Page 45 of Bitten, Marked, Obsessed

“Oh my god,” he breathes. “What thefuckare you?”

I freeze.

The adrenaline dies. The shift fades. But the damage is done.

He steps back again, like I might lunge.

“I—I didn’t mean to?—”

But he’s already running.

Gone before I can figure out if I should go after him, just like I did with Adora.

Just like that, the last thread to my old life snaps.

18

CALLUM

It hits like a punch to the chest knocking the air straight out of me.

I’m halfway through sharpening my blade in the Hollow’s back room when it happens—the shift.

Not mine.Hers.

My spine snaps straight. My hand goes numb, blade slipping from my grip and clattering to the floor. My breath leaves me in a rush.

She’s changing. Not just emotionally.Physically. Not training. Not practice. This is real. And something’swrong.

I don’t think. I don’t weigh risk or consequence or what the fuck anyone will say if they see me bolt like this. I just move.

Out the side exit, down through the tunnel paths we don’t talk about. My pack bond with the Hollow dulls behind me, muted by instinct. Byher.

The bond between us pulls like a fucking tide. Not gentle. Not subtle. Itrips.

I strip off my jacket and drop to all fours mid-run, shifting in the dark. Bones crack. Skin splits. Fur erupts across muscle. Pain flashes, white-hot, and then fades as my paws slam into concrete.

And then I’mgone. Running blind, running fast. Faster than I’ve ever moved.

Through back alleys. Over rooftops. Along powerline paths and between warehouses that stink of rust and smog. Her scent is in the air—frayed, wild, sharp with adrenaline and hurt.

I skid to a stop suddenly.

There’s a figure ahead, crouched low, glowing eyes catching the waning moonlight through the crumbling overpass.

Edmund.

He turns before I say a damn word. His face is drawn, more wolf than man. And I know he felt it too.

“She shifted,” I pant, still half in my beast form, voice rasping through fangs. “Didn’t she?”

He nods, tight. “Uncontrolled. It flagged.”

“Shit.”

“You felt it.” Not a question.

“I wasdragged.”

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