by Amelia Jade
“You don’t understand,” she told him. “I was there. I saw it. I could have prevented it.”
“No, you couldn’t have,” Luther ground out, taking her chin and forcing her to look into his eyes. “This. Is. Not. Your. Fault.”
She looked away.
“Allix, we’ve been having issues with Fenris long before you came into the picture. Trust me, you did not cause this.”
“NO!” she shouted. “You don’t get it. I know I didn’t cause this. But I could have stopped it! I saw them coming, dammit. I was out there, and they were going by me in the forest. Nobody knew they were coming. But I was there, and if I had been a shifter, I could have raced back here and sounded the alarm. If you’d had an extra thirty seconds to a minute’s worth of warning, how much better off would you have been?” she snapped.
Luther looked at her for a long moment. “A lot,” he admitted unhappily. “But still, Allix, you can’t blame yourself for this.”
“I can, and I will,” she informed him. “And I’ve made my decision too.”
“Your decision?” the shifter asked, his green eyes flickering with unease.
“Yes. You’re going to Turn me.”
“You can’t be serious,” he said. “After all this, you still want me to Turn you?”
“I’m more positive now than I was before that this is the right choice for me,” she told him sharply. “I belong here, dammit. I belong with you! But I can’t go on doing that as some plain old human. So stop trying to protect me, and instead try listening to me. This is what I want. This is my choice.”
Luther looked at her for a long, unblinking moment. “Allix, it might be your choice, but it takes one of us to change you. One of us who will have to live with the fact that, if it goes bad, we were directly responsible for killing you. I could be directly responsible for killing you. I don’t know if I can live with that,” he admitted. “You’re asking a lot more of me than just to bite you.”
Allix relented at the hurt and fear in his voice. He would do it, she could see that, but she hadn’t taken into consideration his side of things either. Luther would indeed tear himself apart if it went wrong, she could see that. It was big burden she was asking him to shoulder.
But it was one she desperately needed.
“I know,” she said, meeting his eyes at last, opening herself up to him. “But Luther, this is what I need. I don’t know how else to describe it to you, but it’s what is right. I can’t continue on the way I am and not be a part of your life.”
The big man sagged, defeated.
“Okay,” he said hoarsely. “Okay, I’ll do it.”
“Thank you,” she said, leaning up and planting a very tender kiss on his unshaven cheek.
His hands captured her face and kept her there when she tried to pull away, allowing him to lean down and bring his lips to hers. Allix felt her hands slide up his back, pulling him in tightly as they kissed. The moment of intense passion helped them push the scene around them from their minds, even if just for a few all-too-brief moments.
Allix reveled in everything about Luther at that moment. The gentleness and caring of his fingertips as they caressed her cheeks, but also the strength hidden in his body that she knew he’d put to use defending those around him. She soaked up his concern and his pride—though he’d never admit it—for those around him. His fears washed over her and she kissed them away, letting him know it was going to be all right.
She was going to do this.
At long last he pulled back.
“You want me to do it right now, don’t you?” he whispered.
Allix nodded.
“Very well. There isn’t much I can do to prepare you, but you must be ready. The fever you can’t fight; you just have to push through it. But your bear. That you will have to fight. It will be a battle of wills, and trust me, it’s strong. It will be feral, and scared. The easiest thing you can do is imagine some sort of box, or cage, or something like that, in your mind. I want you to do that for me now.”
Allix frowned as she focused on his words, and tried to follow along. Her eyes closed naturally as she looked inward to her mind. A box. A cage. A chest. Come on, appear already.
She snorted aloud as her mind brought forth an image.
“Well that’s just fucking stereotypical.”
Luther made an inquisitive noise.
“Apparently I’m going to trap this bear in a walk-in closet.”
Something that sounded very much like suppressed laughter came her way, but she didn’t open her eyes. Instead, Allix was busy creating the closet. She peeled off the inner walls and inserted a layer of rebar surrounding the entire thing. The door became ultra-strong steel, and it now slid into place instead of being hinged. Steel plates enclosed the closet on the exterior to finish it off, even as she rebuilt the inside, giving it a dash of color and a sweet clothing organizer mounted to the wall.
Even if the animal won’t appreciate it, I will. I could totally live with a closet of this size. I’ll have to speak to Luther about that…
“Ready,” she said at last, the construct now sitting there in her mind, waiting.
“Be ready,” Luther said, leaning in to kiss her once more. “This is going to hurt.”
In front of him, Allix sunk to her knees, looking up at him in anticipation.
Chapter Thirteen
Luther
He focused on her, even as he pulled the massive rock from in front of the cave opening in his own mind. The trap he used for his bear was simple, but effective, and also natural enough that his bear rarely gave him trouble. It was one of the things that made Luther so good at what he did. He was always in control, his bear often times comfortable simply hibernating in his mind.
Now, however, it came surging through, already riled up by the fight from earlier, and it flowed into his human body, looking for a fight.
