AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Accepting I was a witch was a shock, but it was also an explanation for all the strange things I could do. Like getting a diagnosis for the symptoms you’d been feeling. It clicked.
Going from a human to a wolf? That was much harder to wrap my head around. It didn’t matter how many times I’d seen my friends shift. That was different. Separate. Them. Not me.
Not anymore.
But what if I couldn’t do it? What if I stayed in this strange in-between because I didn’t know how to shift? What if every species was different? Kaden knew how to shift into a hawk and Sai into a tiger. As a mountain lion, Daniel was closer, but still, none of them were wolves.
I needed my dad. My birth father.
Tears pricked at the back of my eyes.
I never longed for the parents I lost. Up until recently, I didn’t even know they existed. How could I mourn them?
Now I wanted nothing more than to be able to call Peter or his family. But they were gone too. The closest connection was his pack, but what would they think of me? A hybrid witch raised in the non-supernatural world, knocking on the doors and asking for help.
“Hey, don’t cry. It’s going to be okay. We’ll get you through this.” Sai brushed my hair back once, and I relaxed.
He seemed to sense that and continued in gentle strokes. “I know this is terrifying, especially with so many unknowns. I grew up hearing different stories of how each of my family’s shifts went. I had a pretty good understanding of what would happen. I can tell you some of those if it will help? They might not be the same, but I can’t imagine a tiger and a wolf are that different. They’re probably more similar than a bird.”
I nodded, and he moved from the coffee table to the couch, sitting with his back against my legs, forcing me out of the fetal position.
“Okay, I’ll start with mine.” His cheeks reddened. “I can’t believe I’m willingly telling you this. It’s actually pretty embarrassing.”
Well, now I had to know. “Please?”
He smiled down at me and studied my face. “Your eyes are almost back to normal.”
“What were they before?”
“Yellow,” he replied.
Huh, that was definitely a new development.
“No more distractions. Tell me about your shift.”
He chuckled. “Fine, I was barely fourteen. I had built up my birthday in my head, thinking I’d wake up and begin my shift as if the supernatural care about our calendar.” He shook his head with a smile. “Anyway, I was super disappointed and thought I wouldn’t be able to attend the academy because I didn’t shift and was being a general grump. My parents tried to tell me there was plenty of time, but all my sisters and cousins shifted before their fourteenth birthdays. I thought there was something wrong with me.”
“Of course,” I cut in. “I probably would have freaked out too.”
His eyes widened. “Exactly! I thought I was broken or wouldn’t be able to shift. It was stupid. Shifting can start well into your twenties. It’s just the majority starts at fourteen.”
“I didn’t know that. I thought it was only at fourteen.” That’s what I’d learned here.
He shrugged. “It’s pretty rare. Definitely the exception to the rule. I honestly think it’s something people tell late bloomers to keep their hopes up. But sometimes, things block a shifter from taking their animal form. It could be trauma, an unsafe environment, malnourishment, or a magical block. It’s easier to say that the fourteen is the standard.”
Huh. Maybe that was something most shifters knew, but as an outsider, no one thought to mention it to me. I felt bad for shifters who weren’t told that and thought there was something wrong with them.
“So, it was a few days after my birthday, and I woke up in the middle of the night with my heart racing as if I’d just sprinted a mile. I called out to my parents, and they came running in. They knew what was happening immediately, but the only thought running through my head was that I was dying and they weren’t helping me. I could hear them saying things, but I couldn’t listen to the words. It was just noise covered up by the sound of my heartbeat.
“My mom put her hands on my shoulders and stared into my eyes. She repeated the word ‘relax’ until my body obeyed. Once I was calm, I realized what was happening. My tiger was screaming to come out, but I was preventing him,” he explained.
My own heart was pounding just listening. Was that what I would go through? Would anyone be able to get me to listen like his mom had, or was that their special bond?
“Once I relaxed, I closed my eyes and listened to what the tiger wanted. Once I let him take over, it was as easy as breathing. One second, I was in my body, and the next, I opened my eyes, and I was him. No breaking bones. No stretching or cracking or pain at all.”
“Just a breath?” I couldn’t believe it. There was no way shifting was that easy.
“It was as easy as letting him take over. Movies play it up like your physical body needs to morph and like the bones you have become that of the wolf. That doesn’t make sense, does it?” He laughed. “How could Kaden become a bird if that were true? How could someone become a snake? It’s not so much of a physical change as it is magical.”
