Ellida (28 page)

I actually gasped when I saw two dark-green
eyes staring into me from the mirror. They were pretty, still
framed by thick, dark lashes, still almond-shaped like their blue
counterparts. But the green hue made them look so different that I
blinked several times as if trying to break the illusion.

“How would you describe this color?” I asked
Jack, unable to take my eyes away from my eyes.

“Moss-green.”

“Like Uncle James’,” I said with a smile.

“He’ll be over the moon. But look, there is a
touch of blue close to the pupils, and golden flecks sprinkled all
around. Beautiful!” Jack said, smiling at my reflection.

What truly thrilled me was the fact that now
my vision, together with my other senses, had improved.

I turned around to look at Jack. “I should be
now able to change at will, shouldn’t I? How do I do that?”

“You just do. Wanna try?”

“Is it safe? It’s still the full moon.”

He ran his knuckles alongside my face. “Trust
your instincts, Astrid. What do they tell you?”

I stood motionless for a moment, listening to
my inner senses, and then laughed. “They tell me, since I’m already
naked, it’s the perfect time to change.”

As I said it, I started shifting from my feet
up, in the same pattern of Jack’s transformation. Like putting on a
furry Halloween costume. It tickled a bit, and I could feel gentle
bone shifting, some stretching and pulling, but that was it.
Painless, effortless, much slower than before. At the precise
moment my arms turned into front legs, I lowered my body and they
touched the floor.

“See, piece of cake,” Jack said and kissed my
muzzle.

“
I love you, Jack
,” I said happily.
“
Let me out now.”

We walked to the front door. Jack opened it
and then changed shape.

I stepped outside, feeling like an energy
bomb.

I sprinted across the lawn, between the
houses, instinctively finding shortcuts to the forest. Jack ran by
my side until we came to the clearing.

We rolled together, chased each other,
splashed through the creek and ran to the top of a small hill on
the edge of the forest. We spotted a deer herd in front of us, but
I wasn’t in a hunting mood. I smelled a pack of wolves deeper in
the forest, aware of our presence. Further down, a fox peeked out
of her burrow, sniffed the air and quickly disappeared again.

It started snowing, in huge, wet snowflakes
that melted away as soon as they touched the ground. I looked
toward the milky gray sky, blinking away the snowflakes from my
eyes and brushing them off my muzzle with my front paw.

“
Let me do that,”
Jack said and licked
my face. His warm, moist tongue tasted delicious. I licked him
back, sniffed him, bit him gently and rolled over him on a wet,
soft, thick yellowish-green layer of leaves, pine needles and
grass. I jumped, bounced and laughed until my jaw hurt and my chest
almost burst.

“
This is almost as good as sex with
you,”
I shrieked in pure delight.

“
There’s nothing as good as sex with you,
Miss Spock
,” Jack said, laughing and panting.

I finally calmed down and stretched myself
over Jack’s sprawled body.

“
Now I’m ready for breakfast.”

“
Are you ready to face our family?”
Jack teased me, nuzzling around my neck. “
They know exactly what
we were doing in the last two days. There’re going to be some
questions, be prepared for that.”

I laughed. “
I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.
And about the questions, well, you can answer them. You’ve been
with me all the time. And stop tickling me, Jack!”

WE RAN back to the house. On the porch, I
turned to Jack. “
My eyes, are they still green?”

“
That’s permanent now, regardless of your
form.”
He fixed his gaze on me. “
You know what? That hint of
blue when you’re in your human shape, it’s an amber undertone in
your wolf form. But they are definitely green.”

“
My fur?”
I lifted my front leg. It
hadn’t changed. It was the same reddish-brown color as before.

“Yep, it’s the same.”

Jack’s voice came from behind me, not in my
head.

“
Oh you’re already done!”
I said,
amused at finding his naked, gorgeous self on the porch. “
Get
inside. You don’t want Red Cliffs to see their Einhamir naked
!”
I laughed and pushed him toward the entrance.

Laughing along with me, he opened the door
and let me in. “I’m going to take a shower, baby. Will you join
me?”

