Declan -I’d woken up earlier after dreaming of Leo and finally seeing Cassy the way Mom always said she was. Not just a close friend but the Moon Goddess herself. Cassy looked right at me and smiled like she already knew what I was thinking because she did. "Wake up," she’d instructed. "And kiss your mate."And when the Moon Goddess tells you to do something, you don’t argue. You do it. I woke up and was beside the most beautiful girl in this world. After she woke up, one look was all it took. I leaned in and kissed her.We stayed like that in the hospital room, tucked into the corner of the darkened world, kissing in slow intervals like time wasn’t real. No rush. Just her fingers in my shirt, my fingers in her hair, lips moving gently against each other. I pulled the blanket up over our faces. The nurses wouldn't be in for a while, but I didn't want to get caught regardless. Eventually, the kisses slowed. She pressed her forehead to mine, eyes fluttering shut. I pulled her close
DECLAN -The Roman house felt different now, quiet but comforting. A sanctuary just for us. It had always been beautiful. White columns, double porches, black shutters that still creaked if the wind hit them right. Old Georgia plantation bones, kept alive by pack hands even though no one had lived here in years. Not since my dad moved to the Oxford land with Mom and Linc.The house had history in its bones. My grandfather rebuilt the east wing after a fire, and Dad reinforced it after a border skirmish when I was a kid. That had been the first and one of the only times I'd been to the place. Every inch had a story. Every hallway had been walked by wolves who built the legacy we were still trying to live up to. And some I was trying to leave behind. Much like Dad had when he moved to the Oxford land.The furniture stayed dusted. Repairs were always made quick. Pack members rotated through on upkeep duties. But no one stayed. Not anymore. Until now. We stepped inside, Suki looking aroun
My entire body shuttered, but I forced myself still. I nodded like it was nothing. Grabbed the back of my collar, yanked my shirt over my head. My hands weren’t exactly steady, and tried to hide it. I caught her eye. She was already grinning."You really think you’re hiding it?" She tilted her head and rolled her eyes when I huffed. "You’re practically vibrating. Cute, though. Keep trying. I like watching you struggle."Pure desire and a strange need almost made my knees buckle. I knew she was teasing me. I knew that was part of it. It was always part of us. She got under my skin on purpose. She did it with a smirk and a low murmur and fingers that barely touched where they knew I needed it most. And I fucking loved it. Loved that she knew exactly how far to push me. Loved that she knew I’d never ask her to stop. I didn’t answer. I just kicked off my shoes, and reached for my belt like I hadn’t just been undone by six words and a smirk.She reached for her shirt. This time, she didn
The teasing, the push and pull was everything I wanted. Everything I needed. She brought something out of me I hadn't realized was still buried, something stronger, sharper. Not just the Alpha I was supposed to be. The one I actually was. Not because someone told me. Because she showed me. Because she demanded it. Not with orders. With expectation. With that look. That smirk. That unshakable faith in me.I'd spent my whole life surrounded by people who would bend for me. Who would give me space to doubt, to retreat. She didn't. She stepped right in and met me there, dragged me out of my own head, and made it clear she wasn't going to let me play small. Not anymore.She challenged me. Not to break me down, but to build me better. Not a test to survive like before, when I'd been marked by Gaia and struggled to hold the pieces together. This was something else entirely. This wasn't about surviving. This was something to rise to. Something that demanded more, but gave just as much in retu
I lay there staring at the ceiling, not even pretending to sleep. Her breathing stayed steady against my chest, her hand still loosely curled over my side. My fingertips moved slow, tracing the spot on her neck where I'd marked her. And I felt it. Through my own mark. Through the bond that now stretched between us, fully sealed, threaded so tight it pulled every thought of hers closer to mine.I felt the condition of her sleep. I felt the comfort rolling off her in slow, rhythmic waves. I felt the shift of her dreams when they wandered. And I felt myself tracing her skin through my own body.It should've been strange. Too much. But it wasn't. It was perfect.She twitched in her sleep when I grazed over the mark again, and I felt the echo of it through my own neck. My body buzzed, humming with the tether that linked us. Nothing about it dulled overnight. If anything, it burned more now, coiled tight around the heart of me and pulling every thought into her orbit.Then something shifted
I pulled back and kissed her hard enough to make her laugh against my mouth.She sat up slowly, stretching again. Her back arched, her fingers brushing through her tangled hair. I stayed where I was and watched. She looked like she belonged in that bed, in this house, tangled up in my bond. She looked like something I wanted to chase.She caught me watching and grinned. "You going to just stare or get up?"I reached for her again. "We'll run. Just not yet."She smacked my chest lightly and rolled away, climbing out of bed. I followed.She didn't bother with real clothes. Just grabbed one of my shirts off the floor and tugged it over her head with a smirk. The hem hung halfway down her thighs, sleeves loose enough to slip past her hands.I stared."Seriously? That's what you're going with? That shirt's been through hospital visits, a fight, and however many hours of me trying not to fall apart. I probably sweated through it a dozen times. It must smell insane to you now."She stretched
