The Bite (Book 1)

Original Edition - Chapter 11: Elliot

Shift.

It was a command, not a question. Levi had me running through the forest this morning, as we usually do, but this time, he had me shifting back and for in between my forms on his command.

It was incredibly strenuous.

He said that I would stop once I could shift without even thinking about it, when it became second nature–like breathing. At first, I thought it would be easy, but as I ran barefoot through the forest, grateful for the soft grass of the spring, I came to realize how hard this actually was.

"Shift" he commanded into my mind again. I took a large step then jumped, hoping I could jump into my form. My bones and body ached as we did this for what felt like the hundredth time. My wolf was annoyed and just as tired as I was. She did not like coming out only to be put away within a few minutes. Snapping and growling at me; I was trying to wrangle her in while pushing through the pain of it all.

We stumbled a bit as we landed; our shift through the air was not as graceful was we had planned and took one second too long to be completed. But we regained our footing and continued on dashing through the forest like white hot lightening, a feeling that was in itself the definition of bliss.

"Shift," he commanded again.

My wolf growled and grumbled as his request. I let out another breath and tried to time the shift better. We took two large strides before jumping up and reaching for our skin.

I found my skin but fell perfectly on my ass as the fur finished receding back. I let out short hot breaths and tried to let my lungs have a break. My legs felt like jello and my mind felt like mush. It may not have hurt as much, but it took a ridiculous toll on my body. I could only hope that Levi would let me have a long hot bath after this.

"Girl, why aren't you running?"

I groaned and stood back on my two feet. I looked around and tried to remember what direction I was going in. I had some sense of direction, but my wolf knew where we were. She pushed me towards a familiar scent of home, an invisible trail that only our nose could see.

I started jogging again. Levi and I were the only real predators out here. I kept my head forward but let my ears pick up the melody of the forest; the sounds of squirrels scampering, birds flying to their nests, and rabbits hopping quickly to cover as we approached.

It was like seeing the world for the first time. Everything hummed like there was energy coursing through it, through the forest. It was contagious and energized my spirit that felt severely drained after the last few days.

"Shift," he calmly ordered again.

I took another long step and leaped into the air. Fur and teeth quickly replaced our skin and our bones cracked quickly into place. We landed on our feet, stumbling only just a bit, before continuing our journey.

She was magnificent, my wolf. She was so proud of us, proud of me. It had been so long since someone had actually been proud of me, that when I felt the emotion coming from her it almost scared me.

She was teaching me to be strong again, to be myself; and I was teaching her to be tactful, to be cunning and wise, using our words when teeth would not be necessary. We were learning to blend together, like a perfectly harmonized duet.

We kept running back towards home as we followed the invisible trail the scent had left behind. It started to fade a bit and we paused to sniff around and make sure we weren't following a false lead. We did a big circle and sniffed out every rock, tree, and leaf just to be extra cautious. After we reaffirmed our confidence in our trail, we picked up our paws again and took off.