Two more pulses of pain hit my arm. Then there's a soft crunch and my glove goes slack, the pain dissipates. I'm trying to tighten the buckle on my jacket to hold the glove in place when Ben shows up. "Need help with that?" He asks, reaches over and tightens it to the smallest buckle. I stare into his eyes and hope nothing more happens. That it's all just a fluke. The costume show had started.
"Everything is going to be fine," I tell myself and finish off the last of the bottle of water I'm holding. Ben opens another one and hands it to me, smiling brightly. I take a swig and cradle it in my left armpit.
He leans into me. "I really do dig your costume. How is it so soft? And how did you get it to stay on so well?" He gives the hair on my thigh a little tug as he slowly moves his hand upwards. Mina is oblivious, watching the costumes on parade.
I slap his hand away. "Don't! You'll ruin it! It's very delicate." I tell him hoping to deter him from touching me more. He stops but grabs my right hand curling his fingers into mine. "Ben." I pull my hand away. "I told you I have a boyfriend. I can't do this." He goes to say more but they announce the character costumes round is up, meaning me. I take another swig of water and hand it back to him.
I give him a look and walk to the stage and get in line, my blood boiling with sexual chemistry. I take a few more deep breaths as my vision blurs for a moment. Then another sharp pain. This time in my right shoulder. I squeeze my eyes shut. "No this cannot be happening. It's all the hormones, the smells, and the sounds, I'm fine. I. Will. Not. Fully. Shift. I'm a human, a gorram human! I hear the soft crunch and know that my right glove has gone slack as well. I sigh as the pain dissipates again. I ask Indiana Jones to tighten the buckle on my right sleeve to keep that glove in place and he happily obliges.
The excitement is palpable. Everyone excited about showing off their costumes. My head begins pounding and I can hardly hear the announcer introducing everyone. I'm third to last in line, and I don't hear a thing. The blood pounds in my ears. I feel slightly woozy and heated. When they call my name, I don't even hear it and Buffy the Vampire Slayer taps my shoulder and gets me up on stage. In the bright lights, my senses snap to attention. I can hear all the hearts pumping in the audience, so full of life. I hear the sharp intake of breath from the crowd as they watch me slink onto the stage. I stare at the crowd in the bright spotlight. I give a low growl deep in my throat. I can smell the sweat and fear that permeates the air, along with the sweet smell of arousal. So many people, all the smells. I sink into a crouch, my tail swishing, my ears rotating, collecting sounds. I see Mina come to the front of the crowd whispering. "Alyx. Alyx. It's okay. You're okay. Listen to me, Alyx." I drop to all fours. The gloves fall away revealing large heavy paws. My golden eyes flash, my muzzle gets longer, my teeth sharper. The crowd is transfixed. Another growl escapes me. I begin to pace the stage on my paws and knees, mostly wolf, but still human enough that everyone thinks it's an act.
My head jerks to the alley. I smell Ahna and Beta. Where did they come from? I sit on my haunches and let out a long howl, greeting my siblings. From the darkness I see them emerge, together with a small group of elders. Six, I count. No one else seems to know they are there. No one else sees them. They are chanting something; I can't quite make it out. I cock my head trying to decipher it. It's not a language I know. I hear the crowd gasp as I leap off the stage, landing on all fours. I look at Mina and Ben then rush toward the darkness on human feet.
I barrel into Beta knocking him over in greeting. He wrestles me to the ground. I don't understand why and try to speak to him in human tongue but find I cannot. He holds me down as the Elders chant over me. The light slowly dims, I see Ahna, Beta and soon Mina leaning over me with tears in their eyes. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry!" They all seem to say as they fade into a soft grey mist.
I wake to the sound of low whispers. Many people talking all at once. It makes my head hurt. I groan and open my eyes. I see them all through bars. My heartbeat quickens, but I force myself to stay calm, sussing out the situation as they continue discussing me. They must not have heard me. "What are we going to do?!" I hear Mina hiss. "I can't take care of her like this! I can't hear her! I don't know what she needs!" She cries frustrated. Ahna hugs her, comforting her.
She turns to the group, "I can't help either. I can't really interpret what she's trying to say without the wolf connection. Beta is more suited to it than I."
