The word hopefully floated through my head, implied, but unspoken.
The rest of the pack took seats surrounding us as we waited for the sun to disappear, and the magic of the moon to take over.
It started out slow. Like a subtle vibration along my arms, and legs. I rubbed my limbs, but Abraham grabbed my hands to stop me. “Let it happen,” he instructed, and I obeyed.
The vibrations got more intense, and soon my whole body was buzzing. Around us, the sound of breaking, and shifting bones filled the twilit night, but my body just continued to vibrate. I felt Abraham’s muscles shift beneath me and slid off his lap. Within minutes, his wolf form stood where he once sat, staring at me with those same blue eyes that were only a little more wild than they usually were.
I looked around to see most of the clearing had already shifted with only a few stragglers in the middle of the process. An odd sensation bubbled beneath my skin, and I held my arms out to see the muscles undulating beneath my skin. Next, sharp pains in both my legs had me doubling over in pain.
A soft whine from nearby preceded the nudge of a wet nose, but I couldn't acknowledge whoever it was. My legs were breaking, and I was in more pain than I’d ever been in.
My skin itched, and I scratched at it with fingernails that had become long claws that gouged at the fragile human tissue. Fur sprouted along my body as the pain in my legs slowly subsided.
I looked down to see my bottom half was human again, and I panicked. “Abraham!” He licked the side of my face, and laid down near my prone body, his large blue eyes sad, and scared.
My legs bent, and creaked, bones cracking, and reforming, and I cried out in pain as my body tried to make it through the shifting process again. This time, my upper half followed suit. My fingers shrunk, and then grew into large paws, my arms bending at odd angles, already covered in fur.
Next, I could feel my face transforming. The bones broke and rearranged themselves until my mouth had elongated into a snout. A howl of pain escaped me as my body wavered from human to animal back, and forth as if it couldn’t make up its mind.
I lay panting on the ground as the wolves around me whined. Lifting my head, I could see most of them were laying down surrounding me, trying to offer their support the only way they could. I caught Abraham’s frightened eyes, and I steeled my resolve.
I needed to make it through this.
For them.
For him.
For me.
Because I wasn’t done living. In fact, it felt more like I’d just begun, and I would not give that up.
“El?”
Abraham’s voice sounded inside my head.
“Can you hear me?” he asked.
I whined softly.
“You need to focus. I need you to fight. You’re so close baby, just concentrate, and soon you’ll be with me.”
I focused my mind, letting the magic in instead of fighting it like Abraham had suggested. The full moon’s power swirled through my body, changing it, shifting it.
Deep down inside, I recognized a presence. A force. Some wild thing that I’d previously ignored, hungering for release. It clawed its way out of the depths of my body, growing, and solidifying until it filled all the empty spaces inside me with its primitive desires.
Slowly but surely, I felt my bones stop moving, my muscles settle into the positions they were supposed to take. When I lifted my tired head, I saw my body had finished shifting into a wolf.
I was ecstatic, but so tired and sore, I didn’t think I could move. So, I lay there for a few more minutes as wolf after wolf walked over. Each one that passed would give my sorry body a little nudge with their wet nose, or swipe their tongue across my face. I recognized their behavior as support, and I drew from their strength.
There was one wolf who’d yet to move. Abraham’s large body was still plastered against my side, his steady heartbeat a homing signal to mine. I followed the brightness of his heart like a lighthouse in the distance. Soon I felt strong enough to roll onto my stomach.
It was slow going, but a few minutes later, I was on all four legs, the pain subsiding rapidly.
There was a cacophony of voices inside my head. Congratulations, and well wishes from the other pack members, but they all swirled around unintelligibly until one stood out above the rest.
“You did it,” Abraham’s voice whispered inside my head. I turned to find his bright blue eyes tracing my body. “And, you’re so beautiful”
I perked up at his compliment and felt something moving behind me. I spun around to catch the culprit, but came up empty-handed. The sensation was back, and I turned again, but there was nothing there.
A shrill, mocking laughter broke into my mind next. “Oh my god, she’s acting like a stupid puppy.” Even as a wolf, I could identify the obnoxious voice as belonging to Peyton.
“Don’t listen to her, Ellie. We’ve all chased our tails from time to time.” I recognized Evey’s voice in my head as she came trotting over.
