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*** I was patching up his hand in the kitchen when the smoke alarm went off. I expected him to panic. I didn't expect him to turn into a wolf.*** What the hell was I doing? The very first step of keeping my heart safe was avoiding those eyes, and yet, here I was, gazing straight into them. I was letting him hold me in place, drowning in the very thing I was supposed to be running from. "I'm sorry," he whispered, “I’m really fucking sorry, Audrey. And I don't even know how to begin to fix this or…even have enough words to tell you just how much—” He opened his mouth to say more, his hand lifting as if to cup my cheek. But then, he froze. His hand stopped in mid-air, and his eyes widened, the pupils blowing wide as his nostrils flared. My brows furrowed. "Weston?" Then I smelled it. Smoke. I spun around. Thick black plumes were billowing up toward the ceiling. "The pan!" I yelled. While we had been wrapped up in the drama and the first aid, the stew had been left on the high flame. The liquid had boiled off, and the oil was smoking violently, turning the vegetables into charcoal. "Shit!" I grabbed a towel and rushed to the stove. I killed the gas and shoved the pan off the burner, coughing as the smoke hit my lungs. BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! The smoke alarm on the ceiling screamed to life, a piercing, rhythmic shriek that echoed off the stainless steel. "I got it!" I yelled over the noise, grabbing a magazine from the counter to fan the sensor. "Weston, open the back door!" He didn't answer. I turned around, waving the magazine frantically. "Weston! The door!" He was standing exactly where I had left him. He hadn't moved. He was frozen, his back rigid, his hands clenched at his sides. His face was grey, and his eyes were wide and unseeing, fixed on the spot where they had been. "Weston?" I dropped the magazine. The alarm was still blaring, deafening in the small space, but I barely heard it. I rushed to him. "Weston!" I grabbed his shoulders. He was vibrating. His entire body was trembling, a fine, high-frequency shake that rattled his bones. "Weston, what's wrong?" I shouted, shaking him. "Snap out of it!" He didn't blink. He didn't look at me, and then he started to mumble things that were unclear. "What?" I asked, panic rising in my throat. "What are you saying?" "No," he said again, louder. His voice sounded wrecked. "No. No. No!" "Weston, look at me!" I slapped his cheek lightly, terrified. "It's just smoke! It's just burned food!" "NO!" he roared. He shoved me back. I stumbled, catching myself against the island. "What the hell, Weston!" He didn't hear me. He fell to his knees, his hands clawing at his head, his fingers digging into his scalp. "Get out!" he screamed, his voice distorting, sounding deeper, guttural. "Get out!" "What’s wrong?" I cried, stepping forward. And then, he started to shake. Violently. It wasn't a seizure. It was...wrong. I watched in horror as his back arched, a sickening crack echoing through the room that was louder than the alarm. He screamed—a sound that wasn't entirely human. "Weston?" I whispered, my blood turning to ice. His body contorted. His shoulders broadened, the fabric of his shirt straining and tearing with a loud rip. I gasped, my hands flying to my mouth. Under the skin of his arms, something was moving. Shifting. As if his bones were rearranging themselves. He threw his head back, and I saw it. His teeth. But they weren't human teeth. Canines lengthened, sharpening into jagged white daggers before my eyes. "Run!" he choked out, the word garbled by the fangs filling his mouth. He fell forward onto his hands. His fingers curled, nails elongating into dark, curved claws that scratched against the tile. Fur—thick, dark fur—began to sprout along his spine, bursting through his skin. I couldn't move. My brain had simply stopped working. I felt like I could react—scream, run, help him—if I understood what was happening. But I didn't. I couldn't even comprehend what was...what was...Jesus. What the hell….what the hell was this? 🐺🔥FREE in Kindle Unlimited! She crashed into a grumpy wolf in a repair shop, then accidentally blew up his restaurant online. He offered a fake relationship to save his business… but his fated mate instinct wanted everything real. 🐺🔥