27

But it was done now. My dear Alice was a werewolf just like me.

The Ritual had healed her beautifully, saving her life, preserving her form, and transforming her into the wolf she was always meant to be.

As Alice howled, I shifted and came to my mate’s side.

Alice was even more beautiful in her wolf form. Her fur was light in color, shining in the moonlight as she pounced on the soldiers. I could not stay behind. Not worried any longer about her life, I threw myself into the horde of soldiers, dismembering them with merciless brutality.

They had drawn first blood. They had attacked. They had effectively killed Alice. They did not deserve my mercy.

I fought to kill.

As did Alice.

I could see her tearing heads, slicing limbs, disemboweling the guts of all the soldiers within her reach. Bullets could not harm her now. Especially since she was just coming into her powers. As her body was still adapting to her new form, it was healing itself faster than any bullet that came flying her way could injure her. The same could not be said for me. But I was careful in my fight. I held back, avoiding the soldiers who were actively shooting at me.

It fascinated me to see the bullets ricocheting off of Alice and hitting the soldiers. I was completely mesmerized by her graceful movements as she attacked the soldiers. There was no fear in her. Alice was a wolf completely uninhibited.

I could not stay behind. After all, I was the alpha. Now that I had some time to think, I devised a strategy that I immediately enacted. My first order of business was to eliminate the gunfire. I started by yanking away the guns the soldiers held with my claws.

Alice quickly followed suit, taking charge of the soldiers who were approaching her. She was covered in blood, except this time around it wasn’t her blood. It was the blood of the enemies she had felled. Their corpses lay littered across the forest floor, all of them missing one limb or the other.

I overcame the remaining soldiers, making sure that they were left without guns, grenades, and any form of weapons that they could use against me or Alice.

It was strange. Seeing my mate in all her wolfish glory had boosted my strength beyond what I could have imagined. With just a slash, I was able to tear through the soldiers’ body armor. With a mere bite, I was able to end their lives.

The chaos subsided, leaving only two survivors in its wake. Me and Alice.

I shifted back into my human form and approached Alice. She was still very feral. She was confused. It was tricky to shift back into a human your first time.

“Alice,” I said as I came closer.

She snarled at me.

“Baby, it’s like relaxing your muscles. Just close your eyes, and let your muscles relax. You’ll turn back. I promise,” I said, raising my hands in self-defense.

She did as I asked. She closed her eyes and let out hot air through her nostrils. Then, slowly, she turned into her human form. I rushed up to her, wrapping her in the blanket that I’d procured from the now destroyed hut.

“Brandon!” Alice yelped as she fell to the floor. “I was dead, Brandon. Holy shit. There was this plain, but it was a lake, and there was a moon, and a wolf, oh my God…”

I hugged her as I wrapped her shivering body tighter in the blanket, making a mental note to get some spandex underpants for her the next time I go to town.

“It seems like you were in the spirit realm,” I said. I’d heard tales about that realm when I was a kid, never once considering that it was a real place. “Did the wolf spirit speak to you? For real?”

“He gave me a choice. Stay or leave. I, of course, stayed. Hold on. How the hell did I shift? How was I able to transform? Did you do this?” she asked me, batting her eyes wildly.

“I had to save you. It was either do the Ritual or let you die. I couldn’t let you die. Not after what we’ve been through,” I said.

“Brandon,” Alice said, holding my face in her hands. “The wolf spirit, he called me a fate weaver or something.”

“There will be plenty of time to talk about all of this later. Right now, let me look at your body and see if you’ve healed properly. Are you okay?” I took off her blanket and checked to see if there were any bullet holes left. To my surprise, there was not even a single injury left on her body. “My God. The marvel of the first transformation. Wow.”

“You saved me,” Alice whispered.

“You saved me first,” I said, bringing my face closer to her.

I kissed her with gratitude, relief, and mirth. Just a few moments ago, I had believed that she had died. She kissed me back.

After what seemed like an eternity had passed, we finally broke off, looking intently into each other’s eyes.

“When I turned, I felt so powerful. Like I was invincible or something,” Alice said. She was still shivering in the cold.

“A little too powerful. Look at all the carnage we unleashed,” I said, waving my arm around the battlefield.

“We have to warn the others!” Alice suddenly got up. “They might be in danger!”

“That’s actually a very valid point,” I said, getting up. “But first we have to get you some clothes.”

As we headed to the broken hut, where the closet had miraculously still stayed put despite all that had happened, I couldn’t help but wonder what the vision meant now that it had come to pass.

“I didn’t die, Alice. Neither of us did. Did you effectively change the future?” I asked.

“The way I see it, according to the wolf spirit, I am a fate weaver. So, you know, I must have done a little something something, weaved the fate, saved you, no biggie,” she said. “The best part about all of this is I am no longer afraid.”

We found a pair of jeans and a rather baggy t-shirt in the closet. As Alice put them on, she said, “For the first time in my life, I feel powerful.”