Chapter 115 The First Shift
Kira’s POV
I screamed, clutching my head so hard my nails dug into my scalp.
No—no—no… I must be losing my mind. How can I be hearing a voice inside my head? Am I hallucinating? Yes. That must be it. I must have been so traumatized by the gruesome scene that my head is playing tricks on me.
“Hurry!” Victoria barked at the guy carrying me. “We have to find the King now!”
Adrian? Did he… possess me? Jump into my body and rip those men apart? That had to be it. Had to. Because the alternative…me doing that…was impossible.
The car door slammed and we peeled out. Trees whipped past the windows in flashes. No more city lights. Just green…endless green.
A massive wave of pain hit me again, worse than before. My spine arched even as I lay on Victoria’s legs and I began convulsing so hard that she almost pushed me off. My insides felt like they were splitting down the middle, organs tearing, bones grinding against each other.
“Stop the car!” Victoria yelled at the driver. “The King is right behind us!”
The tires screeched as I gasped for air that wouldn’t come. “Adrian? Where is Adrian?” The voice that came out wasn’t mine. It was deeper…rougher, like gravel and growl mixed together.
“Help is coming, Princess. The King will make it hurt less,” Victoria cooed, stroking my hair. “Just breathe.”
What is happening to me? Why do I feel like I’m morphing into something else?
I clawed at her arm without meaning to, nails raking down her skin. She screamed in pain and scrambled out of the car like I was radioactive.
“Victoria…wait…” I called out to her, but suddenly, a high pitched scream left my throat. My head felt like it weighed a thousand pounds…like someone turned the volume up to the max.
I tried getting out of the car too, but then, a scent hit me. Warm. Rich. Like pine and storm and something that made every frayed nerve in my body sigh in relief. It was calming, maddening and addictive.
My bones cracked again and I screamed out in pain. I felt taller one second, shorter the next…no, I don’t want to be shorter, stop…make it stop…
The car door was ripped clean off its hinges with a screech of metal and Adrian filled the opening, hair wild, shirt torn at the collar, eyes glowing gold with pure terror. “I’ve got you, princess.”
He reached in and scooped me up like I was made of glass and fire at the same time. Then he ran. Not toward the road. Not toward lights or hospitals like every normal person should.
He ran straight into the woods. The more he ran, the deeper and darker it got. Trees swallowed us whole until the world was nothing but shadows and leaves and his heartbeat thundering against my ear.
He laid me on the damp earth. Cold moss pressed into my back. The second his arms left me, the pain exploded again. I convulsed so hard my teeth clacked.
My eyes rolled back. A sound tore out of my throat…high, animal, nothing like a scream that should come out of my mouth as a normal human.
It was more like a howl.
Hold on… Why the fuck am I howling?
“It’s okay, baby. I’ve got you.” Adrian’s voice wrapped around me, low and soothing, his hands framing my face. “I’m here. Don’t fight it. Let her come out. Be one with her. The more you fight, the worse it hurts.”
Fighting who? I’m not fighting…I’m dying! My insides are ripping apart like someone’s rearranging my skeleton without anesthetic!
“Just make it stop!” I screamed at him, tears spilling down my cheeks.
“Then stop fighting me!” A voice inside my head screamed back.
Everything froze. My body locked up mid-convulsion as a sudden silence sized up the chaos.
‘Am I hallucinating again?’
“No, you’re not,” the voice said, softer now… more playful. “I’m your wolf, Leah. Been trying to get your attention for days.”
My wolf? As in… The one I’ve been looking for? “How did you get in there?! Are you stuck or something?”
I swear I felt her roll her eyes. “I’ve been here the whole time, dummy. We’ve met before…well, briefly…a long time ago.”
“We have? When?”
“I’ll help you remember later,” she snapped. “Transformation’s not complete because you won’t let me out. Stop fighting.”
“How the hell do I stop fighting when I don’t even know I’m doing it?!” I snapped back at her.
“Just relax,” she said, gentler. “Think of something that makes you calm. Safe.”
Stupidly, Adrian’s face flashed first…those gray eyes, the way he looked at me like I was the only thing in his universe. Wrong. That doesn’t make me calm. It makes me agitated.
I forced my mind to flowers in a garden. Mom’s little balcony pots after rain. The way the petals felt soft under my fingers. The smell of fresh dirt.
The pain eased. Not gone…just… less. Like someone turned down the volume on the torture.
I opened my eyes the next second and the world was sharper.
Every leaf edge became crystal clear. I could see the tiny veins in them. Hear the heartbeat of a rabbit fifty feet away. Smell the sap running through the trees. Vibrations in the air…like the forest was breathing and I could feel every breath.
