Morning breaks cold and wrong. I wake with fever burning through my veins. My bones ache like they're splitting apart. I try to sit up. Can't. My body won't respond right.
Kieran's beside me instantly, his hand on my forehead. "You're burning up."
"I'm fine." But my teeth chatter so hard the words barely form.
"Your first shift." He pulls back, studying me with those sharp golden eyes. "It's coming now."
Terror floods through me. "No. It can’t be."
"It’s happening." He grabs my shoulders as another wave of pain crashes through me. "Your wolf is finally breaking free."
"I can't." I try to stand. My legs give out immediately. "We need to keep moving. They're still hunting us."
"You're not going anywhere until this is done." He catches me before I hit the ground. "Stop fighting it. That only makes it worse."
"I don't know how!"
"Yes, you do. Your body knows. Let it happen."
Hours blur together. The pain builds in waves. My bones feel like they're grinding against each other. I scream until my voice cracks into nothing.
Kieran stays beside me the entire time. "Breathe through it. Don't fight."
"This is your fault!" The words tear out of me between gasps. "Everything was fine before you. I had a life. A pack. A purpose."
"You had a lie."
"It was my lie!" I double over as another wave hits. "My family. My home. Everything I believed in. You destroyed it all."
"I didn't destroy anything." His voice stays calm even as mine breaks. "I just showed you the truth."
"I don't want your truth!" Tears stream down my face, mixing with sweat. "I want to unknow everything you've told me. I want to go back to before the wedding when things made sense."
"You can't go back."
"I hate you." The words come out desperate. "I hate that you're right. I hate that the bond chose you. I hate that everything I knew is burning down around me and I can't stop it."
"I know." His hand finds mine. "Survive this first. Hate me later all you want."
By nightfall, my body convulses violently. Bones crack and reform with sounds that make my stomach turn. Agony rips through every nerve. I can't think. Can't breathe.
"Let your wolf rise," Kieran says, his voice cutting through the pain. "We need her."
Something inside me snaps. Or maybe breaks free. My wolf surges forward with a force that steals my breath. The shift completes in seconds.
I stand on four legs, panting. The world looks different. Smells different. Every sense heightened until it's almost overwhelming.
Kieran shifts beside me. Larger, golden-furred, a scar cutting across his shoulder that I didn't see in human form. His wolf towers over mine, but there's no threat in his stance. Just readiness.
"We run now," he says. "We've lost too much time."
We move through the forest at speeds impossible in human form. He leads, I follow, our paws silent on the forest floor. He knows this territory, guiding us through streams that will mask our scent.
We run until the moon is high, until my muscles burn and my lungs ache. Finally, as dawn breaks pink and gold through the trees, he slows.
We shift back as the sun rises. Both naked in the morning light. I look away immediately before heat floods my face.
"Here." He tosses my torn gown to me without looking, already pulling on his own pants. Has he been carrying them in his teeth all along?
Doesn’t matter.
I dress quickly, fingers shaking. The gown is barely more than rags now, but it covers enough.
"Your feet." He glances at me. "How are they?"
I look down. The cuts and wounds from yesterday are completely gone. Smooth skin, no scars. "Healed. The shift healed them."
"Good. We'll need to move fast today." He finishes dressing, then turns to me. "The scar on your ribs. Let me see it."
I hesitate, then slowly lift the torn edge of my gown. The crescent mark sits just below my ribcage.
He steps closer, his fingers tracing the curve of the scar with gentle precision. "That's the chieftain's mark. Only direct bloodline carries it. You're the chieftain's daughter, Ardena. They stole you from the ashes."
The words hit like stones. "No. My parents loved me. Fenris and Lyra. They raised me. They died protecting our pack's borders. They couldn’t have known. They wouldn't have lied about something like this."
"They lied about everything."
"You don't know that!" I pull away from his touch. "You're assuming. You don't have proof."
"The mark is proof."
"It's a scar. Could be anything."
"Ardena—"
"No." I wrap my arms around myself. "My parents loved me. Whatever else is true, that's real. I won't let you take that from me too."
He studies me for a long moment, then nods slowly. "Alright."
The silence stretches between us. I break it first, needing to shift the conversation away from truths I'm not ready to accept. "Why were you at my wedding?"
"You know why."
"Say it."
"Revenge." His voice stays level. "I came to kill Rhys."
"But you didn't."
"No." He meets my eyes directly. "I didn't."
"Why not? You had your moment."
"The mate bond stopped my blade." He takes a step closer. "I felt you before I saw you. The moment I entered that hall, my wolf screamed mate and everything else became meaningless."
I swallow hard. "That's convenient."
Another step. He's close enough now that I feel the heat radiating off his skin. "I came for death and found you instead."
His hand rises slowly toward my cheek.
I catch his wrist before he can touch me. "Don't."
He freezes, muscles tensing under my grip. "Why not?"
"Because I just got married." My voice cracks on the words. "Everything is happening too fast. I don't know what's real anymore—the bond, the attraction, any of this. I don't know if what I feel is mine or if it's just the mate bond forcing something that wouldn't exist otherwise."
I release his wrist. He pulls back, jaw tight, something like hurt flashing in his eyes before he masks it. "Fair enough."
He turns away, putting distance between us. "We should keep moving. We're still too close to Ironvale territory."
I nod, grateful for the shift back to practical matters, even though the space where his hand almost touched my face burns like a brand.