Forever Mine

ELEVEN

Isaac was leaning on the windowsill watching the sun rise above the mountains, its rays shooting down into the paddocks below. It was the time of day he thought of his parents most. A lump formed in his throat as a soft breeze blew around him, like a parental embrace wrapping around their child. He looked down at his hands, able to picture the dirt that'd been engrained in them as him and Kayla had buried their father's ashes where their mother's had been buried a year earlier. Werewolf lore said that once a wolf had passed, their spirit would be reincarnated into the nature around them, forever around the ones they'd loved.

A whisper echoed around the house, reminding him of his mother's soft voice as she read him a bedtime story in her thick Spanish accent. He'd never understood what she'd been saying, not when he was little anyway, but her melodic tone and the feeling of being safe cuddled to her side had allowed him to drift into happy dreams. Up until the age of eight the stories had been about monsters, dinosaurs and adventure. Then Kayla had begun to join them when she'd become a toddler and they'd turned into tales of kingdoms and princesses. It'd annoyed Isaac to no ends. But he'd sat there biting his tongue while Kayla's young face would be alight with wonderment, for the love of his little sister. One thing the stories had never been about was wolves. Their mother had always made sure their childhoods had been as normal as possible, not wanting them to fear the change their bodies and lives would undergo at the age of fifteen.

Isaac gripped the timber of the bay window tightly and squeezed his eyes shut when he felt his dad's strong hands on his shoulders, encouraging his fifteen year old self whose body was feeling such pain it'd never felt before. It'd been a week after his birthday when he'd been crippled by a fever – the first stage of metamorphosis. All day and night his body had felt like it'd been burning inside out. Sweat had soaked every inch of his skin, drenching the sheets of the bed he'd rested in. The second stage was his fuzzy mind; figures had blurred, voices had echoed. Disconcertment had made him paranoid, unable to remember the names of people who'd come to check on him and the home he lived in had become foreign.

Just when he'd prayed for death to take him away from the horrible torment, his father had come into his room and scooped his weak body into his arms. Isaac remembered the cool night air sizzling against his hot skin as he was carried towards the tree coverings, the cold soil and pricks of pine needles as he was laid down.

In that moment the pain had stopped, transporting him into a euphoric bliss. The sounds of the world around him had become enhanced. Instead of only being able to hear the twittering of birds, he'd listened to their feet hopping between branches and their feathers ruffling. Bugs had crawled along the bark of the trees towering around him, cutting between their ridges. Everything which had passed through the territory could be smelt with a strength he'd never experienced, telling a story of the journeys they'd been on.

Then it'd been over as quickly as it had begun.

Suddenly, the pain he'd been experiencing for the past week crashed through him with full force. A scream had tore from his mouth, echoing around the land around him. It'd felt like he'd been on a torture wheel with leather straps binding his wrists and ankles, pulling tighter and tighter. His muscles had burnt with a hot ferocity. His skin had felt like it would tear. Then came the pain that made his eyes widen with panic, letting out another scream at the sound and feel of his bones breaking one by one.

'You're doing well, my boy.' His dad's face had been a blur as he'd look down at a sobbing Isaac, his rough but gentle hands cupping his face.

Isaac's chest had heaved with ragged breaths. 'Dad, I'm scared. I–'

The voice he'd had for the past fifteen years was suddenly different. It'd been hoarse from the pain savaging his body, deepened with an authority that seemed to reverberate around him. Powerful. A cry broke from his mouth as he writhed around the ground while something tore through his gums. Rolling onto his side he'd spat the blood from his mouth, his eyes widening when his trembling fingertips felt the large canines now hanging over his bottom lip.