I looked around at the crowd, and realized, I’d probably never be able to tell them apart. Abraham must have felt my confusion because he stepped closer to bump his shoulder against mine. “It gets easier to identify them after a while. Use your nose.”
I nodded my large wolfy head, and took in the backyard, through my new eyes. My sight as a human had been almost this good, but my senses were undoubtedly enhanced in this form. A gray wolf that smelled like cinnamon and cloves came running over, and I immediately knew it was Del. “Let’s run!”
That suggestion had my ears perking, and my tail rising straight in the air. I felt strong. And wild. And capable. And fearless. Like I could take on a grizzly, or swim across an ocean, or climb Everest in this form. Nothing felt impossible. I’d never felt better.
“Let’s race,” I suggested to yips of agreement from the two sisters. A wolf that smelled like roses came trotting over to join our group.
“I’m in,” Callie said softly.
“Not too far,” Abraham warned. I heard him call for Wes and Wyatt, but ignored him.
“Ready? Set…” I shot off into the woods. “Go!” I yelled after I was several feet ahead of them.
Abraham laughed and sprinted to catch up to me. “Cheater,” he accused good-naturedly. I ignored him, and ran faster, pushing my new body to its limits as I raced in between the trees, and over rocks, whipping through the forest at speeds I’d never dreamt of.
The girls soon caught up, and I struggled to keep pace with them. It was like my body instinctively knew how to move in this new form, but my mind rebelled against using four legs. So, even though I was moving at a good pace, it still felt awkward, and clumsy.
A while later, we reached a small stream, and stopped for a drink. None of us were out of breath, and the adrenaline high from running through the woods still pumped through my veins.
I bent my head to take a drink, and instead, leapt backward with a frightened yip.
“El?” The fur on Abraham’s back stood straight up, and he let out a ferocious growl as the other three wolves circled me. Everyone’s attention was on the woods surrounding us while mine was still on the water.
“It’s me,” I whispered, my mind struggling to catch up. To understand.
After Abraham had assessed the area around us and found no immediate threat, he nudged my shoulder with his wet nose. “What’s the matter, El? What did you see?”
“It’s me,” I repeated. I shook my head and took a tentative step back toward the stream. Steeling my resolve, I braved another look at the water’s reflection, and saw the creature of my nightmares staring back at me.
It was me.
It had always been me.
“El, you’re not makin’ sense. I need you to focus, and tell me what’s goin’ on,” Abraham pleaded.
I ripped my gaze away from the water, and met his concerned blue eyes, so similar, and so foreign at the same time. They pleaded with me for answers, and I did my best to choke them out.
&nbs
p; “The wolf. From my dreams. It’s me.”
Abraham looked more lost than ever.
I shook my head again. “The wolf I’ve been having nightmares and strange dreams about? It’s me. It was me all along.”
“You were having nightmares about yourself?” Abraham sounded incredulous, and I couldn’t blame him. I barely understood it myself. But, I nodded anyway.
“It was my wolf.”
He stared at me for a few silent moments before his eyes found Callie. “Have you ever heard of this before?”
Her soft voice answered in my head. “No, but I can do some digging tomorrow.”
Abraham nodded and turned weary eyes back to me. “Are you okay?”
Thoughts were still racing around my head as I tried to make the connections, and to think back on all the dreams I’d had in this new light. I realized she’d been testing me at first. Or, I guess I’d been testing myself? Either way, we’d gotten off to a bumpy start, but during the last couple of dreams, I’d stopped fearing the wolf, and started trusting her. And, it’d seemed she trusted me too. We’d come to some sort of understanding.
I didn’t fear her anymore. Or myself, I guess.
This was confusing.
But, I knew one thing for sure. “Yeah, I’m okay,” I promised Abraham.
He smiled a wolfy grin at me and licked my face. Wolf affection would take some getting used to.
We spent a little while near the stream, drinking and exploring before Abraham insisted we get back to the other wolves. “I’ll feel comfortable closer to the lodge,” he’d explained. “Until the killer is caught, I don’t want you out in the open, unprotected.”
With that sobering thought, we all took off the way we’d come at a more reasonable pace.
But, where was the fun in that?
“You’re pretty fast,” I told Abraham, circling around him as an idea formed in my head.
He bared his mouthful of wolfy teeth for me. “The fastest.”
