by Apryl Baker
We try to snake our head out far enough to bite him. If we can sink our teeth into him one good time…
“Stop it, Blue,” Micah scolds. “Stay still.”
No, we don’t want to stay still. We want to stretch, to run, to hunt. Our nose catches Saidie’s smell once again and we swivel our head in her direction. She cowers in the corner. She will offer us no chase, but her flesh will still taste good.
Waves of ice pour over us, in us. Our body convulses. Our eyes snap to Luka as we struggle to free ourself from his control. We howl our rage at him.
Luka’s emerald eyes lock onto our amber ones. “Be still.” The command compels us to obey, and we hate it. Hate him.
The door opens. We try to turn our head, but Luka’s control holds our body prisoner. When we manage to break free…
“You will hurt.”
“I no think so, Munya.”
We’ll see about that. A new scent hits our nose and we try to move, to see, but it’s useless. There is no breaking Luka’s hold on us.
“What is going on here?”
“She’s trying to shift,” Micah explains to the stranger, “but she can’t. Luka’s keeping her still so she doesn’t hurt herself.”
Legs come into our line of vision, blocking Luka’s stare. We push at the bonds holding us, and Luka beats us back with a gust of cold air. We look up into a pair of glowing amber eyes. They stare at us in concern.
“You’ll need to pull your power out of her if you want me to help.” We don’t care who this man is. If he can stop the pain, we will do anything.
Luka’s power leaves us and we try to escape. We jerk free of our captors and hunch down, growling a challenge. Our bones in our left thigh break and we go down, whimpering in agony.
“How long has she been like this?” Ethan hunkers down in front of us.
“About ten minutes.”
“She’s been breaking and shifting bones for ten minutes?” he asks incredulously. “The pain has to be unbearable.”
“It is,” Micah spits out and curls up as another wave of pain hits us. He feels it, we realize. He feels everything we do. Micah, we remember, his name is Micah. We do not understand this need to help him. He’d held us captive, helped our tormentor keep us from shifting, but the urge to comfort him overrides all else. We reach out to him and wrap him in our scent of wet dirt and vanilla blossoms. He whimpers.
“Now, little girl,” Ethan speaks softly, “I’m going to help you shift, and it’s going to hurt.”
He lays his hand on our head, and his power pushes into us. It searches for the part of us that is pack. Warmth bathes us, drowning out the pain for a moment. We smell jasmine and hay, we smell wet dirt and grass. We are pack, we are home. We reach out to that feeling, to the power that draws us to it, but the invisible wall holds us back. We howl in frustrated rage.
I said no, my love, the memory whispers, and we snarl in defiance.
Our hip breaks, and we scream. Micah echoes our cry as he feels the pain. Ethan curses above us.
We have no warning for what happens next. The hand on our head grows hot, and the power of the alpha floods us. It races through us with the heat and speed of a flash fire. His power drowns out everything. The wall blocking us from shifting crumbles under the weight of the onslaught. He infuses our muscles, our bones with his power. Every cell in our being screams as the pain overcomes us. Pain is all we know as our bones break and shift. Our face stretches and lengthens. Hands and feet become paws. Skin melts and fur springs out to cover our body. Our minds meld at last into one being, one consciousness.
Then it’s over.
“An omega,” the Alpha whispers in shock.
I stand and stretch my muscles, testing this new body. I shake and feel the soft white fur whip back and forth. I look around. Everything is the same yet so different. The smells are sharper, the colors more vibrant. It’s beautiful. I hear the snapping of bones and turn my head to see the one called Micah shifting. He stands and walks to my side. I tilt my head. His toffee colored fur is streaked with white.
“Are you all right?”
I snarl and skid backward, jumping when I crash into the bed. Where had the voice come from? No one spoke. Where am I? How had I gotten into this strange box? I need my woods. I need dirt under my paws, need to feel the wind as it tears at my fur.
“Shh, Blue, it’s only me, it’s Micah.”
