When I pushed open the door to the bedroom I scrawled a contain magic rune on the door. I wasn’t sure how to get rid of it later, we might have to move rooms or find a scrubbing rune or something. But that was a problem for later. Right now Lake and Rider were curled up and Faelen was sitting in the middle of them soothing them both.
I added a strengthening rune to the door as well and etched a locking rune on the door – no one was getting in or out easily through the door. The walls would be another story but I hoped if it came to it I’d be able to use air to keep them contained. I didn’t want to hurt my brothers or them to hurt anyone else.
“Alright boys, you are shifting for your first time. Your insides don’t like it. Your outsides are going to be in pain. Fae and I will do our best to help you through.”
Rider chocked on his own spit as he tried to talk. He coughed and I sat down with him. “I can try to force it like I did with Fae.”
“Will it hurt less?” Laker asked.
“I don’t know.”
Fae gave me a simple nod and wrapped his body around Rider. “Fae says it will hurt less. And my magic will guide you so hopefully it won’t be a struggle to get there.”
“Do you both want to? I don’t know if I can do one and not the other.”
Rider nodded and so did Laker a second sooner which made him grin at his brother. They latched hands and Fae held them both. It was going to be a hell of a ride. I touched Faelen gently on the shoulder and he leaned his head against my hand and nuzzled it. I drew upon pack. The scent of the forest was thick in my nostrils and I felt my ties to the boys, and to Alex, and the kids – Quinn was happily in there and it made me smile. As I drew a little more I felt Adrian, and Leah and I felt Danny and Rosie. It was hard but I even felt Sage in the middle of it all.
I pushed the power of pack into their bonds, and I felt Faelin shift. I heard the bone cracking of the change, and then I heard the first cry from my brothers. Rider was biting back the pain, I whispered through the bond, “Don’t fight it. Embrace it.” He looked up at me with Amber eyes and growled deep in his throat. I gave him a smile. “I know, man, I know. But you can’t fight it.”
He looked at me with those eyes and then howled. It wasn’t the howl of a man in pain – no it was the wolf. Laker followed shortly there after as the last of the popping and cracking subsided and my brothers were large in their animal forms, panting but whole. Faelen lay between them his head on his paws as he waited for them to claim dominance.
Lake and Rider sniffed at Faelen and nudged him. Fae stood up and they pressed their head into his head and gave him a wolf hug before they all pounced on me. “Okay guys, I’m kinda tired now. Let’s give it a few hours – watch the solar eclipse and then we’ll get ya back in human form?”
“And maybe Alex will taking you shopping to replace the clothes we just trashed.”
There was an excited twirl from Rider, but the other two looked sad like they didn’t want to go. “Do you want to go for a run?”
They all licked me and I had to push them off me. “You can’t chase after anyone, you have to stay with me, and you can’t for any reason draw attention to us. Do you understand?”
The three wolves nodded their head. I moved the handle on the door and it wouldn’t budge I sighed. I’d forgotten I had locked us down tight.
I sat down on the ground and closed my eyes. The boys pushed again me as I concentrated on remembering what I saw in the book. I hadn’t really thought about how to nullify the wards I’d placed.
Hold on pretty boy, we haven’tt gone anywhere yet.
I blinked. The door glowed softly and the door snicked open with Matt standing on the other side.
“Well that’s handy.” I looked up at the boy null who was grinning at me. Laker was up and pushing himself at Matt, rubbing his body against Matt’s legs. Matt knelt down and ran his fingers through the wolf’s fur and they snuggled as best they could.
Alex stood in the door. “So that wasn’t as traumatic as you made it seem.”
I sighed. “It could have been. You never know how a new wolf will react, and I think it was quicker because I forced the change on them instead of letting it happen naturally.” I stood up and wrapped Alex in a hug. “I need to take the boys for a run, and then afterwards I need to change them back, then all of us can go watch that eclipse?”
Alex grinned and I continued, “And then you can take the boys shopping cause they shredded their clothes. We forgot a simple step.” I laughed to myself mostly. I looked over at Ryan who was watching. “If we force them back to human after our run they are going to need a lot of protein – the rawer the better for them.”
“I remember,” Ryan said. “I’ll see about the butchers and since it doesn’t need to be cooked we’ll just have it delivered. I want to see this Eclipse that changed a pack.”
I sighed. “I hope no one at home is doing this.”
“I’ll go check with Adrian, and Dom and come back. I’ll think the eclipse will just be darkness I’ve seen enough of it.”
The Mind of Nox 