Rite of Submission (Rite #1) Unedited

Into the Fire

Walking back through the house, I made sure to keep my distance. When we found our way back to the hall to their suites, I ducked back into Sophie’s rooms. “What are you doing?” he called after me as I made my way back to her bathroom to grab some extra supplies and the pair of strappy sandals she’d procured for me. I walked past him back into the hall after brushing out my hair and pulling it back into a tight braid.

I ignored the doors to his rooms and headed back down the hall towards the stairs. “Now where are you going?” he followed after me, clearly annoyed.

“For a walk,” I chose a random direction and kept going.

“A walk?” he snorted, “A walk where?”

I stopped and stepped towards him, “I don’t know, just a walk! I’m tired of being holed up in the same rooms’ day in and day out. I just need to go anywhere else.” I continued my walk to nowhere.

He grabbed my shoulder to stop me, “You can’t just wander around aimlessly,” he sighed, “come with me.” He turned down a small hall in the other direction. Aggravated, I stormed after him. Eventually we found our way down to a garage, where he grabbed a set of keys and hopped onto a motorcycle. “Are you coming or staying?” he called, turning the key and revving the engine. I didn’t even hesitate to hop on behind him and wrap my arms around his waist.

As soon as the garage door opened, we rocketed forward. Everything around us was a blur, we zoomed through the streets and walkways between buildings and down a road that disappeared into the thick forest I’d watched the sun set behind the day before. We raced along the narrow road into the densest part of the trees, even without the leaves, the sun had a hard time weaving through the trees to reach the ground. Most of the light came from the one headlight on the bike. I felt freer than I had in much longer than I could remember, like flying through the wind.

Suddenly the trees opened up and we came to a halt in a massive meadow. Climbing off the bike he grinned slyly. “Here you go, walk, run, skip or turn cartwheels to your heart’s desire,” he waved at the open space. “Stand in the middle and scream if you like, just get it out of your system.” He didn’t have to tell me twice, as soon as my feet hit the ground, my legs took off at a full run.

It wasn’t long until I realized he was running beside me with a goofy grin. I couldn’t resist reaching out to tap his shoulder, “Tag, you’re it,” I laughed and abruptly changed direction. And just like that we’d entered into the weirdest game of tag I’d ever played in my life. It ended with a final “tag” when he grabbed me around the waist and made us both fall to the ground, gasping to catch our breath.

We lay on the yellowed grass and stared up at the sky, until our breathing returned to normal, just listening to the sound of the wind in the trees and a few winter birds chirping somewhere in the trees. “When was your first shift?”

The question felt like a slap to the face. “I’ve never…”

“How’s your arm?” I looked down to where he pointed, not a mark again. He held out his own arm and pointed at the tiny pink dot, “you heal faster than I do.”

I sighed heavily, “That could just be part of my supposed super Immunity.”

“No immunity is going to let you run that fast,” he gestured around the field.

“I used to run track in school,” I rolled my eyes.

“Yeah, a few years ago,” he shrugged, “but that’s the first time I’ve ever gotten winded running with someone.”

“Clearly you’re out of shape old man,” I teased.

“Ok, how do you feel now that you’ve gone for a run?”

I shrugged, “I was feeling less annoyed with you, but it looks like that may have been a fluke. Don’t you think if I could shift I’d shout it from the rooftops so I could be free of that contract?”

“There’s no proof that female shifters can’t have children,” he shrugged. “There’s just never been one on record that found a mate to have children with.”

“So because I can heal and run faster than you, you’re sure I’m a shifter.” I scoffed.

“I never said you could run faster than I could,” he laughed, and I couldn’t help but to smile a little.

After laying there a while longer in the silence I worked up the nerve to ask, “I’d like a copy of the contracts.”

“Ok,” and just like that we were back to watching the sky in silence for a really long time. I was finally getting some answers, and it did make me feel a little bit better to know I wasn’t the only one thinking about some of it.

Eventually the cold ground started to seep into me, making my teeth chatter. He jumped up and peered down at me, “Your lips are turning blue,” he lifted me up into his arms and started carrying me back towards the bike.

“I-I-I g-g-guess I d-don’t b-b-burn hot l-l-like a sh-sh-sh-shift-ter,” I stuttered trying to curl into his chest. He walked past the motorcycle and into the tree line a short distance, carrying me down a set of concrete stairs I hadn’t noticed on our way in. He shifted me in his arms to punch a code into a keypad and rushed us in through the steel door.