I nodded and pretended to think that over before leaping into a dead sprint. “Then, I guess you don’t need a head start!” I called. I laughed as he cursed and set off after me. Although in this form, laughing sounded more like barking.
I heard his sisters egging me on, and I dug into the soft ground beneath my paws, pushing myself harder, faster, until it felt more like I was flying through the woods than running.
And that’s how I spent the rest of the nighttime hours. Racing, and wrestling, and rolling around in the grass, and learning how to be a wolf. It seemed like every pack member had a word of advice for me, and I listened, doing my best to remember it all.
I realized despite the threat of the killer in the woods and Abraham’s overprotectiveness, I was happy. Really and truly. These were my people now. I was a part of this large colorful family, this pack, and I’d never been happier.
When the sun finally rose, my body seamlessly shifted back into a woman’s, and I lay on the ground panting for a few minutes before Abraham found me. His large naked body was standing over mine, reminding me of my own nudity.
I jumped off the ground, covering my most important bits and pieces while Abraham stood back laughing at me. Looking around frantically, I found a large scrap of someone’s shirt, and used it to cover my front, one hand to holding it in place while my other tried to shield my backside.
Abraham laughed harder, but finally took pity on me. I kept my eyes safely above his waistline as he stalked over and scooped me into his strong arms. I curled into a ball and prayed no one was paying attention to my exposed behind.
“No one’s looking,” Abraham answered my unspoken worries.
I took a cautious look around to see the rest of the pack, naked and dirty, laughing, and talking with one another as if they weren’t all stark naked. I didn’t think I’d ever be that comfortable with my own nudity, but it made me feel better that no one was staring at me.
I relaxed in Abraham’s arms as he carried me into the house, and up to his room. “You want a shower now, or when we wake up?” he asked at the bedroom door.
A loud yawn escaped me, and I snuggled closer to him. “I just want you, and a soft bed right now.”
He smiled widely. “That I can do.”
And, just like so many nights previous, and hopefully so many more to come, I crawled into bed with Abraham close behind. He pulled me against his hard chest, and I could feel the happiness, and contentment deep inside him, echoed in me. “Night baby,” he murmured before placing a kiss on my forehead.
I drifted off to sleep in the early hours of the morning after my first shift, with a brighter future than I’d ever had. It had nothing to do with my work, or my position in a company, and everything to do with the family, and the love I’d found out here with a pack of werewolves in the North Carolina mountains.
The end
Dear Reader,
Thank you so much for taking the time to read my novel, Shift. Your support means the world to me. I truly hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I have two more books planned for this series, so if you loved Elizabeth and Abraham, there’s a lot more to come!
Acknowledgements
First, and foremost, I’d like to thank my amazing husband, Ryan. You’ve always been my biggest cheerleader, and my staunchest supporter. I don’t know where I’d be without your constant belief in me, and your unwavering loyalty. Thank you. 1-4-3-3-4.
Next, I’d like to thank my critique partner, and first writing friend, Joynell Schultz. Thank you for helping me through another book, and for responding to my endless emails with the patience of a saint. (She’s an awesome author too, you should check her out!)
I’d also like to thank my two beta readers, Brianna, and Gari. Your invaluable insight, and support means the world to me. I can’t wait to work on future projects with you!
And, finally, I’d love to thank my readers. Thank you for taking a chance on me, a new indie author. Thank you for reading my words and living in the world I created for a little while. Thank you for your support and thank you for taking the time out of your busy lives to review my work.
Want more from Heather MacKinnon?
Check out Changed for only $.99 or free on Kindle Unlimited!
About The Author
Heather MacKinnon lives in North Carolina with her husband, and two troublemaking dogs. She grew up on Long Island and spent her young adult years in various states in New England. This led to her subsequent addiction to Dunkin’ Donuts latte’s, and her gratuitous use of the word “wicked”. She’s tried her hand at many jobs throughout the years as she strove to find the one that made her happy. Heather has sold chicken, kitchen knives, auto body supplies, PR packages, and computer software. She’s been a cashier, a waitress, a cook, a hotel concierge, a phlebotomist, and an Uber driver. Though her jobs have been many, her passion has always been reading. After a lifetime of enjoying other people’s words, she decided to write down some of her own. She loves connecting with her readers! Find her online, Twitter Facebook Instagram Website
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