Ember's POV
My bones shattered and reformed, and I screamed until my throat was raw.
"Someone help her!" Mom's voice sounded panicked, but distant, like she was underwater.
I didn't want help. I wanted this to STOP. My spine curved backward, cracking like breaking branches. My fingers stretched and twisted, nails turning into claws that tore through the kitchen floor.
This wasn't how first shifts were supposed to feel. I'd heard stories from other wolves—painful, yes, but quick. Thirty seconds of change, then done.
This was different. This was violent. This was POWER ripping its way out of me after being trapped for eighteen years.
"Ember, breathe!" Dad's voice now, closer. Strong hands grabbed my shoulders, trying to hold me steady. "Just let it happen. Don't fight—"
But I WAS fighting. Because that SCENT was getting stronger. Cedarwood and storms. It filled my nose, my lungs, my brain. It was calling me somewhere, demanding I follow, and I would rather die than go to him.
Because I knew. Somehow, through the pain and chaos, I knew that scent belonged to Ryder Kane.
My wolf didn't care about my feelings. She pushed harder, forcing the shift. My jaw stretched and reformed into a muzzle. Fur erupted across my skin—not brown or grey like most wolves, but bright copper-red, like autumn fire.
"Moon Goddess," someone whispered. "Look at her."
The pain reached a peak that made me think I'd die. Then suddenly—like stepping through a door—it was over.
I stood on four legs instead of two. The kitchen looked huge. Smells hit me like punches—old food, cleaning supplies, fear from the humans watching me, and that DAMN cedarwood scent that made my new wolf body vibrate with need.
I looked down at my paws. They were massive. Way bigger than normal wolf paws.
"She's enormous," Dad said, and for the first time in my life, he sounded impressed. "I've never seen a she-wolf this size."
"What's happening?" Vivian pushed through the crowd that had gathered. My perfect sister stared at me with her mouth open. "Ember has a wolf? But she's... she's HUGE."
I wanted to feel happy. Wanted to enjoy their shock. But my wolf was screaming inside my head: FIND HIM. GO TO HIM. MATE.
No. No, I wouldn't. I'd rather rip my own legs off than go find Ryder Kane.
I tried to turn toward the back door, toward the forest, toward escape. But my wolf wouldn't listen. She turned my body toward the front entrance. Toward the training grounds.
Toward HIM.
"Ember, wait!" Mom called out. "You need to learn control before—"
I was already running. My new wolf body moved like lightning, faster than I'd ever imagined possible. I burst through the front door, wood splintering around me. Pack members jumped out of my way, shouting in surprise.
"That's Ember Ashford?"
"Impossible. She's been wolfless for eighteen years!"
"Look at the color of her fur—I've never seen anything like it!"
I didn't care about their whispers. I was too busy fighting my own body, trying to stop my legs from carrying me toward the worst person in the world.
But the scent was like a rope around my neck, pulling me forward. My wolf was in control now, and she wanted only one thing.
Our mate.
I wanted to throw up. Even in wolf form, the idea made me sick. Ryder Kane couldn't be my mate. The Moon Goddess wouldn't be that cruel. She wouldn't pair me with the person who made my life a living nightmare.
But the scent didn't lie. And my wolf's certainty didn't lie. And the way my heart was racing—not from running, but from anticipation—that didn't lie either.
I rounded the corner to the training grounds and there he was.
Ryder stood in the center of the field, sword in hand, mid-swing against a training dummy. Sweat made his dark hair stick to his forehead. His grey eyes were focused, intense, beautiful in a way that made me hate myself for noticing.
Then he froze. The sword clattered to the ground.
His head snapped toward me, those grey eyes going wide. His whole body went stiff, like someone had electrocuted him.
"No," he whispered. But his voice carried across the field. "No, that's not—"
I watched him drop to his knees. Watched his face go from shock to confusion to something that looked like pain. His hand clutched his chest, right over his heart.
He felt it too. The pull. The bond. The horrible, impossible truth.
