"Not yet," Jonah says quickly. "Give your body time to adjust. A few hours at least. Maybe longer. Don't push it."
I nod, even though part of me—the bear part—wants to try now. Wants to test these new muscles, these new instincts.
Jonah's hand finds mine, and our fingers lace together. The mate bond thrums between us, golden and unbreakable.
"We did it," I say.
"You're here," he says, his voice rough with emotion. "You stayed with me through all of it." His thumb strokes over my knuckles. "I felt you fighting, felt every moment you refused to let go."
I don't feel strong. I feel wrung out and exhausted and strange in my own skin. But I'm also more myself than I've ever been, and that doesn't make sense except that it does.
The bear is mine. I'm hers. We're one.
"What happens now?" I ask.
Jonah pulls me closer, tucking me against his side. "Now you rest. Let your body finish adjusting. Then, in a few hours, we'll try your first shift. See what your bear looks like."
My bear. The words send a thrill through me.
"And after that?"
"After that, we deal with the shadows." His voice hardens slightly, reality settling back in. "Seal the tears, make sure Redwood Rise is safe. Then—" He presses a kiss to my temple. "Then we have forever to figure out the rest."
Forever. The word feels both impossibly distant and achingly close. First we have to survive.
Through the window, the day has given way to full morning. The forest outside is alive with sound—birds calling, wind in the trees, the distant voices of the clan beginning their day.
Redwood Rise. My home now. My clan.
I close my eyes, exhaustion pulling at me. The transformation took everything I had, and my body is demanding rest.
But even as sleep claims me, I'm aware of three things: Jonah's arms around me, solid and real. The mate bond humming between us, unbreakable. And deep in my chest, the bear's steady heartbeat matching my own.
We're clan now. Family.
And nothing—not shadows, not distance, not even death—will tear us apart.
CHAPTER 10
JONAH
The moment the mate bond solidified, something fundamental changed inside me.
I lie beside Maren in the aftermath, watching her sleep as light filters through the cabin windows. Her breathing is steady, her face peaceful despite the transformation she just endured. Pain and change, and she came through it stronger than I dared hope.
But the real miracle is what's happening to me.
I press my palm flat against my chest, feeling my heartbeat. Strong. Steady. Not the erratic flutter it's been for months, not the weak pulse of something half-dead. A living heart, pumping blood that runs warm and red instead of cold and grey.
The shadow realm corruption that's been eating at me for months—the flickering, the pull toward that dark place, the constant threat of fading—it's gone. Burned away by the mate bond like morning fog under sunlight. I can feel the difference in every cell. Where there was decay, there's renewal. Where there was emptiness, there's life.
Her life force feeds into mine through the golden connection between us, and mine flows back to her. A perfect circuit. A complete system. I'd been dying slowly, the shadow realm'stouch rotting me from the inside out. Now I'm healing. Growing stronger with every breath she takes.
I flex my hand, watching my fingers close into a fist. No translucence. No flicker between here and there. Just flesh and bone and muscle, anchored completely to this reality. For the first time since I escaped that hell, I'm fully, completely here.
My bear rumbles contentedly, settled in a way it hasn't been since before I disappeared. Before the shadows took me. Before six months of corruption tried to tear me apart from the inside. The animal part of me had been suffering just as much as the human part—maybe more. Bears aren't meant for shadow realms. We're creatures of earth and forest and sunlight. Being trapped in that darkness had nearly killed my bear's spirit. Now it's whole again. Content. At peace.
Maren stirs, her eyes fluttering open. They're different now, with an amber edge that wasn't there before. Bear eyes.