Not today, he said, sending thoughts of peace, and of Allix, to it.
The animal immediately perked up as it realized what Luther had in mind. It was happy about the prospect of finally having a mate for itself.
The change happened almost instantly. Even as he swelled in size, his body doubling and then doubling once more, continuing to expand until he fell over onto all fours. But his arms were now legs, and thick, tough brown fur sprouted from all over his body. Luther’s head realigned on his spine to face forward, and powerful jaws shot forward from his face as his snout formed.
He felt his teeth grow, and without hesitation he loomed over Allix and opened wide, sinking them deep into her neck.
She screamed in pain and tried to pull away, but he held on tight, letting the bite take hold. A moment later he let her go, standing over her as she writhed in pain, blood flowing down her neck and soaking her shirt.
Luther growled, desperately wanting to change back. To hold her in his arms. But he couldn’t. Not now, at least.
The fever would begin to course through her veins in mere moments, taking hold almost immediately as her DNA began to mix with his, and to change. He could see it happening now as her contortions began to slow, and her breathing became ragged.
In his enhanced eyes, she began to heat up as her internal body temperature changed. This was the most dangerous part of the Turning, where her human organs had not yet been sufficiently altered, but the temperature within her climbed to dangerous levels. If she couldn’t push through it, her innards would effectively bake, and she would die.
Come on, Allix. You’re strong, you can do this.
He sent his mental thoughts to her in a constant stream, interspersing encouragement with words of caring and determination. She wouldn’t be able to hear it, but that didn’t matter to him.
What mattered was that he never once wavered in his belief that she could pull through this. Allix was one of the toughest humans he’d ever come across. The complete change in her mental outlook on life after coming to live with the shifters was unbelievable, and to have it happen in such
a short time as well.
He knew he could never have done that, if the situation were reversed. Yet even Luther was forced to admit that Allix seemed to do a much better job of fitting in amongst him and the other shifters than she had done with humans, judging by what she’d told him of her past.
So perhaps there was something to be said about this being destiny.
Below him, Allix fell still. The bleeding had slowed, and he breathed a small sigh of relief over that. It meant that her body wasn’t entirely rejecting the shifter DNA that he’d introduced into her body. He couldn’t see the wound itself from this angle, but she would have bled out quickly if that were the case. Being the source of the injected DNA, the wound would exhibit shifter characteristics such as advanced healing before the rest of the body did.
Her eyes flew open, and she began to gasp for breath.
Luther swore as she started to overheat. He looked around, panicked. The snow wasn’t doing enough to keep her cool.
His eyes settled on the giant Frost Dragon, still milling around the burned-out barracks. He ran over to it, shifting back to human form as he went.
“You, what is your name?” he asked the huge beast.
“Asher,” it replied, able to speak in animal form, although it had a harsh sibilant noise to it that made the words slightly harder to understand. “And you are?”
“Captain Klein. Can you come over here quickly please? I am in need of your assistance.”
The Frost Dragon, a creature imbued with the power of winter, frowned, but did not say no. It moved carefully over the ground until it got closer to Allix, who was now barely breathing.
“She is overheating,” the dragon observed.
“I know. I hate to ask this of you, but can you cool her using your breath?”
“You are Turning her?” the dragon asked, though it was almost as much a statement as it was a question.
“Yes. She is my mate, and this is what she requested,” Luther said quickly. “But she’s overheating and her lungs are failing. If I can’t cool her down a bit, she’ll die.”
The dragon looked at him, but simply nodded. “Back away then. I shall do what I can.”
Luther thanked him profusely, even as he moved backward. The dragon waited until Luther was past some sort of imaginary barrier, and then it inhaled. His fists clenched tightly as a soft wave of frost washed over Allix, blanketing her skin in miniature crystals. It swept up her legs and across her body, coating every inch of her.
But she continued to choke.
The dragon kept breathing, and Luther felt a bitter chill wash over him as the frost seemed to intensify. He almost cried out, but the reaction from Allix was almost instantaneous. Her body shook, but all of a sudden she wasn’t struggling as much for breath. The air seemed to rush into her lungs as they began to heave, sucking down huge lungfuls.
The dragon closed its long snout, eyeing Allix apprehensively. “I think she will be okay now,” it said.
“Thank you,” Luther said. “Thank you very much Asher, I appreciate it more than you know.”
The white dragon looked at him strangely. “I understand what it is like to have a mate in harm’s way,” he said softly. “No thanks are needed. You have my wishes on her speedy recovery.”
Luther stared after the magnificent beast as it moved away from him to the center of the parade ground, where it then launched itself into the sky, moving eastward, possibly in pursuit of any remnants of the Fenris force.
On the ground, Allix calmed some more. Luther heaved a sigh of relief, even as he shifted back feeling the energy drain of so many shifts begin to hit him.
He hoped he had enough left in reserve for what was to come next.
His bear lay down next to her and waited, ignoring the events surrounding the two of them. Right then, she was the only thing that occupied his world, and he didn’t give a damn about the rest of it. There were others who could handle the situation. Right then, his only care was for her.
