A/N: Ok.. one more for the night.. then I'll finish posting tomorrow! Let's see what happening!

ENJOY!

"So, can I ask a weird question?" I had been pondering something for most of the day. Ellaene nodded. "What other beings live in Everlee? I mean, are their vampires?"

Ellaene regarded me thoughtfully. "What are vampires?"

"Beings that drink the blood of other beings."

"Yes, we have vampires, but we call them lamians. They have been banished to a remote part of Everlee and we're forbidden to even go near their land."

As we rested by the fire after our meal I continued my questioning. I discovered they had trolls, but they mostly inhabited an area deep inside a remote forest. Ellaene described them as lazy creatures. There were sprites for all four elements, muses and magi who kept all magical knowledge, creatures that sounded like angels as well a pack of human shifters.

"Their preferred shape is wolves, but elder shifters have the ability to transform into others. We will have to pass close to their territory to get to the Guardians."

We fell into a routine over the next few days and I grew to admire Ellaene even more. She was witty and kind, she was gentle but underneath lay fierceness she didn't hesitate to display. There was a growing part of me that didn't want to leave her. At night I would entertain wild notions of staying with Ellaene. Everlee had a very strong notion of right and wrong that appealed to me. Or maybe my desire to escape the pain of Granny's death was pushing me to my limits. Whatever the reason, I acknowledged there was a part of me that didn't want to go home.

On our fourth day, things got interesting. We were washing up in a river we came across when Ellaene went still and tense. Her eyes were glued to a fixed point in the distance. I scanned the area she was staring at, but I couldn't see what had her so still.

"Susfera," she whispered. Suddenly her stillness made sense. We had come across susfera droppings and Ellaene took the time to tell me about them. They were vicious wild pigs that wouldn't hesitate to go after Ellaene and I. She stressed that they were to be avoid at all costs.

I crouched near her and placed what I hoped was a comforting hand on her back. For a brief moment, it felt as if she relaxed into it, but it was such a fleeting moment, I could've imagined it. I had no more time to think on it as Ellaene had her spear in her hand. In that instance, the sword at my back vibrated and with stark clarity, I knew what I had to do. I pulled it up and out of its sheath just as two things happened simultaneously: Ellaene screamed and two susfera came charging at us.

Acting on an instinct I never knew I possessed, I rolled to my right, swiped the sword through a susfera that had barreled down on me with unhuman speed. Frantically I looked for Ellaene, hoping that the other susfera hadn't found her. What I did find, would be engraved in my memory the rest of my life. A susfera was facing off against a huge stormy grey wolf, but there was no Ellaene to be found. I refused to let either animal out of my sight as I crept closer to the susfera. Out of the two animals, I knew the susfera was the worst. I'd take care of it and then worry about the wolf.

The wolf growled and snapped at the susfera creeping in such a way that, if I had to guess, looked as if it was pushing it towards me. I stayed where I was, watching with morbid fascination as the wolf pushed the susfera closer and closer to me. When there was less than ten feet between me and the susfera, the wolf lunged causing the susfera to turn around and head straight toward me where I threw the sword directly into its head. The susfera dropped to the ground just as I caught the wolf out of the corner of my eye. Looking up, I watched as the wolf fell to the ground and began to writhe and whimper. A flash of white light blinded me and when I could see again, there on the ground laid a very still Ellaene.

"Oh no no no!" I screamed. The thought of losing someone else was too much to bear. Not caring that moments before Ellaene was a wolf, I scooped her into my arms and brought her back to our campsite. I swaddled her in blankets as she had begun to shiver and held her close to me by the fire.

For hours I held her close rocking her back and forth. Unable to take the silence and desperately wanting to hear her voice, I talked to her. I poured my heart out about Granny, about hating the restless feeling my life had become and how much Ellaene had come to mean to me. I begged and pleaded my God, her Divine Ones and everything in between to make her wake up.

I was contemplating screaming for Alicena when Ellaene eyes began to flutter.

"That's it, baby. Please wake up. Come on, open those beautiful eyes."

When I finally saw her gorgeous eyes, I hugged her close. "You're awake!"

"What happened?"

"Don't you remember? I think you turned into a wolf, but I have no clue how or why."

Ellaene's face scrunched in confusion. "That was real?" I nodded and then told her what I had seen.

"I turned into a wolf?" That one question held so much surprise with a healthy amount of awe.

"You did and you scared the shit out of me. Please don't ever do that again."

Later that night as we relaxed after eating, Ