In Reach?

Liam’s POV

Mira got me real worried when she ran to the kitchen and started splashing water on herself. She looked like she was out of it. I tried asking her if she was fine, but she kept trying to walk away from me. I don’t know why though.

But then she fell to the floor like her body was numb or something. I ran to her side, holding her in my arms, in case she passes out. But then she screams like something stabbed her, and she gripped so hard on my shoulders I think she scratched into my skin. My wolf doesn’t like seeing her like this, in pain. I’m practically shouting at her to tell me what’s wrong. But she’s not telling me, she’s not saying anything.

It’s right then that people start running into kitchen asking what’s wrong. But I’m not bothered by who it is or what they’re asking. I’m trying to get Mira to focus on my face, on my voice as I brush her hair away from her face.

But then I hear a crack noise and she screams so loudly, it almost doesn’t sound human. I see it. It’s her arm. The bone is sticking out at an odd angle, like it’s dislocated. But the moment she opens her eyes to look at me, I see it. I see her bright purple eyes glowing, I see her wolf. Her wolf is trying to come out. She’s shifting.

“Shit!”

I pick her up as quickly as I can and carry her outside. She needs to be in an open space if she’s going to shift.

I lay her down on the grass outside the house, and step back to give her space. I can hear the others following me outside.

“What’s going on Liam? What’s wrong with Mira? What happened?” All these questions are being thrown at me simultaneously.

“Step back. She’s shifting.”

Now there is silence, but not from Mira. She’s still moaning and whimpering from pain. If what we know about her true, then this is her first time shifting. Which means, this is going to be painful. I just hope it will be quick.

“I thought her wolf was dormant.” I look over and see Ashton is also here. Why is he still here? I thought he would have left by now. I’m not even going to bother to answer him. I see that Theo and Noah are also here.

She lying in a crouched position as she’s shaking her body from side to side. But then her back arches back to such a sharp angle I’m sure it broke. I heard it, I hear her scream. I can see her canines growing in her mouth as she’s screaming. She crouches back down and her nails are morphing into claws as she’s digging into the ground. More bones are dislocating, more bones are breaking, I can hear it. Her screams are making my wolf whimper, but I need t be strong, for her.

That’s when I see her clothes ripping as the fur of her wolf is sprouting from her skin. And now, standing tall and proud in front of us is the most beautiful wolf I’ve ever seen. Her paws are black making it look like boots and there is a long black streak running along her stomach. But her overall fur is almost white, almost grey, it looks silver in the moonlight.

All of us are standing there, admiring this rare beauty, that she catches us by surprise when she snarls at us. She looks angry, very angry. I take cautious steps towards her, but she suddenly turns around and runs into the woods.

“Shit!” I run after her, taking my shirt off, readying to shift. I guess she’s still pissed at me, I’m not even sure what for anymore with all the stuff we were arguing about. But I need to get to her.

I shift into my black wolf, and not long after I notice that the other three are right behind me, following her. She’s not that difficult to make out in the woods, with her fur shining in the moonlight. But she is fast. With her speed and agility, she’ll have better luck tiring us out. I must push harder to get to her. No one knows these woods better than I do. I’ll have to surround and trap her if I want to catch her.

I mind-link the others to spread out while I go after her. She runs all the way to some ruins in the woods before I see her turning around. That’s when I see Noah’s wolf on her side. They’re closing in, and she knows it too. She stops in her tracks, making her almost tumble from her speed. We have her surrounded now, but she still looks pissed snarling and yapping at us.

I shift back into my human form, standing naked in front of her now. “Mira. Calm down.”

But she snaps at me.

That’s when I see Ashton coming forward to her in his human form. He probably thinks he can calm her down. But I know an angry wolf when I see one.

“Mira, sweety.” He walks closer, and she’s letting him. “Calm down. It’s just me. Don’t worry. Everything will be alright.” Just as his hand tries to touch her snout, she bites his arm and yanks him to the side against a tree.

What the fuck? She’s snarling back at the three of us, looking like she’s ready to attack. She charges at me at full speed, but Noah is quick to tackle her to the ground. They tumble and roll, but she jumps up and snaps at his paws. Theo jumps in the air to tackle her from behind, but she notices him and snaps at him, in mid-air.

“Mira! Enough!” I shout.

This is getting out of hand. But she rushes towards me again, and I have to grab her by her neck, just to get her in a hold, to stop her from trying to snap at me and hopefully calm her down. But she’s tumbling around too much. I lose my grip and she gets out.

Now she’s standing in front of us, snarling. But she stands up straight on all paws, growling at us with those glowing eyes. She’s challenging us, head-on. I can feel it, the aura she is admitting to state her challenge for dominance. It’s strong, I know that. But what shocks me is seeing Noah’s wolf snarling but crouching lower as he’s looking at her. His wolf is submitting to her, involuntarily. And Theo’s wolf, as big as he is, is managing to crouch down even lower, and whimpering.

What the hell?

I can feel her power. It’s strong. But so is my wolf. I take another step forward towards her, which seems to annoy her.

“Enough of this. Shift.” I command but she snarls almost like she’s smiling. “Mira. Shift back, right now.”

She snaps at me and tries to run the other way again.

How is she avoiding my commands like this?

I tackle her before she gets too far. I know I won’t be able to catch up in human form, and I need to talk to her. She slips out of my hold again, but now she’s just standing there watching me. Her eyes aren’t glowing anymore though. I don’t know if she’s waiting for something.

“Mira?”

But she huffs and twirls as she makes herself comfortable on the ground like a snowball, hiding her face with her tail.

What? Really? As cute as this is, this isn’t exactly the time or place for this.

I move closer to her, and she knows I am, with those ears twitching upright at my footsteps.

I squat down in front of her, patting her soft fur on her head, trying to get her attention again.

“Mira.” I can hear her huff again.

I tilt my head to look at her face she’s trying to hide. I can see her looking up at me with a defeated look. The purple in her eyes aren’t as bright and slightly flowing around her irises, like ribbons in water. It looks beautiful, but she closes her eyes again as she huffs.

“Mira, come on. You can’t stay out here all night. You know I’ll throw you over my shoulder if I have to.” I tease.

She huffs again, and I know she can hear me. This whole time I felt like I was talking to a brick wall, knowing that nothing was going through to her. But she’s listening now. I know she wouldn’t like the idea, but she’s still not moving. Why?

“Mira?” I rub the fur on her head again, to get her to look at me again. She does. But she’s looking at me with such pleading eyes, it’s making me worry. That’s when a thought comes to me. This is her first time shifting. It was most definitely painful, and it most-likely took a while for her to control her wolf, which is probably why she was so feral. She’s never done this before, it’s all new to her. So perhaps, she doesn’t know how to shift back.

“Mira? If you want to shift back, all you have to do is picture yourself in your human form. Just picture your body changing.”

She looks at me as I say each word. I see her close her eyes again, and not long after, I see her body morphing into a beautiful woman. She’s lying there still and naked in front of me, in a curled up position. I rush to one of the trees to grab myself a pair of shorts and a shirt for her.

When I get back to her, I notice she is still just lying there, but her eyes look tired. She must be exhausted. I help her put the shirt on and pull her into my arms as I carry her back to the house. I see that Noah and Theo are already on their way back, and carrying a limp Ashton along.

I look down at the beauty in my arms, and she’s looking at me through her tired eyes. This feeling that I have, a strange combination of longing and fulfillment, is one I never want to let go of. I never want to let go of her. She will forever be mine, my mate.

Mate

I look down, wondering if I just imagined hearing her whisper that to me through our mind-link. But her eyes are already closed. She must be sleeping.