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I don’t know how.She breathed the words inside my mind.Logan, I don’t know how.

Delving the edge of the fog obscuring her, I formed an image of my wolf self and pushed my muzzle into the murky haze. Fingertips grazed my snout, and I stretched toward her.

What happened to me?

I shivered as her words filtered through to me.The primal shifter energy overwhelmed you, and you’ve slipped into something like a shifter coma. Your brain is trying to protect you, but we need you.

I don’t think I can do it.Her voice wavered, and it sounded as though she fought tears.I don’t think I can save Six-Mile, Red Tail, or any of the others. What happens if I fail?

You won’t.

You don’t know that. This is proof I can’t do it.

I hoped she could sense my laughter.This is only proofyou’ve been a shifter for all of a week. Come back with me, and we’ll figure it out together.

Emma appeared at the edge of the mist in her human form, and a massive rush of her sensations and feelings, poured over me. The cloud wrapped around her like clothes, and her expression twisted with concern. Exploring the internal depths of her enticed me in ways I couldn’t fathom, and I could almost grasp the idea of me she had inside her.

But that wasn’t all…

Linked like we were, I could detect the feelings she had for me, the desire she was afraid to feel, and the overpowering fear that threatened to overtake it all. It had been so much for her, and she was so much stronger than she realized.

I bumped my nose against her hip.You ready?

Yes.She ran her palm from the back of my head down along my spine, and I savored the feel of her touch. How much better would it be in the real world in our human forms?

Her fingers curled in my fur, taking hold so I could lead her out, and I was powerless to stop our energies as they twined together, forming unbreakable bonds.

For as long as Emma needed me, I would be by her side, and I would work to keep her safe. Were we fated mates? I wasn’t ready to believe that yet, though how many circumstances had to align before I admitted that it seemed like we were? I snorted. Fate had nothing to do with any of it. Whether she realized it yet or not, I was going to be her mate in this new life she had entered.

Not Jasper.

Not Marcus.

None of the others.

My eyes fluttered open to find Dr. Wise staring down at me, and I sniffed, still in my wolf form.

“What did you do?” she asked, filling a syringe with a golden liquid. “Nothing was working. It was as though her body had been on the verge of giving up.”

I jumped down from the table and landed on human feet, carefully straightening and stretching as I waited for Emma to wake. If Emma hadn’t been a healer, I wasn’t sure I would have been able to successfully delve her mind so easily. So many details made sense, as though the universe had written our story while we were unaware, but feelings weren’t helpful to any of us right now.

I turned to Dr. Wise. “I delved her mind, and I brought her back. She’ll wake up shortly.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I know.” I shrugged. “Primal energy can overwhelm the best of us, Doc, burning us out and reuniting our shifter souls with the energy we all draw from. If we lose ourselves in the ether, our bodies have no reason to go on.”

She frowned. “I’ll need to record what happened. May I take your statement later?”

“Not this time,” I said.

She opened her mouth to argue.

But I shook my head. “Not this time.”

Dr. Wise glared then turned away with her bottom lip poking out slightly.

Huh.That had to be the first time I’d seen her pout. I wouldn’t have thought she was capable of it.