Chapter Seven #2
The beast inside roared to the surface. Darkness clouded her vision. The burn of her transformation made her want to scream. Her sense of self dissolved until there was nothing left of the woman, the human she was. She collapsed to the floor and lay there panting till she caught her breath.
Then she opened her eyes. Wolf’s eyes. Everything was sharper, stronger.
She rose on all fours. Scents, noises and…
She jerked her head toward the door. Toward the forest. It called to her.
The need to have the damp earth beneath her paws and the wind in her fur grew within her until she could think of nothing else. It encompassed everything.
Her wolf eyed the men blocking her path.
One in tunic and breeches on his knees in front of her, the other bare-chested, a gold medallion on a chain around his neck and an ax in his hand.
They were big and fierce, but nothing would stand in her way.
No one could reach her. She was wolf, all instinct and with a need to be free.
“Easy girl. Do not run.” The twin on his knees spread his arms wide to block her escape. “We are here to help you.”
Isobella dug her claws into the dirt floor and spurred forward, dodging him.
“Aubert!”
She lunged for the door.
“I have her.”
The bare-chested twin, Aubert, dropped his ax and caught her.
No!
She scraped her claws down his chest, over his bare abdomen, drawing blood. He barely flinched. He did not release his hold. She snapped at his throat, but he was too fast, too strong, avoiding her jaws again and again.
Heedless of his injuries, Aubert slammed her down on the cot, pinning her with his big body and knocking the breath from her lungs. She fought him, her wolf fought him, with everything she had, desperate to be free, to run.
“Shift back.” He loomed over her, his eyebrows pinched together, his brown eyes fierce. “Now.”
The wolf in her rebelled. The woman in her, buried deep, screamed her frustration. I’m trying. All that came out of her mouth was a mournful howl. Her wolf snapped at him again, drawing blood. It trickled from his lip and over his chin. Another howl, this one of triumph.
Aubert cursed, but still he did not release her.
His twin, Edmond, kneeled at her head, drawing her attention with a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Find your center, chaton.”
His voice was a soothing rumble, and deep inside her, something latched on to it and held tight like it was a life buoy and she was drowning.
“The place inside you that is you, not your wolf. The human part of you.”
Her wolf thrashed, not ready to listen, snapping her jaws at Aubert, narrowly missing his ear.
“Listen to me, chaton.”
The touch on her shoulder again. Edmond. Keep talking.
“Listen to my voice. Hear what I am telling you.”
I’m listening.
“Deep inside you is a place where your wolf cannot reach. Find it. Feel it.”
Yes. Yes. I can feel it. I am here. Floating in the darkness, but there, and the more she sank into that feeling, that awareness, the more the instinctive drive to run quietened, and the need to fight retreated. Her wolf was listening now, too.
“That is it, chaton. You can do this. Now grab hold of it, tight”—he clenched his fist in front of her face—“and do not let go.”
She closed her eyes, calling on all her training as a witch, drawing herself into her center, to a place of calm. Deep, steady breath in, then out again. Deep breath in. And out. In. Out.
The internal struggle calmed, her mind able to see both of them—the wolf and the woman. The person who she was—Isobella, daughter, sister, friend, twenty-first century witch—and the wolf, wild, strong, all its senses attuned to its surroundings—the cottage, the fire, the forest. To them.
“You are doing well, mon amour. Hold it there.”
Brown eyes locked on hers, holding her in place as surely as his brother’s body did. Both wolf and woman were aware of him. Of both of them. Of Edmond’s soothing voice and his soft touch. Aubert’s strength and resolve.
“Now, imagine yourself human again.”
Imagine herself human. Okay. I can do that. She focused on her paws, her limbs—imagining hands, fingers, arms—willing them to shift. A brief pain flared, then slipped away. Nothing changed.
He gave her an encouraging smile. “You can do it.”
She closed her eyes and refocused, concentrating hard.
Pain flared again. This time, she welcomed it, leaned into it.
It spread through her body, across her chest, her face and her legs.
Her bones rearranged, fur receded, her muzzle flattened and her spine straightened.
The other presence, the wolf, slipped away into the darkness of her subconscious, lurking, but no longer in control.
She wiggled her fingers. Yes. Hands. Not paws.
Skin, not fur. She had her human body back again.
Isobella opened her eyes and stared at the man who’d talked her back. Edmond. There was that smile again. Her heart did a little flip.
“You did it.” His smile broadened, lighting up his whole face.
Aubert, his body still pinning her to the cot, wasn’t smiling. The fierceness in his gaze had intensified, and something long and hard pressed against her stomach. Her naked stomach.