Maybe this mangled bond that’s burning a hole through the space in my chest where my heart should be has some way of sparing me from an alpha’s power. I don’t have time to examine it, fighting the cascading rush of everything crashing over me.

When he attacked Lorne for being near me, touching me, I thought—the bond made me believe he was changing his mind. Why else would my fated mate go so wild defending me if he didn’t want me?

Well, I don’t want him either.

I hate him.

It hurts to hate him.

I close my eyes in frustration. My soul feels like it’s splitting in two. This is too much. All of it. Panic rises, threatening to suffocate me.

Should it hurt this badly?

I gasp for air, tripping backwards through small divots in the grass. Putting more and more distance between myself and Caden. Away from my mate.

Every wobbling step is agonizing. I’m pretty sure I’ve twisted an ankle, or worse, I fear when a sickening crack jolts me, fire shooting up my leg.

I cry out, nearly losing my balance. Tears stream freely down my face. Every heaving breath I draw burns my lungs and throat.

Goddess help me, I need to get out of here now or I might very well die. For my sisters’ sake, I won’t let that happen.

It’s insane that a delusional part of me still wants to go back to his side. As if he’ll somehow decide it was a mistake, take back the harshest words a shifter fears hearing, and engulf me in his strong embrace again. My aching heart breaks all over again because that will never happen.

Caden Blackburn rejected me.

He doesn’t want a mate like me. A broken shifter who can’t shift. The daughter of the man who turned on his father.

Enemies don’t belong together.

I swallow, picking up the pace of my retreat. No matter how much I’m ready to turn and run until my legs fail me, something still tries to stop me from leaving as I stagger as fast as possible. I swing my wild gaze between the tree line and the scene behind me.

No one’s on their feet yet, awaiting permission. Lorne is still pinned to the ground, Caden’s hand around his throat.

I can’t decide which slices me to the bone more—knowing I’ll never have another chance at happiness again because the mate the moon goddess wrote in the stars cast me aside, or facing Caden’s scowl as he tracks me across the clearing.

He already broke my heart once. The carefully hardened pieces I spent years mending with my own resolve to survive have shattered to thousands of shards, wrecked beyond any hope of repair.

I refuse to let him break my heart a second time.

Go. The venom in his tone echoes in my head.

My teeth chatter and needles prick my skin, spreading tiny fires down my arms. Something unfamiliar fights its way out of me. A growl rends the night air. It takes me a second to realize it came from me, my vocal chords still vibrating strangely with another wounded call.

Something’s happening to my vision. It sharpens, focusing on details at a much greater distance than I should be able to make out, leaving me disoriented. My gaze locks with Caden’s once more. His blue eyes flash gold, his wolf shining through, softening the force of his ire.

Get out of here. Go. We need to go. To run. Let’s run.

I freeze in a patch of moonlight spilling through the trees, gasping for an entirely different reason than being a jilted mate. This voice—it’s different. It’s not Caden’s, nor mine.

Then I sense her. A blurred figure emerges within my mind’s eye in an unhurried four-legged trot. A wolf.

This has to be a hallucination. The rejected bond has to be triggering this. My chest heaves as I wait for the mirage to clear. But—no. She’s really there, truly part of me.

I can’t believe it. I actually have a wolf?

This means I’m not Wolfless. But why couldn’t I sense her within me before?

My throat tightens, picturing the horrible sight of Dad when he died. Maybe the emotional stress kept her locked inside me, blocked from emerging.

All this time I’ve believed I was broken as much as my packmates did, but I feel her now.

With a hitched breath, I take in the deep red fur sprouting on my arms, my nails darkening as they lengthen into sharp points, the seams of my clothing tearing as my human form becomes something I’ve never experienced before.

Something I never believed I would ever experience.

I’m not dying from Caden’s rejection…I’m shifting for the first time.

Yes. Shift, my wolf urges with an insistent yip, pawing at our mental connection. Need to run. Time to run, race, leap.

For a beat, I’m frozen. I’m mid-shift without any idea of how I’ve accomplished it while my emotions were overloading. With the awareness of my new ability, the discomfort hits me in full force, knocking the wind from me with a fresh wave of tears.

I don’t know what to do. I’m stuck.

She pads in a circle, then I feel a strange invisible nudge that inspires my instincts. I stop fighting and let go of logical thought, focusing on the pull of the moon.

My lips part in awe as I go through the rest of the transformation.

It hurts like hell, but my nerve endings are so battered that the discomfort becomes a dull throbbing that’s easily ignored once it’s over. My perspective changes as I rise on four shaky legs.

Everything hits my senses at once with more intensity—so much to smell and hear and see. A whole new view of the world to explore.

It all blurs together, the scents of the earth and grass beneath my large paws, the bitterness of the smoke coiling from the bonfire and the warmth of the burning logs, the savory roasting meat that makes my mouth water. Packmates, so many pack scents it’s difficult to pick them apart until I hone in on the one I’ve always been able to recognize.

I shy away from the inviting notes of smoky forest, fresh springs, and the overpowering sharpness of smoldering cedar that’s so strong it makes me sneeze. The tail takes me by surprise when a tickle at the base of my spine results in it swishing.

My attention catches on Caden one last time. His hard expression is unreadable. The bond gives a feeble pulse in my chest, pulling a soft whine from me.

Mate, my wolf senses.

I toss my head in refusal. Again, the tattered bond tries to connect with him. No. He hurt us.

I never believed this moment would come, peering at him through my wolf’s gaze. He holds it until I lift my head and let loose a somber howl to the moon.

Every shifter I know has some sense of their connection to their wolf before their first shift. The fact I’m meeting mine at last thanks to him causing us this heart-wrenching sadness sours my first time with her.

Turning my back on the clearing, I leap over a downed log and run into the trees. My control slips away, the wolf taking over for me. My steps lose their uncertainty, becoming a confident stride.

As much as I want to shut everything out to enjoy my first run with her, I’m still aware of every inch of growing distance between me and the male I don’t want to think about anymore.

A distant howl sounds from the commons once I’m further away.

He might have ruined what fate wanted to gift us, but he’s not overshadowing this.

The woods smell richer. Alive and thriving, teeming with so much I take for granted every day. The soft dirt gives way to my bounding paws. Bushes caress my flank when I wriggle between them. I splash through a pond, pausing when I feel the scales of a fish glide past me. My ears prick and I still, caught in a long stare into the water.

I snap my teeth, but the fish escapes the clutches of my jaw. A lively bark escapes me, sending a vibration of energy through my body. I shake it off and jump out of the water, moving to the edge of the pond.

The reflection of my wolf is beautiful. She’s a sight to behold in her roan coat and large clever gold irises. She’s so much bigger than I ever expected or hoped for. No one will cross a wolf this size and hope to get away unscathed.