Angel Blackwood (4 page)

“My name is
Faith, I’m your wolf,”
she
says, keeping her tone calm and gentle.

I scream and continue to
cry out. “Please help me, make it stop….please,” I sob.

My vision pulses and when
it clears I see the trees thrashing from side to side, some of the
thinner ones on the verge of snapping.

“You were a
strong human. You will be an even stronger wolf. Fate sent me to
you because she believed you were special just like me. My spirit
is very old my love. I’ve been around for many years jumping from
one great master to the next. Fate was saving me, she has been
keeping me for you… I know it! You my dear…you are very rare. You
don’t realise how powerful you truly are…the power that resides
within you is pure…white…like magic. I’ve never seen such a
thing,”
Faith says, and I feel
her happiness and awe.

“Faith, can
we
please
do this whole introduction thing another time?
Maybe when my bones aren’t snapping? I promise if I live through
this I’ll tell you everything you want to know, but right now I
need you to focus and walk me through this whole fucking thing,” I
say through gritted teeth, the pain making it hard for me to even
breathe.

“Don’t cuss my
dear, it isn’t very lady like
,” she scolds.

“Faith!” I yell.

“All righty
then
.” She lets out a deep
sigh. “
Try getting yourself
onto your hands and knees first.
”

I roll over. My
first two attempts at
lifting
myself up fail and I fall face first with a mouthful of sand. Faith
giggles.

“I would
totally slap you right now if I could,
”
I tell her
through my cries, making her giggles louder in my head. I manage to
get onto my hands and knees and try to catch my breath, calming my
breathing.

“Just like
that
,” she
encourages.

The pain is still
unbearable and I’m just so exhausted I want to fall down, rest my
head and go to sleep for a little while.

“No my dear,
you better not do that. You may not wake up if you fall asleep now.
You can do this, stay strong,
”
she says softly, as if reading my mind.

I look down at
my hands, crying
out as
another crack echoes into the woods, only to be swept away by the
wind as I watch the tears fall into the sand below me.

My vision starts pulsing
again.

Clear. Unclear. Clear.

I see glimpses
of my forearms and the little hairs that rise from beneath my skin.
I squeeze my eyes shut as the bones in my hand
s and arms crack and bend.

For the next
twenty minut
es I scream and
cry out in pain; my throat raw and dry from my screams. The sound
of material ripping and bones cracking finally come to a halt and
all that can be heard is my deep panting.

Panting?

I open my eyes and jump back as
I see pitch black paws.

I hear
Faith
’s light laughter in my
ears. “
You did it my dear.
You’re beautiful
!” I can feel
the affection radiating in her voice.

My senses are
clearer.
I can see every
single little detail, every little grain of sand beneath my paws
and my hearing is magnified too. Suddenly I hear shouting and
yelling in the distance, but I’m too focused on what I look like
and feel like to even think about any of that. Faith’s voice tells
me to go look at my refection in the lake.

I finally find my rhythm
as I walk on all four paws. I quicken my steps and then full out
run and head to the little docking platform. I lean over the side
and look into the water.

The first thing
I see are my eyes. Long gone are my blue
y-green ones, in their place are the silver flame like
ones that I have when my magic needs to be freed.

My coat is pitch black and
shiny.

My father and
Jax
have black coats, but
theirs are not nearly as dark as mine. I’ve never seen anything as
black as the colour of my fur.

I hear rustling
and immediately a few people walk out of the bushes on my
rig
ht near the forest. All
eyes are on me. Amongst the group are Talon, Tyler, their
girlfriends and my parents.

“Shift!
” Johnny growls
out.

“They think
you’re a rogue
,” Faith
says.

“Who are you and why are
you on my land? Where is my daughter?” Johnny growls out again. I
look at the rest of the crowd, they all look uneasy, as if they’re
about to jump me at any second.

“Speak to
them, tell them who you are
,”
Faith says, sounding nervous.

“And how am I
supposed to do that? Bark? I haven’t exactly had time to figure out
how this whole wolf thing works Faith.”
I saunter cautiously down the wooden dock toward the
shore.

“Yes right,
s
orry
.
Okay
just look at your father and think
about what you want to say to him. Focus.”

“Do you not hear me
rogue? Speak!” Johnny roars, making me step back afraid.

I watch as Alex
looks at me,
her eyebrows
furrowing.

“Johnny
wait!
” She whispers, but I
still hear her clearly from where I’m standing. She steps forward
and picks up my torn clothes lying on the ground.

Johnny looks at
the
shredded material then
back at me, his stance relaxing somewhat.

“Angel?”
H
e asks, using a caring and
less domineering tone.

I watch Tyler and Talon
gasp. Tyler tries to take a step forward, but Talon grabs his arm
quickly.

The bond that
is between
us is making it
hard for me to focus on anyone other than the two of them. I can
almost feel their beating hearts in my own chest, feel every breath
they take as if it’s my own and I can even hear their
thoughts.

“She’s beautiful…” Tyler thinks
sounding out of breath.

“Amazing….” Talon thinks.

Then I look to
the girls
on either side of
them and the spell breaks.

I growl
and
force my eyes to look at
my parents.

Turning
fully towards them, I focus all my
attention on Johnny then Alex.

“Mom?
” I say in my
head, hoping it works.

