The Wolfs Maine (10 page)

"Wait a second. You say you were a wolf when you came to check on me tonight at the house right?"  John looked right at me. 

"Yes dear." 

"So was that you that night outside the club when the girls and I went out?"  That took John by surprise.  He probably didn't think I would put two and two together but the wolf that was at my house fighting Nicholas looked exactly like the wolf I saw that night.  John continued to look at me like he had no idea what to say until Michael spoke up. 

"John. Snap out of it!"  He snapped his fingers right under John’s nose which on a normal day would have been funny but today I was getting annoyed. 

"Yes. That was me."  He almost looked like a puppy I just swatted with a newspaper but he did save my life that night.  I was speechless. 

"Oh." 

"Ava. I'm sorry.  I didn't mean to follow you all over town.  I just wanted to make sure you were safe. I promised your mother I would make sure you were always safe."  I saw Michael’s eyes get the size of golf balls. 

"Shit John! Now that you open
ed the jar you might as well keep going."  I was completely lost now. 

"Did you just say my mother? My mother is dead."  I looked at John but he was sitting there frozen solid with a blank oh my god stare on his face. Michael kicked John’s foot to get him to explain.  John finally snapped out of it, took a deep breath and began again. 

"Shit. Okay, I know your mother is gone because I was there when her and your father passed.  Your mother used her final breath to ask me to watch over you."  My jaw hit the floor. 

"Wait. My parents died in a car crash, how were you there?  How did you even know them? And why on Earth would my mother ask you of all people to watch over me?" I could see that one kind of stung him but really none of this was making any sense to me at all. 

"It's a long story Ava dear.  Why don't you get some rest and I'll explain more later."  There was no way I could wait until later.  I had to know everything now, especially now that he brought up my parents. 

"NO!"  I didn't mean to scream but it just came out that way.  It must have worked though because John started talking.  I sat there and listened while John told me everything from how he met my parents when he was young and didn't know how to control his changing and my parents took him in and taught him how. 

He told me that he was there when I was born and how much my parents loved me.  He explained to me how my parents died, truly.  All my life I thought my parents died in a car accident but really they were killed by vampires?  Really?  Vampires?  Then he explained to me that there were in fact vampires. What else was real that I had read about in books?  Trolls?  Fairies?  I guess people got information for their books from somewhere I just never would have thought it was real.  

Then he dropped the bomb on me that my parents were in fact shape shifters like him.  So my parents could change into animals?  Did that mean I could be one as well?  I could feel myself get short of breath but I couldn't stop my mind from going over everything John just explained to me. 

My parents were killed by vampires, the man I love knew my parents, and my mother asked him to watch over me, I may be a shape shifter.  It was all too much to take in; I thought my mind was going to explode.  The shortness of breath was getting worse, my head was pounding, and it was getting hot.  Great, I was having a panic attack.  I stood up because that was the only thing I could get myself to do.  I had to get out of that house, even if just for a few minutes. 

"Ava! Are you okay?"  I kept hearing John talk to me but I couldn't respond.  My body wasn't my own and I felt myself run for the door.  All I could think was that I had to get outside.  My head was pounding so hard it felt like something slamming a sledge hammer on my brain over and over again.  I was getting so hot to the point of scorching, I felt like my body was on fire.  I needed outside where it was cold. 

I ran outside as fast as I could but it didn't help.  I could feel John and Michael behind me but it didn't matter, I couldn't even speak.  The pain was too much.  For some reason I just began to run.  I didn't know what was going through my brain, maybe that I could outrun the pain but I just kept running right into the woods. 

I couldn't stop, not even for John.  I could hear John behind me screaming for me to stop but I just couldn't.  I ran until I collapsed and then all I could see was darkness.

Chapter Nine

John

I knew I should have waited.  I knew I should have told her all of this later or in smaller doses than just hitting her with all of it at once but she was not going to have that.  She was definitely one stubborn woman.  She had to have figured out that she could also be a shape shifter if her parents were but I didn't even get that far to explain anything.  Before I knew it she took off.  What was she doing?  Was she running away from me?  I couldn't let her get away before I could explain. 

Something on her face did not look right either so I took off after her.  She didn't tell me no or not to follow her so I did.  I could not believe how fast she was.  Michael and I couldn't even keep up with her, she was gone.  All of a sudden we saw her and then we didn't.  It was like she vanished. 

By the time Michael and I made it up to where she was I realized she didn't vanish, she fell.  She was just lying in the middle of the woods, out cold, sweating from head to toe.  She was unconscious but breathing heavily and her body felt hot as fire.  Michael looked her over for a second then back at me. 

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"  I looked at her, my life, my love, lying there in pain and suddenly I knew what was happening. 

"She's changing."  I picked her up off the sticks and dirt and carried her back to the house.  I hadn't realized how far we were until we walked back.  She must have run four miles or better. 

"John, if she's changing we have got to watch her every minute until it's over.  You know how tricky this can be.  I've never witnessed one before but I've heard people talk."  I looked down at my precious Ava in my arms. 

The change was never easy and it was very painful.  Your body starts to overheat to the point you feel like you are on fire, you begin to shake uncontrollably, and your body may even begin to change into anything on the fly and then back again.  It is a very draining process and not everyone can survive it. 

"I know.  I should have waited and explained things to her in smaller amounts.  Not just hit her with everything at once.  I bet she started to have a panic attack which kick started the change.  I knew at her age she would be getting close if she indeed was going to and surely that is what happened.  What am I going to do if she doesn't survive it?"  I could feel Michael's hand on my shoulder and I just thanked God he was there with me. 

