Wolfblood

Trouble in Paradise 6

"So you know what you need to do then? You zap the twins with the serum, and if it works then you pull the pin on the final solution. The serum in the final solution is the same stuff as in the laser injector. If the injector works, then the final solution will humanise every Wolfblood in Stoneybridge."

"Yes, Mr Jefferies, I've known what to do ever since I thought up the idea." Kincaid said.

"I'm sorry, Alex; I'm just excited. I've been waiting for this day for so long. And there's no chance that Rebecca can fix it with the opposing serum like she did last time?"

"No, this new strain is completely resistant to any and every medicine of this earth." Kincaid assured him. "It's now officially flawless."

"Now all I need to do is keep my head down so that Rebecca won't think any less of me." For a second, a look of uncertainty crossed Mr Jefferies' face. He quickly shook it aside though. It was replaced by look as cold as steel. They could track the twins anywhere they went and he was a known ally to the Wolfbloods. Or at least, that was what the Wolfbloods believed.

"Your romantic life will have to be your own problem." Kincaid said. "For now though, we've got a species to eradicate."

Line Break!

"I still don't agree with this!" Connor growled as he and his twin sister Kira got into the car and stuffed their bags into the foot wells.

"Connor, you've never agreed with going to school. There are very few teenagers, human or Wolfblood, who actually do." Kira countered.

"Oh come on, surely you can see the idiocy of going back to school only a couple of days after someone who nearly turned our parents human just strolls into our home, wounds me and blasts us with a laser that did god only knows what." Connor had to move carefully so that the bruises on his chest and stomach wouldn't start playing up again. However, there was nothing he could do about his two cracked lower left ribs.

"I don't like it either." Their father, Rhydian Morris, said as he buckled his seatbelt. "I never liked school, but I really don't like the idea of leaving you two unprotected when someone was able to get into our own home so easily; especially since one of you can't transform yet." Once again, Kira flinched involuntarily. Her wolf was being abnormally slow in development. Her Wolfblood eyes still had yet to turn from blue to yellow and her first transformation still hadn't happened.

"They'll be fine, Rhydian." Maddy assured him as she got into the passenger seat before turning to the twins. "You two go straight from lesson to lesson and stick close to each other at break and lunch. If you can, try to stay indoors all day and go to the library at break and lunch instead of risking being caught in the open."

"We have PE today." Kira reminded her. Maddy swore. Connor wouldn't be able to do PE with his ribs and torso in the state it was, but Kira had no valid reason to miss it. They would just have to chance it.

"What are you doing in PE?" Maddy asked as Rhydian pulled out of the driveway and started the drive to Bradlington High.

"We're training for the cross-country." Kira replied.

"Just when things couldn't get more frustrating…" Connor muttered. "What if I could sneak off and then run on the next path over? It's a much higher track, so I'll have a clear vantage point and a much shorter run."

"If you think you can do it, then go for it." Rhydian nodded. "Just don't push yourself too hard. You've got damaged ribs. Even for a Wolfblood, straining damaged ribs could puncture your lungs." Just then everyone jolted as Rhydian jammed on the breaks suddenly. A driver had tried to jump the crossing when Rhydian's car had right of way.

"That was my fault; I was sending a Tweet…" Rhydian was easily able to pick up the driver's voice. Shaking his head in exasperation, Rhydian carried on. It wasn't long before the twins arrived at school. Kira jumped out from the car and ran around to help her brother out. Connor gasped with pain as he twisted to swing his feet out from the car.

"Jesus, I can't wait for the full moon tonight." Connor said; his jaw clenched in pain."

"You can have two painkillers now, but they're strong." Maddy told him. "You won't be able to take any more of anything until just before bed, no matter whether it does anything for the pain or not. They don't often get used for cases like yours since you've got damaged ribs as well. It's mostly for the severe bruising."

"I'll take it." Connor growled. Maddy grabbed the tablets from her handbag and Kira reached into Connor's bag to get his water bottle. Connor desperately downed the tablets and half his water.