Walking slowly backward toward the bathroom,
Jack kept his eyes on me, watching my shifting.

It was as easy and natural as changing into a
wolf had been an hour ago. It started from my head and ended with
my feet. I stretched, bent my head back and forth, left and right
several times, and let out a deep satisfied sigh. Jack lifted me in
his arms and carried me to the bathroom.

One hour later and
very
hungry by
then, we crossed the lawn to my uncle and aunt’s house.

JAMES HAD methodically planned the
inauguration ceremony and celebration that followed.

The ceremonial part was simple. Standing on
the improvised podium in front of almost the entire Red Cliffs
population, gathered in the small central square, Astrid made the
long anticipated announcement.

She started her short proclamation with a
slight tremor in her voice, moving her eyes over the crowd. “I’ve
decided to stay with my clan as its Ellida…” She swallowed hard
before she squared her shoulders and continued, “As you know, I’m
bonded with your Einhamir, Jack Canagan, and I’m choosing him as my
mate.”

One… two… three
… Astrid had silently
counted the seconds of the silence that followed.

It seemed that Red Cliffs had expected more
than this simple statement, but when they realized Astrid had
finished, the square exploded with cheering, clapping and
whistling. You are ours and we are yours, they were telling her,
and she smiled happily. Yes, this was her home, her place, her
life, her people, her clan and her pack, she thought as a wonderful
sense of belonging washed over her.

When the noise died out, she repeated a
simple, ancient oath. “I, Astrid Vandermeer-Mohegan, from House
Canagan, solemnly swear to perform the duty of Red Cliffs Ellida,
to safeguard the interest of my clan, to uphold our laws and do
justice to all, and to protect our sacred territory with all my
power.”

Jack came to her and bowed slightly, right
hand over his heart. “I receive you and do homage to you as our
Ellida in the name of the Red Cliffs clan.”

And with that, the official part was
over.

THE CELEBRATION lasted all night. Rawhide,
minus their famous singer, was in charge of the music. When they
pushed a bit too hard toward their own songs, Maggie took the
microphone and brought them back on track with some good old
rock’n’roll and pop songs.

The long tables were piled with food that
magically stayed hot all the time. Countless kegs of beer and casks
of wine were placed in several strategically chosen positions so
that the townsfolk had easy access to them. Alcohol had little
effect on werewolves, except a cheering one, so the atmosphere in
the central square was merry and festive. People talked and
laughed, kids bounced between them while small babies slept in
their strollers or in their parents’ arms.

The night ended with fireworks that turned
the ultramarine sky of pre-dawn to a multicolored explosion of
light.

When a thin orange glow lit up the eastern
sky, the new alpha pair, Red Cliffs’ Ellida and their Enhamir,
walked home, hand in hand.

A WEEK after the town square celebration,
Astrid started working at the Clinic. As her boss Dr. Falkenstein
had promised, she was paired with Ahmed. She decided to work two
night shifts and pick up odd substitute hours here and there.

Her trainer wasn’t happy with her irregular
working hours. Astrid’s job blew up their routine. In order to
continue with regular practices, Takeshi had to accommodate
Astrid’s busy schedule.

“It’s beyond me how your skills are getting
better with such a casual approach, but there we are,” he said
irritably one morning while they fought with bamboo poles.

Astrid laughed, efficiently blocking a
particularly clever attack. “Isn’t that great? You should be proud
of me.”

“And look what you’ve made me do,” Takeshi
continued with his rumble and launched another attack. “We are
not
supposed to talk. You
do
not
talk to your
enemy while you fight with him.”

“And why’s that? It may distract the
opponent. Now I’m going to demonstrate it: I’ve overheard someone
saying you are sexy as hell.”

Takeshi smirked. “Nice try, Astrid, but I’ve
gotten used to such comments. Women have been throwing themselves
at me since I came out of puberty. It’s either my damn good looks,
or my irresistible personality.”

Takeshi’s unexpected words and even more the
humorous tone he’d used broke Astrid’s concentration. The next
moment she was on her back. Takeshi’s bamboo pole gently pressed on
the hollow of her neck. “Still want to chit-chat while
fighting?”

