Gray Valley

f i f t y - f o u r

"ITS AFTERNOON ALREADY, WESLYN."

"Really..."

My mind was elsewhere. Everything else seemed pale in comparison to him; to Blayze... To the pain that he felt.

"Blayze will be fine," At the sound of his name, my trance was broken and I became aware of my surroundings. Liam had stopped in front of me in the corridor that lead to the hall. "I'm sure he's just experiencing the side effects of the Blood Exchange."

"But nothing happened to Bryan or Anna."

After asking West to watch over Blayze, Liam had exchanged blood with Bryan and Anna. But unlike Blayze, neither of them had reacted in any way.

"Not everyone reacts in the same way to these things," Liam told me. "Just like the Brown Wolf Illness, the effects of the Blood Exchange depend on how tolerant a Brown Wolf is."

Almost everything Liam had told me, made sense. Except one thing...

"His eyes turned black."

"It's what I told you before..." Liam replied at once. "The Blood Exchange gives Brown Wolves the characteristics of a Gray Wolf. It's just another side effect of-"

"This wasn't the first time it happened."

The first time Blayze's eyes had turned black, it happened so fast, I could've easily forgotten about it. But in that moment... When I sensed his warmth disappear, the image of his unnaturally dark eyes had been burnt into my mind.

"And..." My voice trailed off, as I remembered what had happened afterwards. "I think he can hear me."

Liam froze.

"He can hear you?" he repeated. "Like a mind link?"

"I'm not sure, actually," I murmured. "I don't think he can respond to me... But he can definitely hear me."

"The mind link is a connection between Gray Wolves, Weslyn. If he can hear you in his head... That's not normal."

"What's not normal?" We were both so occupied; we didn't realise that West had appeared behind us. "Is something wrong?" I glanced at Liam uncertainly, not knowing how to answer.

"It's nothing."

I wasn't sure whether he was referring to me, West or both of us... But he was lying either way.

It was anything but nothing.

"You're supposed to be looking after Blayze." I looked directly at my brother. "What are you doing without him?"

"I was looking for both of you," he answered. "Blayze just shifted but I can't communicate with him so he doesn't know how to shift back."

"I can talk to him," Liam said. "If you take me to him, I'll show him how to shift back into a human."

The moment we reached his room, I no longer sensed his presence as that of a Brown Wolf.

Blayze had become something else entirely.

Even as Liam moved towards him to help him shift back into a human, I couldn't help but stare at him.

It wasn't just his presence that was different, his appearance had also become unlike a Brown Wolf. His fur was no longer brown, but ashen gray and his scent had been masked completely by another...

By the scent of a Gray Wolf.