Chapter 14: SHIFTED

CHAPTER FOURTEEN | SHIFTED

ASPEN

I couldn't believe my ears. I had hoped that there would be hope somewhere, somehow, no matter how little it was. But here I was, trying to make peace with the fact that I wasn't a person who existed in this world.

“Have you ever shifted?” Ronan suddenly asked, his question startling Rachel and me.

“Shifted?” I repeated.

“Yes. Have you ever shifted? Did you shift when you turned thirteen like every werewolf should?”

I thought back to the night of the ceremony, the night of the shifting ceremony for my age group, but I couldn't remember anything, just like every other night that had been erased from my memory.

I remembered how excited I was for the party seven years ago, when I turned thirteen and it was the full moon. I remembered how Adrian stole one of his sister's old clothes and handed them to me to wear to the party. I recalled how excited I was, even though I was going to be the only one wearing secondhand clothes. I didn't care about the fact that it was an old dress that belonged to someone who hated and bullied me at every opportunity she had. I mean, who would have cared if they were in my shoes? Those were the first real dresses I had ever worn in my life.

I was just happy to be among the people celebrating that day, and I was glad that for the first time in my life, they couldn't exclude me from something.

I also vividly remembered walking hand-in-hand with my best friend, feeling so happy that I couldn't stay in one place. But after that, I couldn't remember anything else. That was where my memory of that night had ended.

“I didn't know,” I answered after staying silent for a very long time. “I can't remember if I shifted. And I don't think I've ever shifted to my wolf form.”

Sadness hit me like a train as I realized that I didn't even know myself. Everything I thought I knew about myself wasn't even real, they were just fragments of my imagination that I never questioned.

“There's a possibility that you aren't one of us.”

“Huh?” I was confused.

Not one of us? Not one of the Alpha children or what? Hadn't that fact already been established?

“You might not be a werewolf. You might be human.”

Silence hung in the air after Ronan's announcement. Nobody moved. We all exchanged glances but said nothing.

Rachel's lips were pulled tight in concentration, and she nodded, understanding flashing through her eyes.

“I think you're right, babe. She might be human.”

“That is impossible.” I got to my feet, enraged that they would even think something like that was possible. I couldn't be a human being, living and walking around freely in the werewolf world. Everyone knew it wasn't possible. For centuries, werewolves had hated humans and done their best to keep our world away from them because we believed they would ruin things if they ever found out about this part of the world.

Any curious human who mistakenly wandered into our part of the world, or was conducting research and tried to come here, would be killed even before they crossed into this world.

There was a literal barricade that separated us from other worlds, and a force was placed there by the Moon Goddess for our protection, to slice through any human that tried to enter.

It was possible for us to leave our world for the human world as much as we wanted to, but why would anyone want to go to their world, where evil abounds? Evil is so deeply rooted in the lives of humans that only a total purging of humanity could save and cleanse them.

The only people who went there were the ones assigned to study their science and technology, since that was the only good thing about humans. And even then, they were only required to stay for a specific period before coming back to our world.

“I know you guys are confused about my identity, but there's no need to make painful suggestions. The fact that I'm not who I've always thought I was is enough to break anyone's heart. Are you trying to kill me by suggesting that I am not a werewolf too?”

Ronan, irritated by my dramatic reaction, rolled his eyes. “Look, no one is trying to attack or fight you. We're just thinking about possibilities. Why can't you act a little mature for your age? Your name isn't in the book of powers, you have never shifted, you don't remember a lot of things from your past, and you were also treated like absolute shit in your pack, which is very rare. Even an omega or a slave is treated with more respect than you. Which leaves us to the hypothesis that you might be a human child stolen by your old pack for a vendetta of some sort.”

My heart pounded and a deafening ringing sounded in my ears. Everything became blurry, and the ground beneath me tilted a little. I couldn't see a thing, and I had to sit back on the bed to get my sight together.

I didn't want to believe that what they were saying was true, but with everything that had happened today, it was probably not far from the truth.

Rachel held my hand, a sign of comfort, but right now, I didn't need her comfort, and I sure as hell didn't need anyone's pity.

All I needed was to find out the truth. Was I human or a werewolf?

“I want to test the truth,” I exclaimed suddenly, shocking them both.

“And how do you plan to do that?”

I shrugged, not having a plan in mind but knowing that we could find a way to do it.

“I have something I think might help,” Rachel blurted out. “But it is extremely dangerous.”

“How dangerous?”

“If you go through the process as a human, you'll die. If you go through the process as a dormant wolf, you might unlock your wolf.”

“I'll do it. Whatever it is, I'll do it,” I declared without hesitation.

“It's electrocution. There's an electric chair in one of the training rooms.”