Hunted by the Shadow Division

Chapter 5

Ryan POV

As we pulled into the driveway, Nat flung the door open before Mr. Rogers had even fully come to a stop.

"Nat!" I complained as she pulled me out of the car by my arm.

"Oh honey, be careful with your brother!" said Mrs. Rogers.

"Mom, what's going on?" I asked, now completely flustered with the sense of urgency they seemed to be giving off.

Nat pulled me toward the backyard and dragged me toward the woods.

"Nat! Stop!" I screamed. "Let go! What's going on?"

I was starting to get angry. What on earth had gotten into everyone?

Finally Nat let go and almost dropped me to the floor.

"Sorry Ryan, we just needed to get you out of sight."

"WHAT? DO YOU THINK I WOULD GO WOLF IN FRONT OF EVERYONE?" I screamed.

"OK, Ryan, try and breathe, son," Mr. Rogers said, coming toward the tree cover with Mrs. Rogers.

"Not too close, guys," said Nat, holding up one hand.

I just wanted to show them Rhy. Why weren't they excited? Why were they looking at me like that?

Suddenly Nat began to strip down to her underwear.

"Nat? Why are you — what are you doing?"

It was my wolf we were here to meet, not hers.

"Cool it, Ryan. Just breathe."

"CAN EVERYONE STOP TELLING ME TO BREATHE!" I shouted, and immediately felt guilty.

"Ryan my son, try to calm down," Mr. Rogers said.

"Ryan, please, trust us," said Mrs. Rogers as I watched Nat complete her transformation into Lee.

"Ryan, please hear us," I heard in my head. It was Lee communicating with me telepathically.

Suddenly, I began to shiver and beads of cold sweat began to form on my brow.

"Rhy?" I tried to reach out to him through our connection. I could feel him. It felt as though he was even closer somehow.

"Guys! I don't hear Rhy!"

"Oh, is that his name?" Mrs. Rogers cooed, and then jumped back as Natalie shot her a look.

A loud growl emanated from somewhere and as soon as it did everyone turned their eyes back to me.

Was that me?

I felt sick. Dizzy even.

POP.

I felt my spine start to stretch.

"HAH!" I screamed and held my waist as my hip bones began to grow, extending my height.

I was flung forward as my back popped and as I did, I caught sight of the Rogers stepping further away from me.

"No! Please! I would never hurt you!" I was saying when the rest of the bones in my legs began to pop and break, knocking me to the ground. My arms were next and then I felt every muscle in my face tear as if being cut with garden shears.

"HAAAAHHH!" I screamed again in agony. "Help me!" I pleaded with my sister and the Rogers.

Digging my hands into the earth, trying to hold on.

I suddenly felt the coolness of the soil below me and somehow it soothed me.

Lee came over and sat down next to me, digging with her claws into the soil and then taking my hands and placing them in the holes she made. She continued to hold my hands while inside the dirt.

"Feel Mother Earth and let her light seep into you," I heard Lee say through our link.

Slowly my vision became heightened and fully high definition. My smell increased and sharpened and I could smell everything, even the exhaust from the Jeep still idling in the driveway. I looked down at myself and saw beautiful black fur all over. On my chest was a white fur patch that looked like a crescent shape from my angle. I turned toward my sister Lee and saw her eyes blazing at me, as if to assess where I was still hurting. She too had a white patch of fur on her chest in the shape of a crescent moon, nearly perfect, as though painted on.

"Our children are all grown up now," I heard Mr. Rogers say from somewhere behind me.

The feeling of the soil around our hands felt amazing. Fresh. Clean even. There was also a sense of belonging. A weird sense of comfort.

The extreme aching in my bones subsided enough that I was able to concentrate even more. I noticed that my arms and legs were longer and felt the sharp teeth in my mouth. What was even stranger was that I had turned into only half a wolf. I did not have the urge to be on all fours but rather to stand up straight like I normally would.

"Um, Lee," I whispered through the ache to my sister. "Why haven't I gone full wolf?"