"We'll see you later then." Rhydian said as he and Maddy got back in the car. "We'll pick you up at the usual time. Be good and keep an eye on each other."

"We'll be fine, Dad." Kira replied as she helped Connor up the steps to the school. As they got through the doors, Kira turned to her brother. "Do you think you'll be able to get away from the PE teacher and get to that higher path?" she asked.

"There's no other choice." Connor said. "All I have to do is wait until we're far enough into the forest that if I need the toilet badly, it would be easier to go and find a tree than go back to the school."

"All I can say is good luck." Kira muttered. Just then, they bumped into one of the people Kira least wanted to see. Her boyfriend, Josh Kyle, walked over just as Connor told her he needed to stop for a second. Kira set him gently against a bank of lockers and turned to face Josh as she caught his scent.

"Hey, sweetheart; is everything okay?" Josh asked as he got nearer. "I was worried when you cancelled so quick after you invited me last weekend."

"Yeah, we had an impromptu trip to A&E." Kira told him. "Connor was playing in the park with our baby cousin and fell off the climbing frame."

"Oh god, are you okay?" Josh looked around at where Connor was slowly sliding down the bank of lockers clutching his chest in pain.

"I'll be fine." Connor replied, lying through his teeth. "You don't need to worry about me." He didn't like Josh much. There was just something about him that smelled wrong, but he couldn't put his finger on what. Kira had been dating him for a while, but Connor had yet to speak to him properly.

"You don't look that okay." Josh stated. If it cheers you up though, I just stopped by the cafeteria, and I can smell bacon."

"Thanks, I'll check it out at lunch." Connor said. The bell rang, and Josh helped Kira pull Connor to his feet before they went their three separate ways. Kira had English first and Connor had History. This clearly wasn't his day.

Line Break!

For Connor, history flew by like a dead chicken. He could swear it was three hours later that the clock told them they were halfway through the lesson. The teacher kept droning on about how the many different invasions throughout history were all strategically similar. Just then, someone fired a paper pellet at him. Because of his reflexes, he was easily able to bat it out of the air, but the teacher saw his hand go up.

"Oh my god, Connor Morris is finally contributing to class!" he said, rejoicing in this evolutionary breakthrough. "This is wonderful! What is the answer?"

"Uh, the History Channel?" Connor guessed. He'd been in too much pain to even focus on the question. The class erupted into laughter.

"Very funny, Mr Morris; but the advantage Genghis Kahn's tribe had over the Mongolian General isn't the History Channel. Can anyone else tell me? Do you know the answer, Mason?" Everyone looked over at the boy who'd flicked the pellet at Connor.

"Well, they were called the Wolves, and I know it's easier to train an animal than a human." Mason replied.

"You're not the most broad minded of individuals, are you Mason?" a girl sitting next to Connor said.

"Have you got a death wish?" Mason sneered.

"No, I've got the answer!" the girl replied. "The advantage the Wolves had is the fact that they fought just as much in the dark as they did in the day. As a result, their sight in the dark was excellent. The general was young and foolish. He made the mistake of trying to ambush them in their sleep, and got his limbs ripped off as a result."

"Well done, Emily!" the teacher said, before returning to his steady drone of a voice. Connor suppressed a groan as he buried his head in his hands. This was going to be a long day.

Line Break!

Kira sat in English class filled with nothing but worry. Normally, she loved English. She'd been waiting forever to write the story she'd been planning for her controlled assessment, but now she just couldn't put a single word on the paper.

"Are you okay, Kira?" her teacher asked.

"I'm just worried about my brother." Kira told her.

"What's wrong with him?" she asked.

"He was playing with our baby cousin and fell off the climbing frame." Kira replied. When I had to leave him in the corridor just now, he could barely move."

"Wait, he's surely not in school?" the teacher asked. Kira just nodded.

"I'm just worried about how he's going to cope." Kira said. He's always been really good at PE, and he's going to have to miss that; and he wouldn't mind but it's the only thing he enjoys at school anyway."

