The kidn*pped Soul of Luna

Chapter 7 - Shift

Carmel squinted her eyes and swept the room with her gaze. She was still kinda hoping for some indication that this was a sick joke. But she had promised herself to be open minded… so she would accept this news too, for now. Okay, I’m a werewolf for now, she accepted.

“Good girl,” said a voice in her head.

She dropped her head into her hands muttering, “that voice is in my head again.”

“That voice,” Alex told her, “is your wolf, Paxi. Why don’t you try introducing yourself to her.”

Carmel looked at the Alpha-Man incredulously. How in the world had he heard her?

"Soooo... you want me to talk to the voice in my head? Is that what you are saying?"

"Yes, that is exactly what I am saying." He was silent then, staring at her expectantly. 

She sighed and figured that she might as well give it a try... there was nothing to lose after all...

“Umm… Hello wolf?” she said out loud.

“Again,” Alex said patiently, “Her name is Paxi. It is considered respectful to call her by her name. And you do not need to speak out loud to speak to her. She can hear your thoughts.”

“All of my thoughts?” Carmel asked.

“I am assuming so. After a lifetime, we can learn to block our other half from our private thoughts... if we want to. Kylara was a master at it, to the point where she and her wolf were completely separate individuals. Paxi is more used to being "alone" than most wolves are. Most of us are more… integrated. We make each other better than we would have been on our own. Why don’t you try again.”

Carmel closed her eyes to concentrate. “Hello wol… I mean… Hello Paxi?”

“Hello Carmela,” said the silky-sweet voice.

Carmel breathed deep, rocking her body slightly as she tried to accept this altered reality. When she had heard this voice earlier, she had feared that she was hallucinating. Accepting it as "real" was equally uncomfortable. She tried to feel this wolf in her mind. “Paxi, I don’t know what to ask you. This is scary.”

“I know you are frightened, Carmel. I can feel everything you feel. Try to concentrate on me. Feel my calm. Use it for strength.”

Just then, there was a commotion in the hall outside her door. A young boy yelled, “I want to see my daddy and you can't stop me!” And they heard a crash and footsteps running in their direction.

“Damn!” Alex said.

“Language!” Carmel reminded him.

“Look, Carmel,” he said grabbing her shoulders. “I’m sorry about this… SHIFT!” he commanded.

__________________

Carmel heard the boy and then the Alpha-man swearing… again. Then he grabbed her shoulders and the stinging tingle zapped through her shoulders and down her spine. By the time he gave the command to shift, her perspective went into slow motion, like what happens when you get into a car crash. She heard the cracking of bones, her body hurt everywhere... searing pain! On the other hand, she felt her vision changing to a sharp clarity, her artist brain was appreciating the intense focus. Even the smells somehow made her fingers itch to pick up a piece of clay as if she could mold the fragrances into a figure of some kind! They were telling a whole different story. She could smell the man holding her and it was wildly delicious. Not a nasty man sweat smell, but pine and raindrops. She watched as he angled his body to block her from whoever was coming through the door.

All the while, Paxi’s voice echoed through her head telling her that everything was fine and to stay calm. It all happened so quickly. And then a young boy ran into the room and grabbed the Alpha-man around the waist.

“Is it true, Daddy?” the boy cried. “Tommy said that he heard that SHE was in here, you know… THAT mommy… and that she is going to k-k-kill me! Then I was so worried that she had k-killed y-you!” The boy was struggling to hold back his tears, but he was completely panicked from what Carmel could hear.

“We are in no danger, Logan,” the Alpha-man said calmly. “There is a lot going on here and I will explain it as best I can… later.”

Paxi said clearly in “their” shared mind, “It’s okay, Logan. Kylara is not present. You are safe.”

Carmel felt as if she was a puppet. She knew that “she” was speaking using this mind-meld-y voice and moving about, but she had absolutely no control over any of it. She felt trapped and claustrophobic. If she had any control of her body, she would probably be hyperventilating by now.

“Carmel,” Paxi scolded, “Get a grip. We need to be calm and present for my son.”

Paxi walked around to be next to Logan who threw his arms around her neck. Carmel felt warmth and a feeling of complete and unconditional love for the boy flood into her consciousness and coming from Paxi. She didn’t know him and even though the Paxi-emotions felt “real,” there was an uncontrollable element about them too, like an itch she couldn't reach.    

“Mama! You’re still you… I mean Paxi-you! When I see Tommy, I’m gonna punch him in the nose.”

The boy was the spitting image of the Alpha-man. Carmel was beginning to get a splitting headache as she tried to sort all of this out.

“You have a son? Does that make me his mother?” Carmel asked, a little panicked.

“He was born of the body that you are in, but not of your soul. So, no, he is not your son.”

“B-b-but will he think I am his m-mom?” Carmel stuttered in her mind, she didn’t want to scar a kid with this drama.

Carmel heard the Alpha-man talking to the boy about how fighting was not always the answer… blah blah blah… typical dad stuff.

Carmel heard Paxi giggle. “First of all, we do not call our mate Alpha-man. You can call him Alpha or Alex… or even Alpha Alexander if you want to be very formal.

“What do you mean by ‘our mate’?”

“You might call him a husband in your world, but it is much more than that. Perhaps that would be a better question for Alex,” Paxi answered vaguely.

“Nurse Becky,” commanded the Alpha, “Please escort my son back to my quarters.”

“Logan,” he continued, “you will wait for me there. We have some very important things to talk about.”

The nurse and Logan walked from the room with the boy’s eyes staying fixated on Paxi until he was physically unable to see her any more.

Once they were safely on their way, Carmel heard HIS voice in her head. “Okay, you can change back now.”

She had heard his voice coming, like a speaker, though the wolf in her head. Carmel and Paxi both just, sort of, stood there in wolf form. Carmel didn’t know how to do whatever it was he was talking about and Paxi couldn’t do it alone.

Alex wasn’t feeling patient enough to explain anything else to her right now. He needed to get back to his son who deserved to know what was going on with his mother. Even though a forced shift was more painful that a cooperative one, he again gave them the command to, “SHIFT!”

Carmel felt everything changing in the reverse this time, just as she had seen when the nurse had done it. The snapping and cracking of bones and tissue was sickening. The pain was equally bad. She found herself back in human form… at least in Kylara’s human form and completely naked! She looked down and saw that the hospital gowns that she had been wearing before all of this had happened were ripped to shreds and scattered about on the floor.

Carmel stood there in shock for a moment. She didn’t bother to cover herself because, what was the point? It wasn’t even her body that they were looking at. She marched right up to the Alpha… Alpha Alexander, as Paxi had called him. He was staring at her face with a look for pure disgust muttering something to himself that sounded like, “remember it’s not her,” as he clenched and unclenched his fists. She drew her hand back and slapped him across the face as hard as she could.

“THAT is for doing whatever it is that you just did to me… without my consent.”