THE AWAKENING

Her padded feet ate up the ground, putting distance between her heartache and pain and she wasn’t surprised when she heard Tieran’s enraged howl but she didn’t care.

He could beg Serra to come back to him for all Cassandra cared. The exhilarating rush of freedom soothed her ragged heart and she ran for miles.

Her pregnant belly didn’t slow her down and she much preferred this form at the moment than her human body. When she was a beast, she reveled in the freedom to simply act naturally without overthinking.

It seemed when she was in her human form, all she did was fret and worry about everything. Being the Prophesied One was a heavy gig.

One she hadn’t asked for, by the way, but the time for crying in her beer was over. She had two pups growing inside her and they were going to need her to protect them.

If Tieran was too much of an ass to realize she was the real deal, then, screw him. She broke into a clearing and her senses picked up the scent of something gamey and delicious.

She swung around and spied a deer picking its way delicately through the dense overgrowth. Cassandra’s muscles coiled beneath her fur and she launched herself straight at the deer’s throat.

Within seconds warm arterial blood gushed in her mouth as the deer flailed in one last ditch effort to live and then went limp. In her human form she would’ve been sad at the loss of life; in her beastly form, she simply accepted the fact that she was at the top of the food chain in the forest.

She sated herself with the deer, leaving behind precious little for the scavengers and then plunged herself into the icy waters of the deep, fast-moving creek winding itself along the thick forest floor.

She emerged from the water, invigorated by the bitter cold and her full meal.

For the first time in weeks, she felt sated.

full alert as her ears pricked at a foreign sound. Another beast emerged from the shadows. She didn’t need to

upper lip curling in

gaze never leaving hers. She’d

department when it came to him. Her tail quivered and she caught the subtle scent of pheromone on the air. He lifted his big, black snout and caught the scent she was giving off

to whine and shy away though her channel was already slicking with

what form she was in,

and chain herself to a

mental jab that said, back off! and he faltered,

to, aside from the mental warning, she kept out

easier to slide into his head in this form than in her human form but the thoughts were jumbled

— most of her success had been by complete accident and usually prompted

she’d conceived, everything seemed accelerated, including her learning curve. Perhaps

Who knew?

the whys and hows of everything. Tieran’s form shuddered and with the snapping and knitting of bone and sinew he appeared in his human form, naked and glorious — the

risk your safety with your foolishness,” he said sharply. “You will come back

to transform into her human skin just so

And I know you’re stuck in the dark ages still so let me enlighten you: I’m not about

touch a hair on your head. I would rip out his still-beating heart and hold it before his astonished eyes before allowing him to die,” he said, causing her to shiver in spite of her anger. “You are mine.

She licked her lips, her heart rate speeding up as her skin prickled against the night air. “So