Swan Goin' Wolf

Pain

I felt like I was in a cage. My mind was working, but when I tried to open my eyes or move my arm nothing happened. It was like I was being held in place against my will but I wasn't fighting. I don't know how long this lasted before I finally started to be able to feel my body. There was pain. Pain down my face and arm and in the back of my head. I could feel that something had a hold on my left hand and pressure on my leg. As my hearing seemed to come back I could hear snoring to my side. When I finally fought my eyes open everything was blurry. I could make out a form in my periphery. A large frame. I struggled to blink a couple time and was able to make the form out to be Jared. He was sleeping, holding my hand as he did so and using my leg as a pillow.

I could hear a beeping. It was really annoying and was giving me a headache. I groaned and tried to move, only causing my arm to become engulfed in flames with the movement and cause me to almost scream. The noise seemed to break Jared from his sleep as he sprung to his feet looking around the room before he looked down at my and almost had a stroke when he saw I was awake. How long had I been out?

"Oh Sunny, you're awake!" Jared said seeming relieved that I was awake. I tried to ask how long I had been out but it only came out as a squeak before I coughed from the dryness of my throat. Jared hurried to get a water pitcher and cup from a tray at the end of the bed. He placed the straw in my mouth allowing my to sooth the ache in my throat.

"How long have I been out?" I asked as I spit the straw out of my mouth. The action caused the right side of my mouth to hurt, but I ignored it. I wanted answers to my questions and I wasn't going to get them if Jared was worried about me being in pain. He looked wary about telling me, I knew that it most be bad if didn't want to tell me. I started imagining the worst possible scenarios.

"They put you in an induced coma." Jared said and I really started to panic. The heart monitor started spiking Jared's attention turned to it.

"No Sunny, not like that. It was only a week." He said and I nodded trying to calm down. A week didn't sound so bad when it could have been so much worse.

"What do you remember?" Jared asked once I had completely calmed down from my freak out. I started thinking and remembering. Sam standing me up for our date, going to his house to confront him, him shaking, Sam seeming to explode and the pain before I could see a black wolf standing over me.

"Sam stood me up." I said and Jared winced.

"What?" I croaked.

"Him standing you up wasn't his fault. We had an emergency and by the time we had it handled it was late. Sam was so pissed that he had stood you up, he was up most of the night angry. He was going to call you in the morning, but he woke to you at the door." Jared said and immediately felt bad for being as mean as I had been when I had confronted him.

"He trembled like a leaf, then he... exploded." I said and Jared nodded. He was looking down at me with sympathy as I spoke.

"How was that possible? He was huge... a huge black wolf." I said and my voice trembled as I spoke. The pain from the right side of my face was getting hard to ignore.

"Sunny? Do you remember the legends? When we were kids and we would make a little fire in your back yard and talk about the stories that the elders told us?" Jared asked and I tried to nod. I was always amazed by the stories. I had been mad that I couldn't be at the fires to hear the stories because I wasn't part of the tribe so Paul, Jared, and I would have our own bonfires and they would recite the stories.

"The legends are true. The spirit warriors, Taha Aki, the wolves, the third wife, and the cold ones, it's all true. That was what happened when Paul and I couldn't be around those months ago. We had phased and we couldn't control our wolves well. Sam's our alpha. He helped us and taught us how to control our anger." Jared said and he seemed to be pleading with with, like I wouldn't believe him. I had seen Sam phase in front of me, it was impossible not to believe what he was saying when I had seen it with my own eyes.