I woke the following morning with a huge grin on my face. Raydir was snoring softly beside me, his lips moving ever so slightly.

He looked so peaceful, I didn’t want to wake him.

I needed to know about last night. The shift had taken a large toll on his body which was evident from the bruising that had now developed on his ribcage. And what was with that telepathic ability? Would we still have that today or was it just something to do with the Alignment?

So many questions, too few answers.

Carefully removing myself from his embrace, I went to change into fresh clothes. My hair stuck up in all directions since I’d gone to bed with it wet, so I quickly braided it over my shoulder and went to wake Raydir. He’d slept the entire night with no sign of any nightmares.

When I returned to his room, he was already sitting up. His bare torso peeked out from the top of the covers.

“Morning,” he murmured in my ear, pulling me into his arms. His voice was rough with sleepiness.

“Morning.” I kissed him, letting my lips linger on his for a few extra seconds.

He pulled away, smirking as he wiped his thumb along the corner of my mouth. “You know you drool in your sleep.”

I made a face and swatted his hand away, frantically wiping at my mouth. “Ugh. I’m so sorry. That’s—”

“Hey.” He covered my hand with his. “It’s cute.”

I whacked him with my pillow. “It’s not cute, Ray! It’s gross!”

Raydir laughed, tickling my sides. We fell backwards together onto the bed.

“Shall we head over to the Grand Cabin for breakfast?” I asked. “I have a surprise for you.”

Rosie, as promised, had brought me a set of charcoal, paints, and several canvases. I was just waiting for the right time to give them to him.

He nodded. “Yes. But I want to revisit our conversation from last night.”

I sat up. “About the Alignment?”

“Yes.” Ray tilted my chin up so I could gaze into his eyes. “You were so brave—”

I shook my head, swatting his hand away. “No, Ray. I wasn’t.” Tears brimmed my eyes. “Do you remember anything from the shift?”

He looked down at the wrinkled bed sheets. His silence was the only affirmation I needed.

“I watched you suffer and writhe with pain,” I said. “And it’s my fault you had to go through that. I wish beyond anything that it happened to me because you don’t deserve that. But I didn’t shift. There has to be a reason. Rosie said that everyone has different symptoms but I’ve had none. I want to know why.”

Raydir took a deep breath. “There is a reason. And it’s not one you’re going to like, but—”

A knock sounded at the front door of the cabin, breaking Raydir off mid-sentence. He went to answer it with me following closely behind.

“Caesaria. Hey.” Raydir cleared his throat, averting his gaze from the red-haired girl in front of us. “What are you doing here?”

“Rosie asked me to stop by.” Caesaria glanced between the two of us. “She wanted me to see how you were holding up after the shift last night. The first one is always the worst, and I just remember waking up with this horrible migraine—”

“We’re, uh, actually quite fine,” I interjected, slipping my hand into Raydir’s. Something about Caesaria still made me anxious.

She nodded. “I see.”

“Caesaria, why don’t you and Arwyn go up to the Grand Cabin?” Raydir suggested. “I’ll meet you there in a few minutes.”

“Are you sure?” I asked, glancing up at him and biting my lip.

He smiled, kissing my cheek. “Positive.”

I followed Caesaria out of the cabin, carefully gathering my skirts as we walked.

“Raydir certainly is something, isn’t he?” Caesaria commented. Her boots squished against the damp grass.

“Certainly,” I agreed. “He’s been my best friend for so many years.”

“Pardon my asking, have you been…intimate…with him yet?”

My foot slipped on the grass and I cursed. “I don’t believe that is any of your concern. What happens between Raydir and me is strictly our business.”

“You’re right, that was a misstep. My apologies. Um, but there is something to know now that you’ve gone through the Alignment.”

I hesitated. “I didn’t shift. Only Ray did.”

“Right, Rosie mentioned that your wolf spirit is still suppressed.” Caesaria nodded. “What did you take?”

“Excuse me?”

We passed a few other folks heading to the Grand Cabin and Caesaria pulled me aside. “You must’ve taken something. You rejected your Chosen, so your wolf spirit should’ve awakened.”

I stepped back. “I don’t know. Maybe I was born without one.”

Caesaria shook her head. “No. No, I definitely sense it’s there but something feels…off.”

