My eyes widen in both confusion and surprise.
He said he lived in similar conditions to me.. how then can he turn so frequently and not get caught or suspected at the very least?
The world may never know... but damn did I want to.
"When was the last time you switched?" He asks and furrows his brow.
"A few years ago.." I reply quietly and timidly.
His jaw drops as the gears start turning in his head.
"How..how did you even? Your wolf never tried to like..take over?"
"Nope. I don't allow her to."
"You should switch with me." He gives me a charming smile to which I fire back with an 'are you insane' look.
"What?! No way! We could be seen!" I hiss and step back.
"Please?"
"No. I can't." I cross my arms and close off my whole appearance, hopefully making him drop the subject.
"I won't take no for an answer, Nova." He smirks and pulls his pants off, now just in boxers.
Oh shit, he's coming closer. Leaning on my bike, I have no more space to back up. I feel blood running to my face, probably turning it pink.
"Even though you're part Lycan, I'm stronger than you because I shift more often," he walks closer to me until I can feel his warm breath against my face, he puts both of his muscly arms on either side of me, hindering any movement as he is almost touching me with his own body, "if I wanted to hurt you, I'd have done it by now," he says as he pierces me with those perfect eyes and draws a single finger ever so gently down my cheek, throwing a chill through my body.
He takes a step back, letting his wolf take over which is painless and quick, almost instantaneous...for him. His wolf was larger than mine and stunning. He was all grey with flecks of other darker shades of grey blended into his thick coat. The tips of his ears and tail faded into black which came around his face and legs a little bit as well. His eyes were the same which stood out gloriously against his fur.
His head came to a little below my breast level which he made very clear when he came up and pushed his snout into me sniffing. He nudged my hand up onto his head to pet him which I did. He begins to whimper and look at me up and down wagging his tail nudging my belly.
He wants us to switch. Can we? Please?
It's gonna hurt like hell..
But then it'll feel so much better!
I groan and take a deep breath, allowing her to take over, it is incredibly difficult at first and it does indeed hurt like a bitch. (Hahah, get it? Female dog, bitch.. nevermind.)
What did I get myself into?
Suddenly, I feel very different, I am also on the floor. It's like that scene in a movie when someone gets shot or something and everything goes silent. I can feel myself groaning and dropping to my knees, then my hands breathing hard until my breath is caught in my throat, the pain is nearly unbearable. I feel my vocal cords go hoarse from screaming but I can't hear it. Agonizing. I will never talk about how high my pain tolerance is again.
As a motorcycle racer and adrenaline junkie, I fall a lot, I hurt myself. I can fall off my bike and slide fifteen feet and get up and walk away just fine. Hell, I walk away laughing. So there's some road rash, some blood, possibility for infection...big deal. This was insane, I just wanted it to stop. It was a painfully slow switch, but my other side made it better than it could have possibly been. I could feel her weakness too as she absorbed some of the pain which she didn't have to do.
The only relief I feel as the pain throbs away is the feeling as if I was put on autopilot or as if someone took over. That's what it feels like to switch, your wolf side just takes the reins for a bit and is the one who makes primary decisions, but the human side can influence the wolf; hence the animalistic decisions. It gets easier as you go back and forth more often but it's difficult in a world of people completely oblivious to the fact that werewolves exist. If they became aware, we'd have to fear for our lives.
Most of what humans believe about us isn't true, actually. Silver does hurt when we touch it, but it can't kill us. To kill a werewolf, the brain needs to be detached from the body somehow. Common ways are just cutting the head off or snapping the neck which cuts off the connection between the brain and the body by disabling the spinal cord.
The pain I felt in the switch very slowly dulls as I feel Blake come and nudge me again. I never want to move again, but I look up at him and stumble my way up with wobbly giraffe legs. If you've ever seen a baby horse take its first steps after birth, that's what I feel like right now. I'm tired now.. that took more out of me than I thought. Walking hurts, moving hurts, thinking hurts. It feels like I've been hit with a migraine, but I can see and there is even a good feeling being back in wolf form as we take more steps aided by Blake.
