The moment we shapeshifted, we were welcomed with the thoughts of a disoriented and panicked boy. Sam's presence was already felt. I could see the images of his position that he shared with us. I recognized it quickly when I saw the land being separated by a river. He was near the border that separated La Push from Forks.
"Took you long enough." Sam told us.
"Nana's doing. The food was epic." Paul answered.
"You should be ashamed to put the blame on the elders." Jared intervened, catching up on us.
"SHUT UP !"
Their conversation was cut short by the new guy whose emotions were a mess. He was panicking, as anyone would. It was not easy to turn into a giant wolf all of a sudden. To feel your body heating as if you were thrown in a oven, and yet shake violently as if you were freezing cold. And then, to feel bones you never paid attention to, explode in million pieces to create new and bigger ones.
The memories of his torture were still fresh to him. And although turning released the pain, his mental was at its lowest.
If it weren't for the fact that we could feel each other's emotions as if they were ours, I would've heard his anger through his voice.
Through the anger there was also pain, repulsion and mostly fear.
"Everything right now may seem scary to you, but the four of us have been through what you are going through at the moment. We can help you." I talked.
"Leave me alone !"
He was clearly in denial. Refusing our help was his way to convince himself that there was a way out of this. There was a way, but unfortunately it wasn't a permanent one.
"SHUT UP ! This is not true." He answered to my thoughts.
The sudden images of someone jumping off the cliff appeared in my mind. Then the images went pitch black.
It didn't take long for me to realize that these images were from our new recruit. They weren't just simple images that came out of nowhere. These images exposed his plan. His own way out of this.
Left.
There he was, on my left.
I could see him, failing to avoid the branches and obstacles on his way, while running. His fur was grey but his chest and underbelly were white. His footsteps were loud which was explained by the fact that he barely found out how to stand on four feet. Besides, the weight of his new body felt on his legs was twice or even three times heavier than his human one.
Farther out, I could hear the waves crashing against the rocks of First Beach.
He was heading to the highest outcropping of the cliffs. The chances of drowning for our kind were low but for someone who was new to this and didn't know how to move properly with four legs on land, it would be twice harder for him to make it in water.
Without a word, Sam showed us his next position and gave us images of where he needed us to be.
For the past four months, we had spent most of our time in the woods, which allowed us to recognize spots easily due to memories of us being there before, the shape of trees or even their surroundings.
The four of us parted according to Sam's plan, making me push my legs faster to get to the cliff before our new recruit did.
I was quickly catching up on our new born, until I was completely ahead of him. I managed to stop at the border where the dirt path fanned out into the stone ledge, before he could go any further. Failing to stop himself in time, our bodies crashed, pushing me a little closer to the brink.
When I stood up again, I saw Sam behind the young wolf whose name was still unknown. Paul and Jared were on each side of Sam now, a little further into the woods to avoid our new born from fleeing.
Against all odds, the new wolf stood up on his feet quite easily and bared his teeth at me. We stopped him right in time which went against his plans and he wasn't very happy about it. He was now, more annoyed than anything.
"This is not the way." I told him, trying to dissuade him from putting himself in useless danger.
"Back off."
"You will not die if you jump !"
"I'll see for myself."
He plunged forward to attack me however, the mistake he made was trying to fight with his front legs as if he was using his arms in his human form. But, as werewolves, using our front legs was only useful if we wanted to stabilize or pin our opponent down.
The techniques, the endurance, the weaknesses of the human body...I was able to quickly transpose all the knowledge I gathered since last June into our new bodies.
They were gone, but at least they left me with fighting skills I was able to use now.
But the thing was... I didn't want to fight or hurt him. I just wanted a person who was on edge at the moment, to step away from the brink.
Standing on his back legs made him bare his chest to me. I turned quickly and kicked his chest with the strength I gathered in my back legs, making him fly a few meters away until he landed right in front of Sam.
Before he could stand up again, Sam pinned him down and bared his teeth at him.
Horror was radiating off of the new wolf, making him let out whimpers sounding like a scared puppy.
"Don't...don't kill me. Please." He pleaded.
"Wasn't he trying to kill himself just now ?" Paul asked, surprised by the quick change of mind.
"Shhhhh !" Jared hushed him.
It wasn't much about him changing his mind. It was mainly because Sam's aura made fear crawl in every inch of his body making him abandon any idea of going against him.
The new wolf was closing his eyes tightly and shook his head from left to right as if to get rid of the images of Sam's threatening expression in his mind.
I approached them, trying to find the words that would help him calm down.
