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Changing
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We had reached a clearing and I looked around. There was a huge wooden cabin, and practically nothing else.
"Here we are." Sarah said. She was jumping around me and I was happy because she was, but inside I still felt confused. "We'll go into the main room with a few of the other girls. They'll give you the longest rundown of being a wolf in ten minutes." She smiled again.
I was still staring at the house. It was bigger than any house I'd ever been in. "How many people live here?" I asked.
"There are twenty- four of us, twenty- five with you." I heard a growl behind her. John, I thought. "If you want to stay." She added quietly.
She led the way inside and called out, "Girls meeting in the living room!" Then she walked me into a large room off to the side with sliding doors. "All of the rooms are sound-proof. Half of the boys snore and some other stuff... like mates." She told me. I frowned. Mates?
I never even had a boyfriend. Never even talked to any guy, except Nick and some villagers who were herding me away from their families.
"Do I have a mate?" I asked, sounding kind of stupid.
"Everyone does. Even me." She blushed and shot a glance at John. "We'll explain when the girls get here." She said, still a little flustered at my question.
Suddenly three girls walked in. "Girls meeting. It means no boys- especially in wolf form- so get out John." One said.
He just growled at her, but Sarah said, "I'll be okay." And he left.
"Is this..." The smallest one started.
"Yeah." Sarah answered after the other girl trailed off. There were five of us in the room. Then turning to me, she said, "The smaller one is Kayla, the sexy one is Tanya, and the tall buff is Katherine."
"Call me Kate." She said.
I nodded to each of them. "I'm Anabelle, but call me Ana." I smiled.
"So you need the run-down on being wolf?" Tanya asked.
I nodded. "By two."
"Your birth hour." Kayla said. She didn't ask, she knew. I nodded... again.
"Have a seat. I'll be doing fighting. Tanya- mates, and Kayla- all the other stuff, and Sarah- add in what we missed." Kate said. They nodded. We all sat in the circular formation of a couch and two chairs. Kate and I took the chairs, and the three girls took the couch, so they could all see me, and so I could see all of them.
"We should start with mates, then me, and then Kayla. Sarah you can just add in as we go." To me, Kate sounded sort of like a leader. I must have looked a little uncomfortable, because she added, "I'm our Alpha's sister. I tend to take charge when in girl's meetings. Questions as we go, okay?"
"Okay." I said. Now it made sense to why she was ordering us. At least it helped my situation.
Tanya started, "Mates are, like, your other half. There's a way to tell who it is and stuff. You'll feel, like, in love the moment you see them. Any contact you'll feel, like, a burning or heat. Then you'll feel longing and all that stuff. There's a mating process, but we try to stay away from those who aren't sixteen yet, because they are, like, way too young." She glanced at Sarah before continuing, "I mean, so are sixteen year-olds, but we're 'of age' so, yeah." She was chewing gum and saying 'like' a lot.
"So what's the mating process?" I asked.
"Um... Well... First you see each other, then you kiss, then he has to mark you..."
Sarah cut her off, "He bites your neck so you're protected from other boys. It won't hurt either." Tanya shot her the evil eye and continued.
"Lastly you have to...Um... Sleep with him. But you won't be doing that anytime soon. You can wait as long as you want, but he might get mad, depending on his character towards you.
I nodded, grateful that I could wait as long as I wanted, I mean, there was no way I was going to have sex with some guy I just met or whatever.
"Any questions?" Kate asked. I shook my head. She continued, "Okay. So you have to know how to fight because if you get in any trouble, we won't always be with you. Also, if you don't have a mate yet, he won't be there to protect you. We'll have to train and stuff when you feel better from what is going to happen in ten minutes. I'm done for now, Kayla?"
"I'll start with rogues. They always attack every once in a while, so you'll need to fight." She nodded towards Kate and continued, "We also need to know if you'll be joining our pack. We don't know how long you can stay before you make your decision, but you can definitely stay for two days. Us four girls have what is called 'girls meetings' a lot to discuss rogues, new mates, all that good stuff. You can join, but you have to be a pack member first. Oh and when you join, we can communicate through our minds. I'll teach you how to put up a wall if you do join. We don't want annoying boys' voices in your head all day." She snickered at the thought.
"Any questions?" Kate asked.
I shook my head again, "No."