…

"Lee, why haven't I turned into my full wolf? Did I do something wrong?"

"No, Rhy, my brother! How wonderful it is to finally meet you!" Lee mind-linked.

I looked over toward the Rogers and with a sadness I realised they would not be able to hear me as Lee could.

"Would you want them to?" Lee asked with the best wolf's grin.

"How?" I enquired. "They are not our parents, Lee." My heart began to break remembering our mother and our father and how they would have been able to communicate with us both.

"I feel you, brother, but do not despair. The Rogers, even though they are not blood, are still our family. They are the ones who chose us and we chose them. They are also special, like us."

Wow. Lee calling the Rogers family was big. She had always rebelled against the notion growing up.

"What are you saying, dear sister?"

This still felt so weird. It felt like me, but at the same time it simply did not. Rhy spoke differently, with an old-world weight to his words. He was different to me, yet we still felt like one. Rhy was just in the driving seat at the moment.

"It's the same as when I needed to save you from yourself on the football field," Rhy commented to me privately.

"Save me? Oh please, I would have gotten there."

"Bickering already, brothers?" Lee looked at us.

"Wait, you could hear that?" Rhy asked for both of us.

"Not the words, boys, but the exchange of energy," Lee finished.

The Rogers came closer, holding out their arms to hug us just as they had done from the very first day they saved us. All I wanted in that moment was to embrace them both, but should I? With razor-sharp claws for hands and wolf teeth in my mouth.

"Just concentrate on what you would like to do, brother. It is no different than when you have hands and feet," Lee encouraged me.

"What if we frighten them or hurt them?" Rhy and I asked at the same time.

"You? How could you frighten them when that had been my job for so long?" Lee chuckled in my head. "As for hurting them, just be more careful than you usually are."

I stepped forward and raised my arms slowly, to show them we meant no harm.

Lee thought this was hilarious and began howling with laughter.

"Oh shush, Lee darling!" Mrs. Rogers said with a single tear falling to her cheek.

"Lee, don't tease your brother, especially since he just woke up," Mr. Rogers finished.

This exchange was normal, words I had heard so many times growing up.

"Mom, you used to say, 'Don't tease the baby,' remember?" I chirped in.

Just then, both the Rogers and Lee looked at me, amazed.

"Rhy, my dear brother. Always the smart one," Lee said, coming closer and putting her arms around me. She lifted me at the waist and spun me around. "You are truly a remarkable baby brother. It took me nearly three months to do what you just did so naturally."

All I could do was look at her in confusion until I heard Mr. Rogers sniffle through his own tears.

"Lee, how do we turn back? Dad, he needs us!" I asked worriedly.

"Just do what you just did with Mom. Reach out to him with your thoughts, brother. With your heart and soul."

I had no idea what Lee was on about. What had she meant?

But slowly, instinctively, something inside me reached out. Not with words. With warmth. With memory. With the particular love that a child has for the people who chose them.

And both the Rogers, standing there in the dusk at the edge of the tree line with snow beginning to fall again, felt it. Their faces changed all at once. Not with shock but with something deeper. With the quiet, undeniable sensation of being known.

"Mom, Dad," I called so they would both look up at me. "We both love you so much," Rhy and I finished in unison.

"So do we!" Nat and Lee complained immediately. "I suppose it is about time we started calling you that too," they finished together.

This made Mom and Dad even more emotional, so Lee and I both went in for the hug. And when we did I suddenly felt as if my body had finally settled and all of the aching had gone.

Lee put her big arm around me.

"Get off, you big fur ball!" I exclaimed, throwing her arm off me.

She jumped onto me, knocking me to the ground.

"Careful, Lee dear!" Mom complained.

"It's OK, honey. Let me go make you a nice cup of tea while the pups play," Dad responded, taking her toward the house.

I turned to Lee just in time to see her running further into the woods.

"Come and catch me, slowpoke!" she shot back.

"Careful what you ask for!" I shouted as I took off after her, feeling the power move through my body for the first time, whizzing through the trees in the early winter dark.