"If he's badly hurt, he shouldn't be here." the teacher told her. "There's nothing I can really suggest except to keep an eye on him and insist that he gets sent home if it takes a turn for the worst. If you don't feel you can continue the assessment, I can have you back after school on a different day once all this has settled down, and you can go to the library or something for this lesson."

"That sounds great." Kira said. The teacher took her paper and she went up to sit in the library. On her way up the stairs though, she saw Josh hanging around in the corridor on his phone. While her wolf senses weren't as strong in human form as a fully developed Wolfblood's, she was able to listen in on bits of the conversation.

"Yes, I understand… Final solution… All ready… Temporary setback." Kira decided to save what she had to memory just in case it became important. Briskly, she walked to the library and took a book she liked from the shelf. The library didn't have much of a fiction section, which was disappointing for her; but at least one of her favourite books was there. Outside, she heard a whistle go off as a cross-country practise run got started. She dreaded to think how Connor was going to cope.

Line Break!

Connor wasn't coping well. The history teacher had made him and Mason stay behind after class so that he could have a go at them.

"You two have been struggling in my lessons since the academic year began!" he said in a slightly angrier sounding version of his usual drone. "Now, I don't know if it's a lack of interest, a general ignorance problem or just your stubborn nature; but whatever the hell it is, it stops now! History is important, gentlemen. If you don't learn from it, you're doomed to repeat it; but if you can learn from it, then you're not only destined to repeat it, you have the power to make it as well. Believe you me, making history is not to be sneezed at." The teacher placed a worryingly large history textbook in front of Mason, and did the same to Connor. "Take these textbooks away with you and read pages seventy-four to one-hundred and forty-six. I want an essay on my desk by next lesson. Consider it extra GCSE revision." Connor groaned as he managed to haul himself up from the desk and out the door. He leaned against the wall, trying to draw in a decent lungful of air, but his problem wasn't helped as Mason barged past him and elbowed him in the ribs.

"If you ever show me up in class like that again, I'll break your ribs slowly; one by one!" he growled at Connor. With that, he stormed off down the corridor. Connor had to almost drag himself to the boys' toilets. When he got there, he moved over to the basin before his side clenched viciously. He was thrown into a severe coughing fit as a metallic taste filled his mouth.

When he was finally able to open his eyes, the basin was stained by large spots of red. Connor knew that coughing up blood was serious, but there was no way he could be sent home. If Kincaid tried to hurt her, she would be defenceless with no wolf form. At least with him there, they would stand a chance.

Trying to draw himself up a bit straighter, Connor ran the cold tap to clear the blood from the basin, before gulping mouthfuls of water to rinse the taste away. Once he'd cleaned himself up, Connor started to make his way to the next lesson.

Line Break!

It was at lunch time when Kira saw Connor again. As soon as she sat down next to him, she could tell what a state he was in. Maddy had done their favourite packed lunch of lamb offcuts from the leg they'd had the night before in a bread roll with ketchup. What Connor chose to do however, shocked her to the core.

"Do you want this?" he asked, passing his lunchbox over to Kira. "If I try and eat, it won't go well; and you need your energy for the cross country."

"Are you actually serious?" Kira asked. "You never turn down lamb rolls with ketchup. Are your ribs really that bad that you can't eat?" Connor went to respond, but was dragged into another coughing fit. He tried hiding his hand afterwards, but Kira smelled the blood and grabbed his arm before he could. As soon as Kira saw the blood, her hand flew to her mouth.

"Don't say what I know you're going to." Connor jumped in.

"You need to see a first aider." Kira said.

"I didn't think even you'd be that stupid." Connor growled at her. "If I saw a first aider, they'd send me to a hospital who would then do a blood test. If they do a blood test, we'll all be exposed. I won't let that happen."

"You'll kill yourself if you go on like this." Kira said.

"You don't think I know that?" Connor was getting angry now. "Mason elbowing me in the ribs nearly killed me, but we can't have one of us at school and the other one at home. I'd sooner die than let anyone hurt my family."

