Bound by the Hollow Moon

Chapter 12

I could hear a familiar female voice yelling from the living room as we arrived, "You have to, Marcus! She'll die if you don't help her!"

Marcus snorted, "no other Wolfborn has needed help, and they were just pups."

"This is different and you know it, she needs her mate!" Mira sounded frantic.

"I told you! I'm not gonna fucking coddle her! I don't have time for this shit!"

Caius rounded the corner and the siblings snapped their gaze straight to me. This time it was Mira that was coiled and tense, while Marcus seemed calm and uninterested. Caius spoke for the first time during this whole ordeal, "You are the only one who can guide her body into transition brother, it's your venom she is reacting to," he began to plead, "please, it's the only way." The current of sparks pulsed more rapidly, spreading the energy in a web of agonizing jolts through my limbs. I cried out with the pain and thrashed involuntarily, nearly bucking myself out of his arms.

Ezra chimed in this time, pleading my case in medical terms, "her human immune response is fighting the change. Because your venom is already in her system, your blood will act as a bridge, allowing her genes to accept the final stages of the mutation." Marcus still hesitated, battling with his pride. Ezra pushed on, "there is no toughing it out. she will die.... and if she dies, we have no future, Alpha."

Marcus let out a frustrated growl and stomped over to me, ripping me out of Caius' arms. "Take her to the garden, Marcus, she needs to feel the moon's touch," Mira urged. He carried me outside and laid me out on the lip of the fountain, Artemis' towering likeness pointed her arrow high at the moon above me. The pain was so great, now radiating through my entire system, that my nerves were numb from over stimulation. Marcus looked down at me with contempt, but when he unwrapped me, it changed into pity. My skin was pale and glistening with sweat, my chest constricted grotesquely with every gasp of air I took, and my muscles spasmed and rippled underneath my skin.

"Okay, what do I do?" he asked, his eyes still roaming over my prone form.

Mira handed him a pocket knife, "feed her your blood."

He cursed under his breath, clearly upset that he was having to give me yet another part of himself, but ran the blade across his wrist anyway. I screwed my eyes shut when he pushed the wound to my lips and tried not to gag when I felt the thick, warm substance trickle down my throat.

The relief was instant.

With each swallow of his blood, the pulsating charge arcing through my veins weakened significantly, going from piercing shocks to a muted tingle. As it became more and more bearable, I could feel the influence of the moon more acutely. It's familiar glow was now connecting to me, threading itself through my cells, attaching to my very fundamental chemical makeup, making me one with it... making me one with her.

The shift into my Wolf began with a prickling sensation in my skin, caused by the fine tufts of fur growing from my pores. My muscles started to stretch and contort, bones cracking and shifting with them. Within a minute I had rolled from my back on the fountain onto four pure white paws, a collective gasp came from the group of onlookers, and I twitched my ear towards Mira when she explained to the rest, "the moon. Her pelt is white because of the moon..." Returning my attention to the current threat with my hackles raised, I crouched and growled at the human in front of me. Marcus's eyes flashed angrily at the challenge, but also with something of admiration. He shucked his clothing, not breaking eye contact, and shifted into his wolf form with a fluid grace. Caramel brown and twice my size, I whimpered as the defiance I had felt melted with every stride he took towards me. When he was only a foot away, he curled his lips and growled. The glowing aura in my soul flared at the threat, replacing my wolf's instinct to submit with Artemis' will to rule over her hunting dogs.