When my nose touched his raised hand, he let out a breath that sounded like he'd been holding it since the room.
His fingers touched my muzzle.
Very gently.
I closed my eyes.
The contact steadied the part of me that was still Isla and met the part of me that wasn't separate from her anymore. I smelled him clearly now, Caius and wolf and smoke and winter air and something that meant mine in a language older than speech.
A door opened behind him.
My head snapped toward it.
Caius rose halfway at once and placed himself between me and the sound. "Stay back," he said, and the command cut through the air. The door stopped moving. Sera's scent came through first, then her voice from inside.
"Alpha King?"
"She's shifted," he said.
A pause followed.
Then Sera answered, quieter, "Is she a
