Chapter 187 Becoming her true self 2

Chapter 187 Becoming her true self 1

Ruel's POV

One second Ira looks exhausted, pale and quiet against the clinic bed, and the next her skin goes damp.

My chest tightens when I notice the sweat building up on her skin.

"Ira?" I call softly, brushing her hair back. Her eyes stay closed, her fingers twitching against the mattress.

My desperate gaze shifts to the doctor who hasn't looked up from the notes he has been scribbling since we arrived.

“She's shaking,” I inform him the moment I catch the tremor starting in her hands, swiftly climbing until her whole body is shaking against the bed frame.

"Wait," the doctor says, filling me with the urge to shove him aside when he quickly steps in front of me.

I stand behind him as he presses two fingers to her wrist.

His eyes squint and his jaw locks, and I already despise the look on his face before he even gets a word out.

"What is it?" I demand.

He looks at me carefully. "Her pulse is irregular.”

“And?” Cael presses, looking just as worried.

“This looks like the onset of a shift." The doctor says.

"That's not possible," Elric mutters from behind me. "She's never shifted. She isn't even a werewolf."

"She is," I say calmly, and every pair of eyes turns to me.
My gaze drifts back to Ira who's barely holding herself together, the veins on her neck strained.

"She's a hybrid. Her father was a sempyr, and her mother was one of ours. Although she has never shown the wolf side of herself."

The doctor stares at me for a long moment and then turns back to Ira without another word.

Alpha Davan observes Ira quietly.

The doctor reaches for a syringe but she jerks against the bed, hard enough that the mattress creaks.

A pained sound rips out of her throat. My heart slams against my chest and I reach for her but the nurses around instantly surround the bed, blocking me from getting closer.

"Hold her," the doctor barks.

Two of his people step forward with restraints and every instinct I have rises violently against it.

I want to tell them to get their hands off her.

I want to pull her away from all of this and put my body between her and anything that tries to cause her more pain.

But she is shaking so hard the entire bed rattles beneath her, and her breathing has turned ragged, and I don’t know what to do.

That is the worst part. I don't know how to help her.

What if stopping these nurses only causes her pain to last longer?

The restraints go around her wrists and ankles.

A tear slips past her eye and my hands tighten into fists.

The doctor presses the suppressant needle to the crook of her arm and I watch, flinching when it breaks against her skin.

The bindings snap and with a shout Ira rolls off the bed, landing hard on the ground.

Just as I rush towards her, the nurses and doctor reach for her but a strong force throws each of us back.

“Holy shit,” Omar mutters.

"Ira." I say her name quietly, hoping it gets her to calm down.

Her head lifts and she turns to me but her deadly gaze raises every hair on my body and sends my pulse slamming into the back of my throat.

My stomach drops.

“Goddess help me help her.” I mutter to myself, resulting in prayer.

The brown of her eyes is gone. Pale silver orbs stare back at me in anger.

Beneath that fury there's confusion in her gaze. She looks around folding in on herself like a cornered animal.

I move, determined to get through the barrier but the force around her hits me before I get close.

It is not a wall. It is not something solid I can fight against or push through. This …. This is a wave, a cold pressure that harshly throws me back three paces.

I catch myself against the edge of the bed frame, my brows furrowing when a sharp edge of the metal bites into my palm.

Ignoring everyone else, I get up and try again.

The force hits harder this time, scraping my feet against the floor.

I try again, my heart pounding because she's not even looking at me, too focused on scratching her neck and chest.

She's turning so pale it scares me.

"Ruel," Alpha Davan calls sharply. "Stop."

"Don't fucking tell me to stop," I snap, "Not when she is in so much pain!”

I can't stand here and do nothing while she is in that much pain.

"Easy," Bukasvad steps forward with his hands raised. "Valira, it is me,” he says softly.

Her chest heaves, her palms staying flat against the tile.

I pant watching the air around her body move in ways that feel unreal. Like the air itself is breathing in warning waves around her… matching her fear.

Bukasvad takes another step closer and I silently hope he gets through to her like he did earlier.

To be honest, it infuriates me that he can calm her better than I can but now's not the time for jealousy.

I don't mind who she listens to… as long as her pain ceases.

