28. Not Yet

It took them over an hour to shift back.

I sat in that chair, frozen, as I watched them, their forms twisted and contorted in pain. I'd never seen it take this long.

But I knew why.

Both were alphas, fighting the shift with everything they had, refusing to back down.

And both of them wanted me. They could sense that as wolves.

Castor snarled, pacing inside his cage. Linc followed every movement.

They couldn't shift back until they accepted the inevitable, and I could feel it dragging out, minute by minute.

It felt like it would never end.

Finally, they started to break. Castor's body began to change, the fur retreating, bones cracking back into place, his form shrinking into the man I knew.

Linc followed soon after, the same agonizing process tearing through him. Their bones snapping echoed in the small basement, and I clenched my fists to avoid reaching out. I couldn't comfort them now.

Not like this.

When it was over, they lay naked and broken on the floor, both gasping for a