"I know you don't want this. Trust me, I understand. We didn't choose to be like this either." I started.
I saw him open his eyes. Sam freed him from his hold once he felt him calming down.
"We are werewolves, and being what we are means fulfilling the mission to protect the weaker ones from danger." I continued. I could feel his doubts, his fear and his lack of confidence that surfaced at my words. "It will take time to accept yourself and to be stronger. But until then, you can count on us to have your back. We will help you and guide you."
"But why ? Why did I become...this ? Why do we have to be like this ?"
It could be a useless detail but the fact that he used the pronoun we was a small step he made towards us.
I looked up at Sam, knowing that he was in charge of answering all the questions asked, presenting our history as well as the members of the pack, our roles, and our missions.
"What's your name ?" Sam asked him.
"Ricky." He answered almost immediately, still terrified by Sam. "Ricky Littlesea."
~~
Ricky calmed down as Sam told him everything about our history. Like all of us, the legends he had heard and never thought were true, turned out to be.
His emotions, on the other hand, were more agitated than his physical state. The fact that he became the proof that these legends weren't invented ones was not pleasing him at all.
Who wouldn't have felt the same way ? Going from a normal human life to a life where your whole body turns into a giant animal shape, taking you away from civilisation and bringing you into another as you learn how to control yourself.
We hadn't turned back to human yet. I didn't know exactly what time it was, but judging by the temperatures felt, I would say that it was past noon already.
We were sitting in a half circle with Sam in front of us. My head laid on my front legs as it was already the fourth time that I listened to his speech about our history and his answers to question I myself, once asked him.
At the mention of Ricky's name, Paul immediately recognized him as one of his classmates. The classes he had been ditching a lot lately.
"So that's why you didn't come to school ?" Ricky asked, bringing his attention to Paul.
"Yeah. I had things to do. Kinda cool, right ?" Paul answered. I could easily imagine him wink and smirk as he said that.
"Not really..." Ricky said before he look at the rest of us. "So I'm meant to end up like him ?"
Paul stood on his legs, ready to go against Ricky but Jared easily nudged him to go back to his former position. "What does that mean ?"
"I don't want to give up on myself just because of what I became. I have plans...well, I had plans. I don't want to give up on them." Ricky answered, not phased by Paul's threatening stance.
"You don't have to. You'll have to make some adjustments but you don't have to give up on them." Sam reassured him.
"Don't pay attention to Paul. He didn't have any plan to begin with." Jared intervened which made Paul bite him, initiating a playful fight between the two.
While Sam was patiently waiting for them to stop without intervening, I watched them amused.
Teasing Paul was the common interest of Jared and I. It was never too much and never taken seriously. He reminded me of old times...A time I prohibited myself to think of.
As I was watching them, I could feel the emotions felt by Ricky as he watched them fight as well. This was too new for him to feel comfortable watching two giant wolves fight.
He'll get used to it with time.
I saw him shake his head slowly as if he was answering to my thoughts before he rested his head on his front legs with his eyes closed.
I kept watching him, waiting.
It wouldn't take long. I could feel it.
Ricky's back was moving up and down slowly as he breathed. His gray fur was slightly shaking at the movement of the cold breeze.
"Quit it." Sam ordered Paul and Jared.
He sensed it too.
Under the noises made by the boys fighting, I caught the low whimpers coming from Ricky and the sounds of his bones moving back in order. His fur started disappearing slowly to show a naked boy with long hair falling on the ground, and a body hunched in a foetus position.
His body was still shaking. Although we didn't have access to his thoughts anymore, I was persuaded that fear didn't leave him alone. I was pretty sure he had sensed his body changing into another form but his eyes might've stayed closed during the whole process, in fear to see what was happening.
"Did you bring spare clothes ?" I asked Sam and Jared.
"I brought some." Sam answered.
I nodded and turned to go farther into the woods, out of the boys' sight, to chang into my own clothes that I wrapped around my ankle before I turned.
When I came back, troting, it was as if time had been frozen while I was gone. Ricky was still on the ground, in the same position.
The boys went out of sight to turn back to human once I came back, while I squatted in front of our new recruit.
"Ricky." I called him, breaking the silence.
His body froze for a moment, as if he was surprised to hear a normal human voice.
The voices in our mind did not exactly sound like our human ones. They were lower, which could also be added to the reasons why Sam's voice was scarier. His original voice was already low as it was.
