"He’s not moving! I don’t feel him anymore!"
Magnolia’s voice tore through the air like a lightning strike, echoing across the barren edge of the mountain pass. Her hands, slick with blood and trembling from the cold, pressed against the rocks as she scrambled to the edge of the ravine where Beckett had fallen. Her breath caught as she scread again, her voice breaking, wild and raw, the taste of desperation bitter on her tongue.
Savannah reached her first, grabbing Magnolia’s arm before she could dive into the dark, jagged crevice below. "We don’t know what’s down there," Savannah said, her voice low but shaking. "You can’t, "
"Let go!" Magnolia snarled, and it wasn’t just fear in her tone, it was sothing ancient, sothing primal. Her eyes glinted gold for a heartbeat, then faded. She ripped herself free, dropping to her knees at the edge.
"I felt him," she whispered. "His fla. And then it blinked out."
Rhett knelt beside her, one hand steady on her shoulder. "It might not an he’s dead. These mountains... they ss with senses."
"No," Magnolia breathed. "I’ve always known Beckett. Since the mont he stepped into the estate. I know when he lies. I know when he fights. I know when he’s in pain. And I know when he leaves ."
The wind answered her grief with silence. Snow from higher up the peak drifted across the rocks. Sowhere in the distance, a hawk cried out.
And then, like a shiver across her spine, it happened.
Sothing inside her snapped.
Not a break. A release.
Her scream beca a growl. Bones cracked beneath her skin, reshaping, reforming. Her hands clenched, fingers twisting into claws. Her back arched, mouth open in a cry that no longer belonged to a girl, but to a wolf.
Savannah gasped, stumbling back. Rhett’s eyes widened.
"It’s her first full shift," he whispered.
The transformation was violent. A storm. Her clothes tore as her body expanded and reshaped. Her golden hair darkened to deep ash. Her eyes, once soft, now burned with a feral blaze. Where Magnolia had once stood, untested and trembling, now lood a creature of fury and fla.
She didn’t wait.
With a roar that split the sky, she leapt into the ravine.
The fall was not a descent, it was a war cry.
She landed hard, paws slipping on the rocky slope before she dug in and charged forward. The ravine was deeper than it had seed from above, twisted like a serpent’s spine. But she didn’t care.
Her nose caught it first. Blood. Fresh. Beckett’s.
Then, barely breathing beneath a ridge of stone, she saw him.
He was broken. Chest rising in ragged gasps. Gashes down his side. Poison darkening the veins around a deep puncture wound near his ribs.
But he was alive.
She shifted back without thinking, ignoring the pain, the way her skin split and scread as she returned to human form. Crawling to him, naked and bloody, she pulled his face into her hands.
"Beckett," she whispered. "Don’t you dare. Don’t you leave ."
He stirred. Barely. His lips cracked open. "Magnolia...?"
"I’m here. I’m here. Stay with ."
He coughed. "Knew you’d co. You always... show up when I make a ss."
A tear slipped down her cheek, landing on his collarbone. "You idiot."
He smiled faintly. "Told you... I like drama."
She laughed, bitter and broken. "Shut up."
Then she felt it again, footsteps. Not hers. Not Rhett’s. Not Savannah’s. Shadows at the edge of the cliff. Watching.
Her head snapped up.
They were cloaked. Three figures. One with silver eyes that glinted even from the shadows.
Magnolia didn’t move. Didn’t flinch. She placed herself over Beckett’s body, shielding him.
The lead figure stepped forward. "So the girl finally wakes."
"Who are you?"
"Witnesses," he replied. "To the return of a true Alpha."
She narrowed her eyes. "You’re Syndicate."
He smiled. "We were. But we don’t serve Sterling anymore. We serve the blood that burns the sky. And you, Magnolia Thorne... are on fire."
A chill ran through her bones.
The man dropped sothing, an insignia. One she’d never seen.
A new faction.
A choice.
"You want him to live?" the man asked. "You’ll co with us."
Her gaze dropped to Beckett. His pulse flickered, weakening.
"And if I don’t?"
"Then you’ll bury your mate under this mountain."
She bared her teeth. "He’s not my mate."
"No?" The man tilted his head. "Then why did your power only awaken when he was about to die?"
Her heart thudded.
