by Stacey Card
It felt like my whole body was on fire, I needed release, to change but I couldn’t. I doubled over in pain and cried out, it was worse than what I imagined giving birth would be like. I fell to the floor curling in on myself trying to ease the pain coursing through my body. I needed Nick here with me, he would know what to do and even if he didn’t he would still try and comfort me. He would try to ease my pain even if it was impossible. My wolf howled clawing to get out, I pushed her back knowing I wasn’t ready for the change; this just seemed to make her try harder.
The pain subsided and I whimpered hoping that she would stop with this torture. I felt dirty, covered in dry sweat but I couldn’t move. I had no energy to even get up never mind go into the house and have a shower. Although the pain had stopped I knew that my wolf was up to something, she was quiet, like she was plotting something. I was just dozing off when it happened - it felt like I was being ripped into a million pieces.
I could see the air around me shimmering, changing. The colours were becoming brighter; I could see the bark of the trees in detail. The pain stopped and I knew that I had changed, I was a wolf. My wolf yipped and pranced around getting used to her feet, I knew that if she was human she would be poking her tongue out at me now. I ran over to the trees and back, taking charge of my wolf before she done something else that was stupid.
Nick and my father would be so excited when I told them tomorrow that I had changed, I would be told off because they told me to wait but I didn’t really have a choice in the matter. My wolf laughed at that thought, I loved my wolf, she made me feel complete even if she was a pain sometimes. I walked over to a tree and sniffed it, the smells were amazing, I could tell that recently a squirrel had climbed this tree. I walked over to the lake, to the spot where Nick and I had sat earlier and I could smell him. My wolf howled searching for her mate; I couldn’t stop her from throwing her head out and calling for him.
There was no reply and she whimpered but I soothed her by saying that he was asleep and would join us tomorrow. She agreed with this and turned to run into the woods, towards the main house. The trees blurred passed us as we ran towards our mate, I didn't know what she was thinking of doing - howl until he opened the window, maybe? I always dreamed that it would be a man outside my window in the middle of the night, not the other way round.
Before we got to the house my wolf reared off into a different direction, she could smell something, food. She crouched down behind a bush before pouncing on a poor rabbit. To be honest, I did feel sorry for him but I knew that it was the way of the wolf and that it was just like me eating a burger. This would definitely take some getting used to, after she had devoured the rabbit she was back to the task of looking for her mate.
Once we were at the house Nick's scent was stronger, she sniffed around the house until she was frustrated enough and just threw her head back howling, obviously giving up the search of finding his bedroom.
****
My wolf awoke me and I looked around the room startled. He was whimpering and trying to break free, he had to get to his mate. I pushed him back wondering what had gotten him in such a bad mood. Then I heard it, the howl of a wolf calling its mate, my wolf wanted to howl in response. Alysha had changed? I sat up quickly in bed pulling on my jeans and a shirt. I walked outside in search of my mate; she was nowhere to be seen.
I went back to my room thinking that my wolf must have been mistaken. I was just drifting back off to sleep when I heard the howl again, closer this time. In fact it was so close I wouldn’t be surprised if the whole house woke up, it sounded like she was right outside. I walked to my bedroom door, thankful that I didn’t take my clothes off before I got back into bed.
I was right, as I walked out of my door my father and mother were coming down the hall. My dad was angry; he never liked being woken from his beauty sleep. Chris and Dan were coming down another hall and Maddi peaked out from her room, which was across from mine.
"What in the devil is going on?" my dad bellowed, taking the stairs two at a time.
I was right on his heels as he opened the door. There stood a beautiful white wolf, howling at the house, calling for her mate. Seeing her made my wolf respond and he nearly changed before I pushed him back down. Alysha was as beautiful in wolf form as she was in human form. She was slender and snow white, her grey eyes standing out making her look like a snow princess
Everyone stood staring at her and she yipped bounding over to me and tackling me to the ground. I laughed and smoothed her; her fur was thick and soft. She licked me on the face before bouncing to the side with her tail wagging, she wanted me to turn so we could play - she was so cute.
"Well aren't you a beauty?" Chris said coming up to get a better look at his daughter.
Alysha wagged her tail and yipped, her wolf clearly enjoying the compliment.
Chris chuckled and my father said, "Well this is a surprise, I thought we were waiting until the full moon?" He raised a brow at the wolf. "But never the less, it was worth losing beauty sleep over."
Everyone laughed at this and Alysha gave a wolfish chuckle. She came up to me and nipped me playfully on my heels and I reached out to smooth her. I turned to my dad and he nodded before I phased to join her. Black and white, we were perfect together.
