In This Life And The Next ✔️

Chapter 22: I'm a Dead Girl

The guys Mark and Damon hugged each other, tears in their eyes.

"I-i-it's Jen." Aimee finally said. She was crying so loud but they didn't seem like sad sobs, they seemed like happy sobs.

I clutched Alex's shirt, when everyone from the picture tried to peer behind him, trying to catch a glimpse of me.

Alex only growled louder, sounding inhuman, he shook in his spot and I backed away from him too.

How is he making that sound? He sounded like me. Could he be...

I looked over at Aimee and the men standing next to her. They all gasped when they saw my face.

I backed up into a tree, making me jump. I was shaking so hard and breathing so fast that I couldn't get enough oxygen to my brain. My eyes started to see black dots but I continued to hyperventilate.

"Jennifer!" The man from the picture who's name is Nathan and who I'm now realizing is Alex's dad, looked straight into my eyes.

He was in tears as were almost all of the other guys. I realized one of was missing. I think his name was Zander.

Matt, the tall one in the picture stepped closer to me, crying out my name.

I started to sway where I was standing. My breathing grew faster. My body shook and I could feel the animal inside, crawl to the top.

"I think she's shifting!" Someone yelled.

I froze, halting everything that was happening in my body. I glanced around feeling surrounded.

They know.

They know what I am.

My eyes darted back and forth, looking at everyone as they stared at me. I felt like a trapped animal and it was making me scared. Fear rolled off of me in waves and I'm pretty sure everyone knew how scared I was.

Nathan stepped towards me, his hands upright, reaching for me.

Alex came out of nowhere and knocked his father down and stood in front of me, huffing. He looked quite dangerous, looking at his father with a murderous glare.

"Alex, calm down. We're not going to hurt her." Nathan told his son.

Jen came out of the house and looked between me and Alex, then her mom. "What's going on?"

Matt's eyes never left my face, he was crying and smiling. I only looked at him with confusion.

When Matt stepped forward, something happened that I never thought was possible.

Alex shifted into the beast that has haunted my entire life. His shredded clothes flew to the ground as his already shifted body stood in front of me, growling so loud that the ground vibrated.

I gasped, breathing in the air into my lungs. I forgot how to breathe. The gray wolf's giant head looked back at my still form, concern in its eyes, moving closer to me. The wolf's black eyes glistened in the light. I've never seen such dark, such black eyes before.

I was too frozen to move, to react, so when the wolf whined and touched my arm with its nose, I did nothing. I wasn't breathing, my heart wasn't beating and I knew right then and there that I was going to pass out.

As much as I didn't want to, I started to fall. The wolf shifted back into a human and right before my head hit the ground, a naked Alex caught me in time, just before I slipped into the darkness.

🔹🔹🔹🔹

ALEX

"Ariana!" I shook her unconscious body just as my dad stepped forward and called out Jen. I squeezed Ariana to my chest and led her inside, placing her on the couch gently.