Chapter 27 Special Wolf
ADRIANA
What did he mean shifting? Like hell I was.
He didn’t know anything about my wolf. I couldn’t possibly be shifting right now. Yara was still deliberately hiding herself, which meant something else entirely had to be causing this madness.
My entire body started shaking violently and I was beginning to get scared. What was happening to me? Was I dying?
“I—I probably just ate something bad earlier.”
Hopefully he wouldn’t start asking me a bunch of questions I couldn’t answer.
Could he somehow sense that about me too? If he could detect that, then what else did he already know?
“No, I’m certain of it. You’re shifting. We need to get you outside immediately.”
I wanted to tell him that if I could stand up and walk outside on my own two feet, then the pain clearly wasn’t that severe.
But right now I couldn’t even manage to say a single word because it felt like all the air was being forcefully knocked out of my lungs.
“Come on, I’ll take you somewhere safe.”
I managed to extend my hand to him and he pulled me up very slowly and carefully, clearly not wanting to trigger whatever monster was currently trying to claw its way out of me.
Just as I was attempting to stand up straight, another wave of excruciating pain shot through my entire body, causing me to collapse back to the floor. What the hell was happening to me?
“Water… water, please.”
Elijah immediately left my side and ran to grab the glass of water sitting on his desk, bringing it back to me quickly. But suddenly I didn’t feel thirsty anymore at all, and I just let the cup drop carelessly to the floor.
“I’m going to carry you.”
Before I could even think to respond or protest, he’d already hoisted me off the ground, my head falling naturally against his broad chest. Being this close to him almost made me forget what was happening to my body, and I was grateful that nobody witnessed him carrying me like this.
It would have been so absolutely embarrassing.
He took me to the back area of the house and I found myself wondering if he was deliberately trying to hide me away from the others.
He pushed open the door and my mouth literally dropped open. The overwhelming smell of flowers hit me immediately and I felt like I was transforming into one myself.
“This is stunning.”
“Yeah, nobody really comes out here."
He gently placed me down on a wooden bench and then took the space directly beside me.
“What?! Are they insane?”
He actually laughed at that.
“Well, it’s kind of become my personal private space over time, so it’s really just for me. I thought you might like it here because of all the flowers. Does the pain feel any better now?”
I nodded quickly and enthusiastically. Why wouldn’t it feel better? This place was absolutely magnificent.
“See, I told you I wasn’t shifting. It was just—”
A sudden intense heat wave washed completely through my body. My heart rate picked up dramatically and started racing even faster than I thought was physically possible.
I felt something trying to push its way out through my skin, but by the time I looked down to check, there was absolutely nothing visible there.
“You are shifting, Adriana.”
I looked up at him, ready to argue that I absolutely wasn’t, when I finally saw it. Actual fur was appearing and disappearing randomly across my skin.
“What in the world?” I didn't know when I yelled.
“What the hell is going on? Why does it have to happen right now? Do you have any idea how embarrassing this is? And why is it so incredibly painful?” I demanded of Yara, who I knew probably wouldn’t answer me, but I desperately needed some kind of explanation.
Just then, I heard her voice clearly in my head.
“It’s finally time. I can’t hold this back any longer—it’s been far too long already. If I don’t allow this to happen now, we might both lose the ability forever. Just please hold on. I’m trying to make this happen as quickly as I possibly can.”
“Please try even harder than that. It feels like my entire body is literally splitting in two, and I genuinely don’t think I can take this much longer.”
Suddenly I wanted that water again desperately, but I didn’t tell Elijah.
“You need to be strong right now, Adriana. We’re going to do something incredibly important for our entire kind, so it’s not going to be easy at first. Just please hold on.”
I’d heard stories that shifting was supposed to be painful and terrible, but I didn’t expect it to be this unbearably bad. This should be classified as punishment—a fatal one.
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ELIJAH
I watched her helplessly as she battled intensely with her own body. Even as Alpha, I seriously doubted there wasn’t much I could do in this situation.
It wasn’t like I could simply command her wolf to stop the shifting process. She needed this to happen. We both needed this.
“I can feel her presence now!”
I rolled my eyes in frustration.
“I’ve been wondering where the hell you disappeared to.”
My hands honestly didn’t know what to do. I wanted desperately to reach out and comfort her somehow, maybe pat her reassuringly, but with the way the fur kept appearing and disappearing so unpredictably, I didn’t know if touching her was safe.
“I’m wondering why it’s taking this long. It should have happened already by now.”
Or was there something seriously wrong with her wolf? I hoped not.
I considered getting a medicine man to come help her through this, but there could be dangerous side effects from intervention, and it was in her best interest that this happened naturally.
“Go away.”
“What?”
When she finally looked up at me, I could clearly see her nose was bleeding.
“Please just go. Leave me alone. I want to be by myself.”
“No, you cannot ask me to do that. I’ll stay right here with you. Don’t worry.”
I reached out to clean the blood from her face, but she pushed my hand away forcefully.
“Please just go away. I want… I need you to leave.”
She was actually trying to push me physically off the bench with what little strength she had remaining.
“I’ll be just around the corner, watching.” I relented seeing the desperate look in her eyes.
There was no way I was leaving her alone like this. My eyes remained fixed on her the entire time, and when nothing had happened by one in the morning, when the full moon was hanging perfectly in the sky, I was beginning to worry.
Her painful moans had finally stopped, but she still wasn’t moving at all. Sleep had completely cleared from my eyes and my sole focus was entirely on her.
I had to deal with something urgent inside because Aiden had mind-linked me saying he had some important news, so I quickly ran inside, hoping that nothing terrible would happen in the brief time I was gone.
But of course, our discussion ended up lasting longer than I’d originally expected. By the time I finally went back outside, I noticed that something had shifted in the very air itself.
“I finally understand why I couldn’t see her clearly before. It all makes complete sense now.” Ezra spoke the words I was thinking.
I took slow, careful steps toward the bench, and it felt like the moon itself had somehow changed. Or maybe it was just my perception.
“She’s a special wolf.” I whispered to no one.