Mated To My Obsessive Stepbrother

Chapter 141

Chapter 141

KASMINE

The crowd grew still.

I tilted my head back and stared up at the sky. The moon was almost there- gliding slowly and painfully toward the center of the heavens. It wasn't full tonight. Just a gentle crescent. But that didn't matter. Everyone knew-on your twenty-first birthday, the second the moon touched the center of the sky, the magic awakened. The wolf either came or it didn't.

My chest rose and fell quickly.

Almost there.

Almost.

Then-

It happened.

A sharp, stabbing pain shot through my spine like lightning. My legs buckled. I hit the ground hard, knees slamming into the grass as my hands dug into the earth.

A scream tore from my throat before I could stop it.

It felt like fire was eating me from the inside out. Like my skin was being peeled, my bones shattered and glued back together wrong, I could hear them-cracking, shifting snapping-over and over again like a thousand sticks breaking at once,

I couldn't breathe.

I couldn't even think

I was writhing and gasping, my body folding in on itself. Every nerve was burning. My hands were stretching- elongating-fingers tearing and reshaping into paws. My back arched violently. My spine curved. I clawed at the ground, screaming into the dirt, barely aware of the sobs and groans around me from the others going through the same thing.

Then-just when I thought I would pass out-

It stopped.

Silence fell.

Everything in me was still.

Everything outside me was different.

I opened my eyes. Everything looked clearer. Sharper. Brighter. I could hear everything-even the thump of Jake's heart from where he stood. I could smell the grass, the fire, the sweat, the fear, the excitement.

I didn't feel the grass anymore, I didn't feel the tremble in my limbs or the ache where my knees had slammed

All I felt was light bursting, surging, and rippling through me like a river that had finally broken through its

stood, but

was on four legs,

Chapter 141

fur wrapped around my new form. My paws dug into the dirt with an instinct I'd never known but

clapped, and I felt

was the real me, finally let loose after years of being trapped in a too- small

my head back, let out a howl,

paws barely touched the ground as I tore into the forest beyond the altar, past the ring

wind ripped through my fur. My heart pounded in rhythm with the earth. I was moving so fast that the world blurred around me, but somehow, I could still see everything-every leaf, every root,

want to

But I had to,

I broke back through the tree line, back into the crowd, and shifted back to

a soft white robe, draping it

around my

And then-

The scent hit me.

Holy. Fucking, Hell.

I staggered

in the lungs.

reached out to steady myself,

to hold on to.

It was him.

scent was burning

sharp and rich, like cedar and smoke-drenched earth after rain. Powerful. Dark. Thick. It was sex and danger and dominance-everything a

warmth. Jake

bring

demanded submission. And my wolf-traitorous bitch that she was- immediately rolled over inside me like she'd found

Beta, maybe.

And that mean

My throat went dry.

because I turned slowly, my heart hammering so hard

thou

by one. I could barely focus and barely breathe. The scent

felt hot and dizzy like I was

was it coming

Who?

the crowd. They were still