Howls of the Lost | Now Published!

Chapter 14

Chapter 14

When I was completely bare, I shifted. My eyes squeezed shut as the familiar – yet uncomfortable – feeling of bones moving and reforming overwhelmed me. When I was sure I was on four legs, I opened my eyes to find Logan's hulking black wolf a mere inch away from me. "There," I thought to him. "Now where are we going?"

He rolled his big green eyes. "I told you to trust me. So c'mon." He took off running in the opposite direction.

I only hesitated for a moment before I took off after him. Using all my strength, I caught up with him and easily matched his pace. "What do you plan on doing?"

"There are a few places I'd like to show you, but then I really don't care. More than anything I just wanted to go for a run." He turned to me, a lopsided wolf grin forming on his face. "From the looks of it, so did you."

After I returned his smile, we lapsed into another comfortable silence. The wind blowing through my fur was a sensation that would never grow old. I couldn't believe how much I had missed it. Closing my eyes, I let myself go. My heart had become attuned to the beating of Logan's, so it wasn't difficult to follow him and his pounding footfalls. We ran for what seemed like forever, but it still ended all too soon.

But none too gracefully.

Since my eyes had been closed, I hadn't realized Logan had come to a halt until it was too late. My body slammed into his, sending us tumbling along in the grass. We landed so that I was on top of him. Shaking my head to clear the fuzziness, I took in our surroundings and gaped. The clearing we were in was different than all the others, but I could tell it was the same stream running though it as the first day Logan and I met. The main difference was that the stream was wider here and attached to a small waterfall. "It's beautiful," I thought to Logan.

"I figured you'd like it," he told me.

Looking down at him, I was surprised at the intensity smoldering in his emerald eyes. Had we been human, I knew I wouldn't have been able to resist kissing him. As it was, we were wolves and I pushed myself into a standing position. Trotting over to the stream, I stopped at the edge and looked down. As I met the eyes of my reflection, the little black box at the back of my mind burst open and memories surged their way forward against my will.

❃ ❃ ❃ ❃ ❃

"Mom it hurts!" I yelled. It felt as if every bone in my small body was breaking and bending.

"Shh, Torian," my mother, Camilla, whispered, her voice as devoid of emotion as it always was with me. "It'll pass."

"Jake!" I screamed.

My older brother came to my side, grasping my hand in his. "It's alright, Rin," he murmured.

An agonized cry escaped me as my skin ripped and tore, changing from flesh to fur. Finally, it all just stopped. I heard four collective gasps.

"Rin, you're beautiful," Jacob's voice echoed in my head.

Ever so slowly, I opened my eyes and took in the clearing my family had brought me to for my first change. Everything was in such greater detail, including the four other wolves in the clearing. They were all a deep chocolate brown with matching eyes. The only way I was able to distinguish Jacob from the rest was because of the massive smile he wore.

"What's wrong with her?" my sister, Corie, asked in disgust.

"I don't think we'll ever know," Victor, my father, muttered.