Alex and Johnny both take
off running in my direction across the sand.

They come to a
skidding halt at
my side, Alex
immediately stroking my back. “You did it. All on your own sweetie.
I’m so proud of you.” She smiles lovingly at me as she wipes a tear
away.

Johnny bends down and pulls me
against him nuzzling my neck and scratching my head.

That
feels
really good.
Hmmm….

“You’re perfect baby girl.
Perfect.”

“Boys? Aren’t
you going to congratulate our girl?” Johnny
lifts his head to the twins. I turn to see them
standing a couple metres away staring at each other.

They both turn to head in my
direction.

“No Dad, it’s cool. Leave
them. They’re busy.” Talon and Tyler immediately stop, looking at
me with shock and what seems to look something close to hurt. They
have no reason to feel hurt, especially after how they both treated
me this evening.

Guess I was
projecting my thoughts to them
also.

“Nope, that
was me projecting your
thoughts to those bloody fools,” Faith tsks.

Johnny looks
down at me confused
as if he’s
trying to understand whats going on between the twins and I. I know
he’ll be asking questions later when we’re alone; I just hope he
can wait till then.

“Race you back
to the house?” I say
,
immediately bolting past the twins and into the woods. I hear
Johnny chuckling behind me. I may not be as big as my father but It
seems that I am super-fast in my wolf form.

The
w
ind in my coat is
exhilarating. My body aches, but it is so worth all the pain if I
get to feel this free and independent whenever I want to. The sun
has started to rise as I reach the porch to the pack house with
Johnny hot on my heels.

“I knew
it!
You’re an even faster
wolf. I knew you were going to survive the shift, I just knew it!”
He says proudly, catching his breath.

“Go on upstairs and
change. Don’t think you’re quite ready to shift in front of people
just yet,” he chuckles, opening the door for me.

I don’t think
I will ever be read
y to be
naked in front of anyone.

“You must be exhausted
baby girl. How about you take the rest of the day to recover and
I’ll move the ceremony to tomorrow night?” He says, patting the top
of my head.

“Good idea.”

I run up
the stairs and into my room thankful
that no one’s around. I nose my door closed.

“Now what?” I ask Faith.

“Just think of
your body when it’s in its human form and think of changing back to
it
,”
Faith says.

I do as she says and I feel my
body shifting. I collapse naked on the floor and stretch my stiff
aching muscles.

“It will get
better my dear. Your body will adjust,”
she says.

“That was exhausting,” I
sigh, letting out a deep breath.

“You better
get dressed, our mates are on their way to see us.”

I force my stiff body to
stand up and quickly head for the bathroom locking myself in there.
I ignore the boys at they knock on both my bedroom door and
bathroom door.

“Angel…” It’s
Tyler. I pause in the shower, listening as
he rests his head against the other side of the door.
“I’m sorry about earlier… I’m so proud of you, for shifting.” I
stand silently for another minute before I finally hear his
footsteps as he starts walking away.

I take my time having a
steamy hot shower contemplating everything that has happened over
the past twenty four hours. Once I’ve washed the emotion of the day
away, I change into a pair of shorts and a comfortable
shirt.

These days
I’m
barely able to look at
myself in the mirror. I keep imagining seeing my beaten broken face
when I look at my reflection. Instead when I look in the mirror
today, none of the scars can be seen, my eyes are back to their
normal shade of bluey green. I brush my wet hair and stick it into
a bun, preparing myself to head downstairs to await all the
questions that I know will be coming my way.

I leave
my room, looking left and right. I
don’t sense the twins anywhere near; I’m thankful that the bond we
share enables me to tell if they’re near or far. I do however smell
something in the air. I raise my nose to try and catch the
delicious scent.

Pancakes
.

My stomach
growls as I smell the yummy goodness. I follow the scent
toward
s the kitchen, noticing
how quiet the house is all of a sudden. I find a plate of freshly
made pancakes covered in cinnamon on the counter and grab
one.

H
earing a noise coming
from the back of the house, I make my way down the passage towards
the humming sound. I step out onto the porch and there sitting on
the steps sits a familiar face.

“Greg!” I
yell
with a mouth full of
pancake. He turns his head around then stands up. I smile as he
jogs up to me, pulls me into his arms, then swings me around
chuckling against my collar bone. I know I’m stiff in his arms; I’m
still not too comfortable being touched. But I manage to hold on as
he does his thing, hoping he doesn’t sense my
discomfort.

“Lexi! I was wondering
when I would see you. I’ve been here for some time now,” he says,
still holding me tight.

“Put
. Her. Down.
Now!”

Greg drops me
and I
stumble turning to face
a scary looking Tyler glowering at Greg. Greg is a big guy, but the
twins are much taller and broader than him. He tries to pull me
behind him in a protective stance but stops suddenly when he hears
growling behind us.

“Touch her
again and I’ll rip your
god
damn hands off,” Talon spits.

Greg immediately pauses,
looking down at me with uncertainty.

“What the hell is wrong
with you two?” I ask.

“No
Lexi!”
Talon spits my name. “What is wrong with
you
?”

I growl at the
use of my old name. Greg bac
ks
away and raises an eyebrow in confusion. I don’t ever want to be
referred to as Lexi again, but I’ll have to explain that to him
another time.