Chapter 16

Ayla’s POV

“I got to get out of here! I’m burning up. It’s just so hot” I start to panic. Sweat trickled down my back, and my skin felt like it was vibrating. Aiden and Axel keep staring at me like I’m about to break. I can’t do this right now. I need to be alone.

Getting up, I head towards the forest, just needing to run, to be away from here. I don’t know what is happening; I just know I can’t be here right now. Aiden turned his back to me, and Axel was off getting water. Now was my chance to go unnoticed. Alone time was needed.

I was moving as quickly and quietly as I could. I start towards the forest. Kicking my heels off as I went, I knew they were the wrong choice the moment I picked them. The whole time my temperature was rising, and my head was pounding. It felt like it was going to split right open; the pressure was unreal.

I was running, no idea where I was going, just running. Tree’s whizzed past me as I picked up speed. My feet rhythmically slapped down on the still damp earth, but I didn’t care.

Everything felt weird. I felt like I needed to pull all my hair out. It was itchy and on fir; my skin wouldn’t stop the odd vibrating feeling, and my vision went in and out. One minute it was crystal clear; the next, it was grainy. The night sounds were screaming in my head and only getting louder.

“What is happening to me” I stumble but keep on running.

The clearing came into view not far from my favourite place; I headed towards it. I have no control over what I am doing or where I am going. Stumbling, the ground comes up to meet me. Sinking my trembling hands into the earth, desperately dragging deep lungful’s of cool air in through my nose and out through my mouth. Something is happening, and I already know it will not be fun.

Looking up, I see the clouds shift, and a beautiful full moon appears. It hits me then; I know what is going on. But it’s too soon. My birthday isn’t for another seven days. I don’t have a choice; this is happening now, whether I like it or not.

Pain lashed through my body like I had never felt before. A scream rips from my throat, sounding so surreal to my ears. My back feels like it is snapping in two; I feel every vertebra in my spine move, every muscle stretch. The tendons and ligaments were tearing. I could feel every single rip, snap, tare and stretch. No doubt in my mind that I was going to die.

Time felt as if it had stood still whilst my body was being remade into something new when it had only taken a few minutes. I was super aware of every little change my body was going through. When my nails turned to claws, and my teeth sharpened and elongated, I had no energy to scream; I just lay there, allowing the inevitable to happen. I couldn’t stop this or change it. I had to just give in to it.

Trembling on the ground, exhausted, I lie there waiting for the pain to start again. But it doesn’t. I’m so tired, though. I just want to sleep, but at the same time, I want to run and be free.

“Hello, Ayla; I’m Bria; I have waited so long to talk to you.”

“Who are you” I reply; my eyes are still shut, and I lay there helplessly

“I’m your wolf, the other half of you!”

“I don’t understand; I’m not due to turn eighteen until Wednesday; how can I have shifted already?” questions fly around my battered brain.

“Ayla, today is our birthday. I have silently watched through your eyes our whole life, never being able to speak until now. When Michael found you, they didn’t know how old we were. They had to estimate. They did a good job only being seven days out”. Bria softly explains.

Slowly I pull myself up, but this time on all four feet.

“I’m a wolf,” I thought; joy spreads through me like wildfire. I can’t wait to get to know this part of me.

“You certainly are”, Bria chuckles in my mind. “Right now, you must take it easy; our first change will always be hard. We need to run…slowly. You need to change back, eat, drink and rest.”

“Fine, but I wanna learn all about you still. Do I have to be in wolf form to hear you?” I ask her

“No, now we have been through the first change, I can talk to you freely; it’s been a long wait for me.”

Focusing on the world around me, I take a deep breath in. Everything smelt stronger, richer even. Looking around, I could see for miles and in immaculate detail; this was amazing. I couldn’t believe this had happened, and I couldn’t wait to tell Aiden, Axel and Archer.

“Yes! I can’t wait to meet their wolfs; there is something about those brothers, isn’t there” Bria says with an unmistakable smile. She likes them as much as I do.

I stayed like this for a while longer; I took a short run to get the feel of my new legs; it was everything and more than I ever expected.

“Time to change back and rest, “Bria tells me, and I know she wasn’t wrong.

Slowly I head back to the clearing; somehow, I already know exactly what I need to do to change back. I was scared, though; the pain of the change was too much; I don’t think I could go through that again.

“Ayla, it won’t hurt this time; it’s only the first time that it hurts; your body has to learn how to become me. I promise you will be okay this time,” Bria spoke soothingly to me; she could feel my fear.

This would be life-changing for me; I would never have to feel alone again; there would always be someone who understood what I was going through with Mason. I couldn’t believe something so painful could instantly become my favourite thing.

Closing my eyes, I instruct my body to do what it has to do, to bring my human form back. As Bria said, there was no pain this time, just a fuzzy kind of feeling.

The whole thing took less than two minutes. Crouching on the ground, I was naked.

“Oh, my Goddess, I have no clothes. What am I going to do” I thought as fear settled deep within me.

Slowly I started to rise; I was going to need to hide until everyone left before I could get back into the house.

Pain sored through my back once more. I fall to the floor from the force of a kick. My face almost smashes into the ground, but I get my hands out just in time.

Kicks rain down on my body from above as I lay there, hoping to the Goddess it would stop.