He balks at her. "I can't take care of her. I'm in charge of the pack. Ever since you ran off I haven't seen Alpha. I don't know where he is or if he is even coming back. Someone has to take care of them until he returns." I quickly shut my eyes as they all turn to look at me. "I mean I guess she could come live with the pack, but I don't know if they would allow her there. You guys said you can fix her though, right?" Still talking, they all shuffle away through a door and close it.
I open my eyes. The room is empty. I glance down and see a long red muzzle. Its happened. I've shifted into a wolf. I move slowly, getting a feel for the wolf body. Surprisingly it doesn't feel as different as I imagined. I laugh. "A wolf body!" I get to a standing position, everything is so much taller than me, but it feels familiar. I'm thirsty and spy a bowl in the corner. Hoping its water, I shuffle towards it. The reflection staring back at me doesn't feel off either. "How can that be?" I ask myself. This feels right like I've been here before. I shrug and lean down, somehow knowing how. I slurp up the water till my thirst is quenched. I pace the cage a bit, it's roomy at least, before settling back down on the blankets. They smell comfortable, safe, like home. I realize they are my own blankets. The smell is me. Human me and Dean's flannel is in the pile too. I make sure that's close and I put my head on my paws to watch the door, waiting.
What feels like hours later everyone files back in. Ahna, Mina, Beta, and the six elders. They must be the elders; I can feel power radiating off them. Ancient and wise, something not to be trifled with. They turn to look at me and I rise and bow in their direction, not moving until I hear a sigh of acquiescence. Then I pad to the bars of the cage and sit staring and waiting to hear what they have to say. Of course, Mina rushes over. "Alyx?" She cries reaching through the bars to give me a hug. "Are you alright in there?" She leans back tears flowing down her cheek. I lean toward her and lick them from her face, their saltiness mixed with the taste of jasmine. An odd combination, but it tastes like her. I give her a wolfy grin, tongue lolling out the side of my mouth. She laughs and her tears stop.
"I'm fine you guys. Why is everyone so worried?" I ask. Everyone turns to look at me sharply, including the elders. "What? Do I have something on my face?" I laugh at that. "Of course, I don't. I haven't eaten anything in… I don't even know how long."
"Alyx!" Ahna whispers. "Did you just talk?"
"What do you mean? I'm talking to myself here. No one can hear what I'm saying…" I look at everyone's faces. "Y'all can hear what I'm saying?!"
The elders all begin whispering. "Extraordinary! Amazing! Fantastic!"
The youngest of them steps forward. "Excuse us, but let me introduce ourselves. We are the elders of the Eelalapito tribe. My name is Hamish Yellowfeather. We have been friends with the pack for as long as I can remember. Centuries to be exact. They have watched over us in times of need, as we have watched over them. Ahna came to us last night and told us of your plight and we rushed here as soon as we could. I suppose you would like some answers. We would like some as well. But first, you mentioned being hungry. Would you like something to eat?"
I stared at Hamish; my head cocked slightly. This was high on the list of strange things I'd seen so far. I hesitated but my stomach gave me away by growling. "I guess I am hungry," I answered.
"Alright. We shall bring you something." Hamish ushers to one of the elders who leaves the room. "I guess all this must be quite strange to you?" He asks me.
"Actually, I was marveling earlier and how NOT strange this is. I feel perfectly comfortable as a wolf if I am being honest." I reply, my tail swishing.
"Curious." He says as he stares at me. "So very curious. We have never had a red wolf in our territory. Nor have we had one who could talk. How is it you can talk?" Then the other elder returns with a very large, very rare steak. My mouth starts salivating at the smell. Hamish takes the plate and comes toward the cage. "I suppose we don't need to keep you locked up then do we? You seem perfectly capable of understanding everything that is going on." He unlocks the gate and puts the plate down near the bowl of water. Then he magically refills it. "I'll leave you to it. Then we can talk."
I nod and attack the steak, gobbling it down. It tastes amazing, like nothing I've ever experienced. I bring the bone back to my bed of blankets and settle myself before facing the crowd. "So… What do you want to know?" I ask a little hesitant about what they will ask. I gnaw on the bone.
Hamish steps forward again. He seems to be the spokesperson for the group. "What we are all wondering is how this happened. We heard the story from Ahna's side, but now we want it from yours." So I tell them. Everything that happened that lead me to this point. When I finish the elders all nod in agreement. It must match what Ahna had said. "Now tell me what happened to you before you met the wolves. You must have been in contact with the supernatural before this?" Hamish guesses.