“Sense it?”

“Not important.” She waved it off. “Um, since you’re new to the valley and with the first shift, you should know there are certain tasks a couple has to perform.”

“And?”

“And, well, one of those tasks involves marking their mate.”

I stopped. “What are you talking about?” Did no one really think to tell us this earlier?

“A marking on your neck.” She nodded to me. “It makes you quite attached to him, which clearly you already were, but it acts as a gateway connection into the mind of the other.”

“So telepathy is natural?”

“Normal, rather than natural. But yes.” She resumed walking. “You’ll get used to it. Being a wolf is so…exhilarating.”

“Except I guess I’ll never know,” I muttered to myself. “But wait a minute. If the telepathy happens after the marking, how is it that I had it last night?” And that brought me back to this morning—would we still have the link since there was no marking?

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“It doesn’t always. But because you do have the ability, it means you do have a wolf spirit. It’s just hiding under the surface for some reason.”

Upon our arrival at the Grand Cabin, all heads turned to look in my direction. Without Raydir, I felt completely out of place.

Whispers carried through the room.

“Is she the one who just arrived with that handsome young man?” one woman asked her companion.

“Uh huh,” the companion replied.

“Pity he’s taken. He’s a dream.”

Another chimed in, “Funny, I don’t remember her shifting.”

“Louise, you don’t even remember yourself shifting,” the man across the table threw back. “Leave the poor girl alone.”

“Try to ignore them,” Caesaria said from beside me. She turned to one of the people who had been whispering. Hey, Archer! Tell your friends there to pipe down.”

“Arwyn, good to see you this morning,” Rosie greeted me, blocking off my access from the gossipers as Caesaria left my side and went to join some others across the room.. “How was your night? Did Raydir make it back to you?” She didn’t say anything about my non-existent shift which seemed to already be the talk of the valley. Word sure traveled quickly around here.

I nodded. “We did enjoy the lake quite a bit yesterday, but we'll certainly be careful around the falls.

“I am pleased. Won’t you join us? One of our harvesters has made omelets for everyone.”

“Sounds delicious.” We sat down together on one of the wood benches.

“Any plans for today?” she asked.

I cut into my omelet. Mm, ham and mushroom. “I think Ray and I are going to spend the day exploring. Do you have any recommendations for where we should go?”

“The lake I took you to the other day—the falls are magnificent. If you’re careful enough, you can walk behind them. Just watch for the rocks. They tend to be a bit slippery.”

“We’ll be careful. Speaking of Ray…” I looked around. He still hadn’t shown up for breakfast which worried me. “If you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll go and see what’s keeping him. I thought for sure he’d be here by now.”

Excusing myself from the table, I hurried back in the direction of our cabin, hoping to find Raydir there.

“Arwyn! Arwyn, wait up!” Caesaria called behind me. She caught up, out of breath. “Arwyn, I wanted to apologize for this morning. I honestly did not mean to intrude on your privacy. Sometimes I struggle with control.”

I whirled to face her. “Then I surely hope you will learn to control yourself, especially around my boyfriend.”

“Arwyn—”

“I saw the way you looked at him this morning, like something passed between you. I don’t know what it was, but I know I didn’t like it. So just remember that he’s my boyfriend, okay?”

There had been a clear change in her demeanor around Raydir between today and yesterday. Maybe I’d overlooked it. Or maybe I was just overthinking it.

“I do apologize, Arwyn. I didn’t mean for it to seem like I was trying to take him away from you.” She hesitated before continuing. “When the wolf spirit is released, we also obtain a power. Mine allows me to see people—like really see people. I can sort of sense their feelings. The true object of their affection. Everything. That’s why I come across so…intense at first.”

That got my attention. “Caesaria, how many people have this particular power?”

What were the chances…No. I’m not even going to think about that.

Caesaria took a step back. “I-I’m not sure. Everyone has a different power, so it’s really hard to say how many of each there are. I don’t even know how many powers exist.

I thought about Darius. He had displayed a very similar ability to hers, and I already knew there were still some people who lived in the dukedoms with an active wolf spirit.“When you were living in—” I paused. “Where were you living before this?”

“Gwyniar.”

