Baptism of Claws

The forest was quiet, almost deceptively so. A mist clung to the ground, curling around tree trunks, hiding shadows and secrets alike. Lena stood in the clearing, furs draped over her shoulders, still trembling. Every nerve in her body screamed, every muscle ached, and yet the worst part wasn’t the pain—it was the fire still crawling through her veins.

Her wolf stirred beneath her skin like a predator testing the boundaries of its cage. Every heartbeat echoed claws against bone, teeth against flesh, and the pull of Kade’s mark burned hotter than ever.

“Breathe,” Kade’s voice cut through the mist. Golden eyes, still streaked with battle and blood, fixed her in place. “You can’t fight the wolf inside. You have to train it. Control it. Or it will control you.”

Lena swallowed, trying to steady her racing pulse. “I… I don’t even know how,” she whispered, voice trembling.

Kade stepped closer, each movement deliberate, measured. His presence alone made the air heavier, thicker, suffused with authority and the scent of pine, smoke, and something wild that burned her senses. “You learned how to fight last night. You fought beside me. That was instinct. Now you will learn discipline.”

He turned, sweeping a hand toward the pack assembled at the edges of the clearing. Wolves, both human and fully shifted, circled silently, eyes gleaming in the half-light. Some were curious, some wary, some openly hostile. Every pair of eyes was on her.

“The pack will not follow someone they cannot trust,” Kade said, voice low but carrying. “They will not fight beside a wolf who cannot hold herself together. They will not obey a mate who cannot command her own strength. And you…” He paused, letting the weight of the words settle, “…are mine. You will either rise to this… or you will break beneath it.”

Lena’s stomach tightened. Her wolf snarled, claws itching, teeth grinding. Mine… mine… mine… it whispered, a hungry echo of Kade’s claim. She could feel the bond vibrating through her bones, her blood, even her thoughts.

Kade crouched, shifting his stance into the subtle posture of the hunt, predatory, coiled, ready. “Show me what you’ve learned. Fight me.”

She blinked. “Fight… you?”

He didn’t answer. Instead, he moved, a blur of muscle and golden eyes, closing the distance between them in a heartbeat. Lena’s wolf erupted at the same time, screaming to be released, claws tearing at her palms as her body threatened to shift.

The first strike came without warning.

Kade’s hand lashed out, grazing her shoulder, and Lena reacted instinctively. Teeth snapped. Claws raked. The mist swirled around them, stirred by their movements. Each strike she blocked, each lunge she countered, was both a test and a lesson.

“Control!” Kade barked, voice slicing through the growl of her wolf. “Or you die out here!”

Lena froze. Not from fear—but realization. She couldn’t fight without restraint. Without control, her strength was dangerous to her and everyone around her. Her wolf snarled inside, demanding release, but she forced herself to breathe, to center, to feel the pull of Kade’s mark beneath her skin.

He struck again, faster, sharper. She dodged, parried, her wolf roaring in defiance. Sweat and blood streaked her face. Her arms shook. Her heart burned. And yet, with each clash, each lesson forced into muscle memory, she felt… something shift.

Not fully human. Not fully wolf. Something between.

Kade’s eyes narrowed, golden fire flaring. “Good. Now push harder. I won’t hold back.”

Her pulse exploded. Her wolf surged. Lena lunged, claws extended, fangs bared, striking at him with everything she had. He blocked, countered, and then, just as she thought she might fall under his strength, he let her land a hit.

The contact jolted her, pain and exhilaration crashing together. She had done it. She had struck an Alpha—the Alpha—without being destroyed.

Kade’s chest heaved. Golden eyes gleamed with approval, pride, and a hint of hunger. “Again,” he commanded. “Until the bond doesn’t just scream at you. Until you are both wolf and human and mine, all at once.”

Lena straightened, wolf inside her screaming, fire still burning, and nodded. The first lesson of control had begun. And the forest waited, silent witness, as the Alpha’s baptism of claws pressed onward.

By the time the moon had climbed high again, Lena’s body was slick with sweat and streaked with blood—not just Kade’s, but her own, from small cuts and scrapes that marked her progress. Every muscle ached, every nerve screamed, but she was no longer the frightened woman who had stumbled into Blackwood.

Her wolf roared beneath her skin, raw and untamed, claws scraping the earth. She wanted to break free, to sink teeth into Kade, to kill—but the bond burned hotter than her instinct. Control. Control. Control.

“Again,” Kade said, voice calm but unyielding. His golden eyes glimmered, reflecting moonlight and challenge. “If you falter, if your wolf answers before you, you fail. You know what’s at stake. Keep yourself together.”

Lena growled, a low, vibrating sound that echoed with something older than fear. She lunged.

Kade countered, claws brushing her shoulder, snapping close enough to graze, enough to teach. He moved like water, fluid and unrelenting, yet always leaving her room to strike. Pain was a teacher. Blood was a teacher. And the wolf inside her learned fast.

The pack circled, watching in awe. Some stepped back, wary of the raw energy emanating from the girl who had shifted, but none doubted her anymore. She wasn’t a human trying to survive among wolves. She was one of them. And the bond? It made her more. She carried the Alpha’s fire now.

A lunge, a snap of claws, a roar tearing the night—Lena’s wolf surged forward fully, but her mind guided it. She struck Kade across the chest, teeth grazing, claws catching. Pain and exhilaration collided, and she staggered back, chest heaving.

He didn’t scold. He didn’t strike back. Instead, he nodded once, sharply. “Good. Again.”

And she did.

Strike after strike, dodge after dodge, Lena’s wolf obeyed her as much as she obeyed the bond. The line between human and predator blurred. Every growl, every snap of fang and claw, every roll across the misty clearing brought her closer to mastery.

Finally, sweat-laden and breathing hard, she held Kade in a stance of perfect balance. Fangs bared, claws ready, eyes gold and human at once. Her wolf rested beneath her skin, coiled but silent, listening to her commands.

Kade studied her, chest heaving, blood dripping, but a smile tugged at the corner of his lips. A dangerous, proud, Alpha smile. “You are mine,” he said softly, voice carrying the weight of claim and approval. “And the pack will follow you because of this. Not just because I say it. Because you earned it.”

Lena exhaled, a sound that was part growl, part laugh, part human gasp. Her body trembled, but it was not fear. It was triumph. The baptism of claws had not broken her. It had made her stronger.

The mist curled around them, silver in the moonlight. The pack howled—not in challenge, not in fear—but in acknowledgment.

Lena’s wolf shifted, stretched, and then receded beneath her skin. Human hands covered her trembling face. She looked at Kade, golden eyes locking with his.

“You… you believe in me,” she whispered, voice hoarse.

He tilted her chin up, lips brushing her temple. “I don’t just believe in you. I trust you with my life. And soon, you will trust yourself enough to fight by my side. As mate. As wolf. As mine.”

For the first time, Lena understood the full weight of the bond—and the power it could grant her.

She had been baptized in claws, fire, and blood. And she had survived.

The real war had only just begun.