"We’ll return at dusk," the man said. "Choose wisely."
The shadows vanished.
Magnolia stared after them, then down at Beckett.
His hand found hers. "You shifted... didn’t you?"
"Yeah."
"Was it cool?"
She choked a laugh. "You’re dying and you ask that?"
"Just wanted to picture it," he rasped. "If it’s the last thing I see."
"It won’t be," she said, steel in her voice. "Because I’m going to fight for you."
She looked back up at the ridge.
And this ti, her eyes glowed.
"What do you an she’s shifted?" Rhett’s voice tore through the war room like a blade through silence.
Savannah didn’t flinch. She stood by the long oak table, arms crossed tightly over her chest, the map of the valley still trembling beneath her hands. Her eyes were sharp, jaw clenched, every nerve in her body taut.
"I an Magnolia fully shifted," she said evenly. "Not just a flicker, not just the scent. She burned through the forest like wildfire. If Beckett’s alive, it’s because she refused to let him die."
Rhett swore under his breath and ran a hand through his hair. The rest of the room had gone quiet, Caspian, Lucien, Isla, even the usually unshakable Xavier.
"We were supposed to contain this," he muttered. "The mont her power manifested, we were supposed to guide it. Now the whole pack has seen her."
"They didn’t just see her," Savannah said, voice low. "They bowed. Even the Elders. They didn’t speak. They submitted."
A beat of stunned silence.
"She’s not ready," Rhett said.
"None of us were," Savannah snapped. "But sothing’s happening, Rhett. Whatever Camille found before she vanished, whatever Sterling was hiding, it’s tied to Magnolia. And it’s waking up."
Caspian finally spoke, voice rough. "She’s not a child anymore. If she shifted fully, it ans her bond is cracking open. The old ways said it would co with either rage... or love."
Savannah blinked. "Then which one pushed her?"
"Ask her yourself," Lucien murmured, nodding toward the open door.
Magnolia stood there, barefoot, blood dried on her arms, eyes feral and glowing faintly gold. Her hair clung to her skin like smoke, her shirt torn, face unreadable. Behind her, Beckett leaned against the wall, bruised, breathing, alive.
Rhett stepped forward. "Magnolia..."
"Don’t," she said, voice like gravel wrapped in silk. "Don’t call by a na you buried."
The silence that followed cracked the room in half. Even Savannah’s breath caught.
"What do you an?" Xavier asked, stepping cautiously toward her.
Magnolia didn’t look at him. Her eyes were fixed on Rhett. "You knew what I was. You knew what I carried. All of you did. And you thought you could keep it dormant."
"It wasn’t like that," Rhett said.
"It was exactly like that," she whispered. "The Hollowfangs. The prophecy. The reason Camille vanished. You hid everything. But it didn’t die, Rhett. It’s inside . And it wants out."
Beckett coughed behind her, but stayed silent.
Lucien stood. "What did you see, Magnolia? When you shifted fully, what did you feel?"
Her voice trembled but didn’t waver. "A pulse. Deeper than blood. Older than the Syndicate. I felt her."
"Her?" Savannah asked.
"Lucia Thorne. I saw her."
Rhett’s face went white.
"In a vision?" Xavier asked.
"No," Magnolia said. "In ."
For a mont, no one moved. The wind outside howled against the stone walls of the estate, like a warning wrapped in mory.
"Then we have a bigger problem," Lucien muttered.
Savannah looked at Rhett. "We need to bring her in. Not contain her. Not suppress her. Train her. Protect her. Or we lose everything."
Rhett stared at Magnolia, sothing shattered flickering in his eyes.
"You were never supposed to carry this," he said.
Magnolia laughed, bitter. "Tell that to the gods who branded before I was born."
Beckett stepped forward now, his limp evident but eyes strong. "She saved . Risked everything. She didn’t shift for herself. She did it for . That counts for sothing."
Caspian nodded slowly. "It counts for everything."
Magnolia turned. "You can either let burn this truth down, or teach how to survive it. Your call. But I won’t beg."
She walked out, slow and unafraid. Beckett followed, limping after her.
Savannah let out a breath. "She’s already becoming what they fear."
Rhett closed his eyes. "Or what they worship."
Outside, the sky cracked with thunder.
Inside, war plans began to unravel.
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