Inhumane

008

DAMON

There was her voice, echoing over and over in my head. "A wolf." So she had come to the conclusion? Did she know what I was? I was in so much shock that I didn't realize that her breathing had slowed to short rasps and her eyes had faded to a terrifying state of blank nothingness. There was nothing but a sheen to her irises that were dilated and unfocused. 

"Alkaline!" I shouted, panic setting in. I could hear her heartbeat, it was a faint, fluttering thing. Working too hard to process injuries that just don't heal in humans. It was a miracle she had even woken up at all.

Cody was making noise in the corner, but I couldn't focus on anything but the feeling of her cold hand in mine. It was limp, I couldn't feel a pulse in her fingertips that were tinged blue.

Alkaline rushed into the room, taking one glance and a deep inhale. He dropped to his knees next to my mate, pulling back the blankets to reveal the blood that had seeped through the bandages. The metallic scent struck my nostrils and made me gag.

"Decide, Damon. You need to decide now."

It was not a decision I should have made, not without her consent. But I didn't have another choice, it was life or death. So with gentle care, I slid my hand under the back of her neck, cupping her head with my hand. I lowered my mouth to the junction of her neck and shoulder. I felt the sharpness of my teeth with my tongue before I bit into the delicate flesh. It only took a moment, a feeling of electricity coursing through the entirety of my being like a shock.

My eyes rolled back in my head, the taste of her blood on my tongue, the shudder that rippled through my shoulders. I didn't want to take my teeth from her neck, I wanted more. I wanted her to wake up and kiss me on the mouth, I wanted her hands on my face, I wanted her. The bond shuttered, rippled, quivered between us. The smoky tendrils burying in each of our souls, winding and braiding within the threads of our very beings deep inside.

That would just be too easy.

"Let go, son. Say the chant." Alkaline's firm grip on one shoulder, Cody's on the other. I pulled back to say the chant as I stared down at the body of my mate that was about to change. Saying it felt like a weight taken off of chest, but it was quickly replaced with a strangling sense of guilt. I wanted to vomit.

The change started in her fingertips, and I thought, what a strange place to catalyze. The skin peeled back, blood flowing out, nails growing in. Her body was rippling and alive with energy as she exploded and reformed from the inside out. Her mouth was open as if she was screaming without noise, but her eyes remained vacant. In fact, they were changing.

The three of us stared in shock as one of her brown irises melted into gold, the same color as mine.

"It's your blood, Damon." Alkaline murmured in awe.

"What does it mean?" Cody asked as her chest convulsed up and ribs cracked in half.

"She's part totum lupus now."

So there it was, the essence of a full wolf spirit was inside of her. The consequences of that would follow soon after.

It only took a few more minutes of us watching on in a mesmerized state, waiting for the final outcome. It was an agonizing process, watching a body transform for the first time. Especially so late in life. Her blonde hair traded for dusty looking gold fur with white markings. 

I noticed just a moment too late; she was fast. 

Her eyes snapped to life, but they weren't hers. They were a wolf's. Cody commanded her to stop, but he wasn't her Alpha. None of us were. Like a shot, she was up and barrelling for the open door that Faith, Cody's mate, had just opened to step through. She moved out of the way just in time to avoid the hurricane of a wolf.