The twins stare at each other across the clearing with something dark and furious building between them.
Then they explode.
"This is your fault," Lucen snarls at his brother.
Draco rounds on Lucen with equal fury. "My fault? You're the one who dumped water on her last week."
"You called her a pet."
"You pushed her into the mud."
They're shouting now, not at me but at each other, tearing into one another with accusations.
I watch from my wolf form as they unravel, their words sharp as claws.
"If you hadn't been so cruel—"
"Don't put this on me. You tormented her just as much—"
"I followed your lead—"
"That's always your excuse—"
Their voices rise higher with each exchange, angrier and more desperate. The bond between us pulses with each accusation, pulling tighter until I can feel it vibrating in my chest.
I don't understand what they're fighting about or why my existence as a wolf changes anything about how they treated me as what they thought was human.
But something in their rage feels like panic, like they're trying to deny something they can't escape no matter how loud they shout.
Draco takes a step toward his brother with his hands clenched into fists. "The bond is a mistake."
"Obviously."
"We reject it."
Lucen's jaw clenches hard enough that I can see the muscle jump. "Agreed."
They both turn to look at me with expressions that have shifted from fury at each other to something colder. United for the first time since they appeared in the clearing.
"We don't accept this," Draco says to me directly.
Like I'm asking for their acceptance. Like I want this any more than they do.
My wolf growls low in response. The sound rumbles through the clearing like distant thunder.
Movement catches my attention at the tree line.
Two more wolves emerge from between the trees, smaller than me but still large and powerful in their own right.
I recognize their scents immediately even though I've never smelled them in wolf form before.
Leather and weapon oil. Blood and battle.
The Beta and Gamma.
They shift as they enter the clearing, bones cracking and reforming until Cassian and Bastien stand naked before me, staring with expressions I can't quite read.
Cassian's face is carefully blank, controlled in that way he always maintains.
Bastien takes a step closer with his eyes fixed on me, on my white fur and my size that dwarfs even the twins.
"How is this possible?"
No one answers him.
Cassian circles me slowly, assessing me the way he would assess a threat or a weapon. His gaze is sharp and clinical as it tracks over my form.
He stops circling. His expression shifts and something like fear crosses his face before he masks it with that careful control.
"She awakened it," Cassian murmurs.
Bastien moves closer too, not threatening but something else I can't identify.
He stops a few feet away from me and does something unexpected.
He drops to one knee.
The motion is sudden and instinctive, like his body moved before his mind caught up to what was happening.
His head bows toward the ground.
Submission.
My wolf reacts immediately. Power floods through me without my conscious direction, not aggressive but present in a way that demands acknowledgment.
Cassian's knees buckle beneath him. He catches himself with visible effort, but barely. His face twists with the strain as he fights against whatever force is pulling him down.
Then he kneels too.
Both of them on their knees before me in the moonlight.
The twins stare in shock at the display.
"What are you doing?" Lucen demands.
Cassian's voice comes out strained with effort. "I can't... I can't stand."
Bastien's head stays bowed with his shoulders shaking. "She's dominant. More dominant than anything I've ever felt."
Draco moves toward them with authority in his voice. "Get up."
"I can't."
The words are barely a whisper from Cassian.
I don't understand what's happening to them. I'm not doing anything consciously. I'm just standing here in this clearing.
But something about me, about my wolf, commands their submission whether I want it or not.
Cassian lifts his head slightly so his eyes can meet mine.
There's guilt there in his gaze, raw and painful to witness.
"I'm sorry," Cassian says.
The words shock me more than the kneeling does.
Bastien's voice follows rough with emotion. "We were wrong. All of us. We treated you like you were nothing."
"Get up," Draco repeats louder with more command in his voice, trying to break whatever hold I have on them.
They don't move. Can't move.
My wolf considers them carefully. These males who mocked me. Who stood by while others hurt me. Who never once questioned the cruelty they witnessed and participated in.
I don't want their apology.
I don't want their submission.
I don't want any of this.
My body shifts before I understand what's happening, bones cracking and reforming as fur recedes. The world lurches sickeningly as I shrink down to human size.
