Wolf Bitten (Origin, #1)

The Change (in rev)

Joey's POV
When I awoke, disorientation blinded me. The world paused and my senses with it. Vision blurry, fingers numb and an ugly headache pounding at my skull collided with an awful sensation of dying. It felt like someone was swinging me back and forth on an offshore excursion, fingers tugging at my hair as the pit of my stomach expelled bile. But then, all of a sudden, I came to. Whatever spell I'd been under was cast away and with it, my sanity. It felt like someone had ripped the band aid off in a rush so that one minute I was oblivious and the next I wasn't.

My skin was on fire, as if someone had doused me in kerosene and lit it. The world reminded me that nature was ugly, pleasure doesn't exist without pain. Get out, Get out!

Something held me down, a confinement that spurred panic. The back of my head ricocheted off of a hard surface as energy bolted up my feet. The smell of iron enveloped all four sides of me, an inescapable scent that tempted something more carnal. My sight was gone, my hearing too. The world turned to shades of red as cracks echoed like thunder against my eardrums. Screams, one after another, a plague of noise that didn't seem to have an end. Another yelp ripped from my mouth as more pressure cramped against my shoulders. Muscles spasmed across my stomach, stretching and constricting until it felt as if my body was trying to crunch together.

The pressure subsided and I rolled onto my knees, vision obscured by that haunting red. Peeling open my eyes was hard, the action almost unnatural. Mud, sweat and blood created a filthy caking over my skin from head to toe.

A gag choked me. Thick, salty iron rushed out of my mouth and straight onto the ground.

Hands curled on the hard rock that I was lying on, nails scraping along its surface. Adrenaline blinded me from the pain of ripping them upwards even as skin was taken along.

"Fuck," A deep voice with a heavy accent came out of nowhere. The sound scratched my ear drums, pulsed through my brain and begged me to reach its source. Alpha. The word held nothing human within its meaning but it was like I was experiencing emotion for the first time.

Pain forgotten, I spun around on my knees jerking my head up to see a tall figure. I didn't have time to look at him clearly before I crumpled onto my stomach, letting a scream roar from my lungs. Despite it all, my first instinct was to crawl towards him.

Unknown POV

The sound that came storming out of her mouth was nothing short of animalistic. The wild within her was clashing against her human remains. He regretted accidentally dropping the curse word even though it was only natural considering the monstrous picture in front of him. When she whirled around, her eyes turned to an amber so deep they almost looked orange. He'd never been helpless, but in this moment, the change was killing her and he could do nothing but watch.

Considering he'd only met a she-wolf once and she'd been a natural born, his own expectations were sparse. Although the girl had survived the infection, the change was another low survival rate experience and he had no idea how she'd experience it. Even his kind sometimes died during their first shift.

It'd only been two hours since she first began the process but her body arched in unnatural ways and bones split as they attempted to reform. The sight was scarring even for someone like him. The cave he'd carried her to was secluded but her screams rang loud through the forest. He could only hope he'd gone far enough away from the search group he'd scented just hours before.

Eyes of dark brown resettled on the broken girl in front of him and the feeling of guilt once again bit at his morals.

She was drowned in red, one arm twisted behind her misshapen and bruised. It was disturbing, even sinful. The first change was the most gruesome but hers seemed even worse. He cringed as another crackle of bones echoed through the deep cave. A natural born lycanthrope didn't go through the same process. He didn't possess first hand knowledge of how the turned experienced their first shift. There were few and most didn't survive the infection, let alone the actual transformation.