I snarl again at the one called Micah. How can he speak to me in my head? It scares me, and I do not like this feeling.
“Calm down, Blue,” he soothes.
“Blue? Who is this Blue?”
“You,” he laughs. “You are Blue.”
“How can you talk in my head?”
“Because we are mates.”
“We are not mates!” I deny. He has not won that right.
“We are not heart mates,” he clarifies. ”We are soul mates, connected in spirit. You’ll remember soon.”
His voice sounds odd, but I give it little thought as another sound draws my attention. It huddles in the corner, trying to stay still and quiet, but I can hear its heartbeat. The sound thuds in my ears. Its fear floods my senses. It smells like warm melted chocolate. It’s intoxicating. I inch closer. This thing will present little challenge, but it doesn’t matter. Fear will make its blood just as sweet.
“No.” My tormentor steps in front of it.
He dares to challenge me? I growl a low warning and bare my teeth at him.
“You will no harm her, Alexandria.” His words lash into me, and his power forces me to my belly. I snarl and snap as I try to fight the hold he has on me. He stares down at me with cold, red-ringed onyx eyes. I fight him and manage to stand once again. He will not control me. No one will ever control me again.
He arches a brow at my defiance and chuckles. Then he attacks, and I fall. He throws wave after wave of icy winds into me, and I struggle, but it is no use. He is stronger than I am. At least for now.
I lay my head down upon my paws and whine in submission.
He smiles right before he makes a mistake.
He reaches down to pet me. My teeth sink into his hand and bite down. I growl in delight at the taste of hot blood.
He rips his hand away and stares at me in shock. “You bite me!”
“I take it she doesn’t like to be told what to do,” Ethan chuckles.
Micah makes some sort of strange noise that sounds like a snort.
I growl at Luka, and he glares at me.
“He’s right, little girl,” Ethan tells me in all seriousness. “You cannot taste the girl.”
My head swivels around to him. Not another person who thinks they can control me. His eyes still glow amber and power emanates from him. He simply stares, daring me to try to challenge him.
No, I am not strong enough to challenge him. Not yet. I do not, however, lower my eyes in submission.
He chuckles again then the scream of a cat reaches us.
Ethan smiles at me. “We have other things to hunt today.”
Chapter
Eighteen
We all burst out of the house and leap over the back porch railings. Ethan shifts mid-jump. It is an amazing sight to see. He blurs, and then he’s gone from skin to ebony fur in the blink of an eye. We pause at the edge of the woods, searching for the intruders’ scents. Foolish. They should know better than to come into our territory and threaten us. They are no match for Pack.
This is where I should be. Running through the woods, dirt and twigs crunching beneath my paws. The scent of the trees tickling my nose. The colors are brighter, the scents sharper. Every sound is clear and easily identifiable. Never have my senses worked so well. I am well and truly home.
The one called Micah nips at my hind legs, and I bare my teeth at him. He only wags his tail. Ethan
’s growl causes him to stop his antics, and the atmosphere turns tense as we wait for our pack leader to choose the path.
Ethan lets out a howl that sends streams of excitement dancing through me, and then I’m off, barreling along behind him, the scent of our prey reaching my nostrils. It stinks of cat.
We run for miles before we slow, our movements cautious and stealthy. Our prey is near. Micah slides in beside me, his nose to the ground. I mimic him and find the scent cleaner there. My lip curls. There is more than one of them, teasing us. How dare they enter what we protect?
The growl starts low in my belly and works its way up my throat. There, to the left of us, I see it. A black cat that is bigger than any of us. Its yellow eyes spit at us from the darkness of the trees. Micah’s low growl matches my own, and soon the others are spread out, daring the cat to show itself.
A series of yowls sound from all sides. There are four of them, I realize. Their scent invades, and I snort to clear my head. I want to jump, to tear, to shake them until their bones rattle. Must wait…must wait…must wait. Our alpha has not moved or given us permission to attack.
