“He knows we’re coming?” Aiden was nervous. He had heard stories of shifters that had ventured into pack territory and none of them ever ended well.
“Relax. He knows. I messaged him already, and his beta, too. Nobody will say anything about us being there. You’d think you were scared or something,” Simon said.
“No, not scared. Just nervous, I guess. I don’t usually have any dealings with wolves, let alone a pack of them. They don’t take too kindly to my type of shifting.”
Aiden looked around trying to get his bearings. They had been walking for a few hours and had ended up in what looked to be a tiny village. Cottages lined the road on both sides of him, each one looking exactly the same as another.
“Your type of shifting? What’s so special about your shifting? I’ve seen your wolf and it’s nothing spectacular,” Simon said, crossing the road.
Aiden raised an eyebrow at his remark but followed him as he took a left turn into a side street. “I can change forms to more than a wolf. To be honest, today was the first time I ever shifted to a wolf and I doubt that I could do it again.”
Simon stopped in his tracks and looked at Aiden curiously. “You never shifted to a wolf before today? What other form can you take? How do you do it?”
“Talk and walk, mate,” Aiden said, walking past Simon. “I don’t know how I do it. Something to do with my faery side, I think, but I can touch people and shift into them. It works by memory, too. So for anyone that I’ve touched, even a year ago, if I think of that person, I can shift and end up looking like them. The hardest thing is remembering every detail about them. It has to be perfect or it doesn’t work. The wolf though, he’s been pretty much dormant until today. I don’t even know how to turn into him for the sake of it like normal wolves do, I mean.”
“You need to let him take control. That’s all. Embrace the fur. For us, the first shift usually happens as a child. Yours must have been one hell of a painful ride today, buddy. It gets better though and eventually, the pain becomes pleasurable. Sadistic bastards, aren’t we?”
Aiden laughed out loud and followed Simon as he turned a corner, onto a cul-de-sac of small white cottages with neat little lawns.
“Wait,” Aiden growled, sniffing the air.
“You’ll smell wolf everywhere here. This is the Alpha's place. Everyone in these houses, they're all his right-hand men and best warriors. Relax.”
“Sarah. She’s here.”
“Simon, Ben is tied up right now…” The blond-haired newcomer trailed off as he caught the anger on Aiden's face.
“Where is she?”
“Where's who?” The stranger asked.
"I'll tear this place apart if you don't tell me where Sarah is," Aiden growled, suddenly understanding what Simon had meant about embracing the fur.
"Sarah? Who the fuck is Sarah? What the hell have you brought with you, Simon? The dude thinks he's some kind of big shot who can throw his weight around and the best bit? I haven't got a fucking clue who he's talking about."
Aiden howled in pain as his limbs began to take the shape of his wolf. He watched his hands as they became fur-covered paws and gritted his teeth against the torturous pain as his muzzle took shape. The stranger wasted no time at all in bringing his white wolf forth, ready for an attack.
Aiden bared his teeth, growling a warning at Simon who was standing between him and the wolf who had Sarah.
“What the fuck is going on?” Simon shouted at the two wolves. “Aiden, I know you’ve had a rough day but you can’t go shifting at the beta. That’s not how it works. Change back, right now.”
Aiden padded forward, ignoring Simon's raised hands. He didn’t care how it worked. They had Sarah somewhere and he would do exactly as he said he would and tear the place apart to find her.
“Paul! He doesn’t understand. Don’t do this. Guys! Please. Both of you, just stop.”
Paul snarled and snapped a warning at Simon, who jumped back a step. “Okay, I get it. Shouldn’t we discuss this as humans, though? Rather than tear each other’s throats out?”
*
*
*
*
“Did you hear shouting?” Sarah asked.
“Probably just the lads having a spar. It’s been quiet around here since we stepped back from Salisbury,” Ben said.
Sarah shrugged but couldn’t shake the niggle at the back of her mind that was telling her something wasn't right.
“I should probably go. I’m glad we have everything out in the open, now, I'm just sorry it took so long to do it.”
Ben shrugged as he walked to the living room window and looked out. “What the fuck? Stay here,” he ordered, running to the front door.
Sarah was on her feet in an instant, running across the living room behind him. She could hear someone shouting and as she got closer to the door, there was a heart-stopping growl, followed by a howl of pain. Running out of the cottage and into the garden, Sarah saw Ben shift into his beautiful white and grey wolf. A moment of awe struck her at the beauty of his wolf, before being replaced by a scream as she took in the carnage on the street.
Ben ploughed into the side of a grey wolf that was limping towards a snarling white wolf, sending him rolling across the road in a ball of scrambling fur. A man stood shouting at both the white and the grey wolf in an attempt to get him to stop the fight but neither was listening to him. Realising it was a lost cause, the man ran to the safety of a garden.
As Sarah ran closer, she almost choked on her heart as the man's words hit her ears.
“Aiden! Stop. They will kill you!” He shouted.
Sarah screamed at the top of her lungs as Ben readied himself to pounce at Aiden, once again. “Ben! Stop. No! It’s Aiden! For God sake, stop!”