Chapter 25 - Charlize
A part of me still can’t believe that I did that—that I stood my ground against Elder Edgar. It was like I was a completely different being; bolder, fearless.
Maybe I drew my courage from the fact that my wolf was alive and well. Or maybe I drew it from knowing that my lords always have my back no matter what.
Whatever the case, I did stand my ground against oppression instead of cowering in fear. And honestly, it felt really good, especially after all the praise I received from my Alpha Kings.
They all accompany me to my room, and Wayne refuses to shut up about how brave he thinks I am.
They ask to stay the night. All three of them. And I let them. Of course I let them. We’re one big family now.
Sinth curls behind me, steady and warm. Wayne sprawls across the foot of the nest, one hand resting on my ankle like he needs the contact even in sleep. Chris stays closest, his arm draped over my waist, his breathing slow and even against my neck.
I used to think this feeling would never belong to me. Warmth like this. Safety like this. Three men who once looked at me and called me not worth the trouble, now unwilling to leave my side even for a single night.
I love them. All three, differently yet equally. I let myself think the word fully for the first time, no hedging, no fear attached to it.
Sinth loves me steady, patient, like something he’s been waiting his whole life to find without knowing what shape it would take.
Wayne loves me loud and messy, teasing and fierce in equal measure, never quite able to sit still with how much he feels it.
Chris loves me the hardest way—quietly, like a man still relearning how every gentle thing he does costs him more effort than it looks like from the outside.
“You’re thinking too loud,” Wayne mumbles, half-asleep, eyes still closed.
“I didn’t say anything.” My voice is a whisper.
“Didn’t have to.” He cracks one eye open, smiling faintly. “Your heartbeat gives you away, cutie.”
I smile into the dark and let myself drift off surrounded by all three of them. For the first time in my life, I fall asleep without a single fear trailing after me into my dreams.
***
Sinth suggests the wolf run two mornings later, and they take me into the woods. The sun’s rays are filtering through the leaves and tree branches. The sky is clear, the grass still wet from the rain last night.
I stand in the clearing, my heart racing with anticipation as the Alpha Kings take off their shirts, exposing those ripped bodies I’ll never get tired of drooling over.
“Alright, first thing you need to learn about being a wolf is that you and the beast within are one and the same,” Wayne begins, his deep husky voice carrying his usual charisma.
I try my absolute best to pay attention and not be distracted by the sight of their broad chests and chiseled abs.
“Which means you have her strength, her speed, her hearing, her sight…and her healing capabilities. Just in case you spring your ankle or dislocate a bone.”
I swallow hard, knowing I might hurt myself at some point since I’m new at this.
“Don’t worry, we’re here to make sure you don’t hurt yourself,” Sinth says.
“Thank you, that’s refreshing.”
“No, that’s delusional,” Wayne objects. “It’s like getting in the water and expecting not to get wet.”
“Wayne,” Chris calls softly. “You’re not helping.”
“What? I’m just trying to prepare her for the worst.” He spreads out his arms. “When I went on my first run as a wolf, I lost control, ran into an oak tree, and almost fractured my skull.”
“Hmm. That explains a lot,” Sinth teased, hinting at the accident being the reason for Wayne’s irrational behavior.
“Zip it, Sinth—that’s a childhood trauma right there,” he shoots back.
I laugh. “Hopefully, I’m not gonna fracture my skull.”
“I never said I fractured my skull; I said I almost fractured my skull. There’s a difference.”
“We hear you,” Chris chuckles.
Sinth steps forward and looks at me. “I know you’re nervous. But I need you to trust us. Can you do that?”
I nod.
“We’ll teach you how to shift properly so you’ll see the territories the way we see them. Not from a saddle. From the ground.” His voice is so soothing that I can feel my anxiety slowly dissipating into thin air.
“That’s cute, master Sinth,” Wayne says. “Now step aside and let the cutie call out her wolf.”
He does. He steps aside, casting an encouraging look at me. “You’ve got this.”
I close my eyes and draw a deep breath.
It takes longer than I expected, trying to coax my wolf forward the way she came so easily that day on the rocks and in the palace halls.
“Come on, c’mon, c’mon,” I murmur under my breath, eyes squeezed tightly.
She resists, refusing to come out for some reason. I feel awkward and exposed standing there waiting for something to happen.
“It’s not working,” I say, frustrated.
“Maybe she’s shy,” Wayne teases.
It might have been a joke, but it’s not far from the truth. She really might be shy.
“Stop forcing it. Let her come to you instead of the other way around,” Chris says, rolling his neck and shifting mid-sentence. His white-furred form is massive, and his ice-colored eyes stare at me under the morning light.
I close my eyes again and try again.
I think of the clearing in my mind, the silver grass, her voice offering to carry me the rest of the way that night on the rocks.
Come on, I think, quieter this time. Don’t fail me now.
Warmth floods through me, and my body folds down into something smaller, four-legged and unfamiliar.
“She did it,” Sinth says, still human and towering over me.
A strange feeling washes over me, and it’s like all my senses are heightened. My hearing has significantly improved, and I can hear almost every sound around me. Heartbeats, the squealing of gulls in the distance, running water from a stream nearby, and even the stringing of a spiderweb.