"Well yes, in fact, I have…" and proceed to tell them about the last two things that have happened to me. Bentley the incubus and our run-in with the Leviathans last September. Mina helps fill in the blanks when I can't remember or it becomes too hard to talk about, because of Tyrion.
"That is all?" He questions. It seems like he doesn't believe me.
"Yes. I never knew the supernatural existed till the Winchesters rolled into town and sucked me into their vortex." I pause thinking of Dean and wonder what's to come of us now. "And since then its been nothing but weird."
Hamish walks into the cage to sit beside me, his palms facing me, like he's trying to read me. "I cannot believe that. He replies gazing at me. "You are too familiar with this wolf form and there's something… I can't quite place. You must have been exposed to magic before last September."
"No. I haven't. I'm telling you the truth." I tell him growling slightly and sitting up.
He drops his hands and scrambles up to back out of the cage slowly. "I'm sorry, I did not mean to offend you."
"Why would I lie about something like that? Look at me! I'm a wolf! This is freaking strange!" I screech at him. I pace the cage, breathing deeply trying to calm down. "I want to understand what has happened to me just as much as you do!" Suddenly I remember the tests I ran, was it only yesterday? "Mina! Do you have my research from the lab from yesterday?" I stop and shake.
She steps forward into the cage and sits on the floor. "I do actually. I threw it in your car when we left for the party. I had a feeling we might need it. I know you never got to look at the data. Will you be able to read it as a wolf?" She questions as she pulls the reports from her bag and spreads them in front of me.
"I am sure going to try," I answer and sit in front of them. Looking them over, I find I still have that human ability. "Yep, I can read them. Give me a few to peruse them." With Mina's help, I'm able to compare all the data. I open my mind to her so she can hear my thoughts. Writing it all in my notebook which she just so happened to bring as well. As it turned out from what I'd deduced earlier, all three of us had something supernatural in our blood. That concluded that we would all have that same protein, leading to the creation of the supernatural cell line. As it turned out it was a combination of three working together. All four samples had the same three unidentifiable proteins that matched exactly. Ahna and Beta had an additional three that match which I concluded must be the wolf protein. Even though Ahna was all human she still had the ability to shift as she still had the proteins. Something was blocking her proteins, not allowing them to combine, making it impossible for her to shift.
Gas chromatography was also similar. Ahna and Beta had more of the earth's elements present because they spent so much time in nature. But we all had two unidentifiable elements there that matched perfectly. Beta had the greatest concentration at sixty percent. Ahna with forty and me with twenty-five post-Tyrion and ten percent pre-Tyrion. All this data led me to the conclusion that we could know if someone was supernatural just by looking at their blood. That made me think about Dr James Bronn, maybe he was onto something and didn't know enough about the supernatural to put it all together. I made a note to talk to Sam about getting in touch with him at some point. Then I remembered I had his number in my autographed copy of his book. When I had some more information, I knew I would be giving him a call.
I knew I needed some more concrete data before I could be 100% sure I was on the right path. I didn't know if I'd get that chance, being a wolf now, but I told Mina exactly what I needed to do to test my theory. I needed my blood now as a wolf. I had to do another protein analysis and gas chromatography of it along with Jean, Amanda, and Stacey's blood. If Sam, Dean, and Cas were available I also wanted to test them. If I could find those three proteins in everyone's blood whom I knew to be supernatural, then I'd know for sure that's what they were. Same with the elements. Maybe just maybe, if I had enough findings, I could determine where that supernatural element came from. I could test the blood of every creature I came across from now on to see what specific element or protein determined what it was. I mean I'm getting ahead of myself here. I have no idea if that could ever happen in my current state or even if I was right. But my mind was buzzing with information. Mina picked up the papers and notebook and let me mull things over while she explained everything to Hamish.
Hamish had gone to college, so he understood most of what Mina told him. He explained to the elders that I did not know it, but I had come from a supernatural family. Ten percent in fact. That got them excited and they start discussing in their language what exactly that would mean. Hamish comes over to me. "That explains a lot of things, Alyx. Ten percent is a lot when you think about it. We allow those who have only a quarter of a percent of our blood in them to be a part of our family. You really are special." I snort at that. "I wonder if we could find out where you get your magic from." An elder woman comes over and whispers in his ear. They still talk in the old language, so I have no idea what they are saying.