"You are such an idiot at times." Kira hugged her brother, hoping he could be helped after school was over. Maybe doctor Whitewood could do something for the bruising." Just as Kira was losing herself in her train of thought, she felt something smack into her face. She looked around to see a meatball drop to the floor. Since she'd come to Bradlington High, there had been a trio of girls called the 'Three As' (Amy, Ashley and Anna) who had been trying to make her life hell because she didn't usually care how she was dressed. The three girls were obsessed with fashion, and they were trying their level best to screw up the lives of anyone who wasn't.

Connor tried to get up to defend Kira, but he could scarcely move with his ribs in such a state. Kira would just have to handle it herself. She'd always waited for an opportunity like this. Justice would be swift, painful and delicious. She grabbed the meatball off the floor and targeted Ashley, who was balancing another one on her fork and aiming it. The meatball hit hard and got spaghetti sauce all over the chest area of her school shirt. Instantly, the other girls had crowded in close to inspect the damage.

"You're going to pay for that you cow!" Ashley screamed.

"It'll be fine. You can usually clean spaghetti sauce out of school-wear." Kira said. "That is, assuming you're smart enough to use a washing machine." Ashley turned crimson at the insult and hurled a second meatball at Kira. Kira dodged it and comat-rolled behind one of the bins.

"Are you running scared already?" Ashley screamed, hurling a third meatball at the area just above the bin.

"I suppose if you are too thick, your boyfriend could turn the washing machine on." Kira called back. "Oh, wait; Josh chose me over you." Amy threw an apple off her tray, but she wasn't as accurate and ended up hitting someone else in the head with it. This person then lobbed it back and the carnage began.

"Food fight!" someone screamed as puddings, bread sticks and noodles started flying in all directions. Kira dived back over to the dinner table and helped Connor to stand before escorting him away from the chaos that was now the dining hall. As soon as they were round the corner, Connor slumped against the wall and coughed up more blood.

"That does it, I'm calling Mum!" Kira pulled out her mobile, but Connor grabbed her arm.

"I'm fine, Kira."

"For Jesus' sake, Connor, you're coughing up blood. You clearly aren't fine." Kira said. In the background, she could hear the teachers trying to get the situation in the dining hall under control. The trouble was, they weren't having much luck.

"I can't believe you started all that chaos!" Connor cheered weakly. "They'll need shotguns and riot shields to sort that mess out!"

"You are so juvenile." Kira sighed. "We have PE next. Are you absolutely sure you'll be okay?"

"I'll be fine." Connor assured her. Kira knew he was lying though. He was pale as a corpse and she could see the dark bruising through his white school shirt. If she didn't know better, she would say he was on his last legs.

Line Break!

Kira emerged from the PE changing room to see Connor slumped against the outside wall.

"The rest of the PE group's already gone ahead." Kira nodded and looped one of his arms over her neck to support him. They made their way out to the rest of the group.

"I still don't agree with this." Kira protested.

"I don't agree with us being in school today." Connor said. "But it's like you said; no human or Wolfblood ever agrees with being in school. By the way, why were you the last one out from the girls' changing rooms?"

"I decided to get the three A's back for trying to meatball me in the hall today." Kira told him. "I paint-trapped their bags for later."

"God, you are terrible." Connor muttered. They made it to the edge of the field before Kira let Connor walk the rest of the way so that people wouldn't see how seriously he was injured. After the group had all had a quick briefing and the asthmatics had handed in their inhalers, they all made their way to the edge of the moors to begin. When Miss Fire blew the starting whistle, Kira took one last glance at her brother before sprinting off with the rest of them.

Connor waited until the teacher became fully engrossed in her phone before sneaking up the bank and taking the higher path. There was no way Mason hadn't damaged his ribs even more, but he was able to manage a very light jog for a couple of minutes before the pain meant he had to pull over. It was only then that he vomited up a mouthful of blood. Connor knew that if he carried on, it would most likely kill him; but he was beyond caring at that point. All he wanted was to make sure Kira stayed safe.

