Accepting My Twin Mates

Chapter 51

Accepting My Twin Mates Chapter 51

Chapter 51 – A Lycan?

Badru

‘Alphas!’ Lucy’s panicked voice shouted out to both Astennu and me. ‘Evie’s shifting but I can’t move her.’

A huge smile took over my face. We would finally meet her wolf. I would have a face to the dominant spitfire I had heard so much about. The wolf, who on our first meeting, had snarled viscously at me and gave precisely zero f***s that I was an Alpha.

“We need to go,” Astennu was already heading to the door and almost taking the handle off.

I knew he was sensing the same as me. Evie was in pain and scared. A first shift was always the worst and the longest to endure.

“We weren’t finished!” Our dad called out behind us.

“Evie’s shifting!” I turned and snapped, not about to stay and argue.

“I think that’s their way of saying ‘meeting over’,” I heard Tamlyn chuckle behind us.

She hurried to catch up and grabbed onto my arm to help guide her through the rush.

The first shift for werewolves was never completely identical to another’s. They could strike at any age from late teens to young adult and at any time of year, but tended to be around or near a full moon and when it was closest to the earth; similarly to how it affected the high tide at sea.This content © Nôv/elDr(a)m/a.Org.

Many young wolves experienced early symptoms of their first shift, such as itchy skin, random bursts of heart palpitations as adrenaline levels began to rise and strange pressure sensations in the head. The latter was from the individual’s wolf waking from its hibernation, although Evie had already gone through that step. The symptoms could strike from a week to a few hours before the shift started.

When Astennu and I were approaching our time, Tamlyn had shared her experience to help prepare us. With her being three years older, she had shifted before us and had known for roughly a week that it was coming.

Some wolves, like my brother and myself, shifted without any prior warnings. We had no symptoms when it dropped on us in the middle of the night out of nowhere. The only indication was that Astennu and I had felt a deep need to be close by each other constantly, even at night, and had slept in each other’s bed.

Astennu was first, followed by me, though his shift took longer to complete. Our mom and dad had managed to get us outside just in time. Afterwards, our dad shifted and ran with us, letting us use his body for support when we stumbled. Mom had stayed behind, saying she ‘wanted her boys to bond’… now I knew it was because she didn’t want us to see her silver scars.

None of us could be prepared for how Evie’s shift would go. For one, she was older than most wolves usually were for this. And two, I had never heard of someone shifting nearly a month after their wolf appeared in their mind. A wolf’s voice usually appeared a few seconds before shifting or just after. The only exceptions were the poor few Omegas that received no physical wolf form.

Nearing Evie’s hallway, a blood-curdling scream rang out, one mixed with the sound of a painful howl. Following the heightened and sharp pulsations of our bond, it led us, unsurprisingly, to Lucy’s door. My brother near enough put her door through with his barrage of bangs for her to open up.

I was about ready to shove him out of the way and just break the damn door down. We could hear our mate’s screams from inside, through a divide that was meant to be soundproof. Baniti was driving himself nuts to get to her, clawing to be let out.

Lucy ripped the door open, leaving Astennu’s fist hanging mid-air. Her face was frenzied with tears spilling down her cheeks.

“I tried to get her outside, but she thrashed too much,” she wept, as I moved her gently out of the way to get to Evie. “I didn’t know what else to do… her shift isn’t right.”

“It’s ok, Luce. They got her now,” Tamlyn soothed her from somewhere behind me, but my focus was on my mate.

Astennu cupped her face just as a new wave hit, her back arching off of the floor. We needed to get her out of here before her shift grew too violent.

“Evie, can you hear me?” My brother whispered against her, but she seemed completely unresponsive.

Did she even know we were there?

Astennu

Evie’s thrashing calmed when Badru slipped his arms under her knees and back to lift her. The odd whimper continued to escape her lips, her once plump skin pulled tight in a grimacing line. Her hands bunched in my shirt, making it impossible to remove myself from her.

“Just stay near her, we’ll get the doors,” Tamlyn gripped onto Lucy so the two could clear the way for us. “Might be best to stay here, Luce. Leave this moment for the three of them together,” she pulled the little she-wolf back as we left the back of the pack house. The door I had obliterated had already been replaced.

Badru and I moved further into the surrounding dark forest, the covering of snow acting as a reflective mirror to the light of the full moon above. He placed her down carefully on the cold ground, hoping it would help chill her red-hot skin. I didn’t remember too much from mine and my brother’s shifts, but I knew we had been able to stagger our way outside with the help of our parents. Whatever Evie was going through was far more intense than it should be.

A resounding crack reverberated through the trees. She spun over on her knees, fisting the ground and a new fit of snarls erupted through her. Claws ripped through her fingertips and thick, shining, dark gold fur began to replace her flesh.

‘The clothing! Strip her,’ Aasim whimpered, not knowing how to take our mate’s pain away.

Badru and I did our best to yank the clothing from her contorted body. Some of it had to be ripped in places where her limbs refused to bend as they extended and elongated. The low, basal roar that she emitted was unlike anything I had ever heard come from a wolf. Its pitch was so low, the vibrations travelled through my entire body and made the hair at the back of my neck rise.

Her head snapped up, half shifted to her wolf and eyes open for the first time. The stormy-blue colour swirled with intense bursts of colour to a luminous steel rimmed with smokey blue. Her wolf features seemed strange, her snout longer and ears more triangular and flatter against her head.

“Aste, this isn’t normal! It shouldn’t be this bad,” Badru cradled her face through her screams mixed with quaking roars.

