Page 52 of The Beast Between Us
The red glow in his eyes flickers.
Then fades.
And slowly…so slowly…the beast begins to change.
***Thorne***
Pain like nothing I’ve ever felt before takes over my body.
Before the curse, I had shifted hundreds of times. I knew every crack of bone, every ripple of change…but never like this. Never this deep.
Never thisbreaking.
Something’s different.
Something’s happening.
I roar into the soil as the shift overtakes me. Bones grind. Skin stretches. My vision fractures.
The wolf digs in its claws as if afraid of being cast away.
But we are not fighting.
We aremerging.
And then…
Silence.
Stillness.
I collapse forward, naked and human. Fully and completely…human. The forest floor cold beneath my knees, breath catching in my chest like I’ve surfaced from drowning. My hands, shaking, touch my own face.
No muzzle. No fur. No claws. No fangs.
Just… me.
Tears burn my eyes before I can stop them. My body trembles, not from cold but from the enormity of what’s happened.
And then I see her. My mate.
“Ella…” My voice breaks as I rush to her, falling to my knees in front of her battered, bloodied frame. “Ella, my heart…”
She barely has time to gasp before I wrap my arms around her and lift her into my embrace. I hold her like a lifeline. Because sheis.
“You are my heart,” I whisper fiercely, forehead pressed to hers. “You…you alone…tamed the Beast.”
She touches my cheek, voice hesitant. “But… where is he now? The wolf? Is he gone?”
The thought brings tears to her eyes.
I smile through the haze of my own tears, brushing a curl from her face as I stand with her safely in my arms. “He’s here. Inside. Resting. Watching. For the first time, we’re not fighting. There’s no more war between us.”
“Are you sure?” she whispers, almost afraid to believe.
“We are one now,” I say, carrying her gently back toward home. “Man and wolf. Harmony. And we share one purpose.”
“What’s that?”