Just as he was picking himself up, he was taken out from the right by a powerful kick. He hit the ground hard, his vision going blurry from the pain as his broken ribs took the impact. Just then, he howled in pain as he was dragged up by his hair as an object clicked near his neck.

"It's almost a shame to take the wolf of such a mighty young Wolfblood." Kincaid's cruel voice whispered. "It's also hard to believe that with Mr Jefferies' influence on the school and my genius, two old men could make a stand against the entire Wolfblood population. The students in schools will be safe from harm and I could potentially get a Nobel Prize.

"Jefferies was in on this?" Connor wasn't sure he'd heard right.

"He was the one who paid the rogue Segolia agents to break be out of the prison and erase all record of my detainment." Kincaid told Connor. Just then, Kira ran up the bank after having heard Connor howl. Her eyes were lit up with an angrier blue than Connor had ever seen.

"Leave my brother alone!" she screamed. Kincaid whirled around and fired. A green laser struck Kira in the chest. Instantly, her eyes faded back to green. She hit the floor like a stone. With a roar, Connor sprang up and smashed the heel of his palm into Kincaid's face. He staggered back just as a wolf launched itself through the air. Its teeth clamped around Kincaid's wrist. Kincaid screamed as the skin on his wrist was shredded. The wolf's fangs ripped off the back of his hand and sent a shower of sparks into the air from the laser injector. Kincaid clubbed the wolf around the muzzle, staggering it. Suddenly, his boot smashed into the side of the wolf's neck, sending it sprawling on the ground.

"Now, I get to finish what I started all those years ago." Kincaid gasped through the pain. Switching the laser to his good hand, he aimed it at the wolf. Suddenly, Connor charged in with the last of his strength and started punching Kincaid repeatedly. Kincaid staggered back, then jabbed the butt of the laser injector into Connor's damaged side. Small flecks of blood escaped Connor's mouth. He truly felt like he was dying. Before Connor could recover, Kincaid aimed the laser injector at him and pulled the trigger. There was a short 'click' and a shower of sparks from the end, before the green light in the cartridge died.

"You may hit hard for an old man, but that's just bad workmanship." Connor gasped. Kincaid turned the laser injector over in his hand, inspecting the damage. The wolf's fangs had punched clean through the metal, damaged the cartridge of serum and shredded wires inside the injector. Knowing that the serum worked, Kincaid switched to plan B. He took a backpack he was carrying off his back and opened it. Inside was a massive device that was bristling with serum cartridges. He pressed the button on the side, and the cartridges all started spinning on their mounts. The light they generated grew brighter and brighter, just as Connor tackled him. The two rolled on the ground with Kincaid repeatedly punching Connor, whose strength was fading fast. Suddenly, a bright red wolf head-butted Kincaid off Connor.

"Who the hell are you?" Kincaid screamed at the wolf, bellowing in pain as she sunk her fangs into his collarbone. Connor found the strength to transform from somewhere. Once in wolf form, he limped towards Kincaid, the damage on his ribs clearly visible from the way his side was now deformed. Several of them were clearly broken, and there was no way he should still be conscious now from the pain he was in. As the red wolf held Kincaid down, Connor staggered over, looking for a good angle to approach from to avoid Kincaid's slashing.

"No, Connor!" a voice called from the side. Connor glanced over to see Maddy and Rhydian running over to them. At that point, Jana transformed back from where she stood pinning Kincaid's thrashing body to the floor. Connor transformed back and instantly dropped to the ground with more blood slowly filling his throat.

"He zapped Kira with that green laser you mentioned!" Connor said, his anger bubbling over. "You know you want him dead as much as I do!"

"You can't kill him; that would be wrong!" Maddy growled sharply.

"We need him alive to tell us about the serum." Rhydian explained.

"You want him alive after all he's done?" Rhydian knew all too well how volatile Connor could be when he was angry, so they had to play their cards right on this.

"We'll take him to Doctor Whitewood and her students where Segolia can interrogate him and put him on trial for threatening a species. Then Segolia can make an example of him, to show the world that Wolfbloods don't need to fear him any longer."

