7

April

I breathe heavily as it rings, and my heart sinks deeper and deeper into my stomach with every ring that resounds,

He isn’t picking up.

He hates you, remember?

And he doesn’t care if you die.

My mother fights hard, but soon enough she gets outnumbered, her stamina decreasing as they recharge between their attacks but not granting her the same opportunity.

Her light brown slowly changes color, staining itself with her blood as they keep landing hits, sinking their fangs into her side and neck.

“Mom!” Desperation ripples through me, and I try my best to push myself from the ground, only to slump back down. I claw onto the floor, clasping the wet soil in my fists as I clench my eyes closed.

Even if my body keeps refusing to move as I want to, I can’t give up as she is all I have left. She has already given up her pack for me and I would never survive the thought that she lost her life because of me too.

Even if I won’t be able to cry about it long enough.

Clenching my teeth, I stand up and stabilize on my wobbly feet with a groan. I take a step and swallow a scream of pain as it gets a stabbing pain to shoot through me, making me risk giving out once again.

‘I have to stop them!’ I encourage myself, pushing myself further. After a few steps, my legs give out beneath me, making me fall to my knees again.

I scream, wanting to stand up again as a strange sensation stops me.

Suddenly, a strange pain surges through me. It is totally different from the stinging pain streaming from my heart, or the burning pain radiating from my wounds.

I gasp as I turn myself on my back, enabling me to breathe better. Looking up to the grey sky, I take calming breaths, trying to make the pain disappear, but it gets stronger, seeping into my bones.

My heart twists painfully as my bones start breaking, causing a bloodcurdling scream to explode from my throat.

I recognize that I must be shifting, but this is impossible, my wolf isn’t supposed to show herself before my birthday, only coming up in a few months from now.

So it was her, my wolf! She was speaking to me when I was dying. She already came but I didn’t know it was her as I couldn’t recognize her until she showed herself to me now..

An absurd thought that shouldn't have appeared at this time quickly occupies my mind. If I would shift today, then the mate bond I felt before was not my imagination.

It is normal for a werewolf to have some kind of feeling about his or her mate in the first two or three days before shifting. But it will be confirmed only after her wolf officially appears.

But Scott had claimed Haley to be his mate instead of me.

Did he cheat on me? Or did he deceive everyone?

I scream as the pain of the bones breaking and reassembling themselves feels like it is tearing me apart.

Digging my fingers which are shifting into claws into the muddy ground, I try to breathe through the agony while my wounds are being healed after getting ripped open while my skin changes, causing me to black out repeatedly.

Finally, the pressure on my chest lifts, and I am able to breathe again. I shake myself, noticing that I am now standing on my four paws. My white fur moves in the wind as my wolf stands up fully.

“Don’t worry, April,” her voice booms through my mind, making me wince as I’m still coping to adjust to the strange sensation of my wolf taking over. “I got them!”

Even before I can make sense of what she said, she charges forward. I scream, the sound only resounding in her head as she rams the rogue who is about to bite into my mother’s throat as she is lying on the ground.

The rogue gets catapulted against a tree with a yelp, getting the attention of the other rogues on me.

They move awfully fast, and my wolf reacts quickly and turns to run away, getting them to follow her. I close my eyes with a sigh, glad about her bringing them away from my mother.

“Thank you,” I whisper as she halts, turning back around to face our attacker.

I hold my breath as the rogues growl threateningly before charging towards us at supernatural speed. All my preoccupations are for nothing as my wolf dodges the first two, and she collides with the third one on purpose. The rogue stumbles backwards, allowing her to jump him and sink her claws into his side to make him fall to the ground with a thud. “Behind you,” I shriek, making her turn around just in time to avoid a rogue snapping for her leg.

As she dodges another attack, she bites the rogue in his throat, making him slump to the ground defeated. I can feel the metallic taste of his blood in my mouth together with my wolf, causing my stomach to turn.

“Take deep breaths,” my wolf says calmly as she starts running after the rogues who are now trying to escape. “It’s over soon.”

She catches up with them effortlessly, attacking one of them and ripping his throat as the other two standing manage to escape.

“Damn it,” she cusses, and I feel her blood-lust swash through me as I take another deep breath to calm my racing heart.

Running back to my mother, she gets me to shift back as we are standing right beside her.

I stand there for a second, inspecting my hands with big eyes. “We did it!” My feeble whisper makes my wolf chuckle in my head, boasting about her skills proudly.

‘Oh, yes. I was on fire. Now let’s get your mom out of here,’ she says, making me jerk up.

Falling onto my knees, I caress my mother’s head gently, feeling her cold skin under my fingertips. 

“Mom!”

Panicky, I check her wounds, seeing that she is severely injured and needs a doctor as soon as possible.

‘We need to take her to a doctor fast, or she will die,’ my wolf tears me out of my thoughts as I spiral deeper and deeper, getting me back to reality. ‘I know that you are tired and still weak because of your shift, and this isn’t an easy situation for you, but you have to move. We can’t risk her death or the rogues coming back with reinforcements.’

I take a deep breath, lift up my mother from the dirty ground, and start walking through the forest to reach our car. She feels so heavy in my arms, and I fear that it might be too late as she seems to be totally not responsive. 

Swallowing a sob, I reposition her in my arms as she risks slipping from me once more and clench my teeth to walk further, my body feeling like I will collapse any moment.

‘Just another bit,’ my wolf encourages me, making me push out air to gather a bit more force to make it to our car.

As we finally reach our car, I check the soil on my feet for car parts or shattered glass before I lay down my mother gently. I walk to the car and my arms slump at the realization that it is completely totaled and that it will be impossible for us to use it to move further. “Fuck, what am I going to do?”

My mother is dying, but I can't save her. This thought almost makes me feel like wanting to give up.

She looks so pale and fragile in my arms, and she could die any moment from now.

It's only my fault that she has to go through all this pain and suffering.

"Go, April," she regains consciousness shortly, "Save yourself. Remember to find Elena, she is..."

She doesn't finish her words and closes her eyes again.

"Mom," I try shaking her awake, but it is useless.

"Mom." I really can't lose the only family I have left.

A hot energy suddenly sweeps over me, and I feel my blood burning up.

A warm white light appears on my hands.

What is this?