Chapter 12. First Midnight Transformation

Kael’s POV

I woke up and everything felt wrong.

My body ached in places I didn’t know could ache, and my head pounded like someone had used it as a drum, and when I tried to move my arms, they screamed in protest.

I opened my eyes slowly because even that hurt, and the room was dark except for moonlight coming through a window, and I had no idea where I was.

This wasn’t the cage.

I’d been in a cage for so long that waking up anywhere else felt impossible, and yet here I was lying on a cold stone floor in what looked like a chamber I didn’t recognize.

I pushed myself up to sitting, and my whole body protested, and I looked down at myself and realized I was naked, and that was when it hit me.

I was human.

My hands were human hands, not paws, and my body was human-shaped, not the massive beast form I’d been trapped in for what felt like forever.

“What…” I started to say, but my voice came out rough and barely worked.

I