Page 28 of Shifting Hearts 1
Maddox doesn’t back down. “That supposed to mean something? Because she smells like trouble. And you—” he steps closer, eyes narrowing “—you’re acting like something’s got its claws in you.”
I move fast.
One step. One breath, and I’ve got him by the collar, slammed against the wall.
“She’s mine to deal with,” I growl. “You question me again, you won’t like the answer. I’m the fucking Alpha of this Brotherhood, and I demand respect.”
Maddox doesn’t flinch, doesn’t fight. He just stares at me like he’s seeing something he doesn’t recognize.
“Whatever she is,” he says quietly, “it’s changing you.”
I release him roughly, pushing him toward the door.
He straightens his jacket, gives her one last look, and walks off without another word.
I turn back to her.
She’s watching me like I’m the storm now.
And maybe I am.
TWO
Raven
Ishould’ve run.
The moment I felt him, felt it, pressing against my ribs like a memory I didn’t know I had, I should’ve turned and disappeared into the trees.
But I didn’t, and now I’m watching him slam another man against the wall like it costs him nothing. Like the fury in his voice is just another part of him, coiled and waiting.
He’s not just dangerous. He’s respected.Feared.
And he used that power forme.
I don’t understand it. Not fully, but I feel it. Like static in the air. Like the moment before lightning splits the sky. The other man walks away without a fight, but not without a warning. His words echo in my chest.
It’s changing you.
I swallow hard because I feel it too.
When our eyes met, his voice wrapped around me like smoke. Something shifted. In him. In me.
He turns back, and for a second, I forget how to breathe. His expression is unreadable, but his eyes are dark, burning, knowing and are locked on mine like I’m the only thing anchoring him to this world.
“You okay?” he asks.
I nod, lying. “Yeah.”
He doesn’t believe me. I can see it in the way his jaw tightens, the way his gaze flickers to my hands, still trembling, but he doesn’t push. That, somehow, makes it worse, because I don’t know what I am, don’t know why I flinched when he called me little wolf. I don’t know why something inside me recognized him. I don’t even know his name, never seen him before in my life.
But I know this; whatever’s waking in me—it’s waking in him too.
And that scares me more than anything.
Then, the world tilts.
It’s not sudden, not violent. Just a slow, creeping shift, like the ground beneath me is no longer solid, like reality is fraying at the edges.
