“Yeah, putting us together was beyond cruel,” I agreed.
“We’ll break your mating bond as soon as we can,” Kyle said.
“So, I guess I shift. Then we find the witch and break the claim so I can get back to all the other drama I was already involved in.” It sounded crazy when I said it out loud.
“It’s the right choice,” he assured me.
I finished my last bite then stood. “I’m going to find Sheila.”
He shoved almost an entire banana in his mouth at once. I wrinkled my nose. “Do you chew when you eat?”
He took a few very full chews, then swallowed. “Let’s go.”
“You don’t have to follow me everywhere,” I said.
He lifted his brows in silent comment.
I scowled. “Is this how it’s going to be? You follow me everywhere for the rest of my life?”
“Just till I know you’re safe,” he confirmed. “I’ll feel better when the claim is broken and you’re officially alpha. Till then, I have to keep you alive to make those things happen.”
“Fine. You might as well tag along.” I walked to the door with Kyle at my heels.
It was strange knowing that tonight I was going to try to shift. I’d wished for it for so long, then I accepted the fact that I’d never complete a shift. Standing at the precipice of gaining a connection with my wolf was unreal. I still had a hard time allowing myself to think it could happen.
Go figure, me actually getting to shift would make my life even worse instead of better. As I walked toward camp, I thought about my mom’s warning last time I’d seen her. She didn’t want me to shift no matter what. She’d stopped shifting herself, I was more sure of that now. Had she done it to keep me from getting curious and trying to shift? Had her lack of shifting turned her into what she was?
When I was young, I remembered her as a caring and loving mom. We finger painted with pudding, we played in the creek. She braided my hair and sang songs to me before I went to sleep.
She wasn’t always the way she was.
My heart ached as the pieces fell into place. She’d sacrificed everything for me. A wolf who doesn’t shift goes insane. We’d all heard that growing up. My mom changed over the years. She was a shell of the person she used to be. All because she stopped shifting.
My throat felt tight and my eyes were burning as I held back tears. Could that be fixed? Could a wolf who stopped shifting be healed? Or was she going to be stuck in this prison in her mind forever?
When I saved my pack, I was also going to save her. I’d shift, then I’d make her shift. Tonight was more important than I realized. It was my first step toward being the person I had to be. I was going to embrace the mark and be the leader my pack deserved.
“You’ll help me tonight?” I asked Kyle.
“Of course,” he said.
“At moonrise, I’m going to do this,” I said, more for myself than anyone else.
My wolf seemed to leap for joy inside me. I couldn’t help but smile. It was time.