The ground opened up behind the door into a massive and impressively clean locker room. He set me down on a bench near some shower stalls, reaching in to start the water. I wrapped my arms around my chest, and focused on trying to stop my teeth from chattering. As soon as steam started to roll out of the small space he scooped me back up and stepped into the water, cradling me against his chest.

“G-great,” I covered my face with my hands to keep the water out of my lungs, “n-now w-we’re b-both w-wet.” His chest rumbled under me as he chuckled, “W-why are you always sh-shoving me in t-to the shower?”

“It’s the fastest way to heat you up right now, so hush,” he shifted around to let the water wash over my whole body, almost like he was trying to rock me to sleep.

“But now we’re both wet,” I pointed out after my teeth had stilled, “and it’ll still be cold outside.”

Laughing he turned the water off and stepped out of the stall to set me back on my feet. “You think we don’t have preparations in place for a full moon?” he led me through the rows of lockers to a room that looked like a small store, tables and shelves covered in stacks of simple, non-descript clothing. Sweats, leggings, tee shirts, and baggy shorts were all folded neatly, and they were all the same color of dark charcoal grey. He strode to a shelf and pulled a fresh set of dry clothes for himself, and headed back to the lockers. “Help yourself,” he grinned smugly as he walked away.

“Smart ass,” I muttered under my breath as I looked through the table closest to me. I grabbed a tee shirt, and leggings, and followed after him. He had already changed, tossing his wet clothes over a towel rack to dry, when I found him back near the door we came in at.

“Just come back out when you’re done,” he handed me a towel with a grin and darted out the door.

Shaking out the towel, a tampon fell at my feet. “Asshole,” I mumbled again, peeling the wet clothes off and wrapping the towel around me so I could hang them over another rack. I decided to take my time drying off and changing. I was surprised when I took the sandals off and my feet found the tiled floor to be warm. Looking around the room, I couldn’t help but wonder how big was the pack, and how many members could shift to need a set up like this.

When I finally stepped back outside, he was pacing at the top of the stairs. “It took you long enough, let’s go.” His mood had shifted again and he took off back towards the motorcycle before I even started up the stairs.

I had to chase after him to catch up, “Mood swing much?” I rolled my eyes.

“Something happened and we need to go,” he hopped back on the bike. When I hesitated he growled out, “Now!” making me jump a little, but the look on his face told me this wasn’t about me. He was worried about something, and as we sped off, my mind went to the darkest place it could.

“Did something happen to Sophie?” I yelled against his back as I clung to him. He didn’t answer, just leaned forward and went faster. I had to close my eyes to keep the wind from making them tear up.

We didn’t return to the garage or even the main house when we got back out of the woods. He raced around, and between buildings, sometimes on sidewalks until we got to what looked like a small hospital. Nathan was standing at the entrance waiting when we walked up. “Take her back to the house,” he ordered, pushing inside.

Nathan took a step towards me, “No,” I moved to follow after Dmitri, “I’m coming with you.” If something had happened to Sophie, hell would have to freeze over before I just went back to sit in a room to wait.

“Alexan…” Nathan tried talking to me but I cut him off.

“Luna,” I corrected, pushing past him, “and I said I’m going in.” When Dmitri didn’t stop to enforce the order, Nathan just stepped away with an annoyed look, letting me plow into the building to follow.

I almost had to jog to keep up as he raced through the different wings and down a dark staircase to what must have been a basement level. I had to stop short when we got to the bottom, there was a hallway lined with what looked like glass cells. Only a few of the window/walls had a light on behind them, but the occupants looked like prisoners.

“Alpha,” Dr Martinez sounded relieved to see him, and shocked when she looked over his shoulder to see me, “…and Luna?” he spun around as she addressed me. It took everything in me not to cringe from the look he shot me.

“What happened?” I tried to sound as confident as Sophia had when slipping into her role as Luna. I stepped in, beside Dmitri and tried to stand up straight. He watched me in much the same way he had after I’d bit him.

“It’s Trevor,” the Dr started to explain glancing nervously between the two of us, “I’m sure it’s wolfsbane but we can’t seem to force a shift, the moon cycle isn’t far enough along for the medication to induce it.”

“Which room?” he growled, finally turning his attention to her, but barely waiting for her answer before walking off and yelling behind, “You stay put this time!” he broke into a sprint and was gone.

