Page 76 of Wolf of the Storm
Then the water starts to boil. The Fomori's mere presence corrupts it, turns life-giving ocean into something toxic and diseased. The wave collapses into foul-smelling steam.
Did you think water could wash me away? I am the darkness between the waves. The thing that lurks where light dies.
Rafe doesn't wait for another failed attempt. His shift is instantaneous—human to sleek black panther in a heartbeat. He launches himself at the Fomori, fast and brutal and precise. A direct physical attack on the entity itself.
His paw swipes across the Fomori's form.
It passes through like smoke.
Black tendrils of wrongness lash out, wrapping around the panther's foreleg. They spread upward toward his chest. Rafe yowls, thrashing, but the Fomori's corruption eats into him like acid.
Kian tackles the panther away, and they both roll across the bloodstained ground. Rafe shifts back to human, gasping and clutching his arm. Where the tendrils touched him, burns mar his skin—deep, black and oozing.
The Fomori exists outside shifter magic. Beyond states, beyond what our power can touch. It simply refuses to be bound by the rules that govern us.
Both Rafe and Kian stumble back. Nothing they're doing is enough.
I sense Declan's life draining away as he desperately reinforces seals that were never meant to be fixed by one person alone. The Fomori's corruption spreads along our connection like poison in our veins, reaching for him through me.
The entity whispers directly into my soul. Seductive now. Promising.
You could have so much, storm-blood wolfshifter. The power flowing through you, waiting to be claimed. No more hiding. No more pretending to be weak. I could give you a world where shifters don't cower in shadows. Where you don't have to fear humans discovering what you are. All you have to do is let me in. Let me anchor through you. Through him. Together, we could reshape everything.
And suddenly I'm not standing in the ritual site anymore.
The scene shifts. Somewhere that looks like Stormhaven village but isn't quite. The sun is brighter here. The air tastes different. And I'm walking down the main street in broad daylight, my wolf-gold eyes visible to anyone who looks. Not suppressed. My true nature on full display.
Free.
Declan walks beside me, his hand in mine. Lightning dances between his fingers openly, storm magic crackling in the air around him. People pass us on the street—humans—and they smile. They wave. They see what we are and they don't flinch. Don't fear. Don't reach for weapons or phones to call authorities.
A little girl with wolf-gold eyes runs past, laughing, her mother calling after her with an indulgent smile. Shifter and human, coexisting. No secrets. No hiding. No fear.
This could be real,the Fomori whispers, and the scene dissolves, reforms.
Now I'm standing in Clifftop House, but it's transformed. Not a fortress anymore—a home. Pack members sprawl across furniture, relaxed and easy. Declan works at a desk by the window, storm magic flowing through him like it was always meant to, no longer constrained or controlled. He looks up at me and smiles, and there's no weight on his shoulders. No responsibility crushing him. No fear that his power might be stolen or corrupted.
No Connor. No ritual murders. No entity breaking through.
Because in this world, I gave in. Let the Fomori anchor through me. Let it reshape reality into something that serves us instead of threatens us.
It shows me more. Declan and me in our bedroom, the mate bond blazing between us like a physical thing. No corruption spreading through it. No poison. Just pure connection, enhanced by the power the Fomori granted us.
The perfect mate bond. Unbreakable. Eternal.
All you have to do,the Fomori's voice is honey-sweet now,is say yes. Let me in. Give me that anchor I need. In return, I give you everything you've ever wanted. Power. Freedom. A world where you don't have to hide. Where your children won't have to hide. Where shifters stand equal with humans instead of cowering in the shadows.
One final image. A baby with Declan's dark hair and my eyes, cradled in my arms. A little girl who'll never know what it's like to suppress her wolf in public. Who'll never have to fear discovery. Who'll grow up in a world where being a shifter is simply... normal.
The Fomori shows me her fifth birthday. Her first shift. Her sixteenth birthday with Declan teaching her to control the storm magic she inherited. Her wedding day. Her children.
Generations of freedom. All I have to do is say yes.
I'm tempted. God help me, I'm actually tempted.
But.
There's always a but.
