he fire racing through her veins. She was dimly aware of her body changing, of bones shifting and muscles rearranging themselves, of fur pushing throu

the floor of her cabin, her nails, no, her claws, scoring deep grooves in the wood. She thrashed

r, that ancient female

nded. "Stop fighting.

no mouth to speak with, no lungs to dra

little one, broken and cast aside and left to die. But you did not die. You survived. Y

thought of Damien then, of his rejection, of the way he had looked at her and seen nothing. She thought of the years of loneliness, of being told she was wolfl

stopped

old friend. She let the fire consume her, let the transformation

instantaneous

tirely. She felt the shift like a key turning in a lock, like a door opening that had been sealed

yes, and the wor

ever been able to perceive. Scents assaulted her nose, a thousand different smells that told her stories about the world around her, about t

tterns that felt alien and natural at the same time. She looked down at herself and saw not human ha

as a

that went far beyond anything she had ever heard of. She was larger than any wolf should be, her frame muscular and

nlight made solid, gleaming with an inner luminescence that seeme

rds came out as a growl, a rumble of

e, satisfaction, a sense of completion. "You are what they tried to destroy.

s of powerful she-wolves who surpassed even the strongest Alphas, rare beings chosen by the Moon Goddess he

eren't

ehow, impossibl

our legs instead of two, feeling the wind in her fur and the earth beneath her paws. Hunting, her instincts taking over, guiding her to prey that she brought down with a efficienc

hilarated, her body aching in ways that felt good, that felt right, th

ping on a familiar garment than being torn apart and reassembled. She stood in the center of her cabin, n

d back at her was a

. Her eyes, once dull brown, glowed with an inner blue light that seemed to pulse in time with her heartbeat. Her thin,

er been before, a crescent moon glowed softly agains

her other half, the part of herself that had been dormant for twenty-one years, waiting for the right mom

had looked at her and seen weakness, who had cast her

see if he look

him, to show him what he had thrown away, to make him regret every word he had spoken in that great hall. But she pushed the

g. She would use this gift, this power, this second chance at life, to become s

agreement. "We will learn everything we can do, everything we can become. And

there was a hunger in its voice, a desire for

" Aria replied, her new eyes glowing with determ

ster than any werewolf should be able to, wounds closing in hours instead of days. She could sense the emotions of those around her, feeling their fear, their anger, their joy a

e coul

ow to use her speed and agility to overcome opponents who outweighed her by hundreds of pounds. She practiced against the creat

trembled before Damien Blackmoor was gone, replaced by a woman who knew her own powe

wilderness became familiar, her life became something she had never expecte

day, she fou

mmitted, others for simply being different, a few for refusing to submit to Alphas they didn't respect. They were livi

gerous, certainly unpredictable. But when she looked at them, she saw herself. She saw the sam

cision that would

hem what she was. Offered them her pro

acc

hat she was, what she could become, what she offered them that no one else ever had

five months settle onto her shoulders. She wasn't the same girl who had knelt before Damien Blackmoo

Luna, leader of the outcast

just getti

, a reminder of the world she had left behind. Aria looked at those towers sometimes, thinking about the man who lived

e moment she had embraced her wolf and discovered who she really was. He was just a man, flawed and foo

tory, she would show him exactly what he had rejected. She would show him the stren

tood, once and for all, that the

sen Aria fo

entire world woul