Other wolves stopped training to stare. Jace, Ryder's best friend, ran over to him. "Ryder? What's wrong? Are you—" He looked at me, then back at Ryder, and his face went pale. "Oh no."
"Tell me that's not Ember Ashford," Ryder said, his voice rough and desperate. "Tell me I'm imagining this."
Jace just stared at him with something like pity.
I wanted to run. Wanted to shift back to human and grab my escape bag and disappear forever. But my wolf was frozen, staring at Ryder Kane like he was the only thing in the world that mattered.
Then he stood up. Took a step toward me. Then another.
"Ember," he said, and my name sounded different in his mouth. Softer. Almost scared. "Is it really you?"
Everything in me screamed to run. Every memory of his cruelty, every moment of pain he'd caused, every reason I hated him—they all told me to turn around and never look back.
But the bond was like steel cables, holding me in place. My wolf WANTED him. Needed him. Would die without him.
And the worst part? Some tiny, traitorous part of my human brain wanted him too. The part that remembered how his smile looked when it was real, not cruel. The part that noticed how protective he was with pack children. The part that wondered what it would feel like if he looked at me with love instead of mockery.
I hated that part of myself.
Ryder took another step closer. His eyes were doing something weird—flickering between grey and gold, like his wolf was fighting for control too.
"I can't believe—" He stopped, swallowed hard. "All this time. You were right here. My mate was right here and I—"
He looked sick. Like he finally understood what he'd done. Who he'd been hurting all these years.
Good. Let him feel sick. Let him drown in guilt.
I forced my wolf to take a step backward. Then another. The bond SCREAMED in protest, like someone was ripping my heart out through my chest. But I kept moving away.
"Ember, wait," Ryder said, and I heard actual panic in his voice. "Please. We need to talk about this. The bond—"
I found my voice then. It came out as a growl—low, dangerous, full of all the rage I'd swallowed for eighteen years.
Ryder flinched like I'd hit him.
More pack members were gathering now. I heard whispers, gasps, someone crying. Through the crowd, I saw Vivian pushing forward, her face twisted with confusion and anger.
"What's going on?" she demanded. "Ryder, why did you stop training? Why is everyone—" She saw me, saw Ryder on his knees staring at me, and her face went white. "No."
The pieces clicked together in her perfect mind. Her fiancé. Her sister. The bond.
"NO!" Vivian screamed, and the sound was pure rage. "This is impossible! You're engaged to ME! The Moon Goddess wouldn't—she CAN'T—"
But she could. And she did.
My wolf finally listened to me. I turned away from Ryder, away from the crowd, away from the disaster my life had become in the span of an hour.
I ran. Not toward escape this time—that dream was dead. I ran toward the forest, toward anywhere that wasn't here, my wolf howling in agony as I put distance between us and our mate.
Behind me, I heard Ryder shout: "EMBER! COME BACK!"
But I was done taking orders from him. Done being hurt by him. Done with all of it.
I'd reject the bond. I'd find a way to break it. I'd do whatever it took to never, ever belong to Ryder Kane.
Even if it killed me.
I was deep in the forest when I finally stopped running, my wolf body exhausted. I shifted back to human without meaning to, the change easier this time. I collapsed against a tree, naked and shaking, trying to process everything.
Then I heard footsteps. Human footsteps, moving fast through the trees.
"Ember!" Ryder's voice echoed through the forest. "I know you're out here! Please, just let me explain—"
I looked around frantically for escape. But my human body was tired, and I didn't know how to shift back to wolf on command yet.
The footsteps got closer. I could see his shadow through the trees.
And then I smelled something else. Something that didn't belong in our territory.
Blood. Fresh blood. And an unfamiliar wolf scent—rogue.
A low growl came from the bushes to my right. Then a huge grey wolf stepped out, its eyes fixed on me. Not on Ryder, who was still crashing through the forest calling my name.
On me. The naked, defenseless, brand-new wolf who didn't know how to fight.
The rogue's lips pulled back, showing teeth meant for killing.
And I realized my escape plan had just turned into a survival plan.