Chapter 632 Chapter 632
Journee stood there, wrapped in a blanket, and silently telling her cat that they could do this. She glanced over her shoulder to see Amari, Tripp, Asher, and Calum behind her. Shaelan was beside her. Shifting in front of everyone like this was something she had never done. Her first shift and every one after that had been done alone.
“Would you like me to send them ahead?” Shaelan spoke softly.
Journee nodded.
“Why don’t you go ahead and shift, and she’ll be out there shortly,” Shaelan looked at the others, Journee didn’t turn around to see their reaction, “I don’t anticipate any problems. It’s a bit uncomfortable standing here naked in front of everyone isn’t going to help the situation.”
“No problem.” She heard Tripp say.
Amari and Tripp walked by her and went through the gate. Calum paused to kiss the top of his mate’s head. “We’ll wait in the tree line.” He said quietly.
Asher came over and stood in front of her. “You don’t have to rush this if you’re not ready.”
She appreciated that he was considering that, but she needed to run. Her cat needed to run. It was the only way she was going to cope with all of the changes. She was going to be going back to the island, and even though she knew these teams knew what they were doing, she wasn’t going to just stand there and do nothing if things didn’t go as planned. “I want to do it now.” She watched the concern in his eyes change to something else, it wasn’t bad, but she couldn’t be sure what it was.
“Okay.” He looked in the direction the others had gone, “I’ll be the one with spots,” he grinned at her.
“Thanks.” She smiled back. It was a cute thing to say to cut through the tension. She watched him walk into the tree line.
“Take your time.” Shaelan coaxed.
Journee nodded and focused on her cat. She was there, waiting. We can do this. Slowly. Just to make sure my leg shifts the way it should. A calmness came from inside her, and she knew her cat was in agreement. Closing her eyes, she blew out a breath, forcing any doubts to leave with it. When she opened them, she nodded again and held out the blanket to Shaelan. The cold air was a bit jarring, but she’d felt worse. Looking down, she slipped her feet out of the fuzzy slippers one of the women had given, lifted her chin, and looked straight ahead.
The tingling went through her spine, and it was a relief to feel it. It may be strange, but that tiny thing was the first step in shifting. Sometimes it may be lightning streaking down her back in moments of stress or when she was in a rush, but it was subtle and comforting right now.
“You don’t get on your hands and knees?” Shaelan whispered and moved to the side her injured leg was one.
Journee had tried it that way before but had always felt too vulnerable getting down on her hands and knees. Maybe it was the way others did it, but she had practiced until exhaustion to do it standing up. She didn’t respond to her question when her cat rolled through her. It felt like all the muscles in her body rippled like a dropping a stone in calm water. As the fur ascended to replace smooth skin, she felt a shiver go through her. It was almost like being tickled.
She had enough awareness to shift most of her weight on her good leg, just in case. After that, she could hear bones snapping to form a new body. Her leg burned, but no stabbing pain or anything led her to think she shouldn’t shift. Her animal took that last thought as a big green light, and two breaths later, Journee was fully shifted. She dropped her front paws on the ground and then blinked to adjust to the feline vision.
“Incredible.” Shaelan smiled down at her. “If there’s no pain,” she stepped aside and motioned to the gate, “go exercise those muscles.”
Journee chirped once and then took two cautious steps to check that everything was functioning as it should. There was no pain or numbness, so she decided to run off some of the anxiousness that had been weighing her down since coming here.
She was almost at a full run when she reached the treeline. It felt so wonderful, so freeing to do this again. She went breezing by two mountain lions standing there and knew them to be Tripp and Amari. As she lunged around a tree in her path, she spotted a black jaguar standing there. There was no doubt in her mind that it was Calum.
A barking she recognized registered, and she slowed just enough for Daigo to catch up with her. She wouldn’t outrun him, not today. He was probably as happy as she was that she was on four paws again.
Daigo zigged under her as she was mid-stride, and she knew where to land and not t. This was something they had been doing since he was tiny. When she glanced to her left, she spotted Asher, keeping stride with her without even looking like he was working. She’d never had another of her kind to ‘speak’ to, but she made a short quick sound and hoped it translated as a greeting of sorts. When he returned the same to her, she felt elated that she had communicated with him adequately.
Daigo barked, and she understood that he was having trouble keeping up. She knew he’d follow and hoped the others would keep an eye on him when he lagged behind, but right now, she needed to run with one of her own clan. She’d never had that, and it was always something she’d craved all these years.