Early in the morning, while the forest was still wrapped in a thin veil of mist, Alie and Gabriel stepped into a quiet clearing among the trees. This was the day Alie would experience her very first shift since awakening her wolf, Selene, a mont she had both dread of and dreaded.
She glanced at Gabriel, who stood a respectful ter away, his presence was enough to calm her nerves. "How... how do I actually do it?" she asked.
Gabriel offered a gentle smile. "Just reach inside yourself. Feel Selene there, who is waiting to take the form. Invite her forward, let her take the lead. Don’t fight it; trust her."
Alie nodded, swallowing the lump in her throat. She shrugged off the thick jacket she’d worn against the dawn chill. Gabriel stepped forward to catch it, draping it carefully over his arm. "You’ve got this," he said, his eyes warm with encouragent. "I’m right here."
She drew in a long, steadying breath, and closed her eyes. For a mont there was only the distant call of a bird and the faint rustle of leaves. Then she felt it, a deep, thrumming vibration that started in her chest and rippled outward, like a heartbeat that wasn’t entirely her own.
Selene stirred, rising eagerly to the surface.
The shift began slowly at first, a strange warmth spreading through her limbs. Then the pain ca was sharp as though every bone in her body was being gently but firmly reshaped.
Alie gasped, her hands clenching at her sides, but she didn’t pull away from the sensation. She let Selene guide her, and let the pull coursed through her veins, trusting the wolf who now shared her soul.
It didn’t take long at all. In a matter of seconds, the shift was complete, and Alie stood before him in her full wolf form for the very first ti.
Gabriel’s breath caught in his throat as he took her in. She was breathtaking, her coat a shimring silvery-gray that seed to capture the very essence of moonlight, just as the na Selene promised. It wasn’t rely gray; it was moonlit silver, soft and luminous, rippling gently with every breath she took. And those eyes, deep blue, stared back at him with a familiar intensity. They were the exact shade Noah had inherited, a living echo of his mate in their son.
’Gabriel! I did it. I finally shifted!’ Alie’s voice rang through the mindlink. She was bubbling with joy. Her delighted squeak that made his heart flutter.
"Yes, you did," he whispered. "And believe , love... You’re just as beautiful like this as you are in your human form." He stepped closer, closing the small space between them, and gently laid his hand against the side of her face.
His fingers sank into the incredible softness of her fur. It felt like he was touching a cloud spun from starlight. "Noah got your eyes, Alie," he murmured, thumb brushing tenderly along her muzzle. "They’re yours, through and through."
’Really?’ The single word trembled with emotion, carrying both Alie’s quiet tears and Selene’s soft, moved rumble. Ever since Noah was born, she would wonder whose eyes he had gotten. Hearing it now made her feel over the moon.
Then her voice returned with eagerness. ’Selene wants to et Valko.’
Gabriel nodded, a soft smile lingering on his lips as he stepped toward a nearby tree, one low enough to reach without effort. He slipped off his jacket, then carefully hung both his and Alie’s on a sturdy branch, keeping them safe from the damp forest floor. With one last glance at her, he returned to her side.
The shift ca over him in a second, born of years of practice. Where Gabriel had stood, Valko now towered. His form was massive, powerful, yet impossibly graceful. His fur was pure white, not rely the white of snow, but the white of true moonlight, radiating the shadow of the Moon Goddess in him.
And those beatific violet eyes locked onto Selene with quiet intensity. Alie’s heart fluttered wildly; Selene’s did too. This was the first ti their wolves truly t, face to face, soul to soul, and no words could ever quite capture the depth of the pull and the excitent shared between them.
’Hi, Valko,’ Selene’s voice whispered through the mindlink. ’You look majestic.’
Valko didn’t speak imdiately, instread, he moved closer until their faces touched. ’Selene, I missed your presence. Now, I feel complete. We t after so long. I missed you, craved for you.’
Alie and Gabriel were as delighted and as emotional as their wolves. She never imagined a day like this would co in her life, where she would be standing with Gabriel’s wolf in her own wolf form. She still rembered how everyone looked down on her for being wolf-less. If not for Gabriel, she would have never encountered this day.
~~~~~
Ophelia quickly moved her hand away from the magical ball as she watched Gabriel and Alie’s union in their wolves’ forms.
She couldn’t reach them now, but the burning desire to end them increased further.
"Those two murdered my daughter," she whispered to the empty room as her voice trembled with rage and grief. "And now they stand there, lost in each other, as if the world owes them happiness." Her lip curled in evil.
Her gaze snapped to the wall calendar, where she marked the awaiting moon event in years. It was right after one week from today.
On that night, the chains that had bound her remaining power since years would finally shatter.
Ophelia’s fingers curled into fists, nails biting into her palms.
"In one week," she said aloud, "I will make them scream until their throats bleed. I will tear their precious bond apart thread by thread and watch them die in agony no wolf has ever endured. All my daughter wanted a happy life, but they both never granted it to her."
Behind her, the orb glead magically, showing Gabriel standing with a dagger in his hand which dripped in blood.
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