It hit all at once.One second I was halfway to my knees, still trying to breathe through the pull of her shift. The next, my ribs cracked outward and my body folded. I didn't fall. I collapsed.The pain was nothing like the moon-forced change I'd endured before. This wasn't guided or timed. This was raw. A hundred fractures all at once, my limbs pulling and twisting, muscles screaming as they rearranged.I couldn't stop the sound that tore out of my throat."Cassy!"I didn't even know what I was asking. Just that I was begging. My mind reached for her. I was desperate and frantic.Her voice came, faint and steady."You're never selfish, so you would've never asked."Bones popped in my jaw. My fingers stretched, then broke, shifting in crooked bursts. I slammed my hand into the dirt and gritted my teeth against the next snap. My skin burned. My eyes blurred.Oh shit.Did she make me...Cassy... Did you do this?Another bone cracked somewhere deep in my back, cutting the thought in hal
We didn’t leave the woods.Not that day. Not that night. I didn’t want to, and neither did she.We ran until our legs trembled. We played, circling and snapping at each other’s heels, tackling and wrestling in the mossy patches of clearing. We swam again, slower this time, more tangled up in each other than anything else. We lay in the grass and the sun, curled together, drowsy and content.And then we shifted.Over and over.Human, wolf, back again. Each shift smoother than the last. No moon. No pain. Not really. Not like the pain I had braced for my entire life. Just choice. Pure choice and ability. The power that came with it was almost addictive. I always wondered what they meant when saying the power overtook the pain. It was raw. It was strong. I loved it.And I loved her.We didn’t talk much, not out loud. But we didn’t need to. We were in each other's heads and had no plans to leave. When we shifted back to skin, we couldn’t stop touching. Couldn’t stop reaching. It was like
DECLAN - We took the long way back to the packhouse. It took far longer than the ten minutes I'd agreed to. Suki was going to give me hell for that. She’d probably time it down to the second and bring it up at dinner, then again at breakfast. I was already prepared to ignore the first three times before I gave in to whatever atonement she had planned. Honestly, I was looking forward to the punishment. Gaia and I fell into old habits. She challenged me to spot tree knots shaped like animals. I told her she was making them up when she did. She called me arbitrary and pronounced it correctly. I lobbed a pinecone at her head. She caught it, grinned, and tucked it into my hood when I wasn't looking. It was familiar. Just two people who used to know every inch of each other, finding the quiet rhythm again without forcing it. When the porch came into view, I slowed. "You and Dorian should stay," I paused. "The east wing at the Roman packhouse is yours if you want it. No strings. Just.
DECLAN - "I'm sorry." I looked over. She kept her eyes forward. Hands shoved into the front pocket of her hoodie. Shoulders stiff. We walked side by side. The trees closed in around us while the porch lights faded behind. Neither of us said anything for a long time. Our feet crunched through the undergrowth. The breeze rolled between us. I didn't try to close the space. Neither did she. But neither of us veered away either. The remains of the old house peeked through the trees. Blackened beams and collapsed stone still scattered across the clearing. A skeleton. A memory. "For how I rejected you. And for not telling you why." I didn't answer until we reached the house. "You didn't just reject me. You vanished." She flinched. "I know." "So why?" She took a deep breath and stopped walking. Her eyes stayed on what was left of the front steps. "I'd gotten the call. The implant was finally approved, and they found a werewolf doctor who could do it. It was scheduled. It was final
DECLAN - That was her fated mate.It was written in the way he tracked her every move, in how he hovered just close enough to guard but not crowd. His posture said protector. His eyes, sharp and constantly scanning, said no one would get within reach unless she wanted them to. He moved like he'd been made for that role. Like every instinct in his body had clicked into place the moment he met her.He moved like he already belonged next to her.Judson finally spoke. "This going to be a thing now? Fated mates falling out of the sky onto your porch?" Then he squinted. "Wait. No way. Dorian?"The other man stepped forward, arms crossed. "Judson."Judson huffed. "Damn, talk about the sky falling. Of course it's you."Gaia looked between them. "Wait. How do you know him?"Judson tilted his head toward Dorian but didn't look away. "Med school. He was top of the class. Never let anyone forget it. Ever."Dorian crossed his arms. "And you were always one sarcastic comment away from getting kic
