Skins & Needles (COMPLETE)

Phases

Charlotte

When I woke up, I knew I was alive.

But I felt like I was dying.

My whole body ached in a way I'd never experienced. Even through all my bruises and broken bones, nothing had ever felt this visceral. From my skin all the way to the core of my being, pain radiated in relentless waves. Sometimes it would ease up for a few seconds, but it always came crashing back. I may have screamed— my throat felt raw and constricted— but the waves roared in my ears as well as my body. I searched for a light, but there was none, and so I curled in on myself and weathered the storm.

After hours and hours of nothing but a void of suffering, the pain started to let up, but the discomfort was far from over. With the aches receding, I became aware of Arsen's presence next to me, and made my body unfold from the ball it was in. I was freezing, and rolled over to curl into his chest.

"Hey, there you are," Arsen said gently, and pulled me into his arms. "The hardest part is over, okay? You've got this."

"Fuck," I croaked, and Arsen laughed a little.

"I know, the first transition is always the hardest," he said. "I hear it's worse if you're not born a shifter."

"Nothing could be worse than this," I said with confidence. "And I've watched someone get their asshole tattooed."

"Should I be jealous?" Arsen asked. A shiver raked through me and I pressed impossibly closer to Arsen. His body heat enveloped me and eased the biting chill, but just barely.

"Definitely not," I told him through gritted teeth.

"Cold?"

"Yeah."

"Not for long." Arsen stroked my back over the bathrobe I wore, and I relaxed a little.

My mind wandered back to my last memories before the pain. Me dying. Arsen begging me to live. Trying to tell him I loved him. Him saying it back. And then the Gift. The feeling of light shooting through my veins. My body beginning to knit itself back together. And then waking up in Arsen's room, in pain.

"What about..." I shivered again, but the cold was starting to recede. "What about him?"

"Dead," Arsen said shortly, his own body tensing. I moved my hand to rest on his back, and he sighed. "Nathan and Ryanne tracked him down and I..."

"Thank you," I breathed into his chest. He held me tight for a moment before slackening his grip again.

"Do you need anything?" he asked. "Nathan grabbed ice cream and is picking up some more things."

"Tell him thanks. I think I'm good for now." The chill was almost gone, and I could feel a building heat spreading through my limbs. I lay there with Arsen for a little longer, but began feeling uncomfortable, sweaty. Then suffocatingly hot, like I was breathing in a sauna. I pushed away from Arsen, and he let me go.

"The pain is the hardest part," he said as I began kicking off covers, "but it's not the end."

"I'm noticing," I panted, and stripped off my bathrobe before tossing it across the room. "Fuck, I feel like I want to crawl out of my skin."

"That won't happen quite yet, but soon."

"How soon?" I fanned myself, noticing all my injuries seemed to be completely gone, before looking back at Arsen. His eyes were trained on me, laser focused as he watched me act naked and insane. "What?"

"I'm just in awe," he told me, and I blushed even hotter. "I can't believe I have you."

"If someone had told me a few months ago that I would fall in love with a werewolf, almost get killed multiple times, and then also become a... shapeshifter, or whatever, I..." I trailed off in thought and flopped back onto the bed. "I probably would have told them to bring it on, honestly."