Painawakened

Austin POV The "wolf pace" was a meat grinder I hadn't seen coming. In the Teams, I'd lived through Hell Week. I knew how to survive on caffeine, spite, and twenty-minute dirt naps. But I was realizing there was a fundamental difference between SEAL endurance and Shifter stamina. The exhaustion had crept up on me. At first it had felt good. The kind of tired that came from being useful. From doing something that mattered. But after four days of patr

Xavier POV I woke up sometime in the middle of the night. The room was dark except for the faint moonlight coming through the window. He hadn't left. Austin rarely slept deeply. Years in the military had seen to that. But his breathing now was slow and even against the back of my neck. His arm was heavy across my waist. The memory of earlier moved through me quietly. His mouth. His hands. I’d handed him the keys to my body and he had taken me to a place

Xavier POV The house smelled incredible when I walked in. I stopped in the doorway. Rich. Deep. Something slow-cooked and wine-dark that hit me somewhere completely unexpected. Austin was at the stove, sleeves pushed up, back to me. He didn't hear me come in. I stood there a second longer than I needed to. "Is that—" "Beef Bourguignon." He didn't turn around. "Two more hours." He'd remembered. One offhand comment I’d made nights ago about

Austin POV My phone buzzed just after sunrise. Xavier: Come to my parents ASAP. No explanation. I was out the door in under five minutes. I stepped into Evelyn’s living room just as the low rumble of an engine rolled up the driveway. The change in them was immediate. Xavier and Nathaniel were already moving by the time I stepped fully into the room, both of them heading for the front door like they’d been waiting for this all morning. I drifted toward th

Austin POV He showed up on the fourth day. I'd been checking. Quietly, without making it obvious — stopping by Aaron's house in the mornings under the pretense of updating Nathaniel on patrol reports, watching for the signs Aaron had described. Strength dropping. Responses slowing. By day three Nathaniel was still unfailingly polite in that way of his that made you feel like you were the most important thing in whatever room he was occupying. But his eyes had gone sli

Austin POV The Greyhaven Pack Community hall smelled like damp cedar, and stale sweat. Outside, the November rain was punishing the roof, but inside, the air was suffocatingly hot. I counted roughly sixty adults scattered across the concrete floor, their bodies shifting in restless, predatory clusters. Teenagers lingered around the back wall. The wolves were bleeding nervous energy, and every single eye kept darting toward Xavier. He stood dead-center beneath the

Austin POV One week later. The house woke before the sun. It had been like that every morning since I'd moved in. By six the yard behind Xavier's place was already alive with the sound of boots hitting dirt, metal weights clanging, wolves shifting forms and shifting back again. Aaron ran the pack like a military unit. And Xavier followed every rule. I leaned against the porch railing, coffee warming my hands while I watched him train. He was

@dboggs9700 Thank you so much

Xavier POV The chessboard was a slaughter. Sade had taken my queen three moves ago and was now quietly dismantling my remaining pawns. Across the living room, Austin sat on the couch, one arm draped along the back, pretending to look at his phone. He wasn't. I could feel his eyes on me every few seconds. I couldn't quite read him. Not yet. Sade moved his knight and took another pawn. "You're distracted," he said mildly. "I need to see Aaron," I muttered.

Sorry for the late reply. Work has been crazy. Just for clarity the ferry runs on Wednesday and Friday Both Wednesday and Friday's have one inbound and one outbound ferry. I haven't re read the book yet. But once I edit this chapter, I will make the ferry schedule clearer.

AUSTIN POV Waking up hurt. My shoulders burned. My throat felt scraped raw. My body hurt all over. For a few seconds I didn't open my eyes. I listened. Wind against glass somewhere. The distant steady pulse of surf. A house on the coast then. I was not in a hospital. Something tugged lightly at the back of my hand. IV line. I opened my eyes. The room was dim. A lamp in the corner throwing warm light across wood floors and dark walls.

AUSTIN POV The last camera was at the northeast corner of the property line. Xavier climbed down from the tree with the empty battery casing in one hand and crossed it off the clipboard without looking. "That's it," he said. Four days. A hundred and twelve cameras. Coastal New England in late October which meant mud and low light and branches that found every gap in your jacket. I had enjoyed every single day of it. I didn't examine that too closely. We

Xavier POV I stepped inside my mother's office. She crossed the space before I reached her and pulled me in before I could say anything. Her hug was tight. Fierce. I let myself sink into it for a second, face against her shoulder, breathing in the familiar scent of her perfume. "I'm sorry we woke you early," she murmured. "How are you feeling?" "Okay," I said against her shoulder. It wasn't a lie. It wasn't the truth either. She pulled back just enough t

AUSTIN POV The knocking came at 0602. I knew because I checked my watch before I moved. Old habit. I swung my legs off the bed and walked to the door, running a hand through my hair before pulling it open. Nathaniel stood there. For a second, I didn't process anything else. Just him. The same face I remembered, untouched by time. If anything, sharper. More defined. Like the years had refined him instead of aging him. Aaron stood one step behind

AUSTIN POV "If he dies," the man said quietly, "you will too." Years of training told me the threat was real. Everything about him — posture, stare, grip — said he'd follow through. "I didn't shoot him," I said. "Then lower the gun." I lowered it slowly. He released the barrel. Before I could ask him who he was, two more figures dropped beside the wolf. My brain registered the speed, the silence, and filed it under What The Fuck. I was dru