Chapter 120. Everything’s Mine

ARDEN

I couldn’t fight him with Tessa on my back.

Mr. Winters was older, stronger, and at the moment, more agile. And Tessa could barely hold her head up. I knew if I put her down, she wouldn’t be able to hold her ground either. She was in no condition to run. She might not even survive another hit of whatever he’d given her.

So I did the one thing I could.

“Hold tight,” I whispered.

And then I shifted.

The pain tore through me instantly, claws ripping from my fingers, bones snapping and rearranging, skin stretching into fur. My clothes shredded off my body, falling in useless ribbons into the grass. My muscles expanded, my senses sharpened, and a growl rose in my throat like a war cry. Tessa whimpered as her weight shifted against my new form, but she clung to me instinctively, her fingers tangled in the scruff of my neck.

With that, I bolted into the trees, my paws pounding into the soil. The forest blurred past us in a rush of green and s