CHAPTER 5:
1064 Words
Brooke's POV
Poppy's scream tore through the forest.
She collapsed, clutching her arm where the bite marks were turning black. The infection was spreading fast—too fast.
"No no no, this isn't real!" Poppy's voice was high-pitched, panicked. "This can't be real!"
Josh moved toward her, hands raised like he was approaching a wounded animal. "Poppy, you need to calm down—"
"Stay away from me!" She scrambled backward, hitting a tree. Her breathing was ragged, eyes wild.
Alan stood. "We need to get her to the pack house. Now."
"I'm not going anywhere with you psychos!" Poppy tried to stand, but her legs gave out. She was shaking violently.
I forced myself up, ignoring the screaming pain in my shoulder. "Poppy, listen to me—"
"You lied to me!" Tears streamed down her face. "You sat next to me in class. You smiled at me. And you knew. You knew what these monsters were!"
The word hit me like a slap.
Monsters.
Is that what we were? Is that what I was?
Alan shot me a look that said. We don't have time for this. He turned to Josh. "Carry her if you have to."
"Don't you dare touch me!" Poppy's voice was changing, getting deeper, more feral.
Her eyes flashed amber again. This time, they stayed that way.
"Oh God," she whispered, staring at her hands. "Oh God, what's happening to me?"
Her fingers were elongating. Claws starting to emerge.
The first shift was coming. Right here and now.
"Everybody back up," Alan commanded. "Give her space."
The pack of wolves obeyed immediately, forming a loose circle. Carter shifted back to human, throwing on shorts.
"She's turning too fast," he said. "This isn't normal."
Alan's jaw tightened. "Rogue bites are different. Corrupted. The change is more violent."
Poppy screamed again as her spine arched. Bones cracked audibly.
I couldn't watch her suffer alone.
I limped forward despite Alan's warning hand on my arm. I knelt beside Poppy, ignoring my own pain.
"Poppy, look at me." My voice was steady, even though my hands were shaking. "I know you're scared. I know this hurts. But you're going to survive this."
"I don't want to survive this!" She sobbed. "I want to go home! I want my mom!"
"I know." I grabbed her hand, squeezing tight. "But right now you need to breathe through it. The more you fight it, the worse it gets."
Her hand shook in mine. Fur was sprouting along her arms.
"I can't…." she gasped. "I can't do this—"
"Yes, you can." I felt Mel rising to the surface. Not to take over. To help. "Let your wolf out, Poppy. Stop fighting her."
"I don't have a wolf!" Poppy's voice was barely human now. "I'm not—I'm not like you!"
"You are now." The words came out cold. Harsher than I meant. But they were true.
Poppy's eyes locked onto mine. In them, I saw everything I'd felt my whole life—the fear, the confusion, the desperate wish to be normal.
Then her body convulsed.
The shift took her.
It was brutal, violent. Nothing like the smooth transitions the pack had shown earlier. Poppy's bones shattered and reformed. Her screams turned to howls. Her skin rippled and tore as brown fur erupted.
I held onto her hand until it wasn't a hand anymore. Until it was a paw.
The wolf that emerged was smaller than the pack wolves. Lean and frightened.
Poppy's brown wolf stumbled on new legs, whimpering. She looked at her paws like they belonged to someone else.
Then she looked at me.
And bolted.
How fortunate
"Poppy, wait!" I shifted without thinking, my silver-white wolf chasing after her.
She was fast. Fueled by panic and new instincts she didn't understand. She crashed through the underbrush, knocking into trees, unable to control her new body.
The pack of wolves followed us but kept their distance.
I caught up to Poppy as she stumbled into a stream. She was staring at her reflection in the water, making broken, whimpering sounds.
I approached slowly, making myself small.
She snarled at me, but it was weak. More afraid than aggressive.
I sat down and waited.
Behind us, I could hear the pack of wolves spreading out. Surrounding us without crowding us.
Poppy's wolf was trembling. She took a step back. Then another.
She was going to run again.
I did the only thing I could think of.
I used that voice. The one that had made the pack of wolves freeze earlier.
STOP.
The command rippled through the air like a shockwave.
Poppy's wolf immediately sat down. Her ears flattened against her head, whimpering.
Every wolf in the forest froze.
Josh's wolf who'd been creeping closer, dropped to his belly, head lowered.
Carter shifted back to human, eyes wide. "What the hell..."
Even Alan's massive black wolf had stopped moving, watching me with something like shock.
I felt it then. The power humming beneath my skin. Not Mel's sass or confidence.
Something else, something bigger.
I shifted back to human, my shoulder throbbing but mostly healed. Someone's jacket was still around me, surprisingly.
"That's Alpha command," Alan said quietly. "Only Alphas can do that."
I looked at him, at the pack, Poppy's wolf still sitting obediently, waiting for me to release her.
"I don't know what you're talking about," I said.
"Yes, you do." Alan walked toward me slowly. "You're not just a werewolf, Brooke. You're not just my mate."
He stopped in front of me, his blue eyes searching mine.
"You're an Alpha. Just like me."
The words hung in the air.
Impossible. I was nobody. The daughter of a wolf, my mother refused to talk about. A girl who'd spent her whole life hiding.
I couldn't be an Alpha.
But even as I denied it, I felt the truth settling into my bones.
Mel wasn't just my wolf. She was my Alpha wolf.
And I'd been suppressing her my entire life.
"No," I whispered. "That's not possible. My mom would have told me—"
"Would she?" Alan's voice was gentle but firm. "Think about it”.
He stepped closer.
My knees buckled. Alan caught me before I hit the ground.
"This changes everything," he said quietly. "Alpha and Alpha. We're—"
"Forbidden," I finished, dread pumping through my body.
- Writer
