Ch. 76: A Shift

CHAPTER SEVENTY-SIX:
Jake~
My eyes open to the moon. A bigger, fuller moon than seems real. Sitting up I realize, it’s not real. Well, not in my world.
“Oh Jake, we really weren’t supposed to talk again so soon,” the Moon Goddess’ voice floats over to me from her place a few paces away.
I stood up to meet her halfway.
“I’m here again? I remember getting news about Rachel - and then pain everywhere… Rachel!” I whirl to face the Goddess.
She looks back with a look of compassion and nods sadly.
“I know,” she says, her voice sincere. “She had to go through that, I’m sorry.”
My eyes squinted in irritation.
“What is that supposed to mean?!” I demanded.
The Goddess just blinked, not taking a step. Then she exhaled.
“I’m sorry Jake, like I said, you weren’t supposed to be here yet. I was going to explain this to the both of you,” she went on. “Just know it was important, otherwise things… well they wouldn’t be headed in this same direction. But then you started to shift, far too early, and I had to intervene and bring you here. You’re not quite ready for your wolf yet.”
I just looked at her and she turned back towards the lake down ahead in the valley just beyond the trees we stood in.
“She pushed through it because of you, you know. You did as I asked, and you gave her the strength to fight. You really are the strongest pair I have ever matched,” her voice faded as she walked further away.
Something about what she said made my chest fill with pride.
I started to follow her when my hand touched something soft. Looking to my side I saw a huge wolf. I mean ginormous. I had thought my dad’s wolf was big, but this guy. This guy…
He turned his head slightly to the side, examining me. His gray fur shone in the light and he lowered his head, giving me a full view of his black and gold swirling eyes. I knew this wolf.
“Jake, meet Aamon,” the Goddess said next to me. “Your wolf.”
I nearly jumped out of my skin. She had been far ahead and then suddenly right there. I guess physics and such didn’t exist here, wherever this was.
Aamon bowed to me and something in me had me return the gesture.
I looked between the two of them and they seemed pleased.
“We’ll see you soon,” the Goddess said, and just as suddenly as I appeared with her, it all returned to black.

Evan~
I was coming out of the bathroom when Nick mindlinked me about Jake. He was currently totally passed out by the treeline and I just stood there in shock as Nick paced back and forth muttering to himself.
How was this possible?
It was nearly three more months before Jake was supposed to shift for the first time, and his eyes changing sometimes was already crazy. But this? He was sprawled out on the ground. His body contorted. With fur on his skin.
Fur.
I leaned in and could see at least three fingers that appeared to be broken, and one that had a claw coming from it. It was like looking at someone in the early stages of a shift. But he was basically frozen this way.
Anything you’d care to share with the class? I asked Xavier.
He’ll be back soon, was all Xavier said before he huffed and retreated back into my mind.
Back soon? Where did he go?
Nick held up a finger like he’d had an idea and ran back inside leaving me standing there like an idiot.
“Kids?!” Mitchell’s mom was running up the driveway, she must have been alerted something had been happening to Jake.
She came racing over and started examining him.
Nick rejoined us with what looked like the remnants of Jake’s phone in his hand.
“Call Mitchell, ask him to tell you what he told Jake,” Nick said, tossing Jake's destroyed phone my way.
I used my own and after telling Mitchell Jake killed his own phone, asked him to loop me in. It seemed some guy Vance had been harassing Rachel and tried to force himself on her.
He should die by our hands, Xavier grunted in rage once Mitchell finished his quick recap.
Mitchell made a point to tell me that Rachel was generally unhurt physically at least, though he didn’t sound so sure of that. He also let me know that that freaking Sean guy actually was of some use, he had punched the scumbag.
Still don’t like him, Xavier commented.
I agreed.
Mitchell and I ended the call right as Nick’s dad ran up.
Now I was surrounded by three times the amount of muttering.
“Have you ever seen anything like this? Heard of anything like this?!” Nick questioned Mitchell’s mom as she set his arm back on the ground.
“Never,” was all Mitchell’s mom said.
We seemed to all freeze. And after too long a moment she stood.
“He’s okay, it seems like he’s sleeping. He responded to stimuli so that’s positive,” she collected her things off the ground next to him. “Let’s get him inside.”
I was about to throw Jake over my shoulder in a fireman-carry when his eyes burst open and he sat up.
“Goddess almighty!” I yelled, jumping back.
We watched the fur on his body retreat, and his bones reset. He rolled his neck and groaned. I held out an arm to help him up.
“Well that was awful,” he said. Like he hadn’t just been passed out or nearly-changed into his wolf form. “Any meds for me?” he turned to Mitchell’s mom who just stood there with her mouth open.
A few minutes later we were in the dining hall, getting a quick recap from Jake about what had happened to him - after some grilling by Mitchell’s mom of course.
“Now, tell me,” Jake ordered me, his eyes darkening.
Somehow he knew that I had learned what had happened to Rachel. Rather than questioning how he knew that and risking pissing him off even further, I just jumped right into recounting what I had learned. I paced it very quickly and avoided eye contact with him to get through it before he would flip out again.
He didn’t say a word so I dared a look at him and saw his black eyes glow with swirls. And he was smiling. But it was unlike any smile I have ever seen before. It seemed unreal, like the Joker or the clown from IT was sitting across from me.
“We’ll kill him,” he said in a low rumbling tone that seemed to come from somewhere else, someone else. It seemed to shake the entire room.
My eyes widened.
Our Dark Alpha is rising, Xavier commented.
I was too stunned to say anything back, I just glanced at Nick who furrowed his brows, looking at Jake with a question he didn't dare voice aloud.

Kyle~
“Kyle, you didn’t add anything to the grocery list - would you like to?” Ally’s mom asked me, peering out from the kitchen.
“Uh,” I took a breath, “No thank you, I’m alright.”
She twisted her face a little in concern but nodded before going back to the stove, stirring something that was cooking for dinner.
I had been here now a couple days but I was forgetting where the he*l I was all the time. Being present had never felt so challenging.
I looked over at Ally to see her seated on the floor, still with her legs crossed, but she was looking right back at me instead of focusing on her magic. She had been practicing more since I had somehow stumbled my way here. Currently she was supposed to be working on a strategy to help me regain my memories. She gave me a pained look before closing her eyes once more to refocus.
I had a spotty memory. I remembered waking up in a park, feeling like hope was lost nearby, and seeing Ally up in a window. But nothing from before. Other than the knowledge that my grandmother was dead. I knew that for certain.
Ally had filled me in a bit on how she had used her abilities to find me, it seemed I had been kidnapped. I didn’t know who took me - then or now. So much time had passed since the last time I remembered being at home, being at school. It had been two months between when Ally had seen me last at school and me showing up in front of her house.
Ally and her mom had been trying to make me feel at home. They were kind and thoughtful. But I just felt so empty. I looked out the window and fought back tears. Sadness, waves of despair, came for me out of nowhere and came often. She was gone. My last family member was gone. Someone took her from me.
Last night I had a nightmare. Me. A Dream Walker. I had a nightmare. It should be impossible. But I had been in a dark place. Chained up. And a tiny footed creature walked back and forth just beyond the bars, taunting me.
I shook from a wave of cold. Or maybe fear.
I couldn’t be sure of much of anything anymore.