Dr Martinez tried to smile at me, “this way dear,” she gestured down another hall, “it’ll be safer for us on this side of the glass, hmm.” She started walking, not waiting to see if I followed. We passed several dark windows before we came to a stop. Inside, there was a teenage boy, well muscled like he was on the football team for a high school, lay on a hospital bed. His skin was pale white, and covered with beads of sweat, his hair disheveled and matted against his forehead. But it was the ashy grey color of his lips that made me gasp. If it wasn’t for the monitor on the wall showing the little blips and beeping along with his heartbeat, I’d have sworn the poor kid was dead.

Dmitri barreled into the room like a tornado. He leaned in close to the boy, whispering something into his ear, but there was barely a twitch of his hands in response. I could feel more than hear it as Dmitri growled, and the air thickened as I could feel him trying to use his sway. Dr Martinez, watched the different monitors, scribbling in the file she held in her hands. Then things happened so fast I could barely understand what was happening.

Taking his shirt off and tossing it aside, Dmitri’s body started to shift and contort, until something out of a horror movie stood in his place, growling at the lifeless body on the bed. There were several violent convulsions, eventually flipping the poor kid off the bed on to the floor. I could hear what sounded like flesh tearing and bones breaking, each sound gut wrenching and making me nauseous as I watched. In a matter of minutes, a large brown wolf was standing on the floor where a nearly dead boy once lay, with a large black man-wolf towered over him.

Even the Dr jumped back as the wolf lunged towards the glass as if to attack us. He whimpered a moment then stood there, his heckles raised, growling at the two of us. I don’t know why, but I stepped forward and placed my palm on the glass before him, kneeling down to be eye level with him. Cautiously, he moved forward, and nuzzled the glass on the other side of my palm, like a puppy seeking affection. A moment later, he lay down in front of me and curled up as if to sleep. Dmitri shifted back, and slumped against the wall, staring at me warily as the wolf between us slept.

“Fascinating,” Dr Martinez mused, scribbling away in the file and checking the monitors again. I had looked at her when she spoke, but when I looked back into the cell, there was just the wolf, curled up against the glass.

I pulled my palm away and stood up, still not sure what had just happened. But Dr Martinez pointed to a screen with two heart beats paused on it. “It looks like both of their pulses slowed the moment you touched the glass,” she murmured more to herself than me. “And here,” she looked at another monitor, turning it back to the same time stamp, “both of their temperatures spiked at the same time…” she trailed off making more notes.

“Send me a full report,” Dmitri ordered, making me jump. “Let’s go.” He grabbed my arm and pulled me back down the hallway and into a tunnel system. Confused and shocked, I just let him drag me behind as he stormed ahead.

The tunnel opened up into what I assumed was the medical suite in the main house. He pulled me along through the stark white halls and back into the house proper. He didn’t say a word until he’d taken us back into the room where we’d made our negotiations a few days back. Slamming the door, he finally released my arm in the middle of the room and started circling me, much like he had the first night in his office. There was no audience this time, and the amused, playful smirk had been replaced by a predatory glare.

“What are you?” he growled, circling again, and staying out of reach. I didn’t have an answer for him; all I could do was stand there and stare at the floor. He paced around the room, half mumbling, half growling, but I couldn’t make sense of what he was trying to say, if he was saying anything. I felt like something was breaking, but I couldn’t say what.

At some point, he just got really quiet and I could feel him staring at me from behind. Tears filled my eyes, but I refused to let them roll down my checks as we stood there in that strained awkward silence. It was when a thick manila envelope was tossed at my feet and I heard him leave the room that I finally let the tears fall.

I stood there and sobbed until my eyes ran dry, not knowing why I was crying. I was too confused and it also felt like someone had ripped my heart out of my chest. There were too many conflicting emotions and thoughts to make sense of any of it, so I just let myself cry until I had nothing left.

Grabbing the envelope off the ground I curled into the chair he’d sat in. I couldn’t bring myself to open it, so I just hugged it to my chest and stared at the tapestries hanging on either side of the closed door. They looked different as I sat there, my sight still blurred from the tears. I let my eyes rest on the goddess. It looked as if she was looking back at me, her face sad now. She didn’t have the same scornful anger she seemed to have had the first time I was in this room. Part of me wished she could step off the fabric and give me the answers I needed.

What not who, was what he’d asked, and I wished I knew.