Chapter 11

Alex

The forest pressed in around me, its silence so absolute I could feel my heartbeat pounding in my ears. I’d tried not to think about what awaited at the end of this path—my first shift into the wolf I’d spent eighteen years believing I would never become. I was the girl without a wolf, the weak Omega everyone overlooked, yet here I walked with the future king at my side, carrying a bloodline lost to legend. Nothing about my life made sense anymore.

“Are we there yet?” I asked.

Weston glanced back, his smile soft. “You asked that five minutes ago.”

“Because five minutes ago I was still tired.”

He laughed, and the tension in my chest loosened. One curve of his lips and my fear shrank. I kicked aside a fallen branch. “Most people don’t trek two hours into the mountains for their first shift.”

“Most people aren’t you.”

I was ready to complain on his mysterious comments, but Weston stepped closer, brushing his fingers across my cheek.