Chapter 14
STELLAN
Ifeel her changing.
The wolf stirs beneath her skin, ancient instincts waking in a body that was never designed to contain them but is learning anyway.
She dreams of running on four legs, of hunting beneath the moon, of howling her joy into a sky that finally understands her language.
Sometimes she whimpers in her sleep, her muscles twitching as the wolf tests the boundaries of her flesh.
I pull her closer when that happens, letting my presence anchor her through the transformation neither of us can control.
The conversion takes days.
I've seen wolves turned before, watched humans accept the bite and emerge changed on the other side.
But I've never witnessed it from inside a bond, never felt the transformation rippling through someone whose soul is tethered to mine.
Every change in her body echoes through our connection.
When her senses sharpen, the world brightens around her and I taste the difference.
When her temperature spikes with the wolf's growing presence, fever bleeds into me until I burn alongside her.
When the pain comes, I absorb what I can and hold her through what I cannot take.
She does not complain. She grits her teeth and rides each wave with the same stubborn determination she brought to everything else since arriving at my keep. Helena trained her well. Iris knows how to endure.
But this is not just endurance. This is becoming something new.
The first few days are the hardest. Her body fights the change even as it accepts the wolf, human biology struggling to accommodate something it was never built to contain.
She runs fevers that would kill a normal human, sweating through the sheets while I press cool cloths to her forehead and murmur reassurances she probably cannot hear.
She vomits everything she tries to eat until Signe prepares broths thin enough for her altered stomach to accept.
She sleeps in fits and starts, waking with wild eyes and a racing heart, reaching for me before she remembers where she is.
I do not leave her side. Torben handles the pack business, the integration of Korren's surviving wolves, the thousand details that follow victory in war. I trust him to manage what I cannot, because nothing matters more than being here when Iris opens her eyes and searches for my face.
Finally, the fever breaks.
She wakes clear-eyed and ravenous, demanding real food with a sharpness that makes me laugh despite the exhaustion weighing on us both.
I send for meat and bread and cheese, enough to feed three wolves, and watch her devour it with an appetite that would have horrified her human sensibilities a week ago.
The wolf is asserting herself, rewriting Iris's instincts from the inside out.
She will never look at a rare steak the same way again.
"I can hear the changing of the guards," she says between bites, her head tilted toward the window. "Three floors down and through stone walls. How do you stand it?"
"You learn to filter. The wolf knows what matters and what doesn't. She'll teach you."
Iris pauses with bread halfway to her mouth, her expression turning inward. "She's getting louder. The voice in my head. It used to be a whisper, but now it's..." She trails off, searching for words. "It's like having a second heartbeat. A second set of instincts layered over my own."
"That's normal. The wolf is part of you now, not a separate entity. You'll integrate eventually, learn to move as one instead of two minds sharing the same body."
"How long does that take?"
"Different for everyone." I reach across the space between us and cup her jaw, tilting her face toward mine. "Some converts find their balance within weeks. Others take months. However long it takes, I'll be here."
Gratitude floods the bond, tangled with fear and a relentless determination to master this new existence she never asked for but refuses to let defeat her. I kiss her forehead and let her finish eating, content to simply watch her grow stronger by the hour.
Signe comes twice daily to monitor the conversion's progress.
The healer's pale eyes miss nothing as she checks Iris's vitals, tests her reflexes, asks questions designed to gauge how fully the wolf has integrated.
When she declares the physical transformation complete, what remains is mental, emotional—the work of learning to live as two beings in one body.
"She's strong," Signe tells me privately while Iris bathes in the adjoining chamber. "Stronger than I expected. Most converts struggle with the wolf's instincts for weeks, but she's already finding ways to work with them instead of against them."
"Helena trained her to adapt. To survive anything."
"Helena trained her to fight." Signe's gaze holds mine with uncomfortable directness.
"You trained her to trust. That's the difference.
A convert who fights the wolf tears themselves apart.
But Iris has learned to stop fighting. She surrendered to you, and that taught her how to surrender to the change. "
The observation lands harder than I expect.
I think of all the ways I pushed her, all the times I demanded submission she did not want to give.
I told myself it was for her own good, that breaking down her resistance would save her life when the bond completed and the conversion began.
But hearing Signe name it so plainly makes me wonder if my motives were ever as selfless as I claimed.
"She's ready for the ceremony," Signe continues, either oblivious to my discomfort or choosing to ignore it. "Tomorrow night, under the full moon. The pack needs to see their luna whole and strong."
"And the shift?"
"If the moon calls her, she'll answer." Signe pauses, considering. "The first transformation usually happens within the first lunar cycle after conversion. Given how quickly she's progressed, I wouldn't be surprised if tomorrow is the night."
Tomorrow. My wolf stirs with anticipation at the thought of running beside our mate, of seeing her emerge in her true form for the first time.
I have imagined this moment for years, long before she knew I existed, long before the blood pact brought her to my door. The reality is finally within reach.
"Prepare the ceremonial grounds," I tell Signe. "And spread the word. Tomorrow night, Iris takes her place as Luna of the Northern Pack."
By the time the sun begins its descent toward the mountain peaks the following evening, the great hall has filled with wolves.
They come in silence, filing into the space with a solemnity that speaks to the weight of what they are about to witness.
Pack elders who have served three generations of alphas.
Warriors who bled beside me in the canyon.
Craftsmen and hunters and healers, the backbone of a community that has survived everything the world has thrown at it.
And among them, scattered throughout the crowd, the wolves who doubted my choice of mate.
The ones who whispered about weakness and human fragility and an alpha led astray by his cock.
Let them watch. Let them see what Iris has become.
She stands beside me on the raised dais, dressed in ceremonial leathers that mark her as mine.
The conversion has changed her in subtle ways that only wolf eyes would notice.
She holds herself differently, weight balanced on the balls of her feet, ready to move in any direction.
Her gaze sweeps the crowd with predatory awareness, cataloging threats and allies with instincts that did not exist two weeks ago.
And beneath the surface, visible only to me through our link, the wolf paces with restless energy, eager for the moonrise that will finally set her free.
"Wolves of the Northern Pack," I announce, my voice carrying to every corner of the hall. "You know why we gather. You witnessed the battle that secured our territory and destroyed the wolf who dared threaten what is ours. Tonight, we complete what that victory began."
The crowd’s attention sharpens. The surprise on several faces tells me they expected Iris to still be recovering, perhaps too weak to stand before them so soon. They underestimated her. They will not make that mistake again.
"Iris Carswell came to us as payment for a blood debt.
She came unwilling, defiant, convinced that the wolves who claimed her were enemies to be fought rather than family to be joined.
" I pause, letting the words settle. "She was wrong.
But so was I. I thought I was collecting a debt that was owed.
Instead, I found a partner. A warrior. A luna worthy of the name. "
I turn to Iris and extend my hand. She takes it without hesitation, her fingers warm and steady in mine, and together we face the assembled pack.
"The conversion is complete. The bond is sealed.
From this night forward, Iris is wolf. She is luna.
She is mine, and I am hers, and any threat to her is a threat to me.
" I let my gaze sweep the crowd, lingering on the faces of those who questioned my judgment loudest. "Does anyone challenge her claim? "
Silence answers me. Whatever doubts they harbor, none are foolish enough to voice them here, in front of their alpha, with the evidence of her transformation standing proud beside me.
"Then speak, Luna. Let the pack hear your voice."
Iris steps forward, and her nerves flutter against my awareness before she steadies herself. When she speaks, her voice is clear and carries easily despite the size of the hall.