Chapter 12 #2
Their bodies revealed their strength and capability. They were men in their prime, and here in the middle of the forest, without the false trappings of society and “civilization”—all the things she’d once dedicated her life to preserving—they were more potent than ever.
“Last night,” she continued, “I saw you in those forms. And while I was afraid at first, I realized how beautiful all of you are. How much I reveled in your power and freedom. How I…” She swallowed. “How I desired you.”
Leaves beneath their bare feet crackled as the men shifted their weight from foot to foot.
“Do you recall,” she pressed on, “as I do, me joining my body with Ezra? How you’d taken pleasure from watching me, and I…I’d never felt so strong or true to myself as I did at that moment. Wanting all of you. Needing you more than I’d ever needed anyone. I saw you, and I loved what I saw.”
When they remained silent, she said, “Mowbray, Page, the Guardians, they think of you as something abhorrent and shameful. The truth is that you’re all beautiful and wondrous.
No one should be able to tell you that you’re detestable or that you don’t deserve to live.
They haven’t the right. This is how you’re made, and it’s marvelous. ”
Ezra made a low sound, a rumble in his chest, echoed by Tej and Rhys.
“Make the choice to become the other part of yourself,” she urged. “That part should be celebrated, not shamed. I have faith in you. In all of you.”
One by one, she walked to each of them and placed her hand on the center of their chests, looking up into their eyes for long moments, letting them see in her eyes her admiration, her need, and the belief she possessed that they were indeed most extraordinary and miraculous beings.
And she kissed them, each in turn, so they could feel the truth of her heart. It didn’t feel wrong to kiss three different men in succession. Nothing about this, or them, felt wrong.
She moved so that she stood in the center of the circle they made.
“This is the time,” she said. “Now is the moment.”
As she spoke, her body grew alive, potent. It flowed beneath her skin, a power she’d never experienced before. It electrified her like lightning, sparking through her veins and in her blood and bones. She drew it in from the forest and the night sky and the living energy of the world around her.
Invisible currents entered through her fingertips, the strands of her hair, and her toes curling into the loam of the earth, drawing from the night sky above her. Bright and hot and alive.
How could this be happening? Until this moment, she’d been an ordinary human. There was no magic in this world. Yet there was—Ezra, Rhys, and Tej proved it.
She’d never possessed any magical ability.
But something uncanny and extraordinary was happening.
It was like drawing back curtains and opening a window, expecting to see the same view of storefronts and alleys one had seen every day for twenty-eight years, only to discover outside a forest of towering oaks and dinner-plate sized flowers.
Whatever its origin, however it came to be, this power wasn’t only for her. It was for Tej, Rhys, and Ezra, too. What belonged to her, she needed to give to them.
An impulse had her lifting her hands, palms up, fingers splaying. Unseen energy welled.
Eyes shining, Ezra, Rhys, and Tej watched her. Instinct guided her to funnel the power into them.
“This is yours to accept or refuse,” she whispered, “as you desire.”
“This is what I want,” Ezra answered on a growl.
“As do I,” Tej seconded.
“And me,” Rhys said.
She sensed the three of them willingly taking energy into themselves, absorbing it.
As she stared, their eyes began to glow—silver for Ezra, gold for Rhys, and a brilliant dark light in Tej’s eyes. Yet that was all that happened. They didn’t shift or transform, their bodies remaining the same.
She bared her teeth in frustration. “The power I’m giving you isn’t enough. I need more to make your transformation complete. But what?”
“You…” Ezra rumbled. He glanced between her and the gibbous moon overhead. “You complete the moon.”
“When you’re with us,” Rhys growled, “it’s always full.”
“Always powerful,” Tej said.
She looked up at the moon, missing its tiny sliver as it waned.
Yet she was there, too, in that dark crescent, illuminating what was in shadow.
That connection she’d felt whenever the moon was full, its power and potency that always resonated in her body when it was full…
she didn’t need its fullness now. It was in her.
It strengthened her. She took that brightness and guided it into them.
They hunched over, gathering into themselves. Their bodies lengthened, shifted, grew broad and even more powerful as thick hair covered their muscles. Unlike when they had transformed beneath the full moon, this seemed intentional, a purposeful shifting from man to wolf.
They stretched tall, and their hands elongated into claws while their feet grew longer. White fangs sprouted in their mouths, which turned into muzzles. They growled and snarled as their bodies changed.
How potent to see, and formidable, this deliberate choice to embrace all that they were, the wildness and the ferocity and the strength that came from themselves.
Within moments, they had fully transformed into their wolfish forms. They towered over her, part of the forest and yet distinct.
Tipping their heads back, they howled into the night.
Every hair lifted on the backs of Jessica’s arms. The nerves spreading through her were lit by unseen charges. She’d helped guide this power into them, and yet she was still abundant with its force and energy, as though they fed each other with their strength.
“I didn’t think it possible,” Ezra rumbled in his rough wolf voice. “I’d heard—”
He tilted his head.
“More are coming,” Tej snarled.
Ezra glanced at her.
“Let’s hunt the hunters,” she said.