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She pulls the keys out of the ignition and gets out of the car, slipping her purse into the trunk. Tucking the keys into her pocket, she hopes she'll be able to find it and her clothes again once she turns back into a human.
With her arms crossed over her chest and her eyes on the moon, she treks toward the edge of the forest, ducking under the tall trees and into the cover of darkness where she can wait for Denzel's pack members to arrive.
Leaning against a trunk, her body tingles as the moon becomes fuller and higher in the sky. She feels full of unused energy and longs to run. Instead, she channels that into tapping into her mind the way Denzel’s described in the previous week leading up to the full moon. Their training had taken a turn, focusing on pack mentality and using the shared sight just for this moment.
She finds Denzel first, since they have a connection and sees that he’s in the area surrounding Laith's large house outside of town, far north from where she awaits her own transformation.
Luckily, Laith’s parents are out of town like always, something she confirmed talking with him two days ago. Denzel's sight pans out, showing four other pack members with him, wolves of varying colors forming a perimeter around the house.
Elara breathes a sigh of relief knowing Laith will be kept under control.
Assuming he survives.
"Don't even question it. He’ll live," she tells herself as the crunching of leaves alerts her to having company.
A man and a woman break through the trees, assessing her.
"So, you're the new wolf," the woman says, cocking her head to the side. She already looks more animal than human somehow with a squished nose and wild black hair.
"You'll want to go ahead and strip, leave your clothes here. You can find them later, but if this Kade guy is really who turned you then the more scent you leave behind, the better," the male says.
Elara blushes but knows there's likely nothing embarrassing or sexual about seeing a fellow wolf naked. All of them shed their clothes when turning.
She nods nervously and begins to strip, and they do the same. Cool air glides over her skin, raising goosebumps, quicklyfollowed by a warm full-body blush. Behind her, she hears the others do the same, but for some reason, it only makes this more awkward. Right now, there are three naked people just hanging out in a forest, and she’s one of them. She loops one hand over the opposite elbow, feeling foolish even as she covers her breasts.
But then an ache ripples through her spine, and she knows the change is coming. She also discovers she’s looking forward to it. In fact, energy is coursing through her in the most amazing way.
The female wolf, older and more experienced, is a woman in one breath and a wolf in the next, hulking and brown. She rears up on her hind legs as Elara grits her teeth and comes down on her arm, scratching her and drawing blood.
Elara’s fingernails grow into claws involuntarily in response to the pain, so she clamps her jaw tighter. Grimly, she watches her blood drip onto the ground, splattering in black splotches.
The shift begins for the male as well, just as fast as the woman. They stand side by side, watching and waiting.
Elara takes a step back and stumbles, conscious she’s hovering between human and wolf. It has her heart thundering and stopping all at once. And then she’s tipping over the edge. Parts stretch, others shrink. It feels wrong, yet infinitely right.
She howls in pain as her injured arm begins to elongate and turn into a wolf's forepaw. She shudders as bones rearrange and muscles reconnect. Within the space of heartbeat, the need to run is overwhelming. Clinging to the sight and her sanity, Elara bolts. Paws hit the ground, but she stumbles again, bones cracking and splitting the silence of the woods as her transformation completes.
It’s a pale gray wolf who streaks between the trees.
Elara’s eyesight shifts, the darkness clearer, the urge to run taking over again as the pain subsides. She looks up at the fullmoon and throws her head back, a howl climbing up her throat and piercing the night air.
She’s an apex predator, and her body knows it. In fact, as a squirrel scuttles away, she realizes the forest knows it. Raw power pulses through her veins.
"Keep it together," she tells herself as she reaches for the sight again, slowing her run a bit as she makes her way to the opposite edge of the woods.
She stops beside a fallen tree, the soft scent of moss tickling her sensitive senses. A vision of the brown female wolf fills her mind, meaning she must be seeing this through the male's vision. The view snaps sharply to the right, stilling as a movement catches his attention. Another wolf appears, so black it’s barely discernible against the night. It stops, noting it’s not alone, the edge of its lip lifting to reveal a white canine.
Yellow eyes glare as the wolf steps forward and sniffs at her clothes, left in a pile at the trunk of the tree only feet away from where her blood stains the ground.
Her sire arrived.
And somehow Elara knows with absolute certainty that the magnificent animal they’re looking at is Kade.
Rooted to the spot, she blinks as she tries to process this. She suspected. Deep down, a part of her knew. But now that she has irrefutable proof, it still hits here like a meteorite.
Kade is the one who stole her normal life. He changed everything. Forever.
But why?