DECLAN - "You're not gonna pout if I drink the last one, are you?"Judson didn't even glance over. "Only if you waste it."I reached for the bottle closest to him, smirking when he didn't try to stop me.Crickets chirped loudly in the trees. The house behind us had finally gone still. It was peaceful.A lazy row of empty beer bottles lined the railing like some halfhearted scoreboard. Judson leaned back again, one ankle hooked over the other, shoulders loose. That rare kind of settled that only happened when nothing needed to be said.We were both quiet. Not the kind of silence that needed filling, just the kind that held space. The kind that made it really easy to notice how much I liked having him here. Judson wasn't soft, but he didn't crowd either. There was something about the way he held space, like he understood exactly how not to mess it up. I hadn't realized how rare that was until I felt it.Until headlights swept across the tree line.Judson didn't move, but I straightened
DECLAN - I squinted. "So... you left your pack?"Judson shook his head. "Not really. My sister's mate stepped in. Human guy, believe it or not. Doctor. Weirdly chill. He helps now with the medical side, which freed me up to go to college and train properly. They all said it made sense. I guess... I just haven't thought much about what I was gonna do after."He paused, then shrugged. "Now I get it. I wasn't supposed to leave the South yet. I was supposed to be here. Meeting her. If I'd been back in North Carolina, this wouldn't have happened. Or it would've taken years."He looked out toward the trees. "So no. I didn't leave them. I just followed where I was needed next."I blinked. "You live on the Riverwalk."He grinned. "I know. Kind of perfect, right? It's loud on the weekends and peaceful at sunrise. Plus, amazing food within walking distance."I stared at him.He raised his bottle. "Look, I didn't plan to meet my mate while helping chart bloodwork samples in a borrowed lab, but
DECLAN -When we pulled into the driveway, Dad and Linc were already waiting.They didn't speak, but I felt something in the way they stood there. At the time, I'd figured they were just sizing up Judson, doing the protective dad routine. But now, after everything Judson had said, it clicked in a way that made my chest feel too tight.They already knew.Not just about Judson. About what he might be. About how important he was going to be. Just like they'd known about Mom. Just like they'd kept it all quiet. For me.I'd spent so long thinking I was figuring all of this out on my own. That the timing was random, or fate, or whatever the hell else. But maybe it wasn't. Maybe Cassy hadn't just guided me.Maybe my whole damn family had. Perhaps they'd been walking beside me the entire time, keeping quiet so I could come to it on my own.Judson wasn't the surprise.I was.They stood at the edge of the porch, arms crossed, matching unreadable expressions locked in place. The second we still,
I stepped forward and stifled the growl as best I could. "Hey. Get up. Now!"The guy startled awake. "What?"Tory shot up in the bed, wide-eyed. "Declan, no! No, wait! This is... this is Judson."She looked panicked. But not afraid. Not at all."He's... he's my..."I stopped. Everything shifted. I looked at her. Looked at him. Looked back."You're mate."She nodded.I took a breath. Held it. Then stepped forward and stuck out my hand. Judson stood, still looking like he expected me to deck him. He shook my hand. I shook his harder.Tory glanced between us, then spoke up. "He's a nurse practitioner here. Was walking past the ICU when I first came in. Caught my scent in the hallway and almost dropped his coffee."Judson rubbed his hand where I'd gripped it "I tried to play it cool. Avoided eye contact, walked the long way around, you know, the usual 'don't poke the angry fathers and big brother' protocol. I thought I was being slick about it too. Barely even looked at her. Just nodded a
We didn’t leave the woods.Not that day. Not that night. I didn’t want to, and neither did she.We ran until our legs trembled. We played, circling and snapping at each other’s heels, tackling and wrestling in the mossy patches of clearing. We swam again, slower this time, more tangled up in each other than anything else. We lay in the grass and the sun, curled together, drowsy and content.And then we shifted.Over and over.Human, wolf, back again. Each shift smoother than the last. No moon. No pain. Not really. Not like the pain I had braced for my entire life. Just choice. Pure choice and ability. The power that came with it was almost addictive. I always wondered what they meant when saying the power overtook the pain. It was raw. It was strong. I loved it.And I loved her.We didn’t talk much, not out loud. But we didn’t need to. We were in each other's heads and had no plans to leave. When we shifted back to skin, we couldn’t stop touching. Couldn’t stop reaching. It was like
It hit all at once.One second I was halfway to my knees, still trying to breathe through the pull of her shift. The next, my ribs cracked outward and my body folded. I didn't fall. I collapsed.The pain was nothing like the moon-forced change I'd endured before. This wasn't guided or timed. This was raw. A hundred fractures all at once, my limbs pulling and twisting, muscles screaming as they rearranged.I couldn't stop the sound that tore out of my throat."Cassy!"I didn't even know what I was asking. Just that I was begging. My mind reached for her. I was desperate and frantic.Her voice came, faint and steady."You're never selfish, so you would've never asked."Bones popped in my jaw. My fingers stretched, then broke, shifting in crooked bursts. I slammed my hand into the dirt and gritted my teeth against the next snap. My skin burned. My eyes blurred.Oh shit.Did she make me...Cassy... Did you do this?Another bone cracked somewhere deep in my back, cutting the thought in hal