Thorn
cold, flat surface of the Moonstone Altar. The entire pack surrounded th
his was it. The night I would finally meet my wolf, the night
ad drifted apart over the last two years, the chasm of their status and my orphanhood
or Mom and Dad. For Ren.* I had poured every ounce of my being into training, pushi
hant, began the ritual, calling on the M
earing heat erupted from the base of my spine, a wave of pur
pping, grinding, and trying to reshape itself. I knew there would be pain-everyone went through it-but this was a torturous, br
had melted into expressions of alarm. Their own shifts h
ulsing, the simple white dress I wore fo
's happening?" "It's taking too long." "I can he
ony mask, his brow furrowed,
ing loop. But my form remained stubbornly human. The pain built to an unbearable cresce
that. It
ncontrollably. I was covered in sweat and dirt, but t
ng silence fell o
ck as if she'd been burned, her face a mixture of shock and horror. She shook her head slo
red. The whispers
fail
lf who ca
urse! She
o process what had happened. I looked for Desmond, my eyes pleading with him. The alarm
her mouth, but she couldn't hide the look in her eyes. It w
'd be friends forever, no matter what our wolves looked like-surfaced and the
elf up, but my musc
, hissed from the crowd, that
lfl
dart, and it found its
e me, looming over my pathetic, broken form. His eyes held no pity, no compassion. Only the cold, hard
everything I had hoped for, s
h through the grime on my cheek. The sound of the pack's derisi
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