I decide to visit with Beta and Ahna giving Hamish and his friend space. I prance out of the cage over to them. "Hey, guys what's going on? How ya doing?"
Beta leans down to gaze intently in my eyes before giving me a big hug. "You are a beautiful wolf. I am still sorry this happened to you but maybe some good can come out of it."
I can smell his fear for me and lick his face. "I don't know how I know, but everything is going to be alright. Thank you for coming to help, but aren't you worried about the pack while you are here?"
"You are more important." He says honestly and wipes his face. "And not just yet. The brothers I left in charge are good lads. They can hold things for a few days. We need to take care of you. It is partly my fault that you're in this mess to begin with."
"And the rest of the fault goes to me. If I hadn't bitten you, none of this would have happened!" Ahna cries. "I am beyond ashamed of myself." Tears in her eyes, she rushed forward to cry into my soft fur.
She had been crying much more freely and often since she became human. I mention it to her. She shrugs. "And don't be upset Ahna. If this hadn't happened, I would have never found out about my magical background. So see, silver lining." She smiles at me, grateful I'm able to turn this into something positive.
Mina arrives with a needle and vials. "I found these in your car. I remember you saying you had started carrying them around in your kit. Let me get some blood. I can do the testing you talked about needing. I saw everything in your head and I know I can do it."
"They won't let you near the lab if I'm not there Mina," I stated. It'll have to wait."
"No. I'm a part of this mess and I want to help. This is the only way I know how." Mina says defiantly. "I can get in there no problem. Nothing a little glamour won't fix." She winks at me, her brown eyes changed to the exact shade of blue mine used to be. "I am a witch after all."
"That you are Mina. Okay then. If you think you can do it, go for it. My blood is yours." I lie down to give her easier access and let her do her thing. Ahna pets my head as Mina collects the vials. She's surprisingly gentle and I don't feel it.
Hamish comes over, his talk done. "I see Mina is going to continue with your science project?" I nod. "That is good. The more information you have the better we will be able to help you. Which brings me to the next thing I have to say. We may have a way to find out where your magical abilities came from. It might explain why they were dormant and may help us, help you become a human again. Now, will it fix you? That I do not know. We don't even know if the ceremony will work, it hasn't been performed in many a year, almost a century. But the elders and I feel it is necessary in your case. What do you say? Shall we try?"
I cock my head staring intently at Hamish, mulling. "You are willing to do an ancient ceremony that you don't even know will work to try and help me?" He nods. "That's really kind of you. Thank you. I'm willing to try if you are. But it makes me wonder the way you're asking. I have a feeling it will be painful."
Hamish hangs his head, "I'm afraid the answer to that question is yes." He brings his gaze to meet mine, "As I said though, this may be the best shot we have of finding out what you are and helping you become human again. This is all new territory for us. No one that has been bitten by the pack has every completely changed before. So there's that…"
Mina finishes up. "Hate to interrupt, but I got what I need. I'll just be off. I'm going to find Jean, Stacey, and Amanda. I'll also see if I can get a little something from Ben and Allen to look at. Maybe that hot bartender, Vlad. We do need some men in the study to be entirely accurate right?"
I roll my eyes at her, amazed I still can. "It's true we do. Maybe not Allen though. At least not yet. Find some other unsuspecting hottie lacrosse players. Go do your thing. Ahna will keep an eye on things here and call you if we need you?" I glance at Ahna to see if she agrees. She nods. "Off with you then."
Mina leans in to hug me. "Everything is going to work out. At least I hope it does." She whispers in my ear. "In case you didn't know you won the costume contest last night. For both the best in show and best character. When you disappeared, they gave Indiana Jones your award for best character. Ben insisted that even though you had to leave early because you were sick you should still win the best in show and everyone agreed. I'll go collect it. Gives me a good reason to drop in and get his blood."
"Thanks, Mina! You're the best!" I say and give her a sloppy wet doggy kiss. She laughs and I watch her walk off and out the door. I silently wish her luck. I turn back to Hamish. "Okay, Hamish. Let's do this!"
