Chapter 14
Krystal
In the hush before sunrise, I stood with my hands jammed in my hoodie, watching the pack gather in ones and twos at the edge of a clearing.
The run was supposed to be for the kids.
Every first Saturday, Nathan and a half-dozen grown wolves put on a show for the ones too young to shift.
The ritual was as much for the adults, though, because letting our wolves run and play with the kids created bonds and trust. A health pack built on love.
A way to remind ourselves we still belonged to something bigger than a mortgage and a car payment.
I was always the first to arrive, unless Nathan beat me to it.
Today, he loomed at the center of the clearing, a silhouette of squared shoulders and dad jeans, jaw already set in that I-am-the-alpha way he tried and failed to disguise as laid back.
His daughter, Elle, trailed him in wolf form, already barking at the younger ones to line up.
Elle had her first shift a few months ago.
Behind me, Bryce’s sneakers crunched gravel.
He came pelting out of the brush with three more kids, all of them high on a pre-run sugar rush.
My son led the charge, face flushed and freckled, his favorite baseball tee already streaked with sap and who knew what else.
He didn’t see me until he was almost at the clearing, then doubled back, nearly falling in his hurry.
"Mom! Did you see me? I was first!" He threw himself at my waist, all knees and elbows.
"You tripped twice," I said, ruffling his hair, "but you stuck the landing. I’m proud."
He grinned, then darted away, too much energy for one human body.
Around the perimeter, parents and a couple of grandparent wolves clustered in their flannels and running shoes, a parade of rugged outdoor-catalog rejects.
I clocked Rissa and Tavi near the fallen log, both coffee-cupped and judging the crowd with synchronized head-tilts.
Tavi wore a vintage bomber and floral Doc Martens, her laugh interrupting the quiet.
Rissa had on paint-spattered leggings and the kind of ancient, pilled sweatshirt only a teacher could wear without irony. They waved me over.
Nathan caught my look and gave a chin-jerk of acknowledgement. The run would start soon. I jogged over to Rissa and Tavi, slipping into the old rhythm.
"Hey, Krys!" Rissa said. "You look like you actually slept last night."
"Maybe an hour. I have the coffee shakes to prove it." I flopped down next to her, the log cold against my ass. "How’s the classroom?"
She made a face. "Chaos, but I love every minute of it."
Tavi shot her a sidelong glance. "Says the woman who painted her entire living room instead of grading science projects."
"I can multitask," Rissa protested.
Bryce bellowed from the center of the clearing, "Mom! Are you coming or what?"
Nathan was calling the kids to order, and the grownups were starting to circle up.
"Go on," Tavi said, nudging me. "I’ll keep your spot warm."
I wriggled out of my jeans and hoodie in three efficient moves.
Around me, other adults did the same, some more modest than others.
No one here cared about nudity. Being shifters, the pre-shift strip-down was as ritualized as grace before a meal.
Clothes folded, boots lined up, jewelry stashed in plastic bags for after.
Bryce hovered, vibrating with anticipation. "Can I ride on your back today? Can I? Please?"
I knelt, kissed the tip of his nose, and whispered, "Only if you hang on tighter than last time."
He solemnly stuck out his pinkie. "Promise."
With the sun lifting over the treetops, the clearing filled with a low, murmuring energy.
Some of the wolves had been up all night.
Some carried the weight of work, arguments, or the kind of heartbreak that never left, not even in a world with magic and pack and tradition.
But when the time came, the only thing that mattered was the change.
It started with Nathan, as always. He planted his feet, stretched his neck, and let the shift take him. His skin rippled, hair flowed, and bones rearranged with a series of deep pops, the air around him vibrating with old, wild power.
One by one, the others followed. The older kids who could shift first, then the adults. Some made a show of it. Some just blinked and let the wolf come forward, smooth and silent as breathing. When it was my turn, I found my footing, shut my eyes, and let go.
My heart stuttered, then caught. My skin burst with silver, and my jaw realigned, teeth lengthening, nose flattening, the world reshaping itself around sound and scent. I opened my eyes, and the world was perfect.
I shook out my fur, muscles pulsing under the surface, every sense dialed up to eleven. All the usual human junk, taxes, texts, last night’s argument with Bryce about bedtime, faded out, and the pack became everything.
Bryce climbed onto my back, fisting my fur at the top of my shoulders.