“Stay still, Ayla, keep your head tucked in; we do not have the strength to fight back; we have just to protect ourselves as best we can.” I hear Bria’s voice; I know she can feel every blow along with me.

The blows just kept on coming; whoever it was, was relentless. My attacker grabbed fistfuls of my hair. They tried slamming my head into the ground repeatedly; I kept my hands in place, trying to protect my head.

Finally, after what felt like hours, the onslaught ended. They left after one final boot to my rib cage. I laid where I was for a while, battered, bruised and bloody—barely daring to breathe. Each breath was torture. It was even too painful to cry.

“We need to move”, I hear Bria cough as she tries to get me to get up.

“I can’t”, I sob back to her.

“Yes, you can; we need to get out of sight just in case they come looking for us again,” she tells me, and I know she’s right.

Dragging my broken body, I slowly make it to the tree line. I couldn’t stand I had to crawl the whole way.

“You got this, Ayla, just a little further, towards the waterfall, you know it’s safe there”, Bria urges.

Aiden’s POV

Trying to calm down when all I feel is pure rage was one of the things I had to learn to do and learn it quickly. Turning from Ayla, so she didn’t have to see my internal struggle for a moment meant I could focus on gaining some modicum of control back.

What a mistake that was!

“Ayla?” I called; she was gone by the time I turned around. I was only facing the other way for less than a minute. She was nowhere to be seen. Where could she have gone so quickly?

Turning about, I scan the area for her. There are so many people here tonight, but she’s easily the most beautiful. She shouldn’t be hard to spot. Yet nothing, I can’t see her anywhere.

I spot Axel walking back towards me; Archer was following behind. He seemed calmer now, pissed off, but for the same reason, we all were.

“Where’s Ayla?” they ask

“I generally don’t know!” I answer.

“She can’t have gone far, surely”, Axel remarks.

Splitting up, we each take an area and search. I headed north. The problem was she had been all over the house and grounds, so her scent was everywhere. The wind had also picked up and was blowing her scent away, so we couldn’t pick out where she last was.

“The waterfall!” I sent a message to my brothers. Letting them know I was going to go there; she did say it was her favourite place after all.

“Aiden”, I hear my name being called.

Turning, I see it is Mason; I inwardly growl. I didn’t want to be dealing with him right now; there was a chance I wouldn’t be able to keep my promise.

“Hold up!” he calls, so I stop and take a deep breath before facing him.

“What do you want, Mason” I snap. He could see I wasn’t in a talkative mood; he took a step back. I scared the guy.

“Look, mate, I feel we got off on the wrong foot, and I’d like to start over; I feel we could get along great, really help each other out” the words tumble out of his mouth a little too fast.

“I’m not your mate, and right now, I do not have the time or the patients to deal with someone like you”, I all but growl at him; Blaze is eager to teach this tool a lesson but knows right now is not the time.

“Look, chill out; I just want to talk! Did I think maybe you, your brothers and me, a few of my friends could, hang out or something? Spend some time getting to know each other. We could show you around, introduce you to a few girls, you know what I mean,” he stated. Even daring to throw a wink in there indicating something I didn’t even want to think about, why would I want to meet other girls? He was a nasty, arrogant piece of shit.

“We are busy. Don’t you have a lot of important guests you need to greet, being the son of an Alpha?” I point out trying my best to keep my cool. “You don’t need to be standing here talking to me now, do you? You already met me! I’m sure there is some other poor stupid fool who will play along with your little games” I was starting to lose my patients with him.

“What’s your issue? I haven’t done anything to you?” he was starting to get angry.

“No, not to me, but I know what you're like, and you’re not the type of person I waste my breath on,” I say as I leave.

“Prick”, he mutters at me

“Blaze, not yet”, I warn him

“Good luck gaining any favour with my father now”, he growls as he walks off.

Carrying on into the forest, I tried to compensate for the lost time. Mason had cost me at least five minutes. I could smell her scent here. It was pretty new; I was sure of it. I think she must have been this way. A twig snapped off to my right and turning, I sensed someone else was there. I couldn’t make them out, but I’m sure it was a girl; the silhouette wasn’t big enough to be a guy. It didn’t smell like Ayla, though.

“I’m sure if I cut across here, I can get to the waterfall quicker,” I think.

I wasn’t wrong.

I made it to the top of the waterfall in less than ten minutes, whereas the route Ayla took us on took over thirty.

“That’s blood,” I say out loud, I can smell blood, and it’s hers.

My heart rate picked up. I need to find her. But everywhere I look empty; where is she?

Then I saw it, the slightest movement down below. The drop from the top of the waterfall was at least fifty feet high or more. I didn’t care; I didn’t even stop to think. I ran to the edge and jumped. I was landing right in the middle of the pool below.

The water surrounded me instantly, threatening to pull me under, but I refused to waste any time; I kicked my legs hard and swam to the surface. Reaching the edge felt like forever. I could see her now, draped over one of the rocks; she wasn’t moving.

“AYLA” I shout, running over to her. I fall to my knees beside her, pushing my wet hair out of my face. I reach out my hand and touch her cheek. She was covered in blood and bruises, and she was naked.

“Ayla, can you hear me” I panicked; how could this have happened. She was right there with me; I only turned my back for a few minutes.

I tugged off my wet shirt; I didn’t have anything else on me to wrap her in. I did my best at wringing it out before I gathered her up in my arms and covered her body in it.

“Hold on; I’ve got you.”