𝐓𝐰𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐅𝐚𝐭𝐞 ⸙

1.21𓆩ᥫ᭡𓆪

Zayn didn't dare open his eyes. The transformation sped up. His clothes exchanged with fur, his muscles tore and stretched and reshaped, his hands and feet turned to paws with huge claws, and his face distorted until he had a snout, sharp teeth, and floppy ears, one brown and one black.

He inhaled deeply, waiting for the pain to subside. Baela didn't say a word. Judging by her
wide-eyed expression, Liam had seen the whole
transformation.

Zayn slowly turned his head.

Liam stood a few metres away. He had dropped
Zayn's phone in the snow.

Zayn's red eyes trailed up Liam's tense body, and
to his face. Zayn's heart shattered. Liam looked
horrified. His mouth hung open, and his eyes were wide and unblinking.

Zayn could hear Liam's heart smashing in his chest.

Say something, Baela. Say something.

No other sound travelled with the wind, apart from Liam's feet in the snow as he edged backa single step.

If silence could hurt, Zayn would be rolling in the
snow, whiing. Say something, Baela. Zayn didn't
want to move. Liam paled enough for his skin to
match the white ground. He'll faint if I move.
Baela shuffled on her feet behind Zayn. Liam didn't like the movement. His hands trembled, and his eyes watered.

I'm making him cry. No. No. No. Zayn almost
whimpered, but he stayed as silent as he could,
and as still as the trees around them.

"Liam," Baela finally said. "Don't be scared!"
Baela stepped closer. "I know that what you just
saw was... strange and-"

Liam turned and ran.

Zayn wanted to run after him and pin him down
and rub his fluffy head all over him until Liam
calmed down. Zayn also needed to give Liam space to be alone with his thoughts.

Baela hurried through the snow and Zayn growled lowly. Baela stopped immediately, understanding his message to leave the human alone.

Zayn lowered his head, listening to the sound of
Liam's hurried footsteps fading and fading until he heard nothing at all.

Liam could barely see where he was going. The tears in his eyes made the world blurry. Liam didn't care if he was going in the wrong direction. All he wanted was to get far from what he had seen in the woods.

Liam was soon at his garden fence. He didn't look
behind him in case the wolf followed. Liam flung
himself over the planks of wood and fell heavily on plant pots.

He didn't stop to catch his breath. Liam weaved
quickly through the garden and into the kitchen.
Luckily, everyone was in the living room, so Liam
could sneak to his room without them seeing his
tears, not that they would care.

Liam was teetering on the edge of a breakdown as he shut the door to his bedroom. With his back to the wood, Liam sank to the floor.

"I saw Zayn turn into a wolf" he said out loud, then slapped a hand over his mouth. Liam scoffed at how strange the sentence sounded, then chuckled, then laughed until tears formed again. He couldn't quite tell if they were tears from laughing, or tears from the shock of witnessing something so unbelievable.

"I'm going mad." Liam shook his head. "No, I'm not. I saw it. I saw him do that. Baela saw it too."

Zayn didn't go to bed. He prowled the perimeter of the institute, over and over until dawn.

Wolves soon covered the grounds for morning
training. Zayn leaned against the wall and watched, scowling, with bags under his eyes, and messy hair.

Solana soon found him, and Zayn was not in the
mood to talk.

"You're restless" Solana observed, leaning against the wall next to him. Zayn was five inches taller than his mother, and she was six foot tall. Human forms of werewolves were big like their wolves.

Zayn's wolf was huge like his fathers was, so Zayn
was very tall and big like him too. Despite having
his mother's brown eyes and black hair with the
same grey streak, Zayn's mannerisms were a lot
like his fathers was.

They stood the same, sulked the same, scowled the same, and had a bad habit of gripping their hair when they were stressed.

"I watched you stomp around and around this
morning. What's on your mind?"

Zayn's silence should have been enough to say
that he didn't wanta conversation. These days, his silence insulted his mother, rather than be a quality of Zayn's that she was used to.

"Zayn, I can't read your mind. Talk to me. Did you
argue with Baela? Do you have an injury? Are you
missing your dad?"

Zayn's neck tightened. He couldn't talk openly
about his dad, not when his death still hurt so
much.

What Zayn wanted to say was how he had a human mate, not Baela, and things between him and Liam were going well until last night, when Liam, the most innocent human Zayn had ever met, was corrupted by accidentally seeing his transformation.

Sometimes, Zayn didn't like to watch the
transformation of others, depending on his
mood and how tough his stomach felt. A shifting
werewolf wasn't pretty, even for his kind. Zayn
couldn't imagine the turmoil in Liam's head.

"I have a lot going on," he mumbled. "Don't add to that list."

"Is there anything I can help with? You should go
to Jaiden if I can't help. Your Beta is there for that
reason."

"He's not my Beta anymore.'"

Solana snapped her head up to see his face. "Does he know that? Are you making Niall your Beta?"

Zayn shook his head.

"Then, who?"

Zayn's eyes followed Baela across the grounds as
she ran, carrying someone else on her shoulders.
Baela was strong, skilful, thoughtful, kind, and
respected Zayn as a leader, but also dared to be
honest instead of only telling Zayn what he wanted to hear.

"Jaiden was your father's Beta for twelve years."
Solana stood in front of her son and sighed. "He
wouldn't be pleased about this, but I've always
disliked Jaiden."

Zayn's hazel eyes stopped scowling so hard as
they followed his mother walking back along the
stone yard. Solana looked just as exhausted as
Zayn. She's not sleeping either.

Zayn had been rough on his mother. She had been harsh on him too. Zayn sometimes wished he got his father's calm and collected rational mind, instead of his mother's hot-headed act now think later head.

I am who I am, he reminded himself, thinking about Liam. Zayn would have liked to pretend for longer that he wasn't a werewolf, but Liam would have found out at some point. Zayn just wished he had been more careful. Liam was fragile. He wanted him to find out in the softest way possible.

Zayn looked up to the dull sky. Is this my
punishment? A human mate who won't accept me.

"Of fucking course, it is," Zayn grumbled under
his breath and stormed through the stone yard.
Zayn had to find Jaiden and tell him that he was
no longer fit to be Beta. At least Zayn's heart of
coal was useful for something. He would feel no
remorse for him.

Jaiden might have served his father well, but he
had been nothing but useless to Zayn. The time had come for Zayn to cut away worthless baggage.