The signal came, Nathan’s howl, echoing down the hill, and we surged forward, a wall of muscle and intent, streaking through the trees with a precision no army could match.
The first rush was always the best. Air cold and wild in my lungs, paws slamming earth, Bryce’s giggles vibrating down my spine as he whooped and hollered, "Faster, Mom! You’re the fastest, go! "
I obeyed, flying over downed branches and through bramble, every step a memory of the life I’d almost lost to exile and mistakes.
The others fanned out beside me, Rissa, lean and black-furred, always three steps ahead.
Tavi, a cinnamon-banded wolf, snapping playfully at my heels.
Even Elle, still learning her stride, biting at the back of the pack.
We ran for miles. The route wasn’t about distance, but about shedding everything that weighed us down. At one point, Rissa cut left, and I followed, dodging a thicket, the wind full of moss and raw growth.
I let the wolf drive, instincts guiding me, until the world narrowed to speed and light and the sound of my son’s heartbeat against my spine.
For the first time in days, I didn’t think about Zaden.
Or the spell my mother had sewn into my bones.
Or what would happen to me, or Bryce, when the magic unraveled.
When the run ended, the pack tumbled into a shallow creek at the bottom of the ridge, all of us panting. Bryce slid off my back to splash water at the others. Elle tackled him in wolf form, and for a moment they were nothing but kids, wild and unburdened.
I watched them, content.
After a while, the adults shifted back. I changed slowly, letting my human shape settle before pulling on the hoodie and jeans. One of the adults who'd stayed in her skin to help watch the kids had brought all of our clothes to the creek.
We plopped down, sweat cooling on our skin. Bryce darted between us and the water, orbiting me as always.
"So," Rissa said, nudging me, "what’s been going on with you?"
I thought about lying, but I was too tired for it. "My own mother placed a spell on me so I ‘could make better choices’ and it blocked my ability to recognize my mate."
Tavi stared at me open-mouthed. "She did what? Does Nathan know?"
I glanced around to see how close my uncle was. He was a few yards away, playing with a group of kids in the water. "No, he doesn’t, and I don’t really want to tell him because he’s gonna go all Alpha on my mother."
Rissa whistled under her breath. "That’s… a lot."
Tavi’s jaw clenched. "It’s a violation, Krys. No witch should ever cast on family without consent. No wolf, either."
I shrugged, trying to make it a joke, but my hands wouldn’t stop shaking. "I guess Eleanor wanted to keep me from making stupid decisions."
Rissa put a hand on my shoulder. "You never did anything stupid. Not even once. You took care of your boy, you found a place for yourself. You didn’t lose your mind."
The silence sat between us for a minute, but Tavi broke it with a snort. "What does this mean for you and Zaden? I assume he is your mate, right?"
I didn’t answer right away. Bryce was playing chicken with the freezing creek water, daring himself closer every time. He glanced over his shoulder, checking to see if I was watching.
I said, "I don’t know. I think about him all the time, but now it’s worse. Or better. Or I don’t know what it is. It’s like the feelings I had were just ghosts, and now they’re real. Too real."
Tavi nodded. "You want him?"
"Yes. But it scares me. I don’t know how to be this person. The one who feels everything. What if I become this emotional mess once she lifts the block?"
Rissa squeezed my arm, her face all soft. "You get to decide what you do with it, Krys. Not your mom, not the pack, not anyone. We’re here, no matter what."
Tavi grinned. "And if the dragon breaks your heart, I’ll rip out his spleen."
I laughed, and it felt like the first true one in weeks. After another brief span of silence, I whispered as quietly as I possibly could, "Zaden is Bryce’s dad." I was pretty sure nobody but Tavi and Rissa heard, even with all our advanced wolf hearing.
Rissa and Tavi stared at me, both with mouths hanging open. It was Tavi who finally spoke. "He’s the one-and-done?"
I nodded. "I need to tell him now that I know. But I also need to tell Bryce, and I don’t know how."
Rissa nodded. "Yeah. Wow, that is tough. But you have to be honest and hope for the best."
They had a million more questions about how Zaden could possibly be the Nashville one-night stand, most of which I couldn't answer.
The coincidence of it all was overwhelming.
"I guess fate brought us together even before he was able to feel the mating bond.
If he couldn't feel it, I couldn't, even if it was before my mom put the spell on me. "