The Moon Pulls Me Towards Her

I. 3

After the burial, I walk back to the small hospital in the village. I like walking. Most wolves find it odd to walk longer distances, for why would they, when they can shift? It is a lot faster to run when changed into one's wolf form. But even if I could shift, I think that I would still walk. I have walked all my life, so why stop?

Because Alec wished to stay with Maia to comfort her, Dr. Angel keeps me company, and we descend the hill, upon which the Pack House is built, in silence. We are both too emotional, too sad. The road seems to be too. Most of the pack members, who don't live in the Pack House, have already left, and the road, winding down the rocky landscape into the valley of the Blue Moon, is deserted.

The windows of the village are bright with yellow light, which makes the twenty-six houses built nearly three centuries ago seem romantic. The Pack house lies only a few hundred yards from the village, when seen on a map, but in reality, the road connecting the two places is almost a mile and a half, due to the four hairpin tuns needed to climb the hill.

As we walk out of the last of these hairpin turns, I start to feel a pain in my shoulder. I move it, hoping it might relieve some of the pain.

It doesn't.

"Arrrg," I growl, before biting my lip.

"Miss Isa?" Dr. Angel sounds worried.

"Uh-huh?" I say, clutching my left shoulder with my right hand. It feels hot to touch.

"Do sit down!" Dr. Angel exclams. "You have gone pale."

"Right," I say, sitting down.

"It's not that bad," I lie. "Give me a minute or two, and I'll walk to the hospital."

Dr. Angel looks down at me. I wonder if she sees the truth. She doesn't comment, though. She waits for me to pick up my breath and regain some color in my face. Then we walk again.

She is talking most of the way, whether it is to me or to herself I don't know. I can't keep my focus of my shoulder long enough to listen. The wound seems to burn.

I feel an urge to howl at the moon, but refrains from doing so. I have two hundred yards to walk, to reach the hospital, and I don't think that I will make it if I stop now. I push forward, silently cursing the moon. I try to focus on my breath, two steps inhale, two steps, exhale, two steps... I reach the door, pushes it open with my good shoulder, and sits down against the wall to the right of the door. Dr. Angel enters and locks the door behind her, before squatting in front of me to meet my eyes.

"Are you shifting?" She asks.

"I don't know," I say. The wound seems to radiate flames to my entire body. Changing into one's wolf form for the first time is said to be painful, right? But it doesn't require a burning wound, I tell myself.

Dr. Angel sits and watches me. A couple of minutes passes in silence, when suddenly the pain decreases, before disappearing completely. I gasp for air.

"I don't think that I am shifting," I say, when I have recovered. Dr. Angel nods, "Alright."

She gives me a tired smile. I give her a smile too, a sudden bright one. It feels... right.

Then, sitting against the wall, I fall asleep.

The following morning, my room in the hospital is crowded. Alec and Maia has come to visit, and Dr. Angel has announced that she will remove the bandages, requiring the help of one of the nurses. Five people in a small one-bed room are a lot.

Alec is standing, leaning against the frame of the closed door, having been told by Dr. Angel that his broad figure and height of 6-foot-3 will be an obstacle to performing her job. The doctor herself is standing to my left, as I sit in the bed, wearing only a bra and the bandages on my upper body. Maia is sitting by my feet, and the nurse, Eliza, is to her right, holding a tray with all sorts of things; clean bandages, lotions and such. I smile at her, she can hardly be older than I am.

"Ready?" Maia asks me, even though it is obvious that Dr. Angel isn't about to begin just jet.

"Yeah," I say. "I'll like to get out of here." She laughs.

"Right," she says. "It doesn't hurt anymore?" Typically Maia, I think. She is the only female relative I have, and that only because she is Alec's mate. It doesn't matter that we don't share any blood though, she has treated me as her younger sister all the time I've known her.

"No." In truth, the wound didn't hurt. It actually felt... well, pleasant isn't the word. But maybe good? Well? I shake my head, maybe I should not tell Maia just that. I smile at her instead.

"All right, here we go," Dr. Angel says, and she starts removing the bandages.

It seems to take forever, as she carefully removes them, to avoid any sticky part tearing the newly healed wound. There is no problem though. The bandages come off easily and painfully.

When the last bandage covering the trapezius muscle comes off, Dr. Angel gasps.

"What is it?" I say eagerly, wanting to know and being unable to see my own neck and shoulder. I turn my head towards Maia and Alec and receive two troubled glances, before I hear a crash. Eliza has dropped the tray.

"What?!" I burst out. "What is wrong?!" I feel anger rise in me, clearly something is not as it is supposed to be. My canines seem to grow in my mouth - or is that something I imagine?

"It's a bite mark," Dr. Angel says at last. I take a deep breath and calm myself.

"A bite mark," I say. "You all look worried, because I have some scars that have come from teeth?"

"A full set of teeth," Dr. Angel says. "It should have killed you, unless..." She doesn't get to finish her thought, as Alec growls at her. A deep sound from his throat, indicating that his wolf is about to break through his calm surface.

"Unless...?" I try to get the doctor to complete her sentence. She doesn't.

"Tell me," I say, the words sounding harsh in my mouth, said with a force I did not know I possessed. I might not have shifted yesterday, but something did wake inside me, I am certain of that. Eliza stares at me. Maia is blinking rapidly. Alec looks thoughtful, somehow calmed by what I said, and raising an eyebrow at me. Dr. Angel freezes for a moment then does what I told her.

"It looks like a Mate's mark," she says. She sounds defeated. I move my right hand to the scar.

"It can't be. I was in a fight!" I say, suprised by her words. And then realization hits me; The good feeling, the canines, the awakening of something inside me. "But I'm not eighteen yet! I'm not even seventeen!" I burst out.

The others don't seem to notice, they are still staring.

"You... commanded her?" Eliza says, suddenly. Her voice is frail.

"You did," Maia chimes in.

I look to Dr. Angel, she seems frozen again.

"I can't do such things," I say. Somehow their words worry me. Only an Alfa can issue commands, that the other wolves in their pack have to follow even against their will.

"You did." Alec's voice is soft. "It's all right."

We all turn to him. He sighs deeply before continuing. "Though..." His voice trails off, before returning with great force, even though the words are spoken softly:

"I would like, if no one outside this room ever hears of this."

I stop breathing.

"Yes, Alfa," Dr. Angel says, bowing her head.

"Alfa." Eliza bows her head to.

Maia looks scared, she nods, then she also bows her head.

I take a deep breath as relief rushes through me. Then my breath picks up as I think of what Alec has done. He has the voice of an Alfa. And he knows how to use it!