The world is too much.
Every sense screams at me with information I don't know how to process. I can hear heartbeats in the trees, dozens of them, small creatures I've never noticed before. I smell fear and rot and growth all at once, layers upon layers of scent that make my head spin. The moonlight feels like it's touching my skin directly, seeping into my fur and filling me with power I don't understand.
My fur.
I look down at myself again, still trying to reconcile what I'm seeing with what I know to be true. White fur covers me from nose to tail, pure white like snow or bone, nothing like the grey-brown of normal wolves or even the silver of high-ranking pack members.
And I'm massive.
The altar barely reaches my shoulder now where I stand on the platform. I tower over the stone that seemed so imposing when I climbed the steps. My paws are the size of dinner plates, tipped with claws that could tear through steel.
What am I?
The question pulses through me with my racing heartbeat, but I don't have time to answer it or even begin to process what's happened.
Because suddenly, the air shifts around me.
Scents slam into me like physical blows. Five of them. Distinct. Overwhelming in their intensity.
The first smells like pine and steel, sharp and aggressive, cutting through everything else.
The second is similar but warmer somehow, smoke and earth mixing together.
The third is different from the first two, leather and something refined, controlled and deliberate.
The fourth carries wildness in every note, raw and untamed and barely leashed.
The fifth is barely there at all, so distant I can almost miss it. Golden. Ancient. Patient.
They hit me one after another and each one hooks into something deep in my chest and pulls with undeniable force.
I don't understand what's happening to me. My wolf knows something my human mind doesn't, reacting with recognition and terror in equal measure.
Five threads connecting me to five distant points. Pulling. Demanding. Claiming.
No.
Terror floods through me cold and sharp. I didn't ask for this, whatever this is. I don't want it. I came here to sever bonds, not forge new ones.
I stumble back from the altar, my legs tangling under me. This body doesn't move right, doesn't respond the way I expect. I'm too big. Too strong. Everything is wrong and overwhelming and I can't breathe.
I need to run.
The instinct overwhelms everything else, drowning out thought and fear and confusion. I launch myself off the platform and into the forest beyond.
Trees blur past me as I run. I'm faster than I should be, faster than anything has a right to be. Stronger than I ever imagined. My paws eat up ground in massive strides and branches that should stop me snap like kindling when I crash through them.
But I can't escape the pulls.
They stretch as I run, growing tighter instead of looser. Like invisible ropes connecting me to points I can't see, anchored in my chest and pulling with increasing urgency.
Two of them are getting closer.
Fast.
I run harder, pushing this new body to its limits.
DRACO
The bond snaps into place like a bear trap closing on flesh.
Draco gasps and doubles over, his hand flying to his chest. Something has hooked into his sternum and is pulling hard enough to steal his breath.
"What the hell?"
Lucen's voice sounds strained and wrong. Draco looks up and sees his twin clutching his chest too, face pale in the lamplight.
They're in the training hall reviewing patrol schedules. It's late and most of the pack is asleep, leaving them alone with papers and maps spread across the table.
Now they're both struggling to breathe.
The pull intensifies with each passing second. Not painful exactly, but worse than pain. Insistent. Demanding. Like his body is trying to go somewhere and he's holding it back by sheer will alone.
"Do you feel that?" Lucen manages through gritted teeth.
Draco nods because he can't speak, can't force words past the tightness in his throat.
Then the scent hits him.
Moonlight and wild roses. Clean and powerful and utterly foreign to anything he's ever smelled before.
His wolf surges forward, clawing at his control with desperate hunger. It wants out. It wants to run. To find the source of that scent.
To claim.
"No," Draco growls, fighting his own instincts.
But he knows what this is because every wolf knows. It's rare. Powerful. Undeniable when it happens.
A mate bond.
His mate bond.
He looks at Lucen and sees the same realization dawning on his brother's face, the same horror mixing with recognition.
"It can't be," Lucen says.
The scent sharpens as it grows stronger. Draco's wolf recognizes something underneath the moonlight and roses now, something familiar that makes his stomach drop.
His stomach drops like stone.
"No," Draco says again, but his wolf doesn't care about his denial.
The bond pulls harder. His feet move without permission, one step toward the door and then another.
Lucen grabs his arm hard enough to bruise. "We're not doing this."
"I know."
But they're both moving now despite their protests, drawn by something stronger than logic or pride or hatred.
