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I bolted upright in bed with a sound that wasn’t human. My spine arched. My hands clawed at the sheets. It felt like molten silver had been poured into my bloodstream.
“Soria?!”
Varek’s voice cut through the haze, but it sounded far away, like I was underwater and the world was burning above me. I could barely breathe.
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“What’s happening?! Fuck… Soria, talk to me… what do I do?!”
I felt him, his hands grabbing my shoulders, trying to hold me down. My skin was boiling. My fangs were out. My nails had grown. I shook so hard I could barely get words out.
“I… I don’t know how to say this,” I choked. “Something’s happening. I think… I think I’m changing.”
“Changing into what?!” His voice rose in panic. “Who did this to you?!”
I gritted my teeth as a wave of pain knocked the breath from my lungs. “She did,” I whispered.
Varek froze. “Who?”
I turned my head slowly, my eyes locking on his. “The Moon Goddess.”
He stared at me like I’d just told him the stars were bleeding. “I… I don’t understand.”
“Neither did I,” I panted, gasping as my ribcage snapped and reset. “She came to me… I think it was real. Not a dream. She said she saw me. That she knew I didn’t want this life, this darkness, them. She asked if I wanted Sierra back. My wolf.”
His eyes went wide. “Your wolf?!”
I screamed as my spine shifted again, bones like glass shattering and reforging with every breath.
“She said… she said if Sierra and I both chose it, she’d make me whole again. That I could be the first, the only, wolf–vampire hybrid. That
I could be stronger than Vaela. I said yes, Varek. I said fucking yes.”
He was pale, and visibly shaken, but he pulled me to him anyway. Held me like I wasn’t a ticking bomb in his arms.
“You should’ve told me.”
“I didn’t know it would be like this!” I sobbed. “I didn’t know it would feel like my soul is clawing its way out of my spine!”
“Then I’ll hold you through it,” he growled. “Even if it kills me.”
I heard her then, Sierra. My wolf. Her voice slid into my mind like cool water on scorched skin. “You’re not dying, Soria. You’re finally waking up.”
I sobbed harder. “She’s here. She’s really here.”
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Chapter 165
Varek’s breath caught. “Your wolf?”
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I nodded, too overwhelmed to speak. Sierra’s voice hummed inside my mind. “You were never meant to live in halves. But we have to be careful now. The vampires can’t know. Not yet.”
My hands trembled as I reached for the nightstand. A glowing pendant lay there, moonstone and obsidian wrapped in silver.
A gift. “She left this for me. It’ll hide my wolf side.”
Varek’s eyes darkened with something unreadable. “You’re one of a kind now.”
I slid it over my head, and everything snapped into place. The pain dulled. The fire settled. My heartbeat steadied into something ancient
and wild.
Varek brushed a trembling hand down my back. “You’re… radiant.”
I looked down at my arms, silver veins pulsing beneath my skin.
I breathed out. “We have to play our parts. Pretend we’re still loyal. But we can’t stay like this. We have to help them. Elowen. My parents. Everyone.”
He lifted my hand to his lips, kissed my knuckles. “Then we play the game, little wolf,” he murmured. “Until we can flip the fucking
board.”
We swore it then, no blood, just truth. I leaned into him, my body still aching but no longer broken.
“She’s too far gone, Varek. Vaela’s gone.”
“I know,” he said quietly. “But you’re not.”
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