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Chapter thirty-four

Annabella

A nnabella

I jolted upright, reality crashing into me like cold water. The nightmare’s grip loosened its claws from my mind, but the terror remained, sharp and immediate.

“Felix?”

“Shit, Annabella.” Relief flooded his features as he exhaled hard. “You were dreaming. Just a dream.”

I reached out my hand to trace the cuts on his face. “What happe—?”

I stopped. I knew what had happened.

I’d attacked Felix.

And worse—my fingers were still tipped with sharp claws. Horror washed over me like ice water, adrenaline spiking my blood.

I’d done a partial-Shift in my sleep.

“No, no, no,” I gasped, trying to force my wolf back down. It felt like wrestling with quicksand—the harder I fought, the more my wolf surged against my control.

The panic was building. My breathing turned ragged, each gasp feeling like it might be my last.

Then something shifted in the air around me.

Felix’s scent wrapped around my senses like a physical embrace.

It was soft and steady, and it made me feel safe.

Safe and grounded. Like being in a mountain cabin while a blizzard rages outside.

My racing pulse began to slow, the frantic energy that had been tearing through my system settled, leaving me calmer, more centered.

“Annabella.” Felix sat perfectly still despite the blood painting tracks down his jaw, his voice pitched low and steady. “It’s okay. You’re safe. It was just a nightmare.”

The iron band around my chest loosened enough for me to breathe again.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered, the words scraping my throat raw.

“I’m so sorry. You have to g-get out.” Even as I said it, I could feel my wolf responding to his presence, settling back into dormancy like she trusted him to keep watch. “I’m not safe. Not for you.”

And then he did the most bizarre thing. Instead of leaving, he scooted closer and reached out to touch my claws.

No!

I curled in on myself, using the thin blanket to cover as much as possible. To hide the monster. The freak. The abomination.

“Get out, Felix! By the dark moon, get OUT!”

He didn’t even flinch.

“Annabella.” His presence seemed to expand, filling every corner of the small room until the air itself felt charged with his attention. “Look at me.”

I wouldn’t. I couldn’t bear to see the disgust, the revulsion in his eyes.

Shame burning through me like acid. I was supposed to hide it, shut down my wolf, and above all, never let anyone see my partial-Shift.

Abomination. Half-breed. Witchy bitch.

My mother’s voice whispered in my head: “Never let them see, Annabella. Never. They’ll kill you if they know what you can do.”

“Annabella,” Felix repeated. “Please look at me.”

Something in his tone made me glance up.

Instead of the horror I expected, his eyes were bright with… fascination? And the scent coming off him wasn’t fear or disgust but something closer to wonder.

“You realize you did a partial-Shift? That’s… that’s fucking incredible.”

I stared at him, trying to process his reaction. Where was the fear? The disgust? For a wild moment, I wondered if this was some elaborate trick—if he was just toying with me before the inevitable rejection.

“Don’t make fun of me,” I snarled, letting anger mask the desperate hope trying to unfurl in my chest.

“Fun?” Felix’s scent had a tint of confusion. “Annabella, why would I—?”

“Why aren’t you horrified? Or calling me a freak? Or—”

“Why would I do any of those things?” His eyes searched mine.

“Because that’s what I am—a freak!”

Felix’s expression softened with what looked disturbingly like understanding.

“I see. You think that partial Shifting means you’re defective somehow?”

I looked down at my hands, claws fully extended. “I’m not supposed to do it.”

Felix moved closer, slowly, deliberately, like someone approaching a wounded animal. “Annabella, do you know how rare partial Shifting is?”

I kept my eyes down. “Only Alphas are supposed to be able to do it.”

“Exactly. Only Alphas can partially Shift. They draw on their Pack bonds to fuel it—the collective power of every wolf connected to them. But here’s the thing—you’re not an Alpha.”

“Thanks for pointing that out,” I said bitterly, the taste of my own self-hatred sharp on my tongue.

“No, listen.” He dropped to one knee beside the bed, his body coiled with a restrained energy that made the air between us seem to vibrate. “You’re not an Alpha, and you’re not connected to a Pack. So how are you doing something that should be impossible without Pack bonds?”

I shrugged, uncomfortable with his focus. “I don’t know. It’s just another way I’m wrong.”

“Wrong? For fuck’s sake, Annabella.” His scent flared with sudden anger. “You are the least wrong person I know. You… you are extraordinary.”

My head snapped up. I must have misheard. “What?”

“Extraordinary, Annabella.” He leaned forward, his eyes blazing. “You’re part witch, part werewolf. Extraordinary. You’re not wrong. You’ve never been wrong.”

Something inside me trembled at his words. My entire life had been shaped around the certainty that I was wrong—a mistake, a misfit, a creature that should never have existed.

“You don’t understand,” I whispered, throat tight. “You don’t know what it’s like to be told you’re an abomination. To have people look at you like you’re some kind of mistake. To have your mother tell you to hide what you are because people will kill you if they find out.”

