Crissa's Mate

Chapter Seventy-Four

After the two intruders left in the truck and jeep, Crissa went back into the bedroom to check on David. She knew this night he would most likely return from the realm of wolves to be the young man she had fallen in love with. She also knew this was an unpredictable process, involving time for him to recover, not only physically back to human form, but also time to regain his senses and memories. She had been through the process with David before and found it extremely draining.

For many reasons Crissa was extremely stressed on this night. Not knowing the whereabouts of Julie or when she too would return to her former self was only one factor. As she looked out the bedroom window and could clearly see the weakened moon in its asymmetrical form, peering down upon the land, she could also only hope the process for her previous combatant would not involve any more violence. Nevertheless, following Brad's wise warning, she kept the hunting knife close at hand.

But perhaps most troubling was wondering how interference on this night from the two idiotic visitors whom she felt helpless and vulnerable to, might come into play unpredictably. All these things weighed upon Crissa's mind as she settled into the room and watched over David lying peacefully but alert on the floor.

Suddenly, she saw him jerk up to his feet and shake his head violently. With his paws he tried to cover his ears and began a low howl, indicating intense pain. Crissa could hear herself a disturbing vibration coming from somewhere out in the wilderness. It was an aggravating sound to her but obviously much more menacing to David's sensitive ears. He began to pace about the room while shaking his head and rubbing each ear with a paw. He let out several heart-wrenching whines.

It pained Crissa greatly to see him suffering like this and she could now hear a chorus of similar cries and yelps from the wolf pack off in the distance. They had obviously also been affected by the sonic attack. As the vibration became stronger, Crissa ran to David and held him in her arms. She sat on the floor and held his head close to her chest, frantically cupping her hands over his ears. This seemed to give him some relief and he sensed she was helping to dampen the tortuous sound penetrating his inner ears. Every muscle in David's wolf body had tensed up from the ominous sound and he struggled even to free himself from Crissa to get out.

"No, David! Please! Be calm my love! Be calm!"

She attempted with great difficulty to hold on to him as she sensed with panic that he was at his limits from the agitation and pain.

David cried out louder while the heavy vibrations in the atmosphere continued stronger, and continuously. Crissa would not let go of him and only tried harder to block the sound with each of her palms pressed hard against David's ears. It was her only hope to close them off to the high frequency sound. Tears were streaming down her cheeks as she felt her love's suffering, realizing her own limits were failing to do more.

But then, almost miraculously, it happened.

David's body began to lose its violent tension. Crissa could feel his head sink into her arms and then surprisingly begin to reconstruct in her very grip. She could hear the sound of bones in his limbs crack while expanding. Full tufts of his hair were falling to the floor as he shook them off, leaving behind the smooth skin of a human. When he no longer was vocalizing his pain, she let go and slid back on the wooden floor to give him room.

David's body began to spasm and it was horrific to watch as his arms and legs began to augment back into human limbs. His torso also reshaped into the form of a robust human male. Looking close at his transforming face, she watched his eyes change color form a steely blue-gray to a softer greenish, and they blinked rapidly. Crissa witnessed his former muzzle of a wolf recede to that of David's handsome nose, though the wounds he had received there from wolf bites were still evident. It was all happening right in front of her, his phenomenal transformation, and was a glorious event that kept the tears in Crissa's eyes, no longer of compassion and sorrow, but now tears of joy and relief.

There was no let-up in the outside reverberating sound. The vibrations were felt equally strong to Crissa, but now, due to some miracle of timing, David was no longer susceptible to its torture. His fur had completely shed off him into tufts and piles on the floor and he was reclining totally naked before her—a view of the sculpturally beautiful male she had seen f him on other, more wonderful occasions. David seemed detached, unconscious and unaware of his nudity. Oblivious to everything as he seemed to drift into sleep. Crissa moved closer and ran her hand along his shoulder to his neck. He was smooth to her touch, and warm. He was quietly breathing now, as if in sleep. Lying before her now was no longer a wolf but the finest specimen she could imagine of a young man.

Crissa quickly got to her feet, and as on other occasions, procured a blanket from the bed to cover him with while he worked silently to recover his human wits and memories. Hearing the cacophony of wolf cries and yelps had not ceased but only seemed to be moving farther away, in the direction of the mountains. Crissa, sat on the bed with her head in her hands, feeling her body finally relax. It was an expression of relief and a well-deserved repose from the unbearable tension.

The moment was short-lived, however, when she heard a sudden and desperate banging on the from door. She rose reluctantly and listened to it again. It came more impassioned than before. There was an urgency to the knocking. Suspecting it was either the deranged wolf eliminators, or someone else whom she half-expected to reappear, Crissa walked to the front door and cautiously called out.

"Who's there?"

There was no verbal response. Just a slower, weaker knock.

A chill ran up Crissa's back as she assumed who it would be standing in the doorway were she to acquiesce and open the heavy door. For it entered her mind to not open it. To instead just go back and attend to the man she loved. Yet there was some small force she could not dampen inside her. It was a need to not refuse help to someone who may not have been responsible for her hellacious ordeal. Someone who, just as innocently as David, had been dealt it all. 

Crissa slowly pulled he chair way from the door handle, removing the security. She then opened the door and peered out into the dimly lit night. As expected, it was Julie, the girl she had known once as a friend, naked and dirty. Standing now vulnerable and trans-like before her.

Still hearing the vibrations clearly echoing across the countryside but seeing no reaction in Julie's expression or body language, Crissa took her by the arm and led her into the cabin. Stopping her in the living room, safely away from the recovering David, she picked up the blanket off the floor which she had used earlier to deflect Julie's wolf attack with. She folded the blanked into a cover and made a small bed for Julie to lay comfortably on. The silent girl complied and fell into a deep sleep.

As the vibrations later in the night finally ceased and the wolf-cries could no longer be heard, Crissa spent the early morning hours nervously between both rooms waiting for her once former wolf researchers to awake and regain what they had temporarily lost to the curse of the bright moon. One she watched as a lover, the other as still a potential foe.

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