Chapter 755 So… do you still want to marry me?

This was the first time a human was ever going to set foot on pack land and Voren had zero idea what to expect. Seraphine had already said she wanted to run an experiment. What could possibly go wrong?

That night the chopper touched down and Nicole climbed out with Pete. He had been blindfolded the entire flight, completely in the dark about where they were taking him.

The second the blindfold came off Pete froze solid, staring straight into the faces of his boss and his boss’s wife. His mouth opened, closed, and opened again.

“Sir… I’m sorry, but where the hell am I? And how are you here?”

Seraphine looked at Nicole. Nicole wore a tight, nervous smile that never reached her eyes.

“Nic, what’s going on? Did you drag me out here so I could get fired?”

Nicole shook her head hard, fingers twisting together in her lap until her knuckles went bone white. “No. I have something I need to tell you and I don’t know how. I brought you here so they could help me.”

Pete’s brow furrowed deeper, confusion carved into every line of his face. “I’m lost. Completely lost.”

“What I’m trying to say is there’s a whole world past the human one. In that world werewolves live. And I’m one of them.”

A sharp, disbelieving laugh burst out of Pete’s chest. “Come on, Nic. You’ve always had a killer sense of humor. You told me a hundred times how much you loved Teen Wolf. Did that show finally get inside your head?”

“She’s not joking.” Voren’s voice cut through the air, low and hard.

The smile on Pete’s face went cold then just collapsed. “You mean…?”

“I mean every time I’m gone from the city this is mostly where I am. We’re not human, Pete.”

Pete shook his head slowly, desperately, like he could physically knock the words out of his skull. “Why do you keep saying that? We’re the same. So why the hell aren’t you human?”

Voren glanced at Seraphine. She stepped forward, her voice gentle but heavy with something inevitable. “Nicole. I think it’s time you show him who you really are.”

Nicole nodded though her whole body was shaking. She motioned for Pete to follow her outside. The grounds looked ordinary enough at first and Pete’s shoulders loosened as they walked.

That ease lasted only until they stood out in the open land surrounding the Grimroot pack. Nothing but dirt and sky stretched forever in every direction, wide and exposed.

“Pete, please don’t freak out on me, okay? I love you. Nothing changes between us even if I’m not human like you.”

He smiled, still clinging to the normalcy of her face, the warmth in her voice. “I still don’t get what you’re talking about.”

Nicole reached for the hem of her shirt and started to undress. Pete surged forward, hands covering her exposed skin, panic rising fast in his voice. “Hey. What are you doing? Why are you stripping out in the open?”

She gave him a soft, broken smile. “I want to show you my wolf form. If I keep the clothes on, they’ll tear apart.”

Pete went completely still. His breath snagged in his throat. “You’re telling me that Teen Wolf story is real?”

“Would you leave me if I told you I have those abilities?”

The question hung between them, heavy and fragile, trembling in the space between their bodies. She didn’t know how to do this. She was only following Seraphine’s lead.

The only comfort was that Pete’s memories could be wiped clean if he couldn’t handle her wolf side. She could still live with him as her human self. No matter what she wasn’t ready to lose him.

The thought of waking up without him, of walking through every single day with that empty space beside her, clawed at her chest until she could barely breathe. Her heart hammered so hard she felt sick.

“I love you, Nicole. Why don’t we just get married?”

“If you can accept my wolf side then yes. We’ll get married right away,” she promised, voice cracking on the last word.

Pete’s smile widened, pure relief flooding his features. That was all he wanted. As long as she wasn’t walking away from him, he could handle anything. His chest loosened for the first time since the blindfold came off.

Then the sound hit. Bones cracking, joints popping. A wet, sickening symphony of everything rearranging. Pete’s blood turned to ice. Every drop of color drained from his face as he watched the woman he loved sprout claws then paws, fur rippling across her skin in waves, fangs sliding into place where her perfect white teeth had been.

Standing in front of him was a sand dune wolf.

Pete staggered backward, chest heaving so hard it hurt, legs barely holding him up. Something inside him pulled tight like a fist had closed around his heart and started squeezing until he thought he might drop right there.

His vision blurred at the edges. A raw, animal sound tried to climb out of his throat and died.

Nicole shifted back fast, yanking her clothes on with shaking hands, and rushed to his side. “Pete. Are you okay?”

He tried to speak. When he opened his mouth nothing came out. Fear sat wide and glassy in his eyes, drowning him. The only words he managed to force past his lips were “You… you… you’re not human.”

Pain lanced straight through Nicole’s chest, sharp enough to steal her breath and leave her eyes stinging. “That’s what I told you. You’re the one who wouldn’t believe it. That’s why I kept putting the wedding off. I didn’t want you to marry a lie. We can live in both worlds, the human one and ours, but I needed you to understand there would be times I’d want to be here. With my people.”

She took his hand. He was frozen, his temperature dropped, fingers like ice, but he didn’t pull away. “This is too much, Nicole.” His voice was barely a whisper, raw and broken.

“I know. Take your time. We can stay a few days so you can get to know my people. They already know you’re not one of them so nobody’s going to expect much from you. And nobody’s going to hurt you.”

A shadow fell over them. Pete spun around and saw Voren and Seraphine standing there, silent, watching. Then it clicked.

“Sir… you mean you can change like that too?”

Voren nodded. “Yes. Same as everyone here. That’s why I don’t live much in the human world. Some people stay in the human world permanently. Nicole wanted to do that for you. But Sera told her to show you the truth. It’s up to you whether you accept her or walk away.”

Pete was seeing stars. His head spun. The ground tilted under his feet. He pinched himself hard and yelped. “Ow. Damn.”

“What’s wrong?” Nicole asked, worry threading tight through her voice, eyes searching his face for any sign of what he was feeling. Her free hand hovered near his arm like she was terrified he might vanish.

Pete forced a smile though it wobbled hard at the edges. “I thought I was dreaming. But this is real.”

“It is real,” Nicole said. Then softer, almost afraid, her voice barely above a whisper and thick with everything she was holding back: “So… do you still want to marry me?”