Chapter 25 25: Chrissy

Chapter 25 25: Chrissy
I can't stop screaming. The pain is unlike anything Ive ever felt. I watch in horror as my limbs begin to lengthen and my breasts disappear. I cry out and try to grab Luther, but my fingers are gone. I try to scream for help, and my jaw stretches out in front of my eyes.

My eyes, the shift. Everything becomes sharper, brighter. I can smell things I’ve never smelled before. Like Luther’s piss on the leg of my bed. I’d laugh if the pain wasn’t so much. Dark brown fur spurts from my skin, each strand a tiny pinprick of pain.

I’m whimpering, howling, and trembling on the floor by the time the pain begins to ebb. I peel my eyes open to see Luther pacing around me in his wolf form. He’s panting, nervous.

No, he’s terrified.

“This is not how it was meant to happen!” He roars, though his wolven mouth doesn’t move. 

I cock my head at him, the movement grabbing his attention with a jerk. 

He pounces on me, his tongue licking every inch of my furry face as he can.

“You’re alive! You’re alright!” he pants in wonder.

“Could I have died?” I asked, astonished to hear my voice without speaking.

“I killed his whole bloodline before I came back home to you, without your pack I worried you would fail to thrive! Fuck, Chrissy, I'm so sorry!”

“You killed them all?” I gulp, looking away.

“They could have killed you! They did kill Heather… and Chrissy, your father,” his voice breaks as he tells me the news, but shatters when he says my father.

“Is he…?” I ask, panic welling in my aching heart.

“Catarina had him killed,” he tells me, and looks away. He’s holding something back, but I have a feeling I don’t want to know the details.

I throw my head up in the air and howl, my mind screaming for my daddy as my wolf begs the moon for it to be a lie.

“I’m so sorry, my dear,” he whispers, rubbing his head on my neck and licking at my mouth and eyes. “I tried to save him, but I wasn’t fast enough.”

I howl again, I can't stop.

I don’t know how long I lay there and cried and howled and begged whatever deity would listen to make this all be a bad dream. When I finally stop trembling, Luther stands and leaves my side.

“Let's go,” he said, making toward the door without me.

“Go where?” I ask, getting ip slowly and following with my head hung.

“We’re going to go run.”

I laugh, “I don't know if you’ve seen me, Luther, but I don't run.”

He turns and looks me up and down, “With four legs, you do now.”

I turn and look into my full legnth mirrpr and see a massively tall chocolate brown wolf with golden eyes staring back. My wolf is heavy se,t too, but she carries it so much better than I do. I shift on my paws, watching how the moon plays over my fur.

“Let's go,” he calls to me, and I find myself following with a bit more hope.

By the time we exit the garage, the nightlife of Seattle is booming. We trot together through the alleys, moving like the wind. Sounds and sights blur by me, but for the first time, i dont see the lines from my astigmatism. Everything is clear and beautiful

We run towards Puget Sound, the moon high above us, lighting the path to the ocean. We run along the docks and barges until concrete meets the earth. As soon as my paws touch the earth, something in me comes alive. I begin to run as fast as I can, like lightning through the darkness. I dodge trees and leap over boulders, dashing through streams and moving like a whisper through the tall grasses. 

When we reach a small cove with a sandy beach, we finally stop. Panting, I roll over in the sand and expose my belly. My tongue is hanging out, my eyes wide with excitement and fun. Luther lopes over to me and flops so hard in the sand that dust puffs up into my face, and I sneeze.

“I told you it would be fun,” he whispers, then rolls into me so were touoching from nose to tail. We lay there, catching our breath in the moonlight. 

“Thank you for sharing this with me, Luther,” I say, my voice catching as Ithink about my father’s passing.

“There's a world to discover now, Chrissy. This is not the end of your story.”

“I know, but it feels that way.”

“I know, baby, I know.”

“What do I do now? Where do I go?” I ask him, rolling over so all four legs are on his back and looking up at him from my own. He looks so stoic and strong, staring out at the ocean.

“You go back home with me, to your apartment. Life can continue like normal,” he sniffs, giving his head a shake. “If you want to, you can join my pack; if not, we will protect you as a loan infant anyway. You will be safe.”

“Thank you,” I whisper, tucking my long nose into his fur and closing my eyes.

“If you want to,” he begins, but chokes off.

“What?” I ask, rolling onto my paws and walking to the water to stare at my reflection as a wolf. He comes to stand next to me, and we meet each other's gaze in the reflection.

“If you want to, we can mate, here and now,” he sighs and breaks eye contact. “Wolves mate for life, Chrissy. If I mate with you, you will be marked as mine forever, usually with a bite.”

I jerk, startled, “So that's why you’ve waited. And now, I’ve been bitten by another wolf?”

“Yes, but I will bite you on the other side, and we will have the scars from his bite medically removed.”

“Alright,” I whisper/

“Alright?” he asks. 

I look back at my own reflection and consider my future alone, always running. Then i icture it with him and his pack. With his mother and his friends. I know which one sounds better to me, and theres not a doubt in my mind who I want to be with.
“I will be your mate, but there is something you should know.”

“Noting about you will ruin my love for you, this I swear.”

“You love me?” Can a wolf cry, because I feel like im about to cry.

“Since the moment you came tumbling out of the woods to help me when I could have gotten out myself,” he laughs, nuzzling the scruff of my neck.

“I love you too, but you should know I have a genetic illness. I have Ehlers-Danlos and POTS. I could pass it on to our children. It means I’m always in pain, forever.”

“Are you in pain now?”

I close my eyes, ready to explain for the millionth time that all the time means all the time, when I realize I’m not in pain at all. 

I open my eyes, startled, to see him smirking in his wolf form.

“The wolf fixes any ailment, other wise you wouldn’t survive.”

“I’m not sick anymore?”

“No, my dear, you are not sick anymore.”