Chapter 31
A strong gust of wind swirled through the room. I found myself encased in the middle of a whirlwind. Images flashed through my mind, then, as quickly as it came… it was gone. Luna and her brothers were all staring wide eyed at me.
“What?” I asked, overcome with fear. They remained perfectly still and silent. “What are you all staring at?” I pleaded for someone to answer.
I was about to fall apart when Joseph finally found his voice.
“Um…,” he uttered, and cocked his head a little to one side, and smiled faintly. “You….” His expression faltered, and he lowered his eyes.
It promptly became obvious I wasn’t going to get an answer, straight or otherwise, from Joseph.
I turned to face Luna. “Luna?” She had that same bewildered look on her face, which made me even more confused. The longer she stared, the more her mouth gaped open. “Have you all lost your will to speak? What’s wrong with me?” I started to cry, and Joseph couldn’t stand it.
“Please don’t cry, Gen. It’s nothing bad. I swear. It’s just that…you’ve changed. A lot.” He suddenly looked embarrassed and lowered his eyes.
“Okay, now I’m really starting to freak out. Would somebody please talk to me so I can try to make sense of this whole thing.”
Joshua and James had been staring at the floor the whole time like they were afraid to look at me. Did something really happen when I touched the stone. Maybe that’s why it had been hidden behind the ice for so long. Maybe no one was meant to find it because it was cursed.
“Look at your skin, Gen. It’s… it’s so flawless, it seems to be glowing almost.”
When I pushed a piece of loose hair behind my ear, I noticed how silky it felt. Not just soft either, it really felt like silk. My heart suddenly raced out of control.
I ran my hand across my arm and it startled me, and I quickly jerked it away. I had never felt skin so extremely soft that wasn’t on a baby.
“You’re suddenly more beautiful than anything I’ve ever seen. It’s like you take my breath away.” Joseph was in awe.
I laughed hollowly. “I think you guys stayed out in the sun too long. I’m no different than I was ten minutes ago.”
“You’re wrong.” Joseph turned and started across the room. “Come over here.”
I followed him to a spot on the other side of the room where the ice covered a green mossy area giving it a mirrored effect.
My knees grew increasingly weak and I trembled, staring at my reflection. My whole outward appearance had changed. I appeared to be slightly taller, my hair was longer, my features were way softer, my body had the great hour glass shape, even my breasts were larger. I was definitely okay with that part.
I stepped up for a closer look. My eyes were definitely darker. Growing up they had always been a washed out blue color, then I noticed them taking on a greenish hue. But now they were clearly a dark shade of green.
When I turned around, Luna, Joshua, and Joseph had joined James, and they were bowing before me.
A burning flush flew over me. “Get up, you guys.” They didn’t move at first, but then slowly, they all stood.
“You truly are the Adlet princess. We are your servants,” All four spoke in unison, and it gave me goose bumps. Even though I had known very little about life, I was preparing to give it up in exchange for something I didn’t truly understand. I now knew more than ever, it was my calling.
I rolled my eyes, trying to hide my amusement. “Stop saying that. I’m just an ordinary teenage girl.” I turned toward the passageway, but spun back around. “Well… maybe not ordinary, but still a teenage girl. Now, can we please get outta’ here? I’m getting creeped out.”
I waited allowing James to take the lead, then I stepped in line next to Luna, looping my arm through hers and smiling. I started thinking about everything that had happened so far during this journey. No matter what had happened, Luna had been nothing but patient and kind. Not to mention how she’d stuck up for me when they were arguing. I had been so self absorbed, and worried about my feelings and what I was giving up, I never stopped to think about what all of this had meant for them. Luna and her brothers were giving up everything to protect me, even if it meant them dying, and I hadn’t bothered to thank any of them.
She covered my hand with hers and gave a gentle squeeze. In turn I nudged her with my hip, a little too hard I might add, and she sort of bounced off the ice wall. What made me feel so bad about it was that was the same hip she’d walked out of the cave rubbing earlier after she had slipped on the ice. But, being the awesome person Luna was, she just giggled. Her hip had actually healed within minutes of falling, but I kept forgetting about that part.
We made it out of the cave without a hitch, and I smiled just starting to relax when James stopped abruptly and held up his hand.
“What is it?” Luna whispered. When she grabbed my arm another vision shot through me. It was the same man and he was dragging something. The next thing I knew, they were all facing outward from a tight circle they made around me.
Coyotes lunged at us from every direction. Some even jumped off the rocks high above us.
James and Joshua were the two fastest at transforming. In wolf form it was impossible to distinguish one from the other. They both had beautiful reddish-brown fur. Joseph changed next. His deep red fur with silver tips was even more beautiful than that of his brothers. Although Luna was a faster runner than her brothers, she was the slowest to transform. Her fur was silver with deep red tips—the exact opposite of Joseph. It was strange I hadn’t noticed it before.
“Gen Change now!” Luna called out to me in my mind. I had been entranced by their beauty, and had forgotten to focus.
Her call came too late. A huge coyote jumped onto my back. My back arched inward when his razor sharp claws dig into my flesh, sending me to the ground. I heard his teeth gnashing at the back of my head, and suddenly his weight lifted off of me. I quickly rolled and by the time my feet and hands hit the ground I’d transformed without even thinking about it. I heard a fierce thunderous growl come out of nowhere and was shocked when I realized it had come from me.
Being greatly outnumbered didn’t faze us. We were much larger, much stronger, and much faster. Hungry for blood, the five of us tore through the pack of coyotes. In just minutes most of them were dead, and the ones that weren’t, cowered and ran away to hide in the mountains.
Unfortunately, the worst wasn’t over. Actually, the worst was just beginning. Ascending from the mountain was a large pack of lycan…Zane’s henchmen. Their disheveled and splotchy fur covered bodies revealed they had battled many times before. They were skinny and seemed undernourished, but I knew not to be fooled by their appearance. The closer they inched toward us, the more they snarled, gnashing their teeth and growling.
James and Joshua slowly backed up to stand next to us by the mouth of the cave. Adrenaline surged through my body, making it hard to keep still. We stood our ground and waited. As their pack neared, they split apart. My heart raced uncontrollably when I saw an extremely large—bigger than us—solid black Werewolf. His fur was short and slick, and the moon reflected off his back. His fangs were extremely long, but pearly white. When I looked in his eyes I quietly gasped, and my heart nearly skipped a beat. His eyes were not only large, somewhat angular, and black as coal, but they were pure evil as well.
He slowly sauntered toward me, and all three brothers quickly moved between us blocking his path, which evidently was what he wanted. While their focus was on him, the bushes behind us exploded with a dozen more lycan.
Luna was so fast, she had ripped out the throats of two lycan before the others knew what happened. Joseph wasn’t as fast as his sister, but he was extremely strong. When two lycan jumped him simultaneously, he clawed and chomped until both lycan bodies lay in a mass of blood and flesh on the ground after being twisted and ripped to shreds.
James and Joshua lunged at the larger one, but his pack qu
ickly swarmed them. They both took on two and three at a time, but began tiring. Joseph went to help, leaving Luna to help me escape to safety.
Without me to assist Luna, they took her down quickly. I heard her call out to me, but I couldn’t answer. I had made the mistake of looking into the larger one’s eyes, and had fallen under his spell. I couldn’t move, and even though I was screaming on the inside, I couldn’t scream out. All I could do was continue to stare into his eyes while Luna screamed from somewhere behind. I watched helplessly as he leaped through the air, and everything suddenly faded to black.