She laughed and swiftly rolled over and,
reaching for the pole Takeshi had knocked out of her hands,
launched a ferocious counterattack.

After practice Takeshi took the bamboo pole
from her hand. “You won’t need it anymore, Ellida. Tomorrow we’ll
use katanas.”

“I have a feeling I’ll like that,” she said.
“Now remind me, why am I doing all this? Human combat techniques
are not efficient against werewolves, wizards or Tel-Urughs, are
they?”

“Oh, they are, Astrid. Do not underestimate
human abilities. Samurai fighting skills, for example, are not
inferior to those of wizards or werewolves.”

Astrid laughed. “No matter how hard you try,
Takeshi, you’re not gonna make a Samurai out of me.”

“You’d be amazed what I could make out of
you, Astrid, given time and a little bit of your willingness to
experiment. It won’t be necessary, though. You know that when
you’re pregnant, you can’t use your werewolf or wizard powers.
Human combat techniques can’t harm you, because you use a different
energy source. What I want is to give you a secret weapon. Nobody
would expect you to use human fighting skills. That’s enough to
surprise your enemy and buy you the necessary time to escape.”

BLENDING WITH Astrid’s human spirit, her
wolf had tuned Astrid’s overall personality. With no side effects
on her rational, logical way of thinking, she became more relaxed,
open and sociable.

The wolf had passed on all her memories and
experiences from every transformation Astrid had gone through yet
couldn’t remember. Now she better understood the enormous role her
wolf had played in keeping her unharmed change after change.

They couldn’t talk to each other anymore, but
Astrid felt the presence of her wolf in her green eyes and her
throaty laugh, in her abundance of raw physical strength and
general
easiness of being
. Her body, always healthy and
strong, was now literally bursting with power. She could feel it in
her blood, in her muscles, under her skin. With her sharpened
senses, food tasted better and water sweeter. Nature unfolded its
wonders, previously invisible: new smells, sounds, colors and
shapes.

It didn’t surprise her that her intimate
needs had also changed. “Our sex drive is above average”, Jack had
said. Being a certified werewolf, she now perfectly understood his
statement. She couldn’t get enough of Jack. He opened the door to a
whole new world of physical pleasure and emotional fulfillment.
Gentle, rough, possessive, unselfish, he gave himself to her
generously and absolutely. She responded with an irresistible
combination of innocence and passion, inexperience and deep,
natural sensuality, giving and taking openly, withholding nothing.
Her kinky, sexy beast had supplied her with all sorts of
theoretical knowledge, and Astrid was more than eager to test it in
practice. The calmer component of her being, her logical, rational
element explored her awakening sexuality with an endless curiosity
and pure joy.

ASTRID AND Peyton’s friendship deepened.
Peyton’s relationship with Jack, initially both an obstacle and a
motivation for the friendship between the two women, wasn’t an
issue anymore. Even before she fell in love with Astrid’s
ex-boyfriend, Peyton had dealt with the fact that now Jack belonged
to Astrid. Astrid often wondered if she would’ve been so noble
under the same circumstances, and deeply admired her friend’s
courage.

She spent a lot of time with Ahmed, inside
and outside the Clinic. The ski season was almost over, and with
just a few tourists left, the nights at the ER department of Red
Cliffs Medical Clinic were usually quiet. Every once in a while
there would be a child with an upset stomach, mild cold or flu
symptoms, but mostly it was nothing serious.

Astrid and Ahmed had performed several
orthopedic surgeries on patients from outside the town, who’d opted
for the small, inexpensive clinic rather than waiting for months
for a bed in their big city hospitals.

During their quiet night shifts, Ahmed and
Astrid would often sit in one of their offices and talk, as if they
were trying to make up for all that time when they were both
working in Rosenthal but talked only when it had been
necessary.

They had become very close. Ahmed was
protective of her, in a way different from Jack, but maybe similar
to Uncle James’ doting affection. They were attuned to each other’s
feelings and moods and sometimes they even knew each other’s
thoughts.