Kade POV
"She's going to shift."
The words came out of my mouth before I could stop them. I stared at Raven collapsed in the hallway, her body trembling, sweat pouring down her face. The scent rolling off her was unmistakable—pre-shift pheromones, thick and powerful.
Impossible. She was wolfless. Everyone knew that.
But my wolf knew differently. He was going absolutely insane inside my head, pacing and snarling and pushing against my control like he'd never done before.
Go to her. Protect. OURS.
"What?" Celeste appeared beside me, following my gaze. When she saw Raven on the floor, her face twisted with disgust. "Oh, for Moon Goddess's sake. Is she having another attention-seeking episode? On my engagement night?"
"Get back inside," I said, not taking my eyes off Raven. "Now."
Something in my voice—the Alpha command I rarely used on Celeste—made her pause. But only for a second.
"You can't be serious. We're about to cut the cake. Your father is waiting to give his speech about our future. You can't just—"
"I said get inside!" The command came out as a growl.
Celeste flinched, and hurt flashed across her face. Good. I needed her gone. I needed everyone gone. Because if Raven shifted right here, right now, everything my father had planned would fall apart.
Celeste stormed back into the ballroom. I heard her tell people I was "handling a small issue" in her sweetest voice. Playing the perfect future Luna even when I'd just snapped at her.
I should feel guilty about that. I didn't.
I walked toward Raven slowly, my wolf fighting me with every step. He wanted to run to her. Wanted to shift and protect her through the change. Wanted things that made absolutely no sense.
She looked up at me, and I saw fear in her violet eyes. Not the usual wariness she showed around me—real, bone-deep terror.
"Stay away from me," she gasped out. "Please. Just... just go back to your party."
"You're shifting." I crouched down, keeping my distance. "How is that possible? You're seventeen. You should have shifted a year ago if you had a wolf at all."
"I don't know!" Her voice cracked. "I don't know what's happening. It hurts. Everything hurts."
For just a second, I felt something I'd never felt around Raven Ashford before—sympathy. She looked so small, so scared, so completely alone.
Then my father's training kicked in. Emotion is weakness. Never show weakness.
"Can you stand?" I asked, making my voice cold and professional. "You need to get outside. If you shift in the pack house, you'll destroy half the hallway. The cost of repairs—"
"I'm sorry." Tears streamed down her face. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to ruin everything. I never mean to."
Something about those words—I never mean to—hit me wrong. Like I'd heard them before. Like she'd been apologizing for existing her whole life.
My wolf snarled at me. You made her feel this way. You. Your cruelty.
I shoved the thought away. "Come on. I'll help you to the forest."
I reached for her arm, and the second my skin touched hers, electricity shot through me. Not painful—the opposite. It felt like everything in my body suddenly woke up and paid attention.
Raven gasped. She felt it too. I could see it in her wide eyes.
"What was that?" she whispered.
"Static shock. Dry air." I pulled my hand back fast. "Can you walk or not?"
She nodded and tried to stand, but her legs gave out. Without thinking, I caught her. The electricity came back stronger, and my wolf practically purred with satisfaction.
Yes. Touch. Ours. Protect.
"Shut up," I muttered.
"What?" Raven looked at me confused.
"Nothing. Talking to my wolf. He's being... difficult."
I helped her toward the back door, supporting most of her weight. She was lighter than I expected. How had I never noticed how small she actually was? How breakable?
We made it outside just as another wave hit her. She cried out and collapsed onto the grass. I knelt beside her, my hands hovering uselessly. I'd seen dozens of first shifts. I knew what to expect. But watching Raven go through it felt different somehow.
"Breathe," I told her. "Just breathe through it. Your wolf is coming. Don't fight her."
"Easy for you to say," she panted. "You're not the one whose bones are breaking."
Fair point.
Her back arched, and I heard the distinctive crack of bones beginning to reshape. This was it. The actual shift was starting.