I whine, the urge to lunge growing stronger and stronger. Micah brushes against me, and an odd sort of calm settles over me. The gnawing need is bearable with him touching me. Strange that he has such an effect on me. I don’t like it.
Ethan, our alpha, tenses, and we all get ready, our growls menacing enough to scare the bravest of adversaries. The cats snarl right back at us. Ethan springs at the cat in front of him, and we all turn to the ones surrounding us. It only takes a second for me to zero in on the one running dead at me. Micah crouches, and I mimic him. When he lunges, I lunge. Claws swipe at me, my teeth sink into warm flesh, and I tear. Screams reach my ears and still I bite, I rip, I tear, ignoring my own wounds as the creature fights back. Between us, Micah and I bring it down, both of us enjoying the fight, enjoying the taste of its blood, the feel of all that warm, sticky, red substance coating our muzzles. We are one in this. I feel him, and he feels me. One body, one creature, one soul.
The sharp bark brings our heads up and looking to our alpha. He stands, blood dripping from a fresh kill, the beast under his paw. I cock my head. It’s not a cat…it’s something else. Something that shouldn’t be. I look down at my own kill and whimper. It can’t…no. The cat changed into a two-legged beast. How is this possible? It cannot be.
Micah snuggles against me, that calm washing back over me, easing the panic at seeing the impossible. Ethan barks again, signaling it’s time to run, to hunt. To find any more intruders into our territory. The wicked growl that leaves my mouth is matched by Micah, and then we’re off, running wild through the trees just as we were always meant to me.
Side by side, one heart, one mind, one body, one soul.
***
“She’s waking up.”
Micah? My head is all fuzzy. It feels like I’ve been asleep for days. Why do I feel so funky? I stretch and cry out. I hurt. Everywhere. My bones ache, my muscles protest every time I try to uncurl them. It feels like I fell and broke every bone in my body.
“Easy, Munya.” I whimper when he picks me up. Why do I hurt so much? “Easy, girl. Be calm.”
“Hurts.” The word is hard to say. My throat is raw.
“I know, baby.” He pulls me tighter. “I know.”
“She shouldn’t be in this much pain.”
“I agree.” The deep rumble of the pack leader’s voice reaches my ears. “Something was preventing her from shifting. Her body kept breaking and healing bones at a rapid pace. It’s a wonder her body didn’t collapse even in wolf form that first shift.”
“What do you mean, something prevented her from shifting?”
My entire body goes stiff at the sound of my mother’s voice. Why is she here? Luka murmurs nonsense words to me in Romani, words I don’t understand, but I respond to the soothing tone nonetheless. I don’t want her here. She needs to go away.
“There was a barrier that kept her wolf trapped, kept her from fully shifting. I had to push my power into her to break it down, and it wasn’t easy to do. It nearly drained me. Whoever blocked her shifting ability is strong.”
“No one in the magical community knows my family can shift.” The anger and the worry in her voice upsets me further. She has no right to be here.
Easy, Blue. She’s trying to help.
Of course pack mentality would win out with Micah. Alesha is part of his pack.
You are part of my pack now too. You shifted and brought down your first kill. What do you remember?
What? I shifted? I blink, trying to remember. I…pain. Blinding pain. That is all I can wrap my head around. I don’t remember shifting. I don’t remember doing anything but suffering and…Saidie.
Oh, God. Saidie. We have to help her. I struggle to get free, but Luka only keeps me wrapped in his arms, stroking my hair.
Calm down, Blue. You’re going to cause your wolf to come out and shift again. You’re not ready for that. You need to heal. Saidie is okay. Aleric is guarding her. No one’s going near her. Your mother is going to help her.
But she’s not a necromancer…how can she help her?
She was spelled, Blue. Your mom is going to remove the spell. It doesn’t take death magic to counteract a witch’s spell. The necromancer your uncle took Saidie to was born a witch and came into her necromancy powers late. She stole them from a true necromancer.
How do you know this?
