Rejected Mate and Following Fate

I gaze down and | see paws that startle me at first. Gasping at the closeness and realize they are mine, where my hands should be, flat on the ground. Large, clawed but strong paws, larger than I thought they would be. I lit one and shake it, almost as if I need to convince myself that l can use and control this limb, it's truly connected to my body. My legs are solid, with thick silver-grey fur and all the way up my muscular chest, I have a streak of purest snow white that travels as far as | can see. | stare at it, lean back and pull my chin in tight to follow it until I cant strain any further to see.

I have very little memory of my mother in her true form, but I know this is from her. She was a white and my father a sSilver yet it's rare to combine both in such a way. Most wolves are brown or grey ... white is a mutation that's almost unheard of and my mother used to try and hide herself because it brought only stares.

I shake my head, the unfamiliar weight of a different form pulling me from side to side, not fully in control of my limbs or movements just yet but aware it's so much bigger than my human skull. Staggering on strange legs and fall down flat,

splaying out and bumping my undercarriage as l collide with stone. Aware suddenly to the scene around me, coming back into focus and realizing we are still being watched. Sobering fast as my new metabolism pushes the last of the drugs out of my system and cleanses my blood.

The atmosphere is charged, and l'm surrounded by newly changed wolves of all shades of grey and brown, although l'm the only one with white in my coat. Turning as the Shamans chants draw my eyes back to him and trip over my own uncoordinated self as I try to right myself and get up. lts hard to use my hands as front legs and I instinctively rear backwards too far onto my haunches, losing my balance and reeling forward again to correct it, before tumbling face forward to the ground once more and meeting the dust with a lower jaw clunk.

“l gets easier. Try to stay on your feet. All four of them.” The voice above me pulls my head to tiÌt towards it and l recoil as | realise Colton Santo is standing right by me, watching as l make a spectacle of myself, in falling flat out on new legs. I don't know if I'm shocked that he spoke to me, or wary that he did.

I've never trusted anything about him, or any of his motives, and wonder when he got over here, so close. Avoiding looking directly at him, keeping me eyes averted from his and attempt to get to grips with this weird body and focus on learning to use it. All I can do ¡is whimper back, realizing I have no ability to form words this way and go into my own head link instinctively.

Wolves in the same pack have a connection mentally, so they can communicate without talking, which admittedly ¡is impossible as a wolf. We don't' have the vocal cords for human talking. It's also possible when close enough to talk to one not from your own pack. lf they are willing to hear you.

It Feels strange. l attempt to link with him, weirded out by this new, almost natural ability | didn't have before. Overwhelmed by all of this and not sure if I am still heavily drugged when in this form, or if this surreal new way to experience everything is wolf sense. Things affect us differently as humans, and this disorientation might just be something I have to adjust to.

Yeah well, walk it off. Learn fast. He links me back, a husky familiarity to his voice inside my head that does strange things to my stomach. lIts hardly a polite response and the tone tells me he doesn't really want to have any sort of communication with me, especially not in a head link.

i'm not one of his pack and i'm not even on the same level as him. It's disrespectful to try. As if to further demonstrate the point, he walks off towards his father and I flop down to get to grips with everything that I just got hit with. lm heavy, not sure how to navigate my dog body when I've spent my life walking on two legs. I must weigh four times my usual weight for sure, although the size of my paws, suggest maybe even more.

“The turning will not last ... only moments fleeting for your first time. When you come out, you will be awoken, and your path will lead you to your destiny. Pay attention, be alert. You are now on the other side.” The Shaman states it loudly and it echoes around the mountain like a sort of prophetic song. One l have heard so many times but yet this time, it finally means something to me.

first time in our lives, as one united pack. No matter who we are, where we are from, whatever our bloodline or our past. Long, soulful with meaning. A sound that echoes around us, through us and is joined by the hundreds who watch until we fill the night sky

aches and rasps my vocal chords, but as my belly empties, my air departs and the longest yowl comes cascading out of me, until it scratches my throat and makes me breathless, l feel alive. Like i have been holding my breath and waiting for this my whole

I can leave.

| can run.

their own. That is what I have planned, longed, waited for and I

that makes me slump back down and flake out on my belly,

all begins to recede and unlike my transformation to beast, the reversal is not painful at all. Is fast, almost instant and before | can blink or even get

body into a ball, aware I am completely uncovered and exposed to the hundreds of eyes around us. l jump when my blanket is tossed towards me by the nearby Damon, smirking as

cross eight feet to get the blanket. I glare at him, forgetting myself for a moment and then ponder not going to get it and huddling up to

i'm the only one who has to go crawling for hers, like an animal. He is trying to humiliate me, and l move fast to catch it. Shocked when the slightest movement sends me shooting towards him at lightning speed and I end up

am about the speed and power we all just inherited. Another change in me i have to get used to. I grab the blanket and try and crawl backwards while pulling it over me and fall onto my back as it jerked tight

edge of it as he looks down at me with complete disdain. Laughing at how much he is enjoying making a show of me and l have no choice but to try and pull the blanket from him once more. My face reddening with heat, aware of many more muffled sniggers

can feel them on me from all over and l want to sink into the ground and disappear. I yank but the blanket begins to tear from

off the blanket and swoops down to pick it úp with speed. He walks forward in two confident strides and hands it straight to me, bending lightly as he does so to make sure | get it without

and take it gratefully, quickly pulling it around me and hiding what's on show, afraid to really look at him, but it's almost impulsive as his hand, still attached to the corner, briefly touches my shoulder in passing because of how speedy l am. Hot searing flash runs through my body alarmingly, igniting something tingly

rise to standing, seemingly also recoiling for what was maybe just an electric shock. For one brief millisecond of synchronized surprise, our eyes lock

It's all it takes.

We connect; visions, images, projections start flowing through my mind at neck breaking speed that fries my brain and I cannot break his gaze or look

jumbling mass of zooming information, flooding, invading my mind, and overtaking

suddenly found home and his gaze goes from sworn enemy to lifeline in my darkness. Neither of us can do anything in our paralysed state but let it happen, until the wild ride of

finally snap out and fall backwards in a slump. Released from whatever the hell that was and momentarily dazed. Fully incapable of any kind of movement as l lay on the ground, startled into silence and lightheaded from