Blake tilts his head in confusion sitting beside me with a concerned look; or as concerned as a wolf can look, I guess. He helps me up and puts his head under my chest to try to get me to find my balance that refused to come back to me. It gets easier after a while and I only stumble a few more times until he starts to trot and I follow along beside him.
The trot turns into a canter which turns into a gallop, then a full sprint. My legs pound against the earth, tearing away the dirt under them. The ever familiar adrenaline calmed and groundes me as nothing else can. It felt as if I was running away from feelings, judgment, and problems in general. There really was nothing like this, not even racing. If we started to feel fatigued we just ignored it and let the runner's high set in.. wolves get it too.
I told you it would feel good.
Shut up....
Our heart rate increases to that which a human wouldn't be able to handle. Again, increased stamina. This is the happiest I've been in forever. I hate that we can't do this more often.
I can hear and see Blake running by me around the same pace for quite some time until I decide to speed up until I no longer hear running steps near me. It looks like Blake has fallen behind and I was too caught up in excitement to notice or care. He could smell me if he wanted to find me.
We do stop though and wait for him. It takes him almost a minute to catch up and when he does he comes at the speed of a trot panting hard. I must have been running for a long time. He looks dreadful. I meet him in the middle as he is still walking over. I nudge him as he drops beside me still panting. How did I have more energy than he does?
After a break, we jog back at a pace much slower than I would like to our stuff and switch back. Switching back to flesh form doesn't hurt nearly as bad as the opposite does which brings me some relief. I change into my clothes behind a tree and come to see him still shirtless and breathing hard and dripping with sweat.
Hot.
I honestly felt like I was glowing, radiating after that run.
"You outran me," he sounds offended almost.
"And?" I say simply with a shrug.
"I've never seen anybody run that fast," he puts his shirt back on and smiles at me, "it was refreshing to run with someone for a change, even if I was hardly able to keep up with you," we laugh and I put my backpack on and get on my bike to leave.
Hungry.
"Wait wait where do you think you're going, missy?" He walks closer to me as he throws some stuff in the back of his truck.
HUNGRY.
"I'm hungry and have a hankering for noodles. Wanna come?" I ask and do a happy dance in my head for asking him. Ms. Wolfie most definitely had a part in that.
He smiles and nods in agreement, "I'll just follow you then?" he asks getting in his car as I start up my bike and rev it, pulling out my phone to look at it really quick. The first thing I see is the time which reads 6:45. I guess we did run longer than I thought. Another alarming occurrence: apparently, I have twenty-some missed calls from Sandra, Evelyn, and Susan but only one from Taylor.. what could he want?
I don't even regard the other three as they are not my top concern at the moment. Their lives go on without a hitch if I'm not in them. I'm sure they only want me because they forgot how to boil water or something.
I call Taylor back. Blake looks back at me from his window that is open, "are we going or what?"
"Relax, I need to make a quick phone call," I say rather loudly over the constant hum of our engines.
The call picks up, "hello?"
"Hey Taylor, I missed your call. What's going on?" I ask and get off my bike to pace a bit as I usually do on a call with someone.
"Cops got word that there was gonna be a race at our usual spot, so we're moving it to the course in Traverse. It's gonna start a bit later too. Try to be there around maybe twelve, okay?" He seems upset about the readjustment. Taylor is very set in his ways, he gets very stressed when something changes with short notice but he manages while remaining seemingly unfazed. After knowing him for as long as I have though, I know that something like this would upset him.
"Oh.. okay. Thanks for letting me know. I'll be there. Do you want me to bring you anything?"
"Nah, it's alright but thanks," he chuckles and we hang up. I smile and turn to start walking back, Blake looks up from his phone, "is everything alright?" he asks and returns my smile.
"Yeah, yeah. Just a friend updating me on something." I don't want to tell him. My racing is illegal after all and even if he might be okay with it, there is a chance that he could not be which would be bad. I need to get to know him more first.