"Kade!" My father's voice boomed from the pack house. "Where the hell are you? We're waiting!"
I looked back toward the party, then down at Raven writhing in pain on the ground.
Go back to the engagement party and play the perfect son. That's what I should do. That's what I'd been trained to do my entire life—put pack politics first, always.
But my wolf had other ideas. He pushed forward hard enough that I felt my eyes flash gold.
Don't leave her. Don't you dare.
"Kade!" My father again, closer now.
"Go," Raven gasped. "Please just go. I don't want anyone to see this. I don't want them to see me fail at shifting too."
Fail? She thought she'd fail?
"You're not going to fail," I said, surprising myself. "Your wolf is strong. I can feel her. She's—"
The words died in my throat as Raven's body fully gave in to the shift. Her spine curved. Her skin rippled. And power—raw, ancient, overwhelming power—exploded outward from her in waves.
I'd never felt anything like it. Not from my father. Not from any Alpha I'd ever met.
What the hell was she?
The shift completed in seconds—faster than any first shift should be. Where Raven had been, a massive wolf now stood. But not the typical brown or gray wolves our pack produced.
This wolf was pure midnight black with silver markings along her face. Her eyes glowed violet—the same shade as Raven's human eyes. And she was big. Almost as big as my Alpha wolf.
A shadow wolf.
My blood went cold. Shadow wolves were extinct. They'd died out generations ago. They were the original shifter bloodline—ancient, powerful, and incredibly rare.
Which meant Raven Ashford, the "defective" girl everyone mocked, came from a bloodline more powerful than anyone in Moonridge Pack.
The shadow wolf's eyes locked on mine, and that's when it happened.
The mate bond snapped into place like a rubber band pulled too tight and released. It hit me so hard I actually stumbled backward. Every cell in my body suddenly screamed the same thing:
MINE. MATE. OURS.
No. No, no, no.
This couldn't be happening. My mate was supposed to be Celeste. We'd been engaged since we were kids. My father had arranged everything. The alliance between our families, the political benefits, the future of the pack—it all depended on me marrying Celeste.
But the Moon Goddess had other plans.
She'd given me Raven Ashford—the girl I'd tortured for years. The girl I'd called defective. The girl I'd pushed into mud and laughed at and made cry more times than I could count.
The shadow wolf shifted back to human form, and Raven knelt on the grass, naked and shaking. Someone's jacket appeared—I didn't even realize I'd taken mine off until I was wrapping it around her shoulders.
She looked up at me with those violet eyes, and I saw the exact moment she felt it too. The bond. The connection. The horrible, impossible truth.
"No," she whispered. "Anyone but you."
Behind us, footsteps approached. My father, probably, coming to drag me back to the party.
But I couldn't move. Couldn't think. Couldn't do anything except stare at my mate—the one person in the world I'd made sure knew she was worthless.
Raven stood up, my jacket clutched around her, and her expression went from shock to something harder. Colder.
"I, Raven Ashford," she said clearly, her voice not shaking at all, "reject—"
"Wait!" I grabbed her arm without thinking. "Don't. Please. Just wait a second. We need to talk about this."
"Talk?" She laughed, but it sounded broken. "You've spent years making sure I knew exactly what you thought of me. There's nothing to talk about."
"Raven, I—"
"I reject you, Kade Thornwell, as my mate."
The words hit like a physical blow. Pain exploded through my chest—worse than any injury I'd ever taken. The bond, barely formed, started tearing apart.
My wolf howled in agony. I dropped to my knees, gasping for air.
"No," I choked out. "You can't. The bond—you have to accept—"
"I don't have to do anything anymore." She looked down at me with no pity. No emotion at all. "You taught me that some people aren't worth the effort. Congratulations. I finally learned the lesson."
She walked away into the forest, leaving me collapsed on the grass.
And somewhere behind me, I heard my father's voice: "What in the Moon Goddess's name is going on out here?"