My body trembled from her words, a fire burning in my stomach as I crouched close to the ground. Again, fear gripped my heart, squeezing the breath from my lungs until I could barely breathe.
Ash was right there beside me, never hindering me and never letting go.
Sensing her at my side, I borrowed her strength, taking in the little I’d learned from her and Fallen to finally take on my first shift. My first controlled shift.
It was slow and tried my patience, but as promised, there was no pain. Pressure built in my arms, the odd pop and snap
of joints sounding worse than it actually felt. Bit by bit, I removed my articles of clothing, my body becoming too hot for me to wear them any longer.
Perhaps it was because of the fire. Perhaps it was the shift.
Regardless of the reason, I no longer cared about my clothes, my body, or the scars the pack would most assuredly see. All I felt, all I wanted was to shift.
And it was in that moment when I knew I was ready.
In that moment, I knew I was a wolf.
Chapter Seven
A building heat blurred my vision, the ground beneath me feeling softer than before. I’m not sure when it happened but I’d closed my eyes, shutting them tight as I drown out the rest of the world.
Ash was still there, but her fingers were wrapped in long strands of fur instead of pressed against my back. My heart skipped at the thought of what I might see once I opened my eyes, a fear of what I’d become.
I did it. With Ash’s guidance, I’d shifted without pain. It was something I never thought possible considering how well my first shift had gone. I had a feeling my second shift would’ve been much of the same if Ash hadn’t intervened.
But this one? The shift I’d just gone through? It didn’t hurt at all, and as I slowly opened my eyes, I got the first glimpse of my wolf.
Dark gray fur covered my paws, going as far back as the tip of my tail. Without a mirror to see by, it was hard to say how far the dark patch went. However, if I had to guess, I’d say it covered most of my back.
Pleased with my progress, Ash dropped to her knees and threw her arms around my neck. “There’s our wolf,” she said with pride. “How do you feel?”
“Good. Better than that, actually.”
“You want to run, don’t you?” she asked with a laugh.
I wanted to run more than I’d ever wanted to run in my entire life. “Yes.”
“Go,” she ordered, stepping away from me as she gestured toward the tree line. “I need to stay here with the rest of the pack, but Fallen will accompany you.”
“Fallen?” I hoped the disappointment I felt didn’t make it into my voice. Of course the Alpha wouldn’t run with me. I was just one wolf, and yet…
No, I chided myself. The touch she offered me and her kinds words were to help me shift, nothing more. I was looking for something that wasn’t there, something that shouldn’t have been there in the first place.
“Well?” Fallen asked, her voice being one I couldn’t read.
“Are you coming?”
The chocolate wolf stood a few feet in front of me, her ears pinned back as I paused beside Ash.
“Thank you,” I said, ignoring Fallen’s intense glare until something nudged at the back of my mind.
“Your wolf is eager,” Ash said. “Go. We’ll be here when you both come back.”
Her smile was all the encouragement I needed, and as soon as I started to run, Fallen kept her place beside me. I could sense her displeasure, a bitter smell filling my nose as she glanced back at the fire. She’d never given me an ounce of trust, and while she may have known these woods better than I did, I wasn’t about to stop and ask her for directions.
As soon as we ducked under the trees, I was off, running as fast as my paws could carry me. I didn’t care where I ended up so long as I could feel my heart thundering in my chest. Out here and as a wolf, everything was magnified.
The smells, the sounds, and even my own body felt completely different. Not just because I was a wolf, either. The energy my wolf form provided felt as though I could run for days, only stopping to get a drink at the stream which was close by.