“Annabella.” Felix shifted closer, his hand hovering near my face but not quite touching. “Listen to me very carefully. You are not wrong. You are not a mistake. You are not an abomination.”

Each statement hit me like a hammer, striking at the foundations of everything I’d been taught to believe about myself.

“You are the most remarkable person I’ve ever met.”

My chest tightened. “Stop.”

“No.” Anger flashed in his eyes again, his jaw tightening. “There’s nothing disgusting or wrong or messed up about you, Annabella. Whoever put that idea in your head is a stupid fucker, and if I ever meet them, I’m going to make sure they regret it. You’re perfect. Uniquely, perfectly, you.”

A lump formed in my throat, making it hard to speak. No one had ever looked at me this way before—like I was someone to be cherished instead of something to be fixed or hidden or destroyed.

“You exist between worlds,” he continued, his thumb brushing over my cheek. “The way you balance on that edge—it’s not a flaw, Annabella. It’s a fucking gift.”

“A gift?” I tested the word like it might explode in my mouth. It felt foreign, impossible. Like trying to speak a language I’d heard in dreams but never learned to pronounce.

I shook my head, still unable to fully process his words, his touch, the lack of revulsion in his scent. I inhaled deeply, searching for deception, for fear, for disgust hidden beneath the surface.

There was none.

I’d spent so long hating myself, hating my dual nature, fighting it, denying it. The possibility that it might be something to value, to celebrate, was almost too much to comprehend.

He sighed as his thumb gently stroked my cheekbone. “I see you don’t believe me. That’s okay. I’m a determined guy. I don’t give up, Annabella. I’m gonna convince you just how fucking awesome you are; you’ll see, even if it takes me the rest of my life to do so.”

I shook my head in automatic denial, and as I did, my claws finally retracted with a sensation like knives sliding back into sheaths. My hands looked suddenly fragile, pale and human against the dark blanket.

Felix watched, his expression thoughtful. “Maybe it’s part of your gift.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Think about it. As far as lore goes, only Alphas can partially Shift, and they need Pack bonds to do it. Yet here you are, doing something that should be impossible. But maybe it’s your magic that’s fueling the partial Shift in the same way Pack bonds fuel Alphas.

Your witch side giving power to your wolf side.

Two sources of power, linked, working together in ways no one has ever seen before.

” A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. “Not half and half—twice as whole.”

Twice as whole. The words hit me like a revelation, but then my thoughts drifted to Ellie, and the familiar ache settled in my chest. “That’s what I want for her,” I whispered. “For Ellie to grow up believing she’s twice as whole instead of half of nothing.

“When I think about Ellie growing up like I did—hated by wolves, distrusted by witches—I’d do anything to prevent that.

Right now, she’s safe, but she won’t be for long.

She can already do magic; she already partially Shifts.

She’s so free with both sides of herself, so unguarded.

She doesn’t know how to hide yet, and unless I can change things, I’m going to have to teach her.

Teach her to be careful, to be less, to hide what she is because of how others see her. ”

“You want to protect her.”

“Yes. And by protecting her, I’d be breaking her,” I whispered. “I’d have to teach her to be ashamed of herself like I was taught.”

Felix’s hand found my cheek, his touch warm and steady. “You fight so she won’t have to hide.”

“I’ll burn the whole fucking Council down, the whole fucking world, Felix, to give her that.” The truth of it burned in my chest, a wildfire that had been consuming me for years.

Something flickered across Felix’s expression, and I caught the scent of loneliness beneath his words when he spoke. “She’s lucky to have you. Family… Pack… they’re what matters.”

Felix had lost his family, his Pack scattered by Council mandate. Maybe he understood the ache of having no one who truly saw you. Maybe he was just as lonely as I was. Maybe he just wanted to feel something. Maybe he just wanted to feel safe, just like me.

“How did you do that earlier?” The question slipped out, softer now, more intimate.

“Do what?”

“Calm me down. When I was panicking. Something changed in your scent, and I just… settled. I felt calm, safe.” I tilted my head, curious. “I’ve never experienced anything like that before.”

Felix was quiet for a moment, his thumb still tracing along my cheekbone. “Some Shifters can influence the emotional state of those around them. It’s about controlling your own chemical signals, your pheromones, and often others will instinctively match that energy.”

“Some Shifters,” I repeated his words slowly, my mind racing. “Not all. Just some.”

His jaw tightened almost imperceptibly. “It’s… rare.”

“That’s…” I searched for the right word. “That’s either incredibly useful or mildly terrifying. Haven’t decided which yet.”

A small smile tugged at his lips. “Comes in handy when someone’s having a nightmare and half-Shifting in their sleep.”

“You didn’t have to do that. Help me, I mean.”

His eyes met mine, something intense flickering in their depths. “Yes, I did.”

His thumb brushed across my lower lip, and I felt my pulse jump.

Without thinking, I leaned forward and kissed him. His breath caught, and for a heartbeat, he froze, eyes staring into mine.

Then his hand slid to the back of my neck; he made a low sound in his throat, something between a growl and a sigh, and kissed me back.