Liv POV
Pain wasn't just a river; it was a crushing tide, and I was drowning beneath its weight.
I was moving. I could feel the rattle and hum of an engine beneath me, mixed with the scent of old leather and gasoline.
"Stay with me, Liv. Stay with me."
My father's voice. He sounded shattered, teetering on the edge of panic.
I opened my eyes. Just a slit. We were in his old truck, hurtling down a highway at night. Rain lashed against the windshield, blurring the world into streaks of obsidian and silver.
"Dad?" The word clawed its way out of my throat as a dry rasp.
"I'm here, baby. I'm here." He reached over, squeezing my hand so hard his knuckles turned white. His palm was warm against my clammy skin. "We're almost to the state line. We're going to Montana. To the Crescent Moon Pack."
He took a shaky breath, his eyes darting between the road and me. "I know the Alpha there. Liam. He's... he's a good man. He's a Healer."
Montana. That was thousands of miles away.
"Marcus..." I whispered. The name tasted like ash and betrayal.
"He can't hurt you anymore," Dad said fiercely, slamming his hand against the steering wheel. "The bond is gone, Liv. You're free."
Free.
I closed my eyes and looked inside. The place where my wolf used to be was quiet. Hollow. Too quiet. Was she dead?
No.
It wasn't a voice. It was a feeling. A vibration deep in my marrow, humming like a high-tension wire.
The Wolfsbane Izzy had fed me... it was meant to suppress a wolf. To kill it. But something strange was happening.
The poison was burning through my system, yes. But instead of destroying me, it felt like it was... purging me. Burning away the impurities. Burning away the weakness.
I felt a heat rising in my belly. Not the fever heat of sickness. This was different. It was cool and white, like moonlight on snow.
Rest, little one.
The voice in my head was new. It wasn't my old wolf-that playful, submissive runt who just wanted to be loved. This voice was ancient. It sounded like the wind howling through a granite canyon. It sounded like power.
My body arched on the seat, a gasp tearing from my throat.
"Liv? What's wrong?" Dad slammed on the brakes, tires screeching as he pulled onto the shoulder of the deserted highway.
"It hurts," I cried out, clutching my stomach. "Dad, it's changing! Something is changing!"
My skin began to glow. A faint, pearlescent light seeped from my pores. The silver burns on my wrists and ankles began to smoke, the blackened flesh sealing itself back together before my eyes.
Dad watched, his mouth falling open in shock. "By the Goddess..."
The pain of the Rejection, that gaping hole in my chest, began to fill. Not with love. Not with warmth.
But with ice. Hard, unbreakable ice.
The ancient voice whispered again, louder this time. Resonant.
He rejected us. He broke the bond.
Good.
Now we are beholden to no one.
I sat up, gasping for air. The fever broke instantly. The fog in my mind cleared with a terrifying sharpness.
I looked at my hands. The dirt was gone. The scars were gone. My skin looked flawless, glowing with that faint, unearthly light.
I looked at my father in the rearview mirror. My eyes, usually a warm hazel, felt different. Heavier. I couldn't see them, but I saw Dad flinch.
"Liv?" he whispered, his voice trembling. "Your eyes... they're silver."
I looked out the window at the dark forest rushing by. I didn't feel like Olivia the cleaner anymore. I didn't feel like the girl who cried over a moonstone.
I felt dangerous. Predatory.
"Keep driving, Dad," I said, my voice steady and cold as winter. "Take us to Montana. If Marcus Thorne wants a war, I need to be ready."
My inner wolf rose from the ashes of my old self. She wasn't a small, brown wolf anymore.
In the reflection of the window, a massive, white wolf with eyes like burning stars stared back at me.
The White Wolf had awakened. And she remembered everything.
