Chapter 2

My vision blurred as images flooded my consciousness—memories buried so deep I hadn't known they existed. A grand stone house nestled in dense forest. A silver-haired man with kind eyes was teaching me to track by scent. My father, his face now clear in my mind, showed me how to control the shift for the first time.

"No," I gasped, fighting against the onslaught. "This isn't real."

"It's all real," Elena said, her voice seeming to come from very far away. "The memory suppression is breaking down."

The platform beneath me pulsed with energy, and I felt something inside me stirring—a presence I'd spent years denying, pushing down whenever it tried to surface. My wolf. Star.

*Let me out,* a voice whispered inside my head. *Let me protect us.*

The chamber door exploded inward, fragments of metal and stone spraying across the room. Elena was thrown against the wall, crumpling to the floor in a motionless heap. Through the dust and debris stepped Kieran, now in human form. Blood streaked hi