For Allix.
***
Allix
The pain was beyond description.
She’d seen his mouth open, the sharp teeth descending on her neck, and she’d braced herself for it, but the instant his jaws sunk into her neck, it had become crystal clear to her that no amount of preparation could have helped her.
Blinding white light exploded across her vision and she almost blacked out, falling to the ground as her entire body ignited, every nerve ending assaulting her brain with agony worse than anything she had ever felt before.
Luther.
The word echoed around in her brain over and over again, the center of her entire existence as she latched onto it, using the memories and emotions associated with him as an anchor, even as she descended into a fever the likes of which she’d never experience again. Every inch of her skin seemed to burst into intense flame at once.
The air became hot and thick, making it hard to breathe, and she began to choke. Her vision, still white as snow from the pain in her neck, began to dim. Blackness ate away at the edges as she struggled to bring air into her lungs, to keep her brain working and her system alive.
Her body was failing her.
Allix cursed herself for being so stupid, to think that she could survive this. Luther had warned her, had told her she was likely to die. But Allix had forced her way into getting what she wanted, casting his objections aside.
Now she was going to die, all because of her own stubbornness.
Darkness overwhelmed her, shrinking the blinding white light of pain until it was no more than a pinprick in size.
But just before she slipped into it fully, her body shivered as something swept up her legs and across her torso. Something cold.
The heat in her lungs began to ease, but it wasn’t enough. The flames in her skin were beating back the sudden change, and the little respite that it had given her melted away.
Dammit. So close. Whatever you’re doing Luther, it almost worked. But I’m sorry, it wasn’t enough. I wasn’t strong enough.
I’m sorry.
She lay back, letting the heat wash over her once more.
Or she would have, but instead of another wave of heat, something positively frigid rolled up her body. Before it had been chilly. Now she was downright cold. Heat was replaced by chill as whatever was producing the cooling effect doubled its efforts.
Cool air sliced into her lungs and Allix breathed gratefully as her vision returned. Her eyes were still closed and she wasn’t fully conscious, but she was aware of everything that was going on.
She collapsed into peacefulness at last as the cold banished the last of the heat. Even as it faded, she felt her lungs working normally, no longer encumbered by the thick muggy air.
Had she beaten the fever?
The thought blossomed in her mind at the same time as something…else.
Allix’s mind came fully alert as a presence formed within her brain. She summoned her cage, the closet appearing even as she began to wade through her mind, trying to find the source of the presence she felt.
It was somewhere over…there.
The power behind it suddenly blossomed as it came fully awake, and Allix realized she’d made one tiny, but fatal mistake.
She found the presence, what she knew must only be her bear.
Or more accurately, it had found her, she thought as the massive entity loomed up over her. It dwarfed the cage she’d built for it, as if it were nothing but a toy to be stepped on.
Uh-oh.
Chapter Fourteen
Luther
He shot to his feet as Allix shook.
For two hours now she’d been lying still, her chest rising and falling in a slow rhythm, giving him hope that she was going to pull through. The fever had subsided by now. All that was left was for her to harness her animal, to overcome it and will it into submission.
The 120-odd minutes that had passed while he waited had been some of the most agonizing of his life. Not onl
y had he been unable to help Allix, having to resort to asking a Frost Dragon for help, but he’d had to sit there and watch as his comrades cleaned up the mess from the Fenris raid.
That had irked him. He should have told Allix it had to wait until everything was settled there. He had been so focused on her, on his mate, that he had done it without thinking.
The idea that she was his mate no longer fazed him. Luther had begun having the idea several days earlier, realizing just what it was his mind was trying to tell him was so important about her. Now he was just waiting for her to come around so that he could tell her himself, so that they could explore their future together.
She cried out softly as her body flinched and twitched, and Luther growled. Her mind was at war with her bear. He’d seen it before as younger shifters came into their animals and the two entities battled for control of the single body. The human mind was quicker, far more adaptable, cunning, and overall more capable.
But the bear was a brute beast, and its strength was often overwhelming.
Allix jerked and her eyes opened.
Luther snarled in dismay. The gaze that saw him didn’t belong to Allix. It was feral and wild.
Her bear was in control.
Shit shit shit.
He took several steps back, hoping not to provoke it, but it was too late. The animal within her was panicking at the sight of his beast so close, within its vulnerable area. He watched in dismay as Allix began to go through her first shift.
The first thing to happen was her hands swelled in size, massive claws emerging from the tips. Even before it had finished anything more, the wild bear slashed at him with them. Luther was ready for it however, and he ducked back, staying firmly out of reach of the beast emerging from within her.
Fur the color of her eyes burst through her skin, covering her from head to foot, while her mass swelled. The first change always took longer, but it was still over in a matter of seconds, and Luther danced back out of range as the unstable animal scrabbled for purchase in the wet, snowy ground, eventually getting to its feet.