I ride off making sure he's following me and drive for a while until we pull into one of my favorite restaurants of all time: a cute, hole-in-the-wall ramen shop. I go in so often that they know my name and my normal order. It's almost embarrassing but it's good food.
I pull my helmet off and park as he walks up to me and we go in. I smile at the main waiter who usually serves me, and happens to own the restaurant. I swear he reads my mind. He was always good at cooking and had several family recipes passed down and decided to open a restaurant. It was a really big hit and the business never seems to slow.
We seat ourselves as he gives us menus, "who's your friend, Nova? Is he your boyyfrienddd?" he smirks and pinches my arm laughing, setting cups down, pouring water into them.
"No, he wishes." I giggle and wink at Blake, making him roll his eyes. "Matt, this is Blake, Blake this is Matt. He owns this fine establishment." I smile at both of them and Blake gives Matt one of those model smiles.
Blake inquires about something on the menu to which Matt answers promptly. He takes our orders and goes to the kitchen.
"What's ramen?" Blake asks and settles back into his chair.
The water I'm drinking almost comes through my nose.
"What?"
"What's ramen?" he repeats more slowly as if I didn't understand the offensive question.
"Japanese soup with noodles in a fatty meat broth with various vegetables and roasted pork belly." Is the simplest definition I can come up with.
"Oh.. sounds good."
My phone vibrates with a text from Taylor, it says "I changed my mind. Get me an Arnold Palmer." His favorite drink, he likes the Arizona one. I send back an "okay" as another text comes in from Evelyn: "Mom is getting really mad. You'd better get your ass home."
I snort and reply "I'm getting food at the moment. Mind your business." Susan has made it clear that she does not give a shit whether I live or die.
I put my phone down and look back up at Blake who has been looking at me for most likely the whole time I was on my phone.
"You like to run, huh?" He asks and takes a drink of his water, as Matt comes by and gives us the drinks we ordered.
"Yes, we always have and I'm constantly tempted to but with my living situation, it is hard to do so without getting any suspicion," I sigh, disappointment lingers in my tone.
"Your living situation?"
"Yeah.. my guardian and sisters are all human," I say softer making sure no one else hears us. "None of them are very accepting."
"Doesn't accept it? It's who you are, what's wrong with her?" He says, starting to get more upset.
"She doesn't want to expose her daughters to it," I say calmly, as I have accepted this fact, He is having a harder time.
"It is the way you were born. It is your DNA, your blood, your family." His tone darkens.
"Hey, that's the way it is. I live with it." I put my hand on his trying to calm him and find his eyes, looking into them trying not to get lost. He calms down a little bit.
"The person my parents trusted acknowledge it and allow it. It isn't as free as I want though. We should be able to switch whenever we want without fear. This isn't right." He mutters and looks at me. "I'm leaving as soon as I graduate, I think I told you."
"Yeah.. you did."
"Have you given any more thought to coming with me?" His eyes grow bright.
"Not really, no." I laugh and take a long gulp of water.
"Nova, come with me. We can help each other and hit two birds with one stone. Are you really gonna make me drive across the country all alone?" He leans over the table and pleads with his eyes.
And then this goes on between me and myself:
Yes. We're going. Pack your shit.
What? No. We can't.
Yes, we can! This will be so good for us! You know how dangerous it is to be on the road alone. We're on the same mission as he is. Say yes.
Well, that is a good point you make there.
I know. Say yes. When have you ever regretted saying yes to something I suggested?
Do I have to answer that?
Just say yes. Do it. What else would we do to find mom and dad? Maybe his pack knows something.
I withdraw from the conversation as Matt brings our food. He sets it down and walks back to another table across the room.
Blake looks at me waiting for an answer, still pleading with those eyes of his.
"I don't see why not-" I start before he cuts me off with his own "yes!" I chuckle and start to eat.
"I'm gonna need your number though," he slides his phone to me and I put my number in his phone and slide it back.
"Happy?" I ask as he starts to eat.
He smiles up at me with a mouth full of noodles.
I think I just made a good decision.
I'll say...