He gets three steps from her before my hopes crash.

A fierce blue flame shoots from Ira's swiftly stretched hands, catching Bukasvad in the center of his chest and sending him flying backward into the wall with a loud crack.

"Bukasvad!"

Catwoman rushes to his side alongside Cael and Alpha Davan.

Arabella and her mate glance at Ira with worry.

Bukasvad coughs once, pressing a hand to his chest. When he looks up, his eyes don't hold the hurt I expect to see there, instead he looks at Ira with something close to awe.

But just as quick, concern swallows it whole.

"She couldn't do that before," he breathes then glances at me. "Ruel, this shouldn't be happening. Ira can't experience both at the same time.” His tone sharpens.

"And what exactly is she experiencing right now?" Alpha Davan asks, his voice cutting clean through another scream that tears from Ira's throat.

"I don't know," Bukasvad admits. "I have never met anyone with both abilities.”

"A shift shouldn't hurt like this," Elric says from behind me. "Even a first shift. It's not supposed to hurt like this."

I stop hearing anything after that.

Because Ira cries out again, and I simply can't take it anymore.

I grab Bukasvad by the front of his shirt, hauling him off the ground.

His feet dangle uselessly, the fabric of his shirt held tight in my fist.

“Control your emotions, son.” Davan's voice reaches my ear but floats right out the other side.

“Tell me what is wrong with her,” I snap at Bukasvad. “Tell me exactly what’s happening. Tell me what to fucking do.”

“I don’t know what to do,” he responds calmly. “She's experiencing a sempyr surge and a werewolf shift at the same time. It shouldn't be possible.”

“Then why is it happening?!”

“I swear I don't know.” Bukasvad says, looking at me like he feels bad for me.

I let him drop, fisting my hair as tears flood my eyes.

The doctor adjusts his coat. “If what he's saying is right, then this means that both sides of her are awakening at once, and neither one is able to complete its process because the other is in the way.” The doctor says, writing something down on his board.

“Isn't there something you can do?” Elric asks.

“I've never handled a sempyr before so I sadly don't know how to break whatever barrier this is.” the doctor confirms his darn incompetence.

I need to think. I need to think of a way to help her.

What kind of mate am I if I can't help her get through this.

Even before I rush at the barrier, I already know what to expect.

The air hits me, flinging me back so hard that I hit the ground.

“Ruel this isn't something you can control,”

“Relax, we'll figure this out together…”

“She can get through this…”

“Hurting yourself is only going to make things worse for her. You're marked. She can feel your pain…”

Somewhere in the chaos I taste blood. I'm not sure which part of me is bleeding but the voices don't stop.

At a point it all sounds too much.

“STOP!” A loud threatening animalistic growl rips out of me.

Everyone falls silent, so still that I can now hear Ira's heavy breathing.

I raise my head only now seeing that her body has somehow obeyed me.

She lies flat against the floor, her hands no longer scratching, her mouth no longer screaming, as her chest rises and falls in shallow, rapid pulls.

Her night dress is soaked through. But what changes everything is the hand she has stretched toward where I am standing.

In a flash I'm kneeling beside her. Ira blindly pulls me against her and I quickly take the initiative to pull her shivering body into a hug.

No one speaks again, not even when she suddenly shifts.

It happens so swiftly that it surprises me. One moment she's human and the next, a wolf, white from nose to tail.

Her fur moves, each strand lifting and settling in a rhythm that has nothing to do with the air in the room.

Ira trembles, her breathing is still too fast.

Allowing a heavy breath escape me, I press my nose to the side of her neck and stay there, breathing her in, keeping my body against hers.

Never wanting to let go.

Strangely no one moves. Not until the trembling in her begins to change from fear to exhaustion.

A few minutes later Elric approaches with a blanket, freezing when I release a warning sound.

The moment I relax against Ira, he steps forward carefully, laying the blanket over her trembling body, before stepping back.

Then one by one they all walk out of the room, giving us privacy.

I'm surprised when thirty minutes later I can still sense them waiting outside the room.

I'm surprised yet grateful for this new found support.

"I'm here baby, you'll be alright." I whisper, tightening my arm around her.