Liam
I heard the first snap and then Lily's strangled scream.
I hadn't been sleeping. I couldn't. I was too anxious. So I laid there for the past couple of hours holding her in my arms, staring at her and peppering her with greedy kisses just praying she would stay with me.
"Fuck that hurts." Lily grits between clenched teeth.
"I wish I could tell you it was going to get better, sweetheart." I say as I pull the blankets off of her. Looks like her leg went first.
Not uncommon, but it usually starts with fingers and toes. I haven't seen a lot of shifts, but the fingers and toes snapping into unnatural positions always creeps me out the most.
I mind link the doctor, then carry Lily outside. She's still wearing one of my t-shirts and I'm going to leave it on her for as long as I can. Her face is set in a grimace of pain as I lay her on the blanketed ground.
"Here, baby." I say as I shove a straw in her face.
She's going to get annoyed with me forcing water down her, but she's going to sweat like crazy and I don't need her getting dehydrated on me.
"Really, Liam? More water? I thought I was turning into a werewolf not a whale." I have to chuckle at that.
"Nah, baby. You'd be a shark if anything." She huffs before taking a decent enough swallow of water to appease me and then I hear another few cracks.
Ah, there go the fingers.
She makes like she's going to look down at her hand, so I grip her chin firmly and force her eyes to meet mine.
"Don't look, baby. Trust me." She nods and lays down, so I adjust the pillow under her head.
"This is gonna suck ass, Lily, but I just need you to get through the next few hours and then I'll never let you feel pain again." She snorts and looks at me with more mischief than I thought possible in her situation.
"Sure, until I have our pups." She says.
My wolf's ears perk up at the mention of pups and I can't stop the shit eating grin on my face.
"Pups? You wanna have pups with me?" She narrows her eyes at me and another crack rings out, toes this time and she screams before meeting my eyes again.
"Obviously, you idiot." She says between clenched teeth. My heart warms at the thought, her belly big with our little one.
"When?" I ask a little too excitedly. She scoffs and shakes her head.
"Please let my body go through one life altering change at a time." My wolf backs off, feeling a little guilty, as do I.
"Of course, love. You just got me a little excited there." I say and offer her more water.
"Can't wait to practice though." She says before a louder crack occurs. Her entire arm is bent at an awkward angle, forcing her onto her back.
She begins to sob and I run my fingers through her hair in a pathetic attempt to soothe her.
"I'm fine." She says, but I think she's trying to convince herself more than me.
I look at the watch on my wrist, the one she gave me for Christmas. We're barely half an hour into this and my resolve to stay strong for her is breaking.
A series of three more cracks and a pop. Her ankles and wrists are moving into her paws. The thought thrills me. I won't deny my wolf has been excited for the past two weeks at the prospect of running with his mate, but her horrified screams are drowning out any sense of joy that may otherwise be possible.
"Fuck, Liam! It hurts so bad!"
"I know, baby, I know." I run my hands along everywhere that has shifted already, trying to let our bond soothe her.
'Get as much skin to skin contact as you can. You can siphon some of the pain from her.' I hear in my head.
The good doctor is right, and I quickly strip and hold Lily as close as I can without hurting her. I reach out through our bond to feel her pain, then I grip onto it and pull it towards me. Soon I feel the stinging pain in my own joints and muscles as Lily visibly relaxes, if only slightly.
"What are you doing?" She asks, strained.
"Taking some of your pain." I answer.
The look she gives me could knock me to my knees if I weren't already lying down. Such love, trust and devotion.
"Thank you." She says earnestly. I nod and reach for the water silently urging her to drink. She does as much as she can before another crack rings out.
I feel her body start to heat up from the strain being put on it. Her body shimmers with sweat and her hair is plastered in her face due to the dampness. I cut my shirt off of her with my claws and grab two bags of ice, covering her with them. She shivers at first, but quickly lets out a sigh of relief as she relaxes into the cold pellets. The ice melts quickly, more from her body heat than the outdoor temperature. I force more water into her. I know from experience this is the scariest part for both the shifter and the one watching. Once we get through the middle phase, the fur is pretty easy.
I lean down to murmur in her ear, "You're doing so good, sweetheart. I'm so proud of you."
She doesn't say anything, her eyes closed tight in concentration, brows furrowed in a deep grimace. I get the impression she's trying to keep from crying out in pain to protect me.
A few more sickening cracks, and Lily rolls over to her side. She can't stop the screams that leave her now, and I have no doubt they will torture me in nightmares for years to come.
Her spine is starting to curve.
'Something's wrong." I tell Dr. Sommers. 'The spine is supposed to go all at one time, but only part of hers did.'
'She's fighting it.' The doctor responds.
Due to the awkward curvature of her partially shifted spine, Lily is having a hard time breathing. I hear a slight wheeze on every exhale and inhale.
"Oxygen." She murmurs. I grab the tank, put the mask on her and turn the nozzle. It seems to help a little, but she needs to embrace the shift or she will die.
"Lily, I know it hurts but you have to let her out. You can't fight her, baby. You need to work with her. To trust her." Lily nods, but nothing happens.
"She's scared." Lily wheezes. "To hurt me."
Ah, fuck. We don't have time for a gun shy wolf.
I know what I'm about to do will piss her off, but we need this wolf to do her damn job.
"Your wolf? Scared? Maybe she's not the wolf for you then. I know my Lily is fearless. She wouldn't let a little pain stop her from showing this world exactly who she is and what she's made of. Your wolf sounds like she will be a weakness."
And there it is.
A snarl rips from Lily's mouth and her spine finishes curving with a few more sickening snaps. I look up at the moon and at my watch. Almost two hours we've been at this. She's gotten through the worst, but it's not over yet.
She cries out again as her canines come forward. There's no cute jewelry for this kind of teething. I wet a washcloth and have her bite down on it. It helps to take out the sting. She pulls her head from the washcloth and flashes me her teeth, giving me a wolfy grin.
"Do I look like a bad ass?" I chuckle and nod. Even in this much pain, her sense of humor remains in tact.
"Fuck yeah you do."
The arm I'm holding begins to sprout fur under my fingers. It's soft and a luminous shade of blonde, just like her hair.
"OK baby this is the last bit. You tell that wolf of yours to come out and show me who she is. We've been dying to meet her."
Lily nods and clenches her eyes shut tight. A few more cracks and she pushes herself off of the ground, her face elongates into a snout and the cutest fucking tail I've ever seen emerges as her body finishes contorting into her new form. I blink only once and when I refocus I'm staring at a huge, golden wolf. The moonlight shines off her fur, basking her in a halo of light. Her bright blue eyes are still uniquely Lily, but power radiates off of her.
Dr. Sommers walks down the stairs and stares at Lily, as am I. Lily takes a step towards her, and power like waves crash over us, causing the doctor to lower to her knees and bare her neck.
'Why is she doing that?' Lily asks me.
'You forced her too.' Her wolf's eyes widen and she takes a step back.
'How? I thought turned wolves were weaker.' I can't stop staring at her, trying to get my brain to correlate what I'm seeing to what I'm feeling. Usually turned wolves are weaker, especially females.
But Lily.
She's an alpha.