My smelling has improved too, and my vision is ten times better. I can see things from a mile away—wild.
I stumble the first few steps, paws tangling awkwardly beneath me, and I hear Wayne’s bark of laughter, sharp and delighted, from somewhere nearby. He’s in his wolf form now. Huge. Thick black fur. Green eyes.
You look like a newborn fawn, he says, and I startle at the sound of his voice arriving directly in my mind instead of through the air.
I can hear you.
Of course you can. We’re Pack now. Mates. His wolf circles me once, playful. Took you long enough to figure out how to run properly, though.
Sinth has turned too; a big brown wolf with amber eyes. He reaches and rubs my head with the under of his neck.
I stumble twice more before something finally clicks. It’s like my legs remember a rhythm they’ve never actually used before. And in a heartbeat, I’m running, actually running, keeping pace with Wayne’s easy lope through the trees.
We cover more ground in an hour than I’ve seen in weeks of riding.
Forestguard’s canopy blurs past overhead, dappled light flickering across the forest floor faster than I can properly track.
The scents hit me first, layered and impossible to separate at this speed—pine, damp earth, some small animal’s trail crossing ours a moment before Wayne veers off to chase it, tongue lolling, entirely too pleased with himself.
Wayne, Sinth says, exasperated even through the bond. We’re supposed to be showing her the territory. Not hunting squirrels.
Multitasking, Wayne fires back, already circling around to rejoin us, empty-pawed and unbothered.
Trident’s shoreline stretches out ahead of us eventually. The sand is cool beneath unfamiliar paws, the ocean smell sharper and more layered than I’ve ever noticed from a human perspective.
Fishermen wave from their boats as we pass, unbothered by four wolves cutting along the tide line. Something in my chest warms at how easily they’ve all folded me into this rhythm.
Sinth’s wolf runs beside me for a long stretch, amber-eyed and golden, steady in this form the same way he’s steady in every other.
You’re doing well, he says, warm even through the mental thread. Better than well.
I feel ridiculous.
You look incredible.
I duck my head, embarrassed even in wolf form, and he huffs something that might be a laugh.
Chris runs ahead most of the time, powerful and controlled, occasionally circling back to check on me before pulling forward again.
I catch myself watching him more than I mean to—the raw strength in his wolf form, all that ice-cold restraint given four legs and unleashed completely.
You’re staring, he says eventually, amused despite himself.
Can’t help it. You’re beautiful like this.
He doesn’t answer that directly, but I feel something warm ripple through the bond between us anyway, pleased and a little embarrassed all at once.
By the time we reach Wayne’s resthouse on the cliffs, the sun has started sinking low, gold spilling across the water in every direction.
We shift back one by one.
I’m on two feet again, excitement coursing through my blood. “That was…amazing!” I laugh, genuinely intrigued by the experience.
“You liked it?” Sinth asks me.
“Are you kidding? I loved it!” I’m over the moon. “Again!”
“I think we’ve had enough for today,” Chris says, walking over to me, naked. “You should get some rest.”
“But I feel fine,” I protest.
Wayne laughs. “Wait until you wake up tomorrow morning.”
“Wait, what happens tomorrow morning?” I ask, confused.
“Nothing to worry about,” Sinth replies. “Just the aftereffect of straining your muscles all day.”
They take me inside, and we slip into the spare clothes Wayne apparently keeps stashed here for exactly this purpose.
Later, I settle onto the porch overlooking the whole island. My legs ache pleasantly, my whole body humming with an exhaustion that feels earned rather than draining.
“How are you feeling?” Wayne says, grinning, dropping down beside me.
“Much better, actually,” I mean it fully.
Something about running the land myself, feeling the ground beneath actual paws instead of watching it pass from a window, has changed how it all sits in my chest.
This isn’t just theirs anymore. It’s mine too, in a way I hadn’t fully felt until today.
I glance out toward the horizon and go still.
My eyes catch something in the distance I shouldn’t be able to see clearly from here. I see the ports, small and hazy but unmistakable, courtesy of my sharper vision.
The docks. The same ones I fled through twice. The same ones where three men grabbed me and nearly dragged me into something far worse than anything I’d already survived.
Something cold settles low in my stomach.
“Charlize?” Wayne notices the shift in me in a second. “What is it?”
“The docks.” I point toward the horizon. “I can see them from here. I didn’t know a wolf’s eyes could reach that far.”
“They can, once your wolf’s fully settled.” He studies my face, reading the tension there. “What’s wrong?”
I hesitate, old instinct telling me to swallow it down the way I’ve swallowed everything else my whole life. Then I remember the vow I made to myself to stop shrinking around what I actually want.
“I want you to find them,” I say. “The men who grabbed me that night weren’t working alone. They were kidnappers—traffickers.” My voice stays steady, though something old and afraid still trembles beneath it.
He watches me in silence.
“I know there’s an entire trafficking ring on this island and I want to end it. I want to make sure they’ll never do that to another woman again.”
Wayne’s expression sharpens instantly, something dark and eager crossing his face. “Consider it done.”
I don’t doubt him. Now that we’re involved in the case, there’s nowhere on this island they’ll hide that we won’t find them.