I waited outside the house in the hot June weather for everyone to show up. Seth came first. His dad pulled up in his silver truck and stopped a few feet away. Then Seth stepped out of the truck, yelling bye to his dad. As soon as Seth turned to look at me, he ran as fast a he could and swepted me up in a bear hug.
“Oh my gosh, I’m so glad you’re ok. Is this where you’re staying? This place is huge.”
“Seth. I Can’t. Breath.” I said between gasps for air.
“Oh sorry.” When he pulled back I saw that he only had one paw print on his neck. “So do I get a kiss for still being?” he said with a sly grin.
“I have to wait for everyone else to show up but I’m sure Bentley wouldn’t mind showing you around. You might get to see more than I have.” I gave him the same grin.
A few minutes after Seth went inside Cole, Alex and Taylor came in Taylor’s brother, Noah’s, jeep. They reacted just like Seth and nearly knocked me over. When we went inside Bentley was talking to Seth by one of the giant monitor. Bentley looked up to see that we were all here.
“Lexie has told me about what happened one her birthday and this isn’t the first time this has happened to someone.” Pain flickered through his eye then vanished as he continued. “Since the attack in 96’ parents have been trying to protect their children from what’s in these woods. When this started more and more wolves began to show up then vanish because people thought once someone was “infected” that person would attack others in the household while they slept. When this started I began to do research on myths and phenomenon and found that people have been being bit for centuries. It also said that If an “infected” wolf bites a human, their genetic material begins to change and your body will change from human to wolf. Once you begin to change you go unconscious because your body has not adapted to the wolf DNA. After Eight or nine changes you will change from wolf to human with ease or, your body will reject the change and you will die. But from I’ve never seen this happen. Plus whoever has the most paw prints they become pack leader. From the looks of it, that would be you Lexie.”
“Wait, Me? Pack leader? Why me?”
“The other ‘infected’ wolves all have a special spot to tell who’s in what pack. The more spots you have it says that you’re the leader. The leader is also different color than the rest of the pack like the brown wolf among the black and grey wolves.”
Well that’s just great. I’m the leader of a pack of wolves; I’ve never had to be a leader before. That was always Cole. My life is like a frigging roller coaster. First my parents leave me. Then a nice stranger takes me in. Now I’m the leader of four other wolves. My life couldn’t get any worse from here. Plus I have a 1 out of 6 chance that I could die.
“Lexie? LEXIE!!!!!” Cole yelled while punching me in the arm.
“OW!!! What?”
You need to take us to the kitchen so we can call our parents.”
“Why?”
“Because we have to call our parents. Weren’t you listening???” he said with a frustrated look.
“Sorry” We all got up and headed down one of the long hallways. On our way to the kitchen Seth asked if they could see where I was staying. So I showed them my room with the bed. When we made it to the kitchen mine and Bentley’s dishes were still sitting on the table. So as everyone called their parents I put the dishes in the sink and started to wash them, then right as I turned off the water…… I passed out.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~**~*~*~**~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~**~*~*~*~*~**~*~*~
I woke up to the sound of someone pounding on glass. When I opened my eye I was staring through glass. I tried to get up but was strapped down. I tilted my head to where the pounding came from. It was Seth trying to get my attention. I tried to get up but I strapped down. You can’t imagine how creepy this is. Even with Seth outside the glass it is extremely weird. Bentley said something to Seth but I couldn’t hear them, then he opened the door and stood beside me.
“Why am I strapped to the table? And how long have I been out for?” I asked curiously.
“5 hours. The reason why you’re strapped to the table is because we had to run some test but you would sit still long enough.” He said with a little chuck. “It was kind of funny it took Cole, Alex and Seth to hold you down once you became human.”
“I’ve got the strength of 5” I replied jokingly.
Bentley unstrapped me from the table so I could get up.
“Seth helped me run the tests since he hasn’t changed yet.” And like it was on que Seth began to shake. He dropped to his knees and grabbed his head like he was trying to hold it together.
“Quickly get him in here before he fully changes!” he said.
I hopped off the table franticly and ran to Seth’s side, grabbing his arms while Bentley grabbed his feet. We moved as quickly as possible trying not to drop Seth at the same time because if we didn’t then we would have a hard time containing him. For Seth’s size he was really heavy. Just as we sat him on the floor he completely changed from the Seth I knew into a beautiful black wolf. His green eyes glowing from in his dark fur, but right on his right ear there was the shape of the paw glowing white on his black fur. Bentley grabbed my arm to pull me from the glass room but Seth jumped at us. We closed the door just as he hit the glass. I couldn’t believe he tried to kill us.
“Was I like this too?” I asked in a state of fear.
“Actually you just sat there watching everything that happened around you. Each wolf has its own personally like it did as a human. You are calm, powerful, and assertive, so that is how you are as a wolf. Seth strong and protective, that’s why he tried to attack me when I touched you,”
“Why would he try to attack you?” Bentley gave me a sly grin, but I still didn’t understand. Then I started to wonder. ”Where are the others?”
“There in the next room over. We had to bring this room over because you changed so quickly and was too stubborn to move. Cole and Alex brought the table in so that when you changed back it was ready. Then you walked right in and sat in between them. It made the process a lot easier. Cole and Alex shifted at the same time. They’re very happy wolves. Full of playfulness and energy. They wrestled there way right into one of the room and were playful the whole time I watched them. Those two are really funny.”
