Page 36 of Wolf Chosen

Now that I’m a wolf, everything is simple. I have no need for complex thoughts. All I want to do is bask in my mate. Be with the simple pleasure of his company.

“Calm down, baby. I know how exciting the world is for you now.” Liam's laughter rumbles through the room, a sound of pure happiness that sets my tail wagging. His fingers tangle in the fur around my neck as the bond between us resonates with perfect understanding.

I lose myself in the perfection of our bond but the hint of a shadow spears through the light. His fingers shake and a deep sigh falls past his lips. His laughter dies and the light inside me dims. I delve deeper into the shadow, trying to work out what it is. Why it’s there.

It’s coming from my mate.

But…why?

And what is it?

It takes me a moment. Then I understand and when I do, it breaks my heart. The oozing heaviness eats away at our light. It draws me deeper, into his self-recrimination and loathing.

I whine softly, licking his face again because he shouldn’t feel like this. Not when I want to run and play and he makes me so happy. Not when I love him so much. Not when I want to make him feel the same way and bring back the light between us. All he does lean his forehead against mine as sobs wrack his body, and now I can give name to the darkness eating him alive.

Guilt. Acidic burning guilt.

Chapter Eighteen

Liam

Guilt drags me beneath turbulent waves of despair. A physical ache that throbs in my bones, a brand seared into the fiber of my soul.

How could I have done this?

How could I have hurt the one person in this world who means everything to me?

Bile rises when I see her terrified face in my mind when my claws sank into her flesh and my jaw was wrapped around her throat. There are no excuses, no justifications. I attacked my mate, the other half of my soul. My wolf took control and I couldn’t do a damn thing about it. I tried so hard to fight my wolf, to claw my way back to the surface and regain control but the barrier grew wider and harder no matter how hard I struggled.

My wolf was feral, and my human side was fading away behind an impenetrable barrier. No matter how I screamed, how I pounded against that divide, I couldn't get through. Couldn't reach him, couldn't make him understand.

I had found my mate. Her soul had anchored mine. It should have been impossible for my wolf to turn feral, yet the impossible still happened.

Rowan, sadistic bastard that he is, has somehow corrupted our bond. His dark magic didn't just lock my wolf, it divided my soul in two. Shame and self-loathing claw at my insides. Nothing I can do will ever make up for this. There will be no forgiveness.

There should be no forgiveness.

And yet when I look at the miracle standing in front of me, it's not terror or revulsion that greets me in the depths of her beautiful hazel eyes. There's only love, pure and shining, and a sense of overwhelming wonderment.

Somehow, impossibly...my sweet, precious mate has shifted into a sleek, magnificent wolf.

Her fur is a riot of russet and cream, the colors shimmering in the soft light. Her muzzle is a stark white against the vibrant hues of her coat, her eyes a piercing hazel that glow with the same otherworldly energy I know so well.

She's breathtaking.

Ethereal.

A creature of beauty and grace. Even as she dances excitedly around me on nimble paws, I can hardly believe she’s real.

Joy and excitement pulse through our bond, the innocent elation of her wolf's soul reaching out to caress my own. She yips and chirps, nuzzling against me in a playful invitation to join her. How I wish I could. How I long to surrender to the simple pleasures of our bond and let our wolves play.

But I can't.

All I feel is a sickening sense of remorse. Guilt weighs me down, a tar pit of recrimination because I’m the reason she was hurt.

I nearly destroyed her.

Taylor senses my turmoil through the bond and I wish just this once that there was no bond. That I could save her from myself. Confusion blossoms within her, quickly followed by a gentle sort of pleading as she tries to soothe me with nuzzles and licks.

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