Total pages in book: 182
Estimated words: 171176 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 856(@200wpm)___ 685(@250wpm)___ 571(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 171176 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 856(@200wpm)___ 685(@250wpm)___ 571(@300wpm)
“I’m here for you,” I told her, grounding her within our bond.
She nodded, and my wolf rose as slowly as he possibly could, showing her wolf how. Eyes never leaving Aurelia, I waited for the last possible moment before I got out of the way. He yanked power from them at the pinnacle moment, helping them feel the timing, sharing with them the pain, and then we were shifting, dropping down on all fours with scents and sounds rushing in to color the scene.
With another flutter of nervousness Aurelia began, following our lead to the letter. Her wolf rose to the surface, pulling power, more than she needed, wobbling as they passed each other in consciousness and control.
“Steady,” my wolf murmured, stabilizing them through the bond, feeling her wolf clutch him as she tried to navigate.
She was in full control, using the power at the right moment to begin the transition. Pain pounded through them; it was always the hardest when the body morphed for the first time. Each consecutive shift got easier and easier.
My wolf braced for her wolf to reach for him in panic or alarm, but they sailed right by, shrugging it off and completing the transition as though it had been painless.
He didn’t say anything, but I grinned at the humbled feeling. I’d had the same reaction after she was worked over by Alexander. Those wounds would’ve put me down for days, but she’d pushed through.
“She’s beautiful,” my wolf breathed, in complete awe. I had to agree.
The black fur on Aurelia’s head ran down her back and dusted the tops of her legs. A deep gray, similar to ours, dotted the black in places and flowed down her neck to her chest. It was her wolf’s face that was unique: her muzzle, mostly white, had a streak of brown on each side with a black stripe running between them. Her ears were mostly gray with a little of the brown at the base, and her eyes shone hazel. She was striking and interesting, just like the human.
The wolf immediately lowered to her stomach, her muzzle on her paws, looking up at us.
“What’s she doing?” I asked my wolf in the equivalent of a whisper.
“A wolf usually shifts for the first time when the human is going through puberty, remember? The human is growing, awkward and gangly. The new wolf is the same, needing to learn their new body. In the pack, though, everyone is doing it together, young, and there’s a community-wide learning curve. Aurelia knows her body well, though, and her wolf is with experienced creatures. If it were just us she’d probably try out her new legs right away, but the king is watching, as are the other dragons. She’s proud. She is trying to process her new shape before she attempts to use it.”
Just like the human, then. She wanted to size up the situation before she dove in.
We watched patiently. Her cute little nose twitched as she took in all the new smells. Her ears moved, processing the enhanced sounds—her wolf form was able to take in so much more information than her human ears. Her power throbbed within her, allowing my wolf to pull it to him before she accepted it back gracefully. He’d been worried she’d be unable to maintain the equilibrium of it in a new situation, worried she’d clutch it, hoard it. That she didn’t was a very good sign.
Another good sign was that she was not reaching with it. Hadriel’s pack bond pulsed nearby but remained connected to me. She could instinctively feel it; she could feel the bond to the whole pack in me. Most new wolves tended to grope for it, trying to find a lifeline. New alphas often felt it out, those with something to prove usually grabbing hold of it to see if they could wrestle it away from the more established alpha. Not once did she so much as think in that direction.
“She’s worried about disrupting the pack bond,” my wolf murmured with a note of pride, still watching her watch him. “She is getting her bearings before she seeks our guidance. She’s keeping her power as contained as possible, keeping herself firmly under control, to ensure she doesn’t jeopardize the pack.”
She wasn’t worried about herself and her shift now—she was worried about my people.
My heart swelled.
My wolf waited for a moment longer before bending his head toward her, about to nudge her along like he would a shy, new wolf.
Her lips pulled away from her teeth in a silent snarl. He backed off immediately. She would not be rushed.
I chuckled as he went back to waiting without a word.
Finally, she lifted her head. And then rose to her feet. Her wolf wasn’t as small as her human, nor was she as slight. She was average for a wolf, about the size of Hadriel. She’d be able to hold her own in a fight. Not that she couldn’t in human form. What she lacked in size, she more than made up for in speed.