"Good, it's almost two." She said. We all looked at the clock. "We should go to bed. I'll take Ana to the guest room, so say your good-nights. They all muttered goodnight to me, but I just nodded. I was scared at what was to come.
Kate led me up one flight of stairs to what they called the guest room. "Here we are. There's a bathroom attached, and there's a cup for water in there for you. Do you need painkillers?" She asked.
"No, I packed some." I muttered.
"This is going to be a long night... Uh... Day for you. Take some painkillers now and lie in bed. I'll give my brother the heads up that you're here. I'll also make sure nobody bothers you. The pain might last all day, but you'll be fine if you take three of the pills. Have a shower when the pain stops." She almost closed the door, but I stopped her.
"Wait! What's going to happen to me?" I asked.
"Your body is going to be adjusting, changing, so that your internal make- up can easily change back and forth. You'll also get new things for your human form, like speed, better eyesight, better hearing, and strength. Take the three pills now and you'll only feel pain for like five minutes, but you shouldn't stand up when it starts so lay down for a while. Come out when it stops. I'll be downstairs in the room we were in with the others. I also recommend taking off your clothing so it doesn't get damaged." She laughed to herself and added, "But get dressed before coming out too." Then she left.
I heard her mutter while walking down the hallway, "I hope she'll be okay."
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(Kate's POV)
As I walked down the hallway to my room, I thought, 'I like her. She looks like she'll be a strong girl for our pack, and those eyes. I need to talk to my brother about her.'
'Bro. Wake up! Important new message from your sister! Concerning the pack.'
'What the fuck do you want now?' I heard his voice reply in my head.
'Sarah brought that girl here. The one with the colored eyes that change. The one that you saw in the forest.'
'Her?!? She's here? What the hell is she doing here?'
'Sarah just saved her. And she has every right to be here according to you. Remember? You said that anyone in need that has potential to join our pack has a two day limit to stay with us. In that time they have to join the pack. Otherwise they have to leave. Your words, not mine.'
'And who said she has potential?'
'She has color changing eyes! And she's sixteen as of two a.m. today! We have to take her in at least two days! Otherwise she might be killed by rogues! Do you want that?'
'No.' He answered, grudgingly.
'Good. That's why she's here. Safe from rogues. What do you have against her anyways?' I knew I shouldn't have asked the second the words were sent through our mind link.
Growling, he answered, 'Nothing. Except that she's different. She has color changing eyes. She didn't smell like a wolf when I first saw her, so I thought she was something else- paranormal.'
'She didn't smell like wolf because she hadn't changed yet. She's changing now. Order everyone to stay away from the guest room too. We don't want her disturbed in the middle of her pain.'
'Yeah, yeah. Whatever. I'll do it now.' We had learned that a changing wolf would kill you in their pain. Even if it only lasted one day, one changing wolf could kill a pack of thirty easy.
'There. I hope you know I just woke up everyone in the house to tell them. They'll all be angry at me before breakfast.'
'You can tolerate it. There's something about that girl. I'll find out what when it's over.'
'You do that. I'm going back to sleep.' He muttered.
'Goodnight. See you nice and early in the morning.'
'No way are you going to wake me up early. I'm sleeping in now that you fucking woke me up at two in the morning.'
'Night brother.'
Everything was silent from his end of the mind link, so I didn't say anything else after that. Instead I walked into my room and crawled under the blanket.
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(Ana's POV)
The pain hadn't lasted long. I had taken three painkillers, stripped, and went to bed. It lasted about ten minutes, and then I fell asleep.
When I woke up to see light streaming through my windows I looked around the room. I remembered bits and pieces of last night. Then I saw my bags against the wall of the doorway. Those weren't there last night.' I thought.
I remembered that Kate had said to get dressed and meet her in the living room downstairs, so I took a shower, got dressed, and timidly peeked outside my door. It was early- I could tell- just after dawn. I hoped that nobody but Kate was up yet. If she wasn't where she said she'd be, then I'd just go back to my room and wait there.
I walked as silently as I could down the stairs and peeked through the living room door. Kate wasn't there, but I didn't want to go back upstairs. So I just sat down on the couch and waited. After a while I dozed off, but was awakened by a shake to my shoulder.
I gasped. When I opened my eyes I saw silver ones staring straight back at me.
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