“Yeah but they can be serious when they need too.”
“Yes they can. Anyways after they shifted Taylor changed and she was not the playful type, but she does take orders well. She changed almost as fast as you did and then we couldn’t get her in the cage. Seth started to get frustrated and told her to move it and she did.
“She’s a good girl.”
“They should have changed back by now. Can you go check on them?”
“Yeah, sure.” When I was leaving the room Seth’s green eyes watched me the whole way to the door. It was a little weird. I opened the door to the other room to see Alex and Cole wrestling and Taylor fast asleep. It was such a cute picture. As I walked up to where Alex and Cole were “cage” Cole saw me and smiled. Then Alex me. When I tried to open the door it was locked with a password.
“Hey Bentley, What’s the password for the glass rooms?” I yelled from where I stood.
“1234” He yelled back. How creative. I put in the code and began to open the door. Just as the door was opened a crack, Cole and Alex tackled me. They were both laughing and I couldn’t help but laugh too.
“You two are idiots”
“Yeah but you love us,” Cole said then kissed me on the cheek so I bite his ear.
“You’re not going wolf on us are you?” Alex gave me an evil smile and bared his teeth. I couldn’t help but laugh harder than I already was. I pushed Alex and Cole off me and got up. We didn’t bother waking up Taylor. It looked like she needed the sleep.
“Is anyone else hungry?” Cole and I looked at Alex with a weird glare. “What, all this changing is making me hungry.”
Now that I thought about it I was kind of hungry too.” Yeah, I’m hungry too. How about you?” I looked at Cole.
“I could eat.”
“Bentley!!! Can we have something to eat?” I hollered as we walked into the other room.
Bentley looked up from his clipboard. ”Um you can have whatever you want. It’s….” He looked at his watch. “ 4:30pm you can cook the pizza in the freezer.”
We went down to the kitchen and I started to cook the pizza. It smelled like heaven. It made my stomach growl. When it finally cooked we all sat to enjoy our “feast” Cole and Alex ate the way I and we almost ate the whole pizza. While we ate I started to think about what it will be like to be a wolf. Being able to remember everything that happened. Being leader of my pack of wolf buddies. When I came back to reality Cole and Alex were fighting over the last piece of pizza. Then my body began to shake. I knew at that point that I was changing. I closed my eyes waiting for the shaking to stop. Now I know how Seth felt. I grabbed my head as pain was shouting through it. The shaking stopped but only for a second then the pain came back. When I opened my eyes I was still me. Then it happened again. The shaking only lasted a slit second then I wasn’t me anymore. I looked up to see Cole and Alex staring at me. I ran over to the fridge and looked at the reflection. Oh great, I’m a wolf AND I didn’t go unconscious. Wait…. I am seeing though the eyes of my wolf self. This is so cool. I turned to look at Alex who was kneeling beside me.
“Aw, aren’t you a little cutie.” Alex said while petting me like a common house pet. Cole was laughing next to him. I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at them. “I guess we better take her to Bentley to see what we should do.”
They both walked out of the room, I guess they wanted me to follow so I did. It felt so weird walking this close to the floor. Having to use four legs instead of two. I looked down to see white fur. What a coincident. I’m my favorite color. By the time I got down the hall, Cole, Alex and Bentley were in deep conversation. When Bentley saw me walk in he opened the door to where Seth was.
“Lexie can you understand what I’m saying?” I nodded. “ get in the glass room please.” I let out what I hoped was a sigh and trotted into the room, climbed up on the table and layed down. Seth, who was sitting in the back corner came and sat in front of the table, separating me from the three outside the class. Bentley was right Seth is protective. I wonder what there was to do as a wolf. After 5 minutes of just sitting there I decided to have some fun. I got to my feet and pounced at Seth. I caught his off guard and forced I’m to the ground.
“Hey, Lexie, what are you doing?” I the voice of Seth but didn’t see his black furry lips move.
“How are you talking to me?” I thought.
“It’s a telepathic thing between wolves. Bentley told us when you turned wolf a while ago.”
“Oh.”
“Now what’s the big idea, you tattling me?”
“I’m wrestling, duh, what does it look like?” I said biting his ear.
Seth let out a little chuckle before saying”Ok let’s fight.”
I let Seth up and we began to circle. I could see Cole and Alex watching from the corner of my eye. I decided to make the first move. I jumped, getting him in neck with my paw. He returned the favor by swinging his paw at me getting me in the side of my leg, knocking me over. We played for a few minutes until Seth started to shake. He was becoming human again. I wondered when I was going to change back and just like that the thought made me human. I was sitting wearing my turtle neck and jeans. I sat there watching the black wolf change into the Seth I knew, still wearing his black t-shirt and shorts. I started to wonder where our clothes went when we change but I probably didn’t want to know. He layed so peacefully on the floor in a deep sleep. Bentley opened the door and Alex and Cole came in and lifted Seth onto the table. I grabbed the pillow from the table, placing it under Seth’s head. I walked over to the door and Cole came to open the door. Just as he opened it a little bit I jumped, tackling him to the ground the same way he and Alex did to me. He began to laugh.
“Tochê”