Chapter 2: The Alpha's Judgment
605 Words
I went back for the ring at dawn.
Getting into the sterling mansion? surprisingly easy. the code for the service entrance was still the same — cordelia must have thought i'd never dare show my face again. my old jewelry box was right where i'd left it, buried at the back of the closet behind a line of designer heels i was never allowed to wear. the ring was still hidden in the torn lining.
It was silver. simple. a wolf's head carved into the band. its eyes seemed to gleam when i slid it on.
As soon as the metal touched my skin, the fire in my veins settled. not gone — just banked, humming quietly under the surface instead of trying to burn its way out. the relentless whisper in my mind finally shut up.
For the next three days, i holed up in a cheap motel room (paid for with a crumpled twenty from an old coat). i didn't eat. i hardly slept. i just sat on the sagging mattress, staring at my hands, waiting.
On the third night, the moon turned red.
And i changed.
There's no pretty way to say it: the first transformation is brutal. one second i was human, huddled on a stained bedspread. the next, my spine was breaking and re-knitting. my jaw snapped, stretching forward. silver-white fur pushed through my skin like it had been there all along, just waiting.
It hurt like hell. but under the agony? there was this terrifying sense of rightness. like i was finally fitting into my own skin.
When it was over, i was on all fours. the motel room looked different — sharper, saturated with smells i could now pick apart: stale cigarettes from down the hall, cheap perfume from room 12, the wet asphalt outside.
And i felt a pull. an instinct, deep behind my ribs, yanking me toward the window and the woods beyond town. i didn't understand it, but my new body did. it was already moving.
The pack exploded around me. laughter and pitying whispers cut through the rain. a woman with dark curls and a cruel smile stepped forward, leaning into cassian's side.
"Just a low-blood," she said. "don't waste your energy on her."
Cassian. i committed his name to memory, etching it right next to the raw sting of his dismissal.
He didn't even look back. "get her out of my territory."
I shifted without conscious thought — one second a wolf, the next a human, naked and shivering on the sodden ground. the surrounding wolves watched. some turned away in disgust. a few of the younger ones had the decency to look ashamed.
Not a single one offered a hand.
I have no idea how long i stayed there after they were gone. the rain eventually washed away the last trace of wolf scent. the searing pain in my chest cooled and hardened into something else entirely. resolve, maybe.
Pushing up on my elbows, i looked at my hand. the silver ring was still on my finger — the wolf's head looking almost sorry for me now.
My husband rejected me. my so-called fated mate rejected me.
Two rejections. one right after the other.
I should have been shattered. a part of me definitely was. but beneath the wreckage, something else was stirring. that fire in my blood hadn't gone out when cassian turned his back. it was worse now. a focused, white-hot burn.
blood of the silver wolf.
I don't understand it. not yet.
but i would.
And julian sterling and cassian blackwood were going to regret ever letting me go.
- Writer