****
Nick phased into a black wolf and my wolf yipped. He yipped back before rubbing up against me and then running off. I followed him running into the woods, I wasn’t as fast as him, but I did try to keep up. I looked away my eyes following a rabbit that I saw hopping about, when I turned back to see where Nick was he was gone. I looked around panicked thinking that maybe I had missed a turning, as I was about to go back sniffing all the way he jumped out, tackling me to the ground and rolling over until he was on top.
I tried to push him off me but he wouldn’t budge, he grinned down at me before racing off again. Two could play this game; I ran for a bit and then hid behind a bush. After a while he must have noticed that I wasn’t following him because he turned back, as I was about to pounce he turned and raised a brow at me. I was busted.
He pounced once again pinning me to the ground, he rubbed his face against mine and then got off. I ran in front of him and he nipped on the back of my heels playfully. I loved this, running with my mate through the forest, the stars twinkling above us. It was perfect. We ran until we got to our lake, we then walked over to the water and each took a drink.
Nick phased back and my wolf got confused. "Alysha, you have to push her back or imagine rains around her neck or a leash and pull her back. I think she has had enough for one day, she can come back out tomorrow when I show you both how to hunt,” he said crouching down to look into my eyes.
My wolf whimpered not wanted to change, but I did what Nick suggested and imagined a leash around her neck and pulled. I felt the air shimmer around me, I thought of my clothes because Maddi had warned me that if you didn’t think them back you would end up naked. I knew when I was back in human form because the colours and details had died down and gone back to normal.
"Well that was fun,” I said, smiling shyly at Nick.
He grinned, pulling me into his arms. "Your wolf is so beautiful. She's white, like snow. You remind me of a snow princess."
I blushed and buried my head into his neck, inhaling his scent. He smelt of the forest and home, it was funny how I considered his house home more than my own. I was there most of the time now though, so maybe that was why?
"I'm sorry I didn’t wait until the full moon, it's just that I woke up and the pain was too much. Then it stopped and the next thing I knew, I'm in wolf form,” I said, needing to explain it to him.
"I know, the first change always happens unexpectedly. Hell, I first changed when I was in the bath, can you imagine the look on my mother's face when she came into the bathroom and it was torn apart from where I had tried to g
et out. After my run with the pack I had to phase back naked as well because I didn’t have clothes on when I changed. It was so embarrassing!"
I pulled back to look at him, he was blushing. Nick was blushing! Nick never blushed! I couldn’t help it though, I laughed. I could imagine the exact way his mother would have looked. She always liked the house neat and tidy; I could only imagine the damage that he must have done.
Nick chuckled and smoothed my hair back away from my face. I looked into his green eyes and could see the love in them; I couldn’t hold it back any longer.
"I love you, Nick,” I said quietly, looking up at him through my lashes.
He grinned, picking me up and spinning me around. I giggled and when he put me down he kissed me. His hands we in my hair, running through it, he always told me never to cut my hair because it was his favourite thing about me. I wrapped my arms around his neck opening my mouth so he could have deeper access. He pulled back and I whimpered, I hated when he did that.
"I love you too,” he said, green eyes twinkling.
The school day went fast; I couldn’t wait for tonight because Nick had promised me that he would take me hunting. My wolf was excited, but she didn’t like that we only saw him at lunch and in the hallway. She wanted to be near him all the time, I told her to stop being so obsessive or he would leave us. She answered by turning around and sticking her tail up at me.
After school I stood by Dan's car waiting for him, that was the arrangement. I had to ride to the main house with Dan so that if we passed my mom she wouldn’t ask questions. She didn’t know that our History project was done and that we had handed it in a couple of days ago, so she thought we were working on that. It upset me that she wasn’t around anymore, I wanted her to share this experience with me and I hoped that when she found out she would be happy for me.
My dad was staying in town until after the full moon, which was the day that we planned to tell her that I had changed. Apparently wolves could be on edge on the final days leading up to the full moon, we had to control our wolves a lot more. I could already tell that the pack was on edge, there had been more fights to stop than usual.
When we got to the house I hopped out of the car and handed my things to Dan, he took them and walked into the house saying that he hoped a rabbit bit my tail. I laughed and shook my head; I knew that Dan had had a crush on me when I had first moved to this town. It was upsetting that I couldn’t see him that way, but I was more than happy with Nick.
I stood staring at the forest when Nick came over and wrapped his arms around my waist, hugging me from behind. I nuzzled him and then we walked into the forest hand in hand. We both phased and my wolf was ready to get down to business. Nick showed me with patience how to hunt; I had already scared off three rabbits and five deer.
When I finally mastered the art of hunting I didn’t want to stop, I liked showing off in front of my mate. He knew what I was doing of course and let me, always rubbing up against me when I had done good - which made my wolf would yip with pride. Once I had finished the deer Nick came over to me and licked the blood off my snout and I did the same with him. Wolves in the pack had a telepathic link when they were in wolf form, but because I hadn't yet had my welcome ceremony, I didn’t have that link so if Nick and I wanted to talk we had to do it in human form.