I'm on my hands and knees, naked and gasping for air.
The moment I'm human again, the pressure releases completely. Cassian and Bastien sag forward, freed from whatever force held them down.
I force myself upright despite how my legs shake beneath me. Everything hurts, bones aching from the double transformation.
The twins are staring at me now, not with contempt but with something worse.
Recognition.
"Aphrodite," Draco says.
My name in his mouth sounds wrong after years of hearing contempt instead.
I look at all four of them, the ones who made my life hell, who treated me like I was less than nothing for as long as I can remember.
Now they're looking at me like I'm something they can't ignore or dismiss.
"What am I?" My voice comes out hoarse and raw.
No one answers immediately.
Cassian stands slowly, movements careful. "You're a Direwolf. The first in centuries."
"What does that mean?"
"It means you're older than packs," Cassian says quietly. "Older than Alphas. Direwolves existed before the Moon Goddess organized us into hierarchies."
The words don't make sense in my head, don't connect to anything I know about wolf history.
Bastien is still on his knees when he speaks. "Your bloodline was thought extinct."
"Why?"
Silence stretches across the clearing.
Lucen finally speaks with reluctance in every word. "Because they were too powerful. They threatened the order."
I look at Lucen, at the way he's holding himself like he wants to move toward me but can't decide if he should.
"So they were killed," I say flatly.
"Hidden," Cassian corrects. "Most were killed. But some... some were hidden."
My chest tightens with the implications. "Someone hid me."
It's not a question.
The twins exchange a glance and something passes between them, some shared understanding I'm not part of and never have been.
Draco steps forward. "Your scent. It's not just Direwolf."
"What else?" I demand.
He hesitates before answering. "Ancient. Older than the pack. Older than this territory."
Lucen adds, "You smell like legend."
The words hang in the air between us, heavy with meaning I don't fully understand yet.
I wrap my arms around myself, suddenly aware that I'm still naked and shaking. Still processing the fact that I have a wolf when I spent my entire life believing I was human.
"I need answers," I say.
"We don't have them," Draco admits.
"Then find someone who does."
Cassian straightens fully with a troubled expression crossing his face. "The Alpha needs to know about this."
"No."
The word comes out sharp and absolute.
All four of them stare at me.
"The Alpha wanted to bind me," I continue. "Make me a permanent servant. I heard him say it."
Guilt flashes across Cassian's face. "That was before—"
"Before I was useful?" I cut him off. "Before I had power?"
Cassian flinches at the accuracy of my words.
I look at each of them in turn, meeting their eyes without backing down. "I didn't come to the temple to join your pack. I came to leave it."
"You can't leave," Draco says automatically.
"Watch me."
Lucen moves closer and the bond pulls between us, stronger now that I'm human and more insistent.
"You're our mate," Lucen says.
The word should mean something. Should carry weight and significance.
It just makes me angry.
"I don't trust you," I tell him clearly. "Either of you. I don't trust any of you."
Bastien stands finally. "We don't deserve your trust."
At least he's honest about it.
I force my legs to stop shaking through sheer will. Force myself to stand straighter despite the exhaustion pulling at me.
"I'm leaving pack lands," I say. "Tonight. And if you follow me, it will be on my terms."
"You can't survive out there alone," Draco argues.
"I survived here."
The clearing falls silent at my words.
Somewhere in the darkness beyond the trees, I feel it again. The presence that's been watching since the temple.
It's closer now. Still hidden from view. Still patient in its observation.
But I sense approval in the watching, like whatever is out there agrees with my choice to claim my own path.
The twins stand shoulder to shoulder, united against me leaving.
"This isn't over," Draco says.
"It never started."
I turn my back on all of them, on the pack and the bonds I never asked for.
"If you follow," I say without looking back, "you follow on my terms. No commands. No pack law. No ownership."
I start walking toward the tree line with my head held high despite my nakedness and exhaustion.
Behind me, Lucen's voice carries through the clearing.
"Where will you go?"
I don't answer him.
Because I don't know.
I just know I can't stay.