“Right. When you were living in Gwyniar, did you know someone named Darius Harford?”

Caesaria tensed, but shook her head. “No, why?”

“What is it?” Caesaria asked.

I shook my head. “I don’t know. But it doesn’t sound good.”

With that comment, I took off at a run with Caesaria following closely behind. Voices drifted through the wind over to us in a clear argument. Once my cabin came into view, I saw Raydir arguing with someone whose back was to us.

“Hey!” I yelled. “Leave him alone!”

The stranger turned towards me, and I stumbled forward on the uneven ground.

“Darius,“ I whispered.Speak of the devil. Then I raised my voice. “Wh-what are you doing here? Wh-why do you—” I turned to Raydir. “You said you didn’t know him well.”

“Ar,” Raydir said, coming to my aid. Caesaria stepped between the two of us.

“Don’t,” she growled. “I think you have some serious explaining to do.” A fire ignited in her blue eyes as her gaze landed hard on Darius.

“It’s ok, Caesaria. I can handle this.” I silently begged her to stand her ground.

She nodded and took off in the other direction. I glared at the two men in front of me. “Someone better start talking.”

“Arwyn, there is something important that you need to know,” Raydir said slowly. “I started to tell you—”

“The next Alignment is coming soon,” Darius jumped in. “You need to be prepared. Both of you.” He looked pointedly at me when he said this.

“Why are you so convinced that’s when I’ll shift?” I asked, although I hoped it was true. “Someone tell me what’s going on because clearly you both know more than I do.”

“It’s complicated,” Darius said. “Your fiance—”

“Let’s go inside,” Raydir cut in. His voice came out in a deep growl.

I glared at Darius, storming past him. What did you say to him?

It’s not what I said.

The last thing I expected was hearing Darius’ voice in my head.

My head whipped around to face him. “What? What did you do? Why can I—”

“Not now. We’ll get to that later.” His gaze softened when he noticed how I visibly shook. “Arwyn, please trust me.”

“Trust you? Trust you? Darius, you can’t just show up out of nowhere, in my new home, arguing with my boyfriend!”

Darius raised his eyebrows. “Not your fiance?”

“No. Not that I should need to explain it to you. He’s just my boyfriend and we’re taking things slow.” I’d already said more than I wanted, so I stormed into the cabin after Raydir. Darius followed behind, and I bit back the urge to slam the door in his face.

Once inside the cabin, Raydir instructed me to sit on the couch.

“So what is this about?” I asked again. “The next Alignment isn’t for a month.”

“We believe that your wolf spirit will release on the next Alignment which, yes, isn’t for another month, but you need to start preparing now.”

I raised my eyebrows. “And why do you believe this to be the case? And how do you, Darius, know so much?”

“I just do,” he replied nonchalantly.

Raydir glanced between us nervously, and I narrowed my eyes. There was something he wasn’t telling me.

“We believe it’s the case,” Raydir said, “because you’re a younger sibling. You weren’t supposed to have a ceremony and you did. According to our history, having a delayed…reaction is common when unforeseen circumstances cause the younger sibling to have a ceremony.”

My gaze softened. “Oh.”

Raydir sat down next to me and took my hand in his. “Arwyn, we didn’t want to worry you.”

I shook my head. “That still doesn’t explain Darius’s involvement.”

The boys exchanged glances.

“Darius is the one who figured this out. He tried to warn me before the ceremony, but I didn’t understand what it meant—what it truly meant—until recently,” Raydir explained.

“Okay. So what does this mean?” I asked.

“It means we’ll have to monitor you the same way you did for me. We might be able to figure out which wolf spirit you have. But we need to know that you want to figure this out.”

I mulled this over. The sounds of the birds chirping outside seemed to sing in agreement. Say-yes! Say-yes! they seemed to tweet.

“Well of course I do,” I replied. “As long as we can help Raydir through the next Alignment too.”

“Deal,” they chorused.

With that, Darius gave me a wink and a salute before sauntering out of the cabin. I rubbed my hands up and down my arms.

“God, I don’t like him,” I muttered.

Raydir pulled me into his arms. “We have no choice but to trust him.” A bitter edge crept into his voice as I laid my head down on his chest.”

“I know,” I said. “I just wish we didn’t have to.”