Page 25 of Make Me
My wolf.
She’s beautiful. Magnificent even.
But she’s scarred.
Her dark maroon fur is streaked with silver lines, as if grief itself has clawed across her soul. Her eyes glow with the same green as mine, only deeper, wilder, moreinfinite.
I sink to my knees, though I have no body here. A sob racks through me, painful and soundless, as I look at what I’ve done. What I cast away out of fear. This—this half of me—I betrayed her.
And yet…
She bows.
Her head lowers, and she presses her snout to my knees, the contact filled with forgiveness. Not fury or betrayal or even submission. Only acceptance.
There’s no air left for me, but she seems to hear the words I can’t say, feels the breaking in me.
And she absolves me of the past with just one look.
With a single blink of her luminous eyes, she stands tall and turns, striding toward the table where my physical form—our form—lies motionless. Almost as if she’s saying:It’s time.
Her entire being tremors until she’s no longer in the shape of a wolf. Her energy swirls in the night air, pulsing calmly before lowering toward my body like moonlight into water, dissolving through skin and soul.
I reach for her, feeling the absence of her presence as I watch her disappear, but the isolation is fleeting.
Pain returns, tenfold.
My eyes squeeze closed as I’m nearly certain fire is consuming me, turning my bones to ash. I start to fall, and the landing comes abruptly, zapping the last of my energy.
I try to open my eyes, but my bones start to break. One by one, they snap and grind and shatter. My skin feels like it’s being shredded with a grater, and when myspine curves inward, curling my body, a snarl escapes me that shouldn’t be real.
But that anguish quickly turns to relief.
I’m not dead any longer.
I’m shifting.
Fur sprouts across my arms, my legs, my chest. Every nerve is ablaze as my body reshapes itself into what it was always meant to be, what I never should have been ashamed of.
And she returns with a vengeance.
My wolf’s howl is shrill and guttural, shaking leaves from the trees. Her limbs lengthen and claws dig into the dirt, and when we finally rise onto four paws, the world is new.
And the first thing I see is Talon, slumped and still, chained by magic he didn’t ask for.
All rationale leaves me, and a growl builds in my throat.
Natalia turns, lifting her hand as if to command me, and I nearly lunge.
Logically, I know she means us no harm, but my wolf doesn’t. She only knows that she’s keeping him from us. That the witch has harmed our mate.
“Easy, girl,” Natalia mutters, but her fingers twitch nervously. “That’s a lot of teeth.”
My snarl deepens, lips curling back to reveal every inch of gleaming fangs.
“Okay, okay—damn, I just brought you back from the dead. Give me a second!” She goes to Talon, and we watch her every move as Natalia grabs the silver chainand mutters a spell under her breath. The instant it unravels from Talon’s wrists, he wakes.
His eyes snap open, wild and molten, locking on mine.
