Chapter 10
“You slapped him!?”
Sam and I sit on her bed eating chocolates while watching Gossip Girl. Before we arrived at her house, I told her everything about Max and what he told me.
“Yeah, and I don't regret it either. Is that bad?”
Sam snorts. “Are you kidding me, he had it coming.”
“I just don't know who to believe.” I pick up a piece of chocolate and shove it in my mouth.
She shrugs. 'I mean, I can see where you're coming from. You've got Ryder who's an Alpha and has his own pack. We don't know what kind of pack they are and what they do or what they're capable of, but they don't really seem that bad. Yes, they might have anger issues but I've never heard or seen them beat up a random person before. As for Max, we have no idea who he is or his history. I mean we just met him yesterday, and he seems like a genuinely nice guy but again we don't really know him.” Sam turns the TV volume down. “We're at an impasse, Alice.”
I lie on my side and sigh. “It just doesn't make sense! Why would Max say that Ryder, Kellan and Bane beat him up? Unless Ryder's a good liar and he's brainwashed his pack to believing that they didn't do it.”
“Look, I think it's been a long day. We need to chill, not mention any boys and just watch Chuck Bass being sexy.”
“That sounds great, but I'm more of a Nate Archibald fan.”
After hours of watching episodes of Gossip Girl and eating piles of chocolate, we decide to turn in for an early night. I leave her room to go down the kitchen for a glass of milk, when I feel my head starting to pound. It's probably caused after the shouting and the stress of today.
I shake it off, grab a glass, open the fridge and grab the milk.
As I pour the milk into the glass my whole body feels like it's going through a heat wave, and everything around me starts to blur.
Oh, no! Please, no!
My legs give out beneath me making the glass in my hand shatter to the floor into a million pieces. I taste a metallic tang in my mouth that tastes a lot like blood. Inside my mouth, I feel an agonising pain in my oral cavity that's unbearable to cope with. I carefully run my tongue along the bottom of my mouth and freeze. I start to feel very sharp canine teeth forming on top of my human teeth. My hearing becomes clearer which allows me to hear my heart racing inside my chest. Shaking with fear, my legs start to numb leaving me no choice but to double over onto the floor on all fours. I can hear Sam running down the stairs shouting my name repeatedly, but I have no strength to answer her. The pain in my stomach becomes so unbearable that it makes it hard for me to breathe properly. My arms start to ache from trying to keep upright off the floor. What I don't expect next is for my hands to start hurting. I squint hard enough to concentrate on my left hand to see what's causing the pain, and realize my nails have elongated into sharp claws. The pain is excruciating.
It's actually happening! I'm turning!
My blurry vision allows me to see a form entering the kitchen. The moment Sam sees me on the floor shaking uncontrollably, she screams so loud that it hurts my eardrums.
She crouches down in front of me. “Alice!?” She places her hand gently on my shoulder. “Please......help...me.”
I place my head on the tile floor to cool myself down.
“What do you want me to do!? Tell me how I can help you.” She cries.
“Get..Ry...Ryder. He can help.” Sam's already reaching for her phone.
I don't know why I asked Sam to call him, but what other choice did I have? Maybe with his guidance, he'll help me survive this change, but one thing is for sure that I can't take any more of this pain.
If this happens every time I change I don't think I'd have the strength to do it.
“It's happening! So, get your wolf ass to my house right now!”
She slams the phone into the receiver and rushes back to me.
“He's on his way, Alice! Everything's gonna be fine.”
After what feels like hours, we both hear the front door slam. “Alice!?|
“She's in here! Hurry!” Sam yells from the floor. She's has not left my side.
Ryder appears in the kitchen doorway wearing nothing but black jeans.
“Couldn't you at least put on a shirt before you came here?”
Sam arches a brow, but Ryder ignores her and crouches down next to me.
He places his hand gently on my forehead and hisses, “She's too hot.”
He shakes his head in dismay.
“What do you suggest we do? Move her?”
“Yup.” He carefully picks me up and carries me out of the kitchen. “Where's the bathroom?”
“Should you be moving her? She doesn't look good at all and she looks really pale.”
“Sam! Where's your bathroom!?” Ryder yells.
“Upstairs, first door on the right.”
Sam follows Ryder every step of the way. “What are you gonna do?”
Ryder rushes up the stairs, into the bathroom and sits me down on the toilet. I can hardly keep myself upright, but Sam moves to hold my hand to steady me.
