Page 74 of Veradel
“I’ll go easy on him,” she mouths with a nod. My chest tightens, then warms, as I realize how everyone—besides maybe Gabriel and Kyra, not here at the moment but surely watching from some window—have finally accepted her as one of the pack.
“Okay.” Saskia seems to steel herself with a deep breath, locking away whatever’s bothering her, and turns toward Milo. “You might have the upper hand when it comes to smell, but my eyesight can detect and analyze every movement you make, so you’re going to try to surprise me. Act errat—”
Before that word can even leave her lips, Milo shouts and barges toward her. The other children cheer from the sidelines, but Saskia easily sidestepshim, twirls, and grabs him from behind—gently, I notice. Taking it easy on him. The little shit responds by twisting in her grip, kicking backward, and landing a hit to her shin.
Which makes me have to swallow a growl.
Graceful as ever, Saskia hooks her foot beneath Milo’s ankle and tries to push him forward, but he crouches and yanks them both sideways. She stumbles, he grabs her arm, and the small crowd goes wild as he throws her sideways.
I lurch forward without thinking, but before Milo can fully pin her down, Saskia pops back up and evades his hands with quick, dancing steps backward. Good girl.
“That was really nice!” she calls to Milo. “But maybe this time, don’t shout when you charge me?”
Milo’s mouth parts, then snaps shut again. I barely have time to register the moment he barrels forward without warning when something peculiar happens. Saskia freezes, her mouth dropping open in shock.
But I know what this is. I’ve seen it before—feltit before.
Milo keeps stumbling forward, his shoulders growing and hunching, his neck broadening, his nose lengthening. Fur rips from his back with a sound like medical tape tearing itself off skin. An animalistic growl erupts from his throat as he skids to a halt—
In wolf form.
True, his wolf form isn’t nearly as domineering as mine, and his tufts of hair are sticking up in rough, thin patches… but everyone in the meadow blinks at him in utter shock and silence.
Until we burst into cheers. A round of applause from me. A holler from Merrick. A long, shrill whistle from Soren. The other children run to Milo, screaming and immediately pressing their small, stubby hands over every inch of his new body.
Saskia herself claps her hands off to the side, as if she’s unsure whether or not she should be celebrating with all of us. My heart twists, and I stride toward her, but Vivian gets there first—stalking up from behind her and pushing her into the excitement. Milo nuzzles her in appreciation.
Saskia beams, truly radiant. For the first time, I think she might feel like she belongs.
Then Milo’s mother is there, leaping forward, pride engraved in her smile as she cradles her son’s new lupine face in both hands, kissing him on his snout as he wags a bushy tail and turns in a quick circle.
That’s when I look back at Saskia and notice the moment her own smile slips.
Shit. An emotion I can’t even name presses against my sternum. I’d gift Saskia the whole damn world ten times over, but I can’t give her her mother back. The whole reason she wanted to be a Chosen One in the first place was because of her mother, and yet now she’shere. Helping my family instead of her own. Watching another mother embrace her child.
And fuck if that doesn’t haunt me.
So I push past the celebratory chaos, right to her.
“Hey.”
“Hey!” Her voice comes out high-pitched, but she still won’t look at me.
I run my hand down her arm, lacing my fingers through hers. Finally, she raises her eyes to mine.
“I’m okay,” she insists.
But another voice cuts me off before I can respond.
“What a wonderful thing, to witness a first shift. And what an even more wonderful thing to be the reason it came about.”
We both whip around to find my own mother extending a hand out… and not to me.
Saskia’s eyes widen a fraction. I give her hand an encouraging squeeze before releasing her, thankful for my mother’s appearance and hoping like hell that she can give Saskia everything I can’t.
Hesitantly, Saskia loops her arm with my mother’s, and they walk away from the meadow, toward her house across from the old church.
When they disappear, I turn back to Soren and give his shoulder a friendly shove, pushing him into Merrick.