Mated pairs had a special link between them though; it was called a blood bond. Maddi had told me that the only way to break one was by death, only mates that were in love done it, or Alpha's firstborns that were forced to mate. I wondered if one day me and Nick would have something like that, he had never asked me, he hadn't even told me about it, his sister had.
Nick phased and said, "Listen, I have to go back. There have been hunters on our land and Sasha has been shot. I want you to go back to the main house where I know you'll be safe."
I whined, not just because a pack mate had been shot but because I didn’t want him to put himself in danger. I knew that he had to go though and I nodded my head and rubbed up against him before leaving and running towards the pack house.
I never did get there.
****
I watched as Alysha ran off. I wanted to go with her to make sure that she was safe but I had to go and see the place where Sasha had been shot. I wanted to disobey, but it was Alpha's orders and you could never go back on those. I phased back into wolf form and ran off into the North side of our land.
I could smell the gunpowder before I had even arrived, everyone was in human form so I phased. On the ground was a patch of blood and my wolf whined hoping that Sasha was ok.
"What happened?" I asked looking at my father.
"Sasha was out on a run, when she didn’t return after two hours her mate started to get worried. He couldn’t feel anything through the bond because she was blocking him out so that he couldn’t feel her pain. He came straight to me and we all went to search for her, she was shot in the leg, nothing serious but we still have to keep an eye out. We're trying to pick up the hunters sent but we can't find anything,” his father said.
"She'll live?"
"Yes. If we didn’t find her when we did though, I doubt she would have. She lost a lot of blood and when she wakes up again I am going to have a word with her about blocking out her mate."
I walked around trying to pick up a scent; I could smell perfume and lot of it. Someone was trying to mask their scent, when I mentioned this to my father he already knew.
"Makes me wonder if we are dealing with one of our own kind, or if we are dealing with someone that knows about us.” My father had a worried expression on his face - this wasn’t good.
****
Back in the house I went in search for Alysha. She wasn't in the living room or in the kitchen. I went upstairs to see if she was in my room, she wasn’t. My wolf whined, he knew that something was wrong; Alysha would have listened to him and would have came straight here. She would have done this just because she was nosey and would have wanted the details about what was happening.
I walked into the kitchen and asked my mom if she had seen her.
"No honey, she hasn’t been here all day,” she replied.
I started to get a worried feeling in the pit of my stomach, I knew something was wrong but I didn’t know what.
"Nick? What's wrong?" my mom asked. She must have seen my expression, which was one of dread.
"Alysha was on her way here when I told her that Sasha was shot. I told her to wait here until I came back, but she's not here. I have a bad feeling mom."
"Maybe she has gone back home?"
"Maybe,” I muttered.
I walked out and phased, deciding that I would go over to her house and see if she was there. The lights were off at her house, it was dark already and the temperature had dropped - winter was upon us. I phased and went into the house, Alysha always kept the back door unlocked just in case she needed to come in late in the night. I looked around and found no one, she had a nice house but I knew that she didn’t like being here. She liked the activity and liveliness that she had with being in my house.
I phased into wolf form and headed back to the house. I would tell Chris what had happened and we would go from there. His wolf didn’t agree with this, he wanted to tear the town down searching for his mate.
I woke up, my head killing me. I tried lifting a hand up to my head but couldn’t and looked down realising that my hands were tied behind me. I was tied to a tree.
I tried to remember what had happened. Shot. Someone was shot and something about hunters. Oh no! What if the hunters had gotten me? I heard a familiar laugh and right then I knew that I was not captured by the hunters.
"Oh looky here,” Carly said. "Sleeping ugly is awake."
I growled, letting my wolf side come out. "What do you want?"
She laughed and came closer to me, the strong
smell of her perfume enveloping me. I turned my head to the side trying to breathe and noticed that we were on a cliff. I remembered Nick telling me that on the far side of the pack's land there was a cliff. He always said that it was too dangerous to go to whenever I asked him to take me; I’d wanted to come here to draw. I could see now why he said that it's dangerous, the winds were strong and there wasn't much space from the trees to the edge of the cliff.
"Why, silly. I'm going to kill you,” she said. "I did warn you did I not? I told you to stay away from Nick and what do you go and do? You become his mate," she spat the last word like it was dirty.
I laughed at how pathetic she was, she didn’t like that though. She backhanded me and I tasted blood in my mouth as I turned my face to look at her. My cheek was burning and I felt tears spring to my eyes.
I heard a deep laugh and saw Max come up behind her. "I want a go!" he said. He looked like he wanted to jump up and down like a kid on Christmas. It was sick, they both were.
