I CAN FEEEEEEEEEEEEL IT

Elaris POV

The sensation beneath my mark has changed suddenly. It is no longer as placid as I have been used to feeling during the night. There is something moving within that is instinctual, something restless and alive that makes all the other sensations within dull by comparison

I notice Averic stiffen from the corner of my eye

I don't need to look at him know something is wrong

Through the bond I feel something shifting... but Averic is still

"I can feel something."

Averic's fingers tighten slightly against the fabric of his shirt

"The weight in still there."

He pauses before speaking again trying to find the correct words though ultimately giving up halfway through the sentence.

"My wolf."

Averic's voice escapes him far too quietly, as if saying it out loud might shatter whatever this is

No

That is not right.

It is not entirely gone, nor is it strong

Neryss appears in the doorway almost instantly, she had obviously heard the disturbance from the next room

Her gaze sweeps over Averic before landing on me

"What happened?"

I answer her question before he can get a word in.

"He says he can feel his wolf."

Neryss expression changes instantly, losing any hint of interest she might have felt in this development

"is it real, or is the bond messing with your heads?"

That is question we both desperately wish to have the answer to.

Averic closes his eyes, centering himself before replying. "I've always been able to feel the bond. This isn't like that."

he pauses, as if trying to will something else forward

"I can feel the bond. But beneath it is something else."

This isn't like anything Averic has ever encountered before.

"There's something there. Something that reminds me more of instincts that have been lying dormant than anything else."

The healer had said the bond was a clean transfer with nothing lingering

Averic opens his eyes

"This is my wolf."

I close my eyes and attempt to reach out through the bond, it is there faintly but not unlike anything else I have ever known.

This isn't what either of us was expecting.

If the council learned of this before we could explain it, they would sooner kill us then listen.

Averic's eyes fall shut again

"They might believe it just as easily."

We both know these are not options we can consider.

The morning hours pass with Averic making several attempts to shift but failing to even begin the process. At times the sensation beneath my mark is stronger, at others it becomes nearly impercievable until my next breath

Each time Averic speaks to me, letting Neryss in on the changes that might signal recovery

"It gets stronger when I breathe deeply." A pause " And now its moving."

another pause

“It’s gone quiet again.”

No one is congratulating him, nothing could be further from his mind.

For the briefest second in those first hours of daylight, Averic forgets to hold back the emotions in his eyes.

There is hope there, genuine and unprotected hope

i do not pretend the pain we have both endured is gone because a fraction of Averic's wolf has returned.

i do not look to the bond to remind myself that he is mine or that I am his, but I no longer see what we are losing to what we have.

The sacrifices, the ones we have both made for the others well being, they have cost something. I remember what it took for Averic to keep me from dying at the hands of Caedmon. I remember what it took for me to survive the fight within the fortress and I do not pretend even these victories are miracles.

Something has changed... We just don't yet know what the cost of that miracle was

Averic senses another change long before I do.

He straightens

"It is stronger"

Once again he closes his eyes.

For several minutes I am not sure of exactly what he is saying, because this time the bond gives away more then it hides, enough that I can almost see the path that leads to transformation, though not quite strong enough for him to actually travel that road

The look on Averic's face when his eyes open again is not one of triumph, but for the first time since the transfer, there is hope

I meet his gaze, not pretending the distance between us is gone, but no longer willing to be ruled by it either

His sacrifice had taken just as much from him as it did from me, only the currency was different.

The mark had ended one string, Averic's sacrifice had ended something else.

Whatever this is, this strange and unwanted recovery, it will dictate what happens form here.

Averic seems to understand instinctively that I am not telling him something simply because that is exactly the place I am standing

I have no interest pretending for his benefit.

He doesn't ask anything of me that I do not give willingly, and I value that more then words could ever express.

Neryss brings the politics into perspective.

"The council still expects to put someone forward to fill the vacancy within the next two days"

Nothing that has come before this moment matters less then that fact in this moment.

If Averic were to recover before the council could appoint an interim Alpha, his removal would cease to matter. Should the council announce their choice before Averics return, we would have more then politics to contend with when it came time for the transition.

Averic weighs that information in his mind.

"We tell no one" Neryss agrees

"Not the council?"

"Especially not the council, not until we at least know what we've got."

I add the second part because it went unspoken, though I do not pretend that it will matter. If everything within him begins to return before we are any closer to understanding it...

Averic looks toward the door, then myself

Averic's response holds as much certainty in his decision as any of the council positions. Whatever has happened to him is none of their business in the face of a more important matter.

We have to survive first, that is a lesson I am coming to accept far to easily in recent months.

Once again something stronger takes root inside him, something stronger then before. This time I know it without question because I can feell it, not only through the bond but with my own hands. This sensation beneath my mark is growing stronger once again

Averic's reactions tell me he senses it to, though it is not necesary for him to prove it to me.

Averic nods

"Neither do you"

For perhaps the first time since the transfer, it is not the recovery that concerns us but what comes next.

It is the late afternoon hours when the next visitor arrives, her presence announced by the sound of boots upon the stone pathway that leads to our door

Neryss is already on her feet, one hand close to the hilt of the weapon at her hip when the door opens. I know the moment the healer enters the room, not because I anticipated her arrival but because she is the one healer I have ever seen that would visit without being expected.

Her eyes fix on Averic and she stops just short of entering the room, her expression unreadable for several seconds before settling on something that resembles surprize.

"You're not empty anymore,"

Averic has nothing to say on the matter.

The healer steps further into the room without breaking the silence between them, her fingers flexing slightly before closing her eyes and taking a slow even breath.

When she opens her eyes, there is no mistaking the certainty in her expression.

"The wolf is returning, I can feel it from the doorway."

Her words are not directed at Averic, but at me as though he could not possibly concern himself with something so mundane as my feelings on the subject.

She takes another breath, far less steady then the first and exhales shakily,

"That should not be possible."