Leah surged forward inside me, pushing, eager. “Finally! It’s almost complete. Let me out. Let me run.”
I didn’t fight this time…honestly I didn’t know how.
The next second, the world exploded into fur and freedom and power I never knew I could have.
And for the first time since I woke up in this body, I wasn’t scared…not even in the slightest.
I felt alive…powerful.
Without any form of notice, another wave of pain hit me. I was screaming on the inside, as my bones cracked like dry twigs…like they were rearranging.
The next second… everything stopped hurting.
And I was on all fours.
What the actual fuck?
Wind rushed through fur that definitely wasn’t there two minutes ago. Soft, thick, white fur that rippled every time I breathed. My nose was inches from the mossy ground. My hands…paws?…pressed into the dirt, claws digging in like they belonged there.
I blinked hard in confusion and excitement. The forest looked… different. Sharper. Every leaf had edges I could count. I could smell the sap running through the trees, the rabbit hiding fifty yards away, and Adrian…pine and storm and pure him…somewhere close behind me.
I took one experimental step. Then another. My body moved smooth, powerful, like I’d been born to run on four legs instead of two.
Then I started running.
Not jogging… Full sprint. Paws pounding the earth, tail streaming behind me like a flag. ‘Wait… Tail?! I have a tail?! This is amazing!’ I screamed inside my head.
‘Yes. I am amazing,’ I heard Leah reply with a smug tone.
I was too into the moment to even reply to her. The wind whipped through my fur and it felt… incredible. Like the world had been muted my whole life and someone finally turned the volume all the way up.
“Princess! Kira…wait! Don’t panic!” Adrian’s voice crashed through the trees behind me, boots slamming the ground as he chased.
I shouldn’t panic?! What the fuck. I went from a five-foot-whatever tall girl to whatever-the-hell-this-is, and he wants me to stay calm? Well… technically I’m not scared. Just feeling super weird and kinda hilarious, like I stole someone else’s Halloween costume and it fits better than my own skin ever did.
‘You should feel that way,’ Leah said inside my head, warm and amused. ‘First shift is always a trip.’
Wow. Just wow. This is like having my own personal Siri or Alexa living in my skull and keeping me company.
‘Girl, who the hell are you calling Siri or Alexa?’ Leah growled, but I could feel her laughing too.
I laughed…except it came out as this happy yip-bark thing that made me skid to a stop at the edge of a riverbank. The water was crystal clear, ripples dancing on it like diamonds.
I leaned forward and there she was.
Me. But not me.
Big, snowy-white wolf staring back with bright silver eyes that glowed like moonlight. Fluffy as hell. Ears perked, tail swishing behind me like it had a mind of its own.
‘Wow,’ I thought, stunned.
‘I’m majestic… right?’ Leah whispered. She did this shy little internal blush that got me excited.
Everything felt unreal.
‘Well… majestic is not quite the word. You look like a big fluffy Snow White plushie puppy,’ I replied.
She gasped out loud, which came out as a cute little woof…and started spinning in circles trying to see her or is it my own tail.
‘Puppy?! You’re calling me a puppy?’
‘Of course. It’s cute! You’re cute!’
She kept twirling, tail chasing tail, and it made me feel ridiculous and amazing at the same time.
‘So we’re like… naked right now? No pants, no bra, nothing?’ I asked, suddenly curious.
‘If you see a wolf or a bear wearing a bra and underwear, what would you do?’ She asked.
‘Silly. I’d run.’
‘Exactly.’
I flopped down on my belly by the water, still giggling inside. This was insane. And awesome. And insane. ‘Okay, okay…so how does this work? Are we sharing the same body or do we ration it? Maybe you get Mondays to Wednesdays and I take the rest?’
Leah started explaining, voice patient like a big sister. ‘We’re literally one, Kira. Same soul, two forms. You feel what I feel, I feel what you feel. No schedule. No taking turns. When I’m out, you’re still here with me. When you’re out, I’m riding shotgun.’
‘Wow. So that means that your name is Leah Kira Summers… right?’ I asked, feeling all giddy inside.
I felt her groan in frustration. ‘That’s not really…you know what? Whatever you decide. As long as…’
She cut off mid-sentence just then.
Her…our…head whipped around so fast the world blurred. A low, rumbling growl tore out of my chest before I could stop it.
‘Mate.’
The word exploded in my head like fireworks.
Adrian stepped out from the trees, chest heaving, eyes glowing pure gold, looking at me like I was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.
And Leah…my wolf…growled again, softer this time, full of want and recognition and something that made my whole chest feel too small.
‘Mate.’
And then she ran towards him.