Obsidian Night Pack

26

"I think we should talk to Brett," Ash told me as she stood up from the table and began picking up books and papers, putting them away.

"Ugh, and why would we do that?" I gagged and began to help her clean up the mess we made.

"Well because you don't want to get Alaric involved the next best person would be Brett. He's the Beta of the pack if anyone would know where the coven would be it would be him." I rolled my eyes, why didn't I think of that?

"I guess you have a point there if we meet up with Brett than maybe we can get rid of our babysitters." Ash laughed and gave me a thumbs up and she climbed the ladder to the second floor.

"Those babysitters are one of the reasons that Sander lets me hang out with you so much. It bothers him a lot to leave me alone... wandering the pack house with nothing to do!" Ash exclaimed dramatically.

"Ya, you can't really help out with anything let alone find a job, if you wanted one, if you're not a member of the pack yet," I responded.

"Speaking of becoming a member of the pack, what do you think's going to happen tomorrow? Sander hasn't told me much." I frowned, I didn't really know either. Alaric and I had been too busy fighting and with other things, we hadn't talked that much about the initiation.

"I have no clue, it can't be that extreme, I mean in Bright Moon the pack initiations were just my dad introducing them to the other members and saying some words and then like cutting their palms with a knife and then cutting his. To be honest I didn't really pay much attention during those events." Now it was Ash's turn to laugh.

"No, it never looked like you did, you only cared about the food that was being served afterward... The only thing I'm worried about is the ceremonial pack run...." My mouth fell open, I had completely forgotten about the pack run. When members were accepted into another pack they would shift and run with the pack. Kind of saying that you are one of us now and we accept you.

"You don't think the Obsidian Night pack will do a run, do you? I mean it might just be our pack, we're weird we do weird stuff like that. Right?" Ash's eyes were wide with worry and she shrugged her shoulders.

"I honestly don't know Clove," she said as she slid down the ladder again and walked over to me, "do you mind if I ask... What are you able to do? Like shifting wise?" I took a step back from her. It had been a few days and I hadn't thought about even trying to shift, it hurt for one, but it also just made me feel depressed. Everyone else could do it and I could barely manage growing claws.

"I guess you kind of need to know don't you, I mean how can you help me get a wolf if you..." there was really no need for Ash to see me try to shift, but just telling her about it didn't seem good enough.

"Clove you don't have to show me if you don't want to." I shook my head and took her hand in mine. I dragged her all the way to the women's bathroom. I shut the door and locked it.

"I don't know how long I can hold it, but I want to, maybe you might see something that I can't?" It was the best excuse I could think of.

I closed my eyes and focused on shifting. My bones and skin and how I pictured them breaking and peeling away into a wolf, a strong wolf that could protect me, Ash and maybe even give Alaric some peace of mind. Instead of this mighty wolf that I pictured breaking through my skin, I got a savage beast that tore and ripped at muscles inside. As if it couldn't decide if I was a prison that it needed to break out of or a shield that was there to protect it. My vision blurred as I fell to the floor. I saw my fingernails bleeding, hesitating to change into claws, but burning their choices into my nerves. My whole body felt confused as if it didn't know what it was. A wolf or a human and the confusion set fire to my blood as it seeped out of every opening. My nose dripped while my eyes cried and all of it was blood.

It wasn't until I noticed Ash was shaking me by the shoulders that I finally stopped. I looked up at her only to see her pale and crying. The overall experience wasn't as bad as the last time I had tried to shift. That was life or death and for this one, I took my time, in the end, I was sore and bloody and with a large headache thundering through my head.

"Clove, that... that was awful... I didn't know it was that bad." Ash whispered to me as she began wiping the blood off of my face and hands.

"You know it looks a lot worse than it actually is. It's more painful when I'm actually trying to shift, but once I stop it's like most of the pain goes away with my wolf." All she did was nod and not make eye contact with me.

~~~~

Once everything, including me, was all cleaned up and Ash was positive the smell of blood was absolutely washed out of everything we sat down on the bathroom floor against the wall and finally took a breath.

"So.... Did you notice anything? You know, other than the blood and pain I was in." Ash nervously laughed and put her face in her hands.

"My conclusion is we definitely need a coven because what I saw isn't some genetic disorder or you being weak that you couldn't shift. It looked as if something was physically holding your wolf back," she paused for a moment, and confusion filled her eyes.

"Ash, what is it?" I asked, she picked her head up from her hands and wiped her face. As if she was trying to wipe away the stress and questions she had just as she did with the blood on my face.

"You shifting, in all of it's screwed up glory," she motioned to me with her hands, "wasn't even the weirdest part of it all, it was the fact that when you were trying to shift you had no scent." My eyes widened and my mouth fell open.

"You're joking, that's not possible. For a werewolf to not have a scent they would need to hire a witch for a potion or a spell..." Ash gave me a look as if to say, "duh."

"It pretty much confirms that either a witch or a coven were involved with whatever is going on with you and your wolf." That was scary, I had no idea what that meant now.

"Clove, nothing has changed, we still need to talk to Brett, and persuade him into telling us where the witches are and then we can offer them a deal and get their help." I leaned my head back against the bathroom wall and let my eyes close.

"This is a lot, you're right, but we need to take this one problem at a time." Ash patted my knee in agreement.

"You know I bet you could always say you weren't feeling well and Alaric would let you out of the run if there is one." I laughed, yay, more lying.

"Well, let's get out of this library and go find Brett!" I exclaimed.

"Clove, it's almost lunchtime, I think you should check in with Alaric so he doesn't come hunting for you. The less stressed he is, the more chances we have for research and planning what we are going to do next."

"You're right, I promised Alaric anyways that I would have lunch with him." Ash got up from the ground and dusted off her sundress.

"Then it's time to go see your Alpha girl."