Chapter 8 The Shift Beneath My Skin

• The scrap of fabric burned in my hand like a curse.
• I knew that scent. I could still feel the dirt beneath me from that night. Still hear the pack’s laughter. Still see Kai’s eyes when he said, “I don’t want you.”
• Now that same pain was being dragged back to the surface—this time by someone who wanted me to remember every second.
• I wanted to scream. I wanted to rip the walls down. But I did none of those things.
• Instead, I tucked the scrap deep into the drawer of the nightstand, as if burying it could erase its power.
• And I told no one.
• Not Ronan. Not his sister. Not the guards.
• Because if Kai—or someone worse—was watching me, I needed to know what they wanted before I made my next move.
• The next morning, I woke up from a nightmare I couldn’t remember. My sheets were tangled, and sweat clung to my skin. But there was something else—something I couldn’t explain.
• A pulsing under my skin.
• My bones felt too tight. My senses were sharper than usual. I could hear every heartbeat in the hallway outside. Smell every emotion clinging to the warriors training in the yard.
• My wolf… was shifting.
• But not into her true form.
• It was something else. Like a second heartbeat, louder and stronger than before.
• I splashed water on my face and caught a glimpse of my eyes in the mirror.
• For a split second, the whites were black. My irises glowed a faint gold—brighter than a normal wolf’s. Then it was gone.
• I stumbled back, gripping the edge of the basin.
• “What the hell is happening to me?”
• ⸻
• Ronan noticed something was off before I even opened my mouth.
• We were back in the clearing where he trained his warriors. Only today, it was just the two of us. He’d dismissed the others with a quiet order I wasn’t allowed to hear.
• “Again,” he barked, tossing me a practice dagger.
• I caught it clumsily. “You’re angry.”
• “Focused,” he corrected. But his jaw was tight. “Whoever broke into your room crossed a line. If they show their face again, I won’t just punish them—I’ll end them.”
• His words should have comforted me. Instead, they left a cold spot in my stomach.
• “What if they’re not after me?” I asked. “What if they’re after you… through me?”
• He tilted his head, eyes narrowing. “That’s not how enemies think. They’d come for my warriors, not a wounded girl with no pack.”
• I flinched at his words.
• He caught it immediately.
• “Damn it, Lupita,” he muttered. “I didn’t mean—”
• “It’s okay,” I said quickly. “You’re right. I am wounded. But not weak.”
• There it was again. That flicker of something in his gaze—pride? Admiration?
• He nodded once. “Good. Because you’re not going to get any softer training from me.”
• The fight lasted longer than usual. This time, I didn’t just dodge—I fought back.
• When Ronan’s blade nicked my side, I didn’t wince.
• When he knocked the dagger from my grip, I reached for another without hesitating.
• Something was changing inside me. My blood began to coil with strength. Power I didn’t know I had. Ronan must have sensed it too, because he stepped back at one point, breathing hard.
• “What are you?” he asked softly.
• I stared at him, stunned. “What?”
• “You move like you’ve been trained… But no pack would’ve let someone like you leave alive. Not with this in them.”
• He took a slow step forward. “Your eyes—they glowed today.”
• Panic fluttered in my chest. “I don’t know what it is. I swear.”
• Ronan tilted his head again, golden eyes locked onto mine like he could see straight through my ribs.
• “I believe you. But I think someone else knows exactly what you are. And they’re afraid of it.”
• A silence stretched between us, thick and heavy.
• I whispered, “You think this is about more than revenge?”
• He nodded once. “Someone wanted you dead. Not just rejected. And when that failed… they want you broken.”
• That night, I sat on my windowsill long after the moon rose, the wind cool against my face.
• I didn’t know who I was anymore.
• A rejected omega? A girl with a cursed birthmark? Or something… more?
• But one thing I knew for sure—
• Whoever left that warning in blood wasn’t finished with me.
• And I wasn’t finished fighting.