Chapter 318 Bitey Ceremony Thingy

Chapter 318 Bitey Ceremony Thingy
Fennigan rubbed the bridge of his nose, looking at the two women who had been sisters since the foster system tried to break them.
"Evidently, the reason you and Leela knew each other growing up is the Goddess herself," Fennigan began, his voice steadying. "If she was giving me Leela, she was giving Jax you. She knew your heart and soul were already tethered to Leela’s, and she knew you were the only one who could handle a bull-headed wolf like my brother."
"What are you getting at, guys?" Leela asked, her gaze darting between her mate and Jax.
Jax gripped Ginny’s hand harder, his knuckles white. He couldn't look away from her.
"So... I'm not dying?" Ginny asked again, her voice small.
"No, that’s not it," Fennigan sighed, glancing at Jax. "I guess I'm not much better at this than you are, brother."
Jax leaned in, pressing a reverent kiss to Ginny’s knuckles. "When Iggy was fighting off the poison being pumped into you, his alpha blood pushed out its own aura. He filled your body with his own DNA to help you fight off the synthetic rot the Council was trying to force into you."
Ginny’s face went even paler, her eyes wide with a new kind of horror. "What? Then I might as well be dying! Jax, in the time I’ve been here, I’ve seen a few of those 'feral' humans. I don't want to be a rabid werewolf!"
"No, Ginny, listen to me," Jax said, his voice vibrating with a sudden, fierce pride. "He literally forced his alpha DNA so deep that it is taking over your own. You will change, but it won't be a feral change. You aren't being bitten by a rogue in an alley. You are changing out of love—a son’s love for his mother, a mate’s love, and Leela’s love. It’s the sheer force of our son and this entire pack claiming you."
He reached out, his thumb brushing a tear from her cheek.
"You aren't a specimen anymore, Ginny. The boy turned his mother’s veins into a fortress of Blackwood blood. You’re becoming one of us because the Goddess decided a long time ago that you belonged at our table."
The room fell into a heavy, meaningful silence as Ginny’s eyes searched the faces around her, desperate for a way to make the impossible make sense.
"What are you saying?" Ginny whispered, her voice cracking as she looked at her hands as if they might start changing right in front of her. "But I can’t be a werewolf. I don't know how. I don't know how to be... that."
Leela shifted Briar to one arm and sat on the very edge of the bed, leaning in close so her eyes were level with Ginny’s. The air between them hummed with that lifelong connection they shared—the bond that had survived with every foster home Ginny had been sent to and every dark night of their youth when they would lay in the playground mulch and talk all night to keep Ginny out of the home and Leela away from her abusive parents.
"Ginny, listen to me," Leela said, her voice a calm, steady anchor. "If you remember, I didn't know what I was either. I was blowing things up and making the weather go crazy, and I was terrified. But you still stood beside me our whole childhood. You weren't afraid of the 'weird' then, and I’ve been right here beside you the whole time you’ve been in this pack. I’ve never seen you afraid of any of it before all this."
Leela reached out, resting her free hand over Ginny’s and Jax’s joined ones.
"We’re all under distress right now, I know. Everything feels like a nightmare because of what that man tried to do. Damon tried to take something wonderful from the world—he tried to turn life into a cold experiment. And yet, look. You’re still here. You’re still fighting. You’re the strongest person I know, Ginny."
She glanced down at the sleeping, heavy bundle of Iggy.
"Iggy didn’t do this by accident. He knew, somehow, that you needed him just as much as he needed you. He didn't give you a curse; he gave you his strength so the Council couldn't take you away from us. You don't have to 'know how' to be a wolf today. You just have to know how to be Ginny. The rest? The rest is just us finally being the same, inside and out."
Jax watched them, his heart aching with relief. He saw the fear in Ginny’s eyes begin to soften, replaced by the reflection of Leela’s unshakable faith.
"She's right," Jax added softly, his thumb tracing the back of her hand. "You’ve been living our life for years. You’ve sat at the table with werewolves since Leela asked you here, you’ve walked the boundaries, and you’ve helped raise our nephew and niece. You’ve been a Blackwood in your soul since the day you got here. Your body is just finally catching up to your heart."
The room was finally quiet, but for Ginny, the silence was a lie.
Even with the doors closed, the house was screaming. Every floorboard that groaned three rooms away sounded like a gunshot; the scent of the pine forest outside was so thick she felt like she was choking on needles. But the worst part was the rhythmic thrumming. Every time she was near Leela or Sarah, she didn't just hear their hearts—she heard the echoes inside them. Two heartbeats from Leela, steady and fierce. Two from Sarah. It was a relentless, double-timed cadence that made Ginny’s own pulse race in a desperate attempt to keep up.
"Everyone out," Leela commanded, her voice cutting through the sensory static. She didn't have to shout; the "Spark" in her tone was enough to make the guards and the attendants clear the room instantly. There were no sisters here now, no crowd to hide behind—just the two women who had survived the foster system only to end up at the center of a prophecy.
Veda had been insistent: Ginny had exactly one week until the full moon. One week until the "wolf" Iggy had gifted her demanded to be let out. And Veda had been even more vocal about the "bitey ceremony thingy," as Ginny had jokingly called it back when Leela first summoned her to the estate.
Back then, Ginny had come to be a witness for her best friend, never dreaming that the fierce Beta standing at the King’s side would claim her as his own before the night was over. Now, that ceremony wasn't a joke or a story—it was her lifeline. Veda had made it clear that without Jax’s mark to anchor her, the transition would be a chaotic, losing battle against the last of her human DNA.