"If I let him live, It'll haunt me forever." Conflict crossed Connor's face.

"He's the only one who knows if there's a cure for this new serum. He can't tell us if you kill him." Inside, Connor felt his wolf power down. Rhydian joined Jana in grabbing Kincaid by the scruff of the neck and marching him to the car. Unable to support himself any longer, Connor fully collapsed to the floor.

"Are you okay?" Maddy ran over and tried to pick her son up.

"I'm better than I would have been if that other wolf hadn't shown up when he did. But I don't even know who I'm thanking." Just then, a thought crossed his mind. "Hang on; the bomb should have gone off by now!" Connor looked over to see the bomb Kincaid had activated lying dormant on the ground. Just then, the wolf lifted his head slightly as he transformed back. Maddy and Connor couldn't believe who it was.

"The final solution was a dud." Josh gasped as he finished transforming. "It was never supposed to explode. Segolia asked for my help in getting an operative inside the school to sabotage it. All we had to do was ensure it went dormant a good thirty seconds before the time elapsed to make him feel in control. I'm so sorry that I couldn't protect Kira."

"How is she?" Connor asked, realising that she was still in a heap on the ground.

"She'll be fine." Maddy assured him. "Rhydian told me that when Kincaid zapped him, he slept like the dead until it was a few hours before moonrise. The tranquiliser in the meat he was tricked into eating didn't help, so Kira should wake up in a couple of hours." Jana returned from the car just as Connor coughed up more blood. Maddy's expression instantly turned to one of horror. Just then, Connor saw Jana roll Kira over. That was when they saw that Kira wasn't asleep.

"She's not breathing!" Jana screamed. It was true. Kira lay on the ground, her eyes wide open and unseeing. Her chest wasn't rising and falling like it should. Her entire form was still.

Line Break!

The time after that had passed very quickly. Segolia had arrested Kincaid, but they'd been unable to get a cure for the new serum out of him. All he kept saying was that it was flawless. Shortly after getting Kira rushed into one of the Segolia emergency rooms, Connor's health had taken another serious turn for the worst, to the point where they had to stop a massive case of internal bleeding and had to drug him into a coma until the full moon came up.

Maddy and Rhydian hadn't been happy to leave their children behind, but Josh volunteered to stay with Connor for the full moon. His injuries weren't too serious, so he decided to just wait and let the full moon heal them. Segolia had some isolated transformation rooms for patients who couldn't get home for the full moon.

Sure enough, Connor was a lot stronger when he returned to normal the next morning. He was nowhere near perfect, but he wasn't bringing up blood anymore. Doctor Whitewood had said that if his broken midrib had ventured another tenth of an inch, it would have probably have punctured his lung; but it was a miracle he hadn't gone into shock from the internal bleeding anyway. She didn't know how he'd stayed alive so long. There was no doubt about the fact that he should have died.

But there was only one Wolfblood they wanted to hear about in the middle of all this. Maddy and Rhydian joined Josh and Connor in the morning, along with everyone else who'd heard what had happened. Shannon, Tom, their daughter Lisa, Emma, Dan, Ceri, Gerwyn, and Jana all crowded the waiting room. After an agonising three hour wait, Doctor Whitewood emerged as her medical team packed everything away in the room behind her.

"I've done everything possible for her." Doctor Whitewood shook her head sadly. "I'm so, so sorry."

"But you're one of the best Wolfblood medical professionals in the world!" Jana argued. "You have to keep trying!"

"Kira recovered well from the shock of the laser, but her connection to her wolf is completely severed." At that moment, Kira emerged from the room behind her looking both mentally and physically broken. Without warning, she burst into floods of tears and ran off. Instantly, Josh chased after her. He caught up to her just outside the rear exit, and took her hand in his.

"Josh, you don't have to care about me anymore." Kira sobbed. "I'm a human now, not a Wolfblood. When my wolf was severed, so were our chances together. You need a Wolfblood, not a human."

"I'm so sorry I couldn't protect you." Josh said, close to tears himself.