The forest calls through the open windows.
And they answer.
APHRODITE
I burst through the tree line into a clearing, my chest heaving with exertion.
My legs shake beneath me. I've never run this hard in my life, never pushed my body to these limits.
The pulls are still there in my chest, impossible to ignore. Two of them are so close now I can almost feel breath on my fur.
I spin in the center of the clearing, trying to orient myself. Where am I? How far did I run from the temple?
The forest stretches endlessly in every direction around me. No landmarks. No paths. No way to know which direction leads back to anything familiar.
Just trees and moonlight and the crushing weight of something I don't understand.
Movement catches my eye in the shadows.
My head snaps toward it, every muscle tensing.
Nothing visible. Just darkness and trees swaying slightly in the breeze.
But I feel it clearly now.
Someone is watching me.
Not approaching. Not threatening. Just there in the darkness, presence steady and calm.
The watching feels patient. Ancient. Like whoever it is has all the time in the world.
I can't see him clearly through the shadows. Can't smell him over the overwhelming scents already flooding my senses. But his presence settles over the clearing like warm sunlight, completely at odds with the cool night air.
He's not coming closer.
He's just waiting for something I don't understand.
The hair along my spine rises in response to being observed.
Then footsteps sound through the forest, real ones this time, close enough to hear clearly.
Two wolves emerge from the opposite tree line.
They're large and powerful, muscles rippling under fur that catches moonlight. Their eyes burn gold as they stalk toward me across the clearing.
I recognize their scents instantly despite never having smelled them in wolf form before.
Pine and steel. Smoke and earth.
The two closest pulls. The two strongest threads binding me to something I never asked for.
My wolf snarls without my permission. The sound that comes out of me is massive and threatening, echoing through the clearing like thunder rolling across mountains.
The wolves freeze mid-step.
For a moment, no one moves. The clearing holds its breath.
Then they shift.
Bones crack with sounds that carry clearly in the still air. Fur recedes. Skin reforms into human shapes.
The twins stand before me now, naked and furious.
Draco's eyes burn with gold fire that hasn't faded from the shift. Lucen's hands shake at his sides with either rage or shock or both.
They stare at me like I've torn their world apart with my bare claws.
"You," Draco breathes.
The word is an accusation, not a greeting.
Lucen takes a step forward, his face twisting with something between rage and disbelief. "This isn't possible."
I don't know how to answer them. I don't know how to speak in this form. My throat only makes wolf sounds now, growls and snarls and nothing that resembles human speech.
I back away from them, growling low in warning.
Draco's expression hardens into something cold and commanding. "Don't run."
His voice carries Alpha authority, the kind meant to freeze wolves in their tracks.
My wolf doesn't care about his authority.
I bare my teeth at them both, letting them see every sharp fang.
Lucen moves closer despite the clear threat. "What are you?"
Another growl rumbles out of me, deeper this time. A warning they should heed.
They both stare at me with dawning horror. At my white fur that shouldn't exist. My size that dwarfs even their considerable wolf forms. The power radiating off me in waves I can't control or understand.
The bond between us flares violently. Unwanted. Undeniable. Pulling at all three of us with equal force.
I feel it now, not just the pull but the connection itself. Something tying me to them on a level deeper than pack or territory or choice, something fundamental and unbreakable.
My wolf recognizes it even if I don't understand it yet.
They feel it too. I can see it in the way they're breathing, quick and shallow. The way their eyes track every movement I make like they can't help themselves.
Draco's jaw clenches hard enough to see the muscle jump. "This changes nothing."
But his voice shakes when he says it.
Lucen stares at me like I've shattered something fundamental in his world, something he thought was solid and permanent.
"We don't want this," Lucen says flatly.
The words hit like claws raking across skin.
Good. Neither do I.
I gather myself to run again, muscles bunching for the leap.
But Draco moves faster than I expect. He doesn't grab me or attack.
He just stands in my path with eyes glowing and face twisted with unwanted recognition.
Lucen mirrors him on my other side without needing to be told.
Blocking my escape routes.
The bond burns between all three of us now, a triangle I can't break or escape.
"You're ours," Draco says.
The words sound like a curse falling from his lips.
His eyes meet mine. Gold clashing with whatever color mine are now in this form.
And in the distance, hidden in shadow at the clearing's edge, I feel the patient presence still watching.
Still waiting.