Ricky watched his left hand he moved from right to left as if he was rediscovering his body. He then, raised his head to look up at me. His long hair was covering most of his face. I was not a face reader, but with time, I realized that people were actually open books once we learned how to recognize different emotions on people's faces. But right now, his thick hair were my biggest obstacles and his strongest armour.
"You did it. You turned back to human." I congratulated him.
Like Paul and Jared, it took less than 12 hours to make them turn back to human. Having people guiding you and making everything clearer to you made it easier.
At least, it was my theory.
Like Paul, Jared and Sam, Ricky's skin was tan and his features made his origins very clear. He didn't look like his age, like any of them for that matter.
"Ai...Aiyanna ?" he asked, trying to associate the voice he had been hearing in his head for hours, to the one he heard coming from me.
I nodded. "Yes. Nice meeting you." I said, pulling my hand forward.
Ricky's head followed the motion of my hand before he gathered enough strength to reach for my hand with his right one, and grab it.
Instead of just shaking hands, I put my other hand under his arm and helped him get up. I thanked my non-human strength internally, as it helped me do that much.
After the first turn, it took a few minutes for our muscles to get used to the change of bodies. So I knew that it'd be difficult for him to stand on his own.
While I pushed him up, Ricky held my shoulder as a support. I could feel the ends of his hair touching my shoulder as he kept his head down and his left hand's hold growing tighter.
He raised his head once he was standing, and slowly our faces were around the same level.
My hand moved even before I had time to think about the consequences of my actions. My left hand went from supporting his arm to moving his hair behind his right ear. The obstacle they were representing was disturbing me.
I normally shouldn't have noticed the sudden heat on my fingers once they came in contact with his ear. Or even from the ones that were still wrapped around his hand. My body was as warm as his right now, it was impossible to feel hotter than we already were. And yet...
Moving his hair away allowed me to finally see his eyes clearly. However, I didn't know that once I would do that, I'd be unable to look elsewhere. Like his wolf, his eyes were very dark and still had a bit of confusion tangled in them. And yet, his gaze made the single thought of looking away, vanish. His frowned eyebrows slowly relaxed and his lips parted, as if he wanted to say something.
"Ricky ! Sam's got a pair of shorts for you." Paul's voice intervened from behind Ricky who was hiding him with his huge height. "Although you might not feel the heat, nobody wants to see your pair of cheeks...or balls."
As if thunder had strucked in the small space between Ricky and I, we broke every contact at once. From our eye contact, to his hand on my shoulder or our hands holding onto each other.
I looked away, slightly frowning at the thought of what just happened.
It wasn't imprinting. If it was, we all would've known from the moment him and I fought back at the cliff. The energy around us would have been different and noticeable.
Then what was it ?
"Ah...thank you." I heard Ricky's voice say, hesitant.
Being the only girl in the pack, I waited until I heard him zip up his pants until I allowed myself to look in their direction again.
"Ricky, this is Sam, Jared and Aiyanna." Paul did the presentations while putting his arms around Ricky's shoulders. If there was one person who could be a better support for him at the moment whether they were close or not, it would be Paul, since he was already a part of Ricky's life. "Who would have thought ? The nerd turning into a werewolf. Of all people, you're the last one I would've thought of." Paul admitted.
Ricky who was a few centimeters taller than Paul, moved his shoulders to get rid of Paul's arm around him.
"Sam said it. Being Quileute and the presence of other werewolves or leeches in town is enough to make us turn. I didn't know brain proficiency was taken into account." Ricky answered, turning to Sam, his eyes requesting more information.
"If it was, some people wouldn't have turned." Jared intervened, eyeing Paul with insistance.
"No fighting again, please." I sighed. "Let's not frighten Ricky more than he already is."
"We'll bring you to my house before we bring you home." Sam told Ricky before he turned to me. "I will call the elders there and organize the marking ceremony." he continued and I nodded.
"The marking ceremony ?" Ricky repeated.
"Yep !" Jared answered. "There's still a lot of things you need to know, my friend. We'll tell you everything after we put something in your stomach. You must be starving."
"Hmm...not really."
"Trust me, you are. And I am too. And nobody says no to Emily's cooking." Jared said, already walking in the direction of Sam's house.
Paul was already walking beside him, while Sam and Ricky watched me walk back.
"Dad and Nana cooked some stuff for Emily. I'll go and get them and meet you there." I told Sam.
Sam nodded at me before he turned his gaze to Ricky. "Let's go." he said.
Avoiding the gaze I might again, be the prisoner of, I ran in their opposite direction knowing very well that my movements were followed by the eyes of our new recruit.