Mated To My Obsessive Stepbrother

Chapter 253

Chapter 253

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 granymore. I didn't feel the tremble in my limbs or the ache where

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

but not as

four legs, not

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Chapter 253

form. My paws dug into the dirt with an Instinct I'd never known but

and clapped, End I felt

after years of

my head back, let

touched the ground as I tore into

been, I would have done forest beyond the altar,

blurred around me, but somehow, I could still

didn't want to

But I had to.

slowed just as I broke back through the tree line, back into the crowd, and shifted back to my human

a soft white robe, draping

it tight around my shoulders,

And then-

The scent hit me.

Holy. Fucking. Hell.

I staggered.

punched me in the lungs. My knees buckled slightly,

but there was nothing nearby

It was him.

was-wherever he was-his scent was burning through the

Thick. It was

Jake's subtle warmth. Jake smelled like cinnamon and

This scent?

scent could bring empires

wolf-traitorous bitch that she was- immediately rolled over inside me like she'd found home My chest ached. My eyes

a Beta, maybe. But definitely not

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Chapter 253

And that meant

My throat went dry.

I thought the whole world could hear it. My eyes scanned the sea of faces-one by one. I could barely focus and barely breathe. The scent was so strong it made my head swim. I felt hot and dizzy like I was going

was it coming

Who?

eyes stopped just before the edge of the crowd. They were still cheering and celebrating. No one else seemed to feel what

eyes locking onto him with the kind of fear a prey recognizing