Your mother told us. She had no idea Sabien took her to the loon. She said had she known, she’d have gone and collected her before any harm came to her. As it is, it’s going to take a few hours to figure out how to counteract the spell.
“Calm down, Alesha. All you’re doing is aggravating your wolf. Getting her upset isn’t doing your daughter a damn bit of good. We need clear heads to sort this.”
That voice I don’t know. It’s older, more scratchy. Smoker’s voice.
My Gramps.
That’s Micah’s grandfather? He doesn’t sound old enough to be his grandfather. I meant old like in his forties or something, but grampa old? Not that old. I try to open my eyes, but even those muscles hurt.
What’s wrong with me? Why does everything hurt?
We’re not sure. Shifting should have healed you. We thought it had. Your wolf had no problems moving. She’s beautiful, by the way. Solid white with your blue eyes.
I don’t remember. Sadness sweeps over me. I wish I could remember. I’ve felt her so long, she’s been there every time I needed her, but the one time she’s free? I seem to have disappeared on her.
Don’t sweat it, Blue. None of us remembers our first shift. The animal in us takes over, finally in complete control. It’ll take you a good month of shifting to start to remember things.
If it hurts this much to shift, I don’t think I want to do it again.
Micah laughs. It shouldn’t hurt this much, Blue. Something stopped you from shifting. A voice. I heard a man’s voice forbidding you to do it. I dreamed of him while we were unconscious earlier.
You…you did?
Yes. How long have you been dreaming of him, Alex? He sounds like he knows you well.
I don’t know. Since my magic woke up? It was just dreams, Micah. I never gave them any merit, but now? I…I think it was him who tried to stop me from shifting. He thinks I belong to him.
The hell?
I think back to all those dreams, let them play out in my head so Micah can see them. By the time he’s witnessed all of them, his anger bleeds off into me. He’s seething with fury.
And before I can stop him, he blabs to every single person in the room, including my mother.
“Mine.” The low, menacing sound that emanates from Luka freezes everyone in place. Not a pin drops. His eyes have to have changed to those scary red rings. “She is mine.”
“Calm down, Luka.” Micah lays a hand on him, and I feel it just as if he’s touching me. Since I shifted, our bond has strengthened. I ph
ysically feel him now, whereas before it was only a mental connection. He gasps, but doesn’t blab that, at least. “You need to keep that beast of yours at bay. It’s not going to do her or anyone else any good if you lose control now. We’ll worry about this asshole after we help Saidie.”
“My daughter…”
“Needs you to help her friend more than she needs you to go out hunting some unknown person.” Micah’s grandfather speaks. “She nor her wolf will be at ease until her friend is safe from the madness eating away at her. The best thing you can do for Alexandria is to go do what you can for Saidie.”
My mother sighs. “You are right, of course, Gage. I just can’t focus until I know my child is safe. Right now, that isn’t the case. The simplest movement causes her pain.”
“I’m going to make her shift again, and then the pack will surround her. It may take a few tries to heal her, but I promise you, wise one, your daughter will heal. We are pack. This is how we heal.”
Make me shift again? Oh, hell no. If shifting caused this pain, it’s not going to help.
Ethan’s right, Blue. We shift to heal our wounds. It would make sense that you need to shift to heal.
Before I can argue, I feel the alpha’s power pouring into me. My bones break, and my skin stretches. The pain is too much for my overloaded mind to deal with, and I mercifully black out.
The next time I wake up, I’m surrounded in heat. I’m burning up. I try to move, but I can’t. I’m trapped under a mountain of bodies. Very naked bodies, I soon realize when my knee connects with something it shouldn’t. I need out of here right now. I struggle in earnest, and the bodies covering me begin to move, and within moments, I am free.
I’m in a dark room, a fire burning in the hearth. The pile of bodies is in front of the hearth. Curious eyes stare at me, and I try to hide my own nakedness from them.
Micah! I all but scream, and he crawls to me out from the pile I’d just clawed my way out of.