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Him and me both, but really, I was more glad that I had her.
With our bond complete, the realization of how many decades I’d gone without letting people in my life really set in.
It wasn’t that I regretted my past choices, but I knew without a doubt that things moving forward would need to be different.
They had to be, because Kinsley deserved better than the life I’d chosen up to this point. I wouldn’t make that same choice for us.
We walked the rest of the way to the park in silence, and when we turned the corner, my steps faltered. I could see a glowing wolf next to Lia that I swore was my mate, but that was the first time I’d seen her entire body covered in shimmering, white magic like that.
“What the…?” Markus’s voice trailed off while my speed increased.
Before we got to them, Kinsley had already shifted back to her human form with a prominent crease formed between her brows.
“I still don’t understand how this is fucking possible,” Kinsley grumbled when I got to her side.
My arm wrapped around her waist, and I pulled her snug against my side. “What was that?”
She looked up at me with wide eyes. “You saw my wolf?”
I grimaced. “I don’t think anyone outside and near the park missed your glowing wolf.”
“Fuck,” she muttered, kicking at the grass. “Lia thinks it’s aftereffects from having my wolf suppressed for so long by magical means and living with the witches. That I might have somehow had magic embedded into me, even though both of my parents are wolf shifters. At least, we assume they are.”
I squeezed her hip tightly. “We’ll figure out who your mom is just as soon as we can, but I’m sure she’s a wolf shifter as well. When Lia removed the cloaking spell from you, there was no denying you were pure wolf.”
Lia nodded eagerly as I spoke. “You have too much alpha in you to be anything besides a pureblood.”
Yeah, the unicorn wasn’t wrong about that, but it would still be good to one day figure out who Kinsley’s birth mother was. Someone who—for Kinsley’s sake—I hoped was still alive somewhere and could give her answers to why she was placed with the witches to begin with.
“How did you feel when you were shifted just now?” I asked, glancing down at my mate.
She bit her lower lip. “I don’t know. I was so panicked when I saw the magic around me and by Lia’s response that I didn’t pay close attention.”
Markus stepped forward and tilted his head. “Why don’t you shift again, so we can all get a better feel for your magic?”
Kinsley nodded but didn’t pull immediately away from me. She took a steadying breath and closed her eyes first. When she reopened them, she lifted her head and there was renewed determination set in her face.
I stepped back, giving her some room, and I nearly missed the shift when I blinked. Fuck, that was fast. Faster than any other shifter I’d ever seen.
Sure enough, she was again covered in a pulsing, white energy. The color nearly matched her hair while she was human, and I wondered briefly if that was a coincidence or not.
Her wolf’s piercing eyes landed on me, and I moved forward, quickly closing the distance between us. I kneeled before her without thinking twice, even though we had company. Her wolf’s head pressed against mine and she let out a deep, low rumble.
My fingers intertwined with her fur, and the magic surrounding her thrummed through me, lighting our connection on fire, but not the kind that sought to destroy. No, this was a blaze that made my wolf want to leap from my skin and run for miles beside her.
“Stunning,” I whispered to her.
I continued to soak up the magic, and then stared directly into her eyes. “Can you control the power inside you?”
I hadn’t seen it happen after her first shift. I’d never told Kinsley that I’d seen these same flickers around her before, but on a much smaller scale. So, whatever this was, it wasn’t new. The energy had just grown more powerful. Likely from our bonding, her heat, or both events.
Kinsley’s wolf eyes closed, and a tremor rolled through her. Briefly, the energy faded, but it didn’t completely disappear.
“Oh, that was awesome,” Lia cheered, distracting Kinsley. She winced as the wolf grumbled. “Sorry.”
Markus grabbed Lia’s hand and pulled her back a few feet.
I stayed right there with my mate, softly encouraging her to try again.