“Sh-she’s almost through it,” I swallowed, not knowing what to do except hold her. “Evie, just hold on, you’re nearly there.”

The popping and cracking of her bones finally came to an end and her huge wolf form slumped forward against my twin. With a deep shuddering breath, she stood and we saw her wolf in her entirety…

We stared at her, confounded, and with little explanation when she asked what was wrong, other than to gawk at her size.

She was huge, well over 7ft in height.

Unlike what I was expecting to see, Evie stood on her hind legs, not on all fours. Her arms were some halfway house between a human and a wolf limb. The same could be said for her paws or hands; I wasn’t sure what to call them, they were both and neither all at once. What was apparent were the long thick claws that protruded from the tips that looked enough to gore an Alpha. Her legs, on which she stood, were solid with muscle and bent into the shape of a wolf’s hind leg.

…This was impossible.

…They were a myth, a legend.

“…You’re a lycan,” I uttered. She couldn’t be anything else.

Evie

‘I… what? N-no..’ I patted myself down, flipping whatever the hell my hands were in front of my eyes.

‘How the hell did you not know what we are?!’ I screamed at my wolf.

‘I know what you know, that’s it!’ She yelled back, equally as overwhelmed.

How could I be a lycan?

They were said to have vanished over 30 years ago. Even before then, barely anything was known of them, other than they existed somewhere in Siberian Russia.

I needed to see this for myself. There was only one place nearby I could think of: the Reflection Lakes.

I thundered past Astennu and Badru, heading to the lakes. Everything about my gait felt ungainly and awkward. I stumbled a few times trying to accustom myself to my heavier stride and running on my toes.

The trees blurred past me till I reached the lakes’ edge. True to their name, two moons reflected on the still water’s surface.

I leant down on all fours, the position feeling more comfortable than I thought it would, and peered over the edge. I wasn’t sure what else I was expecting to see, but it was true… I was a lycan, or at least I fit the description of what they were supposed to look like. I wasn’t too dissimilar from a regular werewolf, aside from the walking around on two legs thing. My features were more feral looking, wilder, than those of a werewolf and the fur along my hackles seemed longer.

‘We look like a f*****g beast, is what,’ Evva proudly admired ourselves, taking control to spin our body in the reflection.

‘Can you imagine if we had shifted in front of Finley?’ I laughed, now the initial shock had passed. ‘He would have probably pissed himself.’

‘And you would have probably bitched about my timing again,’ my wolf sniped. ‘You can’t complain about my timing now. I could have done this while you were on the toilet or something.’

‘I’m surprised you didn’t out of spite.’

The rustling of pebbles and grit crunching underfoot turned our head to a pair of the most astoundingly beautiful ebony wolves. How the moonlight highlighted the furrows of their fur, it was like I was seeing them for the first time. And their scent? Evva lifted our nose, twitching and taking in each sweet and spicy notes now our senses were fully awakened. Their ears perked forward and their sapphire eyes gleamed, both of their tails agitated behind them. Evva wafted our thick, fluffy dark gold tail around our flank in response, fanning it across our muzzle.

She was flirting, enticing them.

‘Evie? You kinda scared us running off like that,’ Badru was the first to trot over, his wolf wagging and eager to meet mine.

Astennu’s wolf played it a little cooler, slinking nonchalantly around and not so subtly puffing his chest out in an effort to look more impressive. ‘This doesn’t change anything for us. We’ll help you figure all this out.’

He rubbed up our chest and reached up to lick the tip of our muzzle, which we returned. Badru’s wolf was a little more animated, just like he had been before. He rubbed his entire body down our side, scent marking us and wiping our scent on himself; a high form of affection between mates. Next, he dropped on his back, pawing his feet up at us in play. Evva snorted at the big bad intimidating Alpha sprawled open beneath us, acting like a dopey Labrador. She socked him lightly in the muzzle, wanting to return his play.

‘Think you can run?’ Astennu and his wolf nudged our side. ‘This is gonna be new for all three of us. I haven’t got the first clue what a lycan can do.’

We sat up from our haunches onto two legs, taking a few tentative first steps now that we were somewhat calmer. I was nowhere near close to understanding anything I was or how I even came to be. But these were questions I would save for another time, namely in front of Alpha Isaac to ask what the exact f**k happened when I was found. In this moment, in my first shift with Evva, nothing else mattered other than bonding with my mates and attempting to fathom how I was supposed to move.

My mates flanked either side of me in case I tripped.

‘Take your time and let Evva have as much control as possible,’ Badru brushed his head against our paw. Evva affectionately scratched down the back of his ears and neck, making him grumble in pleasure.

It was a strange sensation to see and feel my body move on its own, to sit back from the driver’s seat and resist the urge to control. Evva had spent the last month in my mind, trapped. The wolf form was the only time their spirit could command control of the body. How much that would apply to me, being a lycan, I had no clue. The fact Evva hadn’t taken control of my human body would suggest the same principle would apply to us.

Moving on a two-legged wolf form didn’t feel any different to a human form, other than a slight difference in balance. We were more top-heavy and needed to lean back to compensate. Our footfalls were quite harsh, sending little ripples along the water’s surface from where we jogged at the lakes’ edge. There was little about this form that was inconspicuous. Clearly, we weren’t built for anything clandestine.

‘Enough p***y footing around,’ Evva increased our pace, breaking out into a run. ‘I wasn’t joking when I said I wanted to fight them.’