we use that fear against them.” The strategy forms in my mind as I speak. “Make them so focused on avoiding you that they don’t see the rest of us coming.”
She catches my meaning immediately, a fierce smile curving her lips. “I’ll be the distraction while you and the others slip in through the service entrance?”
“No.” I meet her eyes steadily, letting her see my complete trust in her abilities. “You’ll lead the frontal assault while Dana and I take smaller teams through the side entrances. You’re our strongest weapon against the fae now—you should be where the fighting is heaviest.”
