The Awakening-3

It feels strange.

I attempt to link with him, weirded out by this new, almost natural ability I didn’t have before. Overwhelmed by all of this and not sure if I am still heavily drugged when in this form, or if this surreal new way to experience everything is wolf’s sense. Things affect us differently as humans, and this disorientation might just be something I have to adjust to.

Yeah, well, walk it off. Learn fast.

He links me back, a husky familiarity to his voice inside my head that does strange things to my stomach. It’s hardly a polite response, and the tone tells me he doesn’t really want to have any sort of communication with me, especially not in a head link.

I’m not one of his pack and I’m not even on the same level as him. It’s disrespectful to try. As if to further demonstrate the point, he walks off towards his father and I flop down to get to grips with everything that I just got hit with. I’m heavy, not sure how to navigate my dog body when I’ve spent my life walking on two legs. I must weigh four times my usual weight for sure, although the size of my paws suggests maybe even more.

“The turning will not last ... only fleeting moments for your first time. When you come out, you will be awoken, and your path will lead you to your destiny. Pay attention, be alert. You are now on the other side.” The Shaman states it loudly and it echoes around the mountain like a sort of prophetic song. One I have heard so many times, yet this time, it finally means something to me.

I get up on unsure legs once more, slowly, like Bambi on newborn limbs, and lift my head as I know I’m meant to. In unison with all around me, we stretch our necks out, lift our noses to the heavens and howl at the moon for the first time in our lives, as one united pack; no matter who we are, where we are from, whatever our bloodline or our past, long and soulful with meaning. A sound that echoes around us, through us, and is joined by the hundreds who watch until we fill the night sky with a somber, eerie hum that will reverberate around the mountains and put the fear of God into the wildlife. United in one song that cpmpletes our transformation.

It feels strange at first, my throat vibrates, it aches and rasps my vocal cords, but as my belly empties, my air departs and the longest yowl comes cascading out of me until it scratches my throat and leaves me breathless, I feel alive. Like I have been holding my breath and waiting for this my whole life. I guess I have. This is what I was born to be and with the awakening, comes freedom.

I can leave.

I can run.

I can live off the land and hunt to survive. I’m no longer bound by the confines of humans to get by. Wolves can live anywhere as long as they can hunt, and although we have a pack mentality, I’ve heard stories of isolated wolves doing fine on their own. That is what I have planned, longed for, waited for, and I know where I’m heading. I can finally realize my dream of leaving all of this behind me and finding my solitary peace somewhere out there. As far away from these mountains and people as I can, and never looking back.

As soon as I relax, our call stops and the energy in me fades fast. Overcome with fatigue that makes me slump back down and flake out on my belly, sighing as my body tingles and itches with a thousand tiny tremors. Glancing down in time to watch as everything changes back faster than I thought it would.

Fur that was keeping me warm, on paws instead of hands ... it all begins to recede, and unlike my transformation to beast, the reversal is not painful at all. It’s fast, almost instant, and before I can blink or even get to grips with what is happening, I am nakedly human. Smeared in my blood and flat out in a huddled heap on the floor, which saves me some of my dignity by shielding my body.

I scramble to pull my body into a ball, aware I am completely uncovered and exposed to the hundreds of eyes around me. I jump when my blanket is tossed towards me by the nearby Damon, smirking as his eyes devour my nudity and I recoil. Embarrassed, ashamed at being naked in front of everyone and mad as hell that he made sure I would have to cross eight feet to get the blanket. I glare at him, forgetting myself for a moment and then ponder not going to get it and huddling up to cover myself instead.

Others had theirs tossed directly at them, and looking around, I realize I am the only one who has to go crawling for hers, like an animal. He is trying to humiliate me, and I move fast to catch it. Shocked when the slightest movement sends me shooting towards him at lightning speed and I end up almost at his feet in the blink of an eye.

“Wow,” I blurt out loud and get laughed at by someone nearby as they realize how naïve I am about the speed and power we all just inherited. Another change in me I have to get used to. I grab the blanket and try to crawl backwards while pulling it over me and fall onto my back as it’s jerked tight and yanked back taut, sending my head crashing on the smooth stone below me and bouncing my skull painfully.

Damon sniggers, his foot on the edge, as he looks down at me with complete disdain. Laughing at how much he is enjoying making a show of me and I have no choice but to try to pull the blanket from him once more. My face reddening with heat, aware of many more muffled sniggers and laughs at my expense, and I can’t conceal the shame washing over me.

I know others are watching; my senses are heightened and my body is goosebumping all over in response. I can feel them on me from all over and I want to sink into the ground and disappear. I yank, but the blanket tears from the pressure nearer my end and I have no choice but to stop or be left with a scrap that will cover nothing.

“For God’s sake, Damon. This isn’t the time or place. My father is staring at you. Pack it in.” Colton snarls his way, pushes him from behind, and comes into view, shoving him off the blanket and swoops down to pick it up with speed. He walks forward in two confident strides and hands it straight to me, bending lightly as he does so to make sure I get it with no more interference. I know he’s only doing it to save face, exert his dominance in front of his father and save Damon from punishment later. Either way, I am, for the first time ever, thankful for him and relieved he is an Alpha in the making.

I reach out and take it gratefully, quickly pulling it around me and hiding what’s on show, afraid to look at him, but it’s almost impulsive as his hand, still attached to the corner, briefly touches my shoulder in passing because of how speedy I am. A hot searing flash runs through my body alarmingly, igniting something tingly inside me I can’t identify. Like being zapped by a low strength taser and I gasp at the contact, glancing up at him as he attempts to rise to stand, seemingly also recoiling for what was maybe just an electric shock. For one brief millisecond of synchronized surprise, our eyes lock.

It’s all it takes.