"She will make it John.  Keep telling yourself that.  She will make it.  She is a strong woman, a strong stubborn woman.  She will not let something like this keep her down." 

Hopefully Michael was right.  We made it back to the house and I took her straight upstairs to my bedroom.  I laid her on the bed, turned the air conditioner on, turned all the fans in the house on and shut all the windows.  We were in the middle of nowhere but that didn't mean hunters couldn't hear her if she were to scream.  "Michael, I have some chains downstairs in the basement, would you go get them for me?  She is going to have to be chained to the bed in case she starts changing uncontrollably." 

"Are you sure you want to do that to her?"  I looked at my sweet Ava and back at Michael. 

"I have no choice."  Michael ran downstairs and was back before I knew he was gone, he handed me the chains but all I could do was look at them.  How was I supposed to chain up the woman that I love? 

"John, would you like me to do that for you?  If it were me I would never be able to do this."  I just handed the chains over to Michael.  He's right, there's no way I will be able to handle this.  I knew this day might possibly come but not like this.  I watch as Michael put the chains around her wrists and ankles then attached them to the bed posts.  The chains probably won't even help that much but if she is too weak, the animal she changes into will be weak as well so hopefully nothing she turns into will break them.  Once Michael was finished he came and sat next to me. 

"So, you've seen a change before?"  Oh yes, I've seen changes before. 

"Yes, I have.  I've seen many people change including myself.  Since you've gone through it you might remember bits and pieces.  It starts with that sweat, fever, body aches, uncontrollable urges then goes into thrashing, pain, changing and changing back over and over until it wears your body out to the point you can't move.  Then finally you sleep until you can wake up.  I have only known three people to wake up after a change."  Michael looked over at me with worry in his eyes. 

"Out of how many?"  I could not help my expression.  The numbers were not good.  It obviously only took that one look for Michael to get it.  Ava might not wake up from this, not after everything she just went through. 

Dealing with Nicholas yesterday from the moment she got home to the minute I jumped in to save her life later on that night to her running for her life then finding me behind her hurt, to her and Michael bringing me here and trying to take care of me, to then finding out how I have known her for her entire life and that I also knew her parents and then to top it off that her parents were shape shifters as well as Michael and I, her body is over stressed and to add changing on top of it.  I just don't know if she will make it through this or not.  It's been a long two days for her. 

Her screaming kicked me out of my worries.  Obviously the pain was kicking in.  I went over to be with her but what could I do?  There was nothing I could do to help her, I felt useless and that is not a feeling I can handle very well.  Her body felt like it was on fire.  All I could do was talk to her; tell her that she was not alone and that I loved her, hoping she could hear me.  Michael and I took shifts sleeping although I didn't sleep at all.  I would go downstairs for an hour or so but came right back.  There was no way I could sleep with her screaming and crying out in pain, it hurt me just to hear her.  Michael called me back upstairs, he didn't sound good.  All I can think
was ‘
Have I lost her?
’ 

When I make my way up the stairs I walk in the bedroom and all I see is the most gorgeous white wolf I have ever seen in my life chained to the bed.  She was magnificent.  She was very long and lean with gorgeous white as snow fur, her ears twitched as if she was listening to every sound around her, and I could not mistake those beautiful eyes.  Only Ava has those beautiful eyes that I
can lose myself in.  It was amazing that she changed into a wolf.  Her very first change and it's into a beautiful wolf.  Coincidence maybe but I chose to believe otherwise. 

Before I knew it she had changed back to Ava.  My beautiful angel.  She was breathing hard and sweating but the heat radiating from her body seemed to calm down a bit.  Michael decided to take his shift and go downstairs and try to get some rest while I stayed by her bedside.  If I wanted rest I co
uld sit right here.

Before I kne
w it I have dozed off. I wake to hear Michael screaming.

"Where is Avalon?!  John!"  I jump up and realize Ava was not in bed.  All I could see in the bed were the chains. 

"Shit! She must have changed into something small.  Find her!"  We ran all throughout the house, looking everywhere we could think of and we still couldn't find her.  I was scared to open the door to go outside worried that she might slip past me but I hadn't a clue where else to look until I felt something against my foot.  It was a snake! It was a snake and it was wrapping itself around my leg.  It was Ava.

"You just about scared the shit out of me woman!"  I could hear Michael laughing from the kitchen.  I took Ava back upstairs and held her until she changed back and then tied her back to the bed.  The following twenty four hours she changed into a snake, a deer, a hawk, and a wolf many times until finally it seems she had stopped.

"John."  It was barely a whisper but enough of a sound to shake me out of my half sleep to see what was going on.  I finally get my eyes to focus and I realize it was Ava!  Ava is awake!  By the grace of God my angel was awake and talking! 

She looked exhausted.  "Yes love.  I am right here." 

"What happened?  Am I okay?  Are you okay?"  Am I okay? She was still worried about me. 

"Yes, Ava we are all fine.  You went through the change and are now a shape shifter just like Michael and I and just like your parents.  I didn't get the chance to explain the change to you but you worked through it very well.  How are you feeling?"  Ava looked around the room and back at me. 

"I feel tired and wore out and not to mention very confused but better than I was feeling." 

"It's going to take some time to wrap your mind around it, I know.  But I'll be here to help you.  I will never leave you."  I got up and took the chains off of her, laid down right next to her then felt relieved as I finally got my arms around her again. 

Everything was right in the world even if only for this moment.  "Go back to sleep my love. I will be here when you wake."  Within seconds Ava was asleep again and I felt myself drifting as well.  We had a lot of things to talk about but as of right now we were just going to lie here together and worry about everything else tomorrow.