"You protected a lot of people according to Doctor Whitewood." Kira replied. "She says you not only saved my brother from this fate, but you also saved every Wolfblood in Stoneybridge. Thank you for doing that."

"I don't care if you're a Wolfblood or not." Josh told her. "I should have said it long ago. I love you, Kira." Without another word, Kira threw her arms around him and smashed her mouth against his. When they parted, her eyes were full of raw, bursting emotion.

"I love you too."

Epilogue

It was three hellish days later that the three A's caught up to Kira. She'd been able to put a brave face on losing her wolf so far, but now the cracks were starting to show. After an extensive interrogation session, Kincaid had finally cracked enough to tell them that Mr Jefferies was in on it. He'd been arrested and confessed straight away. He was facing a prison sentence on a charge of endangering the lives of minors. But that was a side note to Kira right at that second, compared to the wrath of the three A's.

Kira tried to roll over on the ground as the elevated heel of Ashley's left shoe slammed into her stomach.

"You're not so tough now, are you?" she teased as she savagely kicked Kira again. "If you think you can land me in such serious trouble and vanish to god knows where, you've got another thing coming!" Just then, Anna screamed as Lisa took her legs out from behind. Connor and Josh tackled Ashley and Amy too. Amy and Anna were easily driven off, but Connor was determined not to let Ashley go.

"Lisa, get Kira out of here! I'll make sure Ashley never touches her again!" he growled.

"Not before I'm done with the evil cow!" Josh yelled as he ran back from where he'd just chased the other two off.

"Come on, Kira." Lisa Hauled Kira up and helped her to the girls' toilets, trying to comfort her. Once they were there, Lisa kept her arms around Kira until she stopped crying.

"Can you give me a minute to get cleaned up?" Kira asked. Lisa nodded and pulled her bag further onto her shoulder.

"I'll wait for you outside." Lisa said, heading towards the door. As soon as she was gone, Kira faced the mirror and stared at her reflection. The destroyed shell of a former being stared back at her.

"I'm not broken." Kira said to herself. She knew it was a lie, but it was also a necessary one. "I'm no better or worse than I once was. My life will go on." She would go on as a shell; a remnant of her former self.

"You needn't be so broken." Kira heard a voice say.

"Who's there?" Kira whirled around, and nearly screamed at the sight of the man standing right in front of her. He was absolutely massive, easily standing around at least six foot eight. Normally, Kira would have screamed the place down, but something about this man instantly calmed her.

"Just because you have no wolf, it doesn't make you any less of a person!" the man scolded. "Even when you had your wolf, you did so much without it. You did your level best to protect your brother, and you showed great courage against those girls just now. Trust me; I see a lot from where I am nowadays. That was you standing up to them, not your wolf. On that note, I will leave you to think that through. Also Kira, there's something about you that was different to when your father and I had our wolves taken away. It's something that Kincaid never thought of, and will never understand." With that, the man turned to leave.

"See you in Valhalla, Alric." Kira said. Slowly, he turned and rested a hand on her shoulder. A vibrant energy filled her, shaking her to the core.

"They don't let tame Wolfbloods into Valhalla." Alric told her. "You, on the other hand; they just might." Alric's form slowly vanished from sight, but the warmth and energy remained. Kira looked down at her arms to see black veins racing through them. She could feel her teeth slowly transform into fangs in her mouth. They were more developed than before though, and almost punched through her bottom lip. Her nose was swamped by many different scents at once. As Kira turned to face the mirror, a different girl stared back at her. This new girl was strong and unbroken. Her eyes were an inferno of golden fire as she stood ready to take on any and all who would dare cause trouble in paradise.

End!

Author's Note: Hi guys, I just wanted to start with a quick apology that this took so long. Everything happened at once with college starting again. Secondly, a few of you have been asking me to continue Forbidden, which was my first published Wolfblood oneshot on this site. I can now confirm that I will be looking into doing that. Once I have finished writing the third piece of the Best Date Ever trilogy, I will start work on it. Please remember to review, as always. It really means a lot to me to hear what you think.