“We're gonna put her in the bathtub and fill it with cold water.”
He reaches over and turns the cold tap on then turns to me while the water runs. “You're gonna be alright.” He cups my cheeks. “I'm not gonna let anything happen to you.”
I can do nothing but stare at him. I try hard to say anything but stop when I realize that I can't. It's like I'm struggling to form words. Ryder notices and frowns at me.
With his hand, he opens my mouth and wheezes. “Her teeth are starting to break through.”
He turns back to the bathtub and turns the tap off. “Is that a good thing?” Sam urges.
“It's a good thing because it means that the change won't be as complicated.”
Ryder picks me up into a standing position and grabs the hem of my dungarees.
“What do you think you're doing?” Sam snaps as she pushes his hands away from me.
“What does it look like I'm doing? I'm undressing her.”
Ryder unbuckles the straps and removes it leaving me only in a long sleeved shirt and my underwear.
My body feels incredibly weak to argue with him about it.
“I don't think she'd approve of you seeing her in her underwear.”
“I don't think she's in her right mind to decide whether she approves it or not.” He grabs the hem of the shirt and lifts it up to my abdomen. Sam lifts both of my arms above my head.
Sam gasps. “Look! Her fingers!” Claws. Razor-sharp claws.
“I know.” Ryder picks me up gently and puts me into the cold water.
I sigh in delight once my body touches the cool surface.
I grab onto his arm. “How much longer?” I struggle to burst out.
Ryder brushes back my hair. “Not long now.” He rushes out of the bathroom.
Sam sits on the bathtub and smiles at me. “You okay? You scared the hell out of me.”
I close my eyes tightly as the pain in my abdomen starts to burn. “I just want this to end.”
Sam grabs my hand out of the water and holds it tightly. “Me too.”
Ryder comes back into the room with a blanket.
“What happens now?” Sam moves out of the way for Ryder to pick me out of the water.
“I need to lay her down, preferably somewhere that's comfortable.”
Ryder wraps me in the blanket and picks me up again. “She can lie on my bed.”
Sam leads the way into her room with Ryder and me on her heel.
When we reach the bedroom, Ryder puts me down gently and looks me over.
“Is she gonna be okay?”
“Her teeth and claws have formed perfectly but..” Ryder places his hand on my abdomen.
“But what?” Sam sits next to me on the bed.
“Her bones need to break through, and it's not gonna be pretty.”
Ryder holds my hand reassuringly.
Sam crosses her arms over her chest. “Will that be the last thing that happens to her because I can't stand to see her like this?”
“Sam, it needs to happen whether she likes it or not. She was stupid enough to fight the first time. She would have avoided all of this if she would have listened to me.”
Sam jumps off the bed and confronts Ryder. “How dare you speak about her like that! It's not her fault!”
I'm lying on the bed drenched in sweat with my whole body in indescribable pain when I notice that both Sam and Ryder arguing. I struggle to open my mouth to make them stop, but I can't do anything other than listen to them.
How much longer!?
Suddenly my back arches off the bed, and I hear the cracking snap of my bones breaking and reforming throughout my body. I'm screaming at the gut-wrenching pain it's causing inside of me. Sam and Ryder stop arguing when they hear the ear splitting scream that leaves my mouth.
“This is it.” Ryder helps me off the bed and gently puts me on the floor.
“Oh my God, it's happening.” Sam shrieks.
“Sam be quiet.” He cups my cheeks. “You're doing really well.”
“Am I gonna die?” I'm trying to focus on Ryder's face through my blurry haze.
“Absolutely not because you know why, Alice?” “Why?”
The bones in my legs start snapping and it's causing me to grunt in pain.
“Because I won't let you. I know it hurts, but this is the worst part and then it's all over. You'll never have to go through it again.”
I nod as he moves away from me. “We need to give her space.”
He grabs Sam's arm and pulls her towards the doorway.
When they leave me on the floor in complete agony, I feel everything inside me going warm.
The room's silence is interrupted with more intense sounds of my bones breaking, making me have this urge to let go. The bones in my face hurt so much that I can't stop the tears from falling.
Sam struggles in Ryder's hold.
“Let me go to her! She's struggling!” Sam screams.
Ryder grunts as she elbows his chest. “She's doing what needs to be done!”
When I feel the bones start to change the shape of my face, I go to scream but it's not a scream that leaves my mouth.
What does leave my mouth is a loud piercing howl that's probably loud enough to scare the living creatures nearby, and the urge to burst comes almost unexpectedly.
I feel like a bomb is about to go off inside me, and then it happens.
I'm standing on all fours; body perfectly formed into a wolf.
My wolf instinct has taken over my entire body, and I'm left speechless. I'm looking at myself at a distance in Sam's floor length mirror, and all I can do is look at myself.
There are no words.
My body feels so strong and muscular.
Fur as white as snow covers my whole body, sharp white teeth and long pointy ears.
I turn my head to look at Sam and Ryder, to see both of their eyes wide in shock. Neither of them says a word. I walk over on my unsteady legs and approach them. Ryder looks at me straight in the eye and he freezes. For some reason that causes me to start growling directly at him.
“Why is she growling at you?” Sam asks Ryder from the doorway.
“Alice knows me but her wolf doesn't. She thinks I'm a threat to her.”
“And are you?”
“We'll see what he has to say.” I tilt my head when Ryder starts shifting so effortlessly into a wolf.
And by a wolf, I mean an Alpha.
What I see is a large black mass of fur with bright red eyes. I can feel myself shrinking back when I hear him let out a loud and long howl.
His ears are raised and pointed forwards, fangs and teeth are barred.
He's clearly showing me who the Alpha is.
I lower my head in submission hoping he'll realize I'm not challenging him, but the next thing I know I'm lifting my head and growling back at him.
Sam stares at the both of us in bewilderment. “Don't you dare!”
Ryder turns around and growls at Sam causing her to jump in fright. Seeing Sam frightened stirs something inside of me, and straight away I'm lunging straight at Ryder; going right for his face.
He sees it coming straight away and tackles me. Sam starts screaming when she sees me and Ryder fighting vigorously on the floor.
“Stop it! Both of you are gonna hurt yourselves!”
I force Ryder off me and lunge for him again only to be shoved roughly against the mirror. Once my body makes contact with it, the shards of the glass break from the impact.
I lie on the floor for a second only to get back up from the adrenaline and lunge again at Ryder's back. Ryder wraps his teeth around my neck and pulls me off of him and he doesn't let go.
He drags me from my neck past Sam, out of the bedroom and down the stairs. He has such a tight grip on me that it's impossible to get out of it.
The moment we reach Sam's garden, Ryder releases me and backs away. By the time Sam joins us, Ryder has shifted back into his human form, wearing only his trousers, he looks down at me with a frown on his face.
“Turn her back!” Sam snaps.
He turns to her with a snarl. “Don't tell me what to do.” 'Turn her back now!”
Ryder ignores her and crouches down beside me.
I'm too weak to move from my position on the floor, and I think he knows that too.
I lie on the floor and close my eyes, I don't know how but I feel my body suddenly changing, and it does so without any effort. I'm aware that I have no clothes on and that Ryder's sitting next to me, but I no longer care about looking decent for anyone.
“Move!” Sam nudges Ryder out of the way and places a fluffy blanket over me.
I gather the strength to sit up from the floor and wrap the blanket around myself.
I look at Sam to see her eyes welling with tears. “Alice?”
I pause for a minute and laugh. “I'm alive!” Sam starts to laugh too. “I know!”
Sam reaches over and hugs me tightly. I gasp. “Did you see me!?”
“I saw everything, and I couldn't be more proud of you!”
Then I remember the fighting. “Sam! I'm so sorry about your mirror!”
Sam shrugs. 'Don't worry about it. It wasn't even your fault.” Sam looks behind me and sneers.
I turn around and meet Ryder's expressionless face. “You owe me a new mirror!”
Sam marches into the house and slams the door behind her.
Wrapped up in the blanket, I get up from the floor and stand, neither of us move.
After a few minutes of silence, Ryder decides to break the silence.
“You didn't see your eyes, did you?” He frowns. “No.” I answer bluntly.
The mirror was too far for me to see that close. Ryder says nothing.
What did he see?
“Was something wrong with them?” He says nothing and looks away.
I'm starting to get very impatient with him, “Ryder!”
Ryder's head swivels back to look at me. “The colour of your eyes was unexpected.”
“Why? What colour were they?” He pauses for a long time. “Red.”
A pause.
“What?” I whisper.
“Red, your eyes were red.”
What? Surely he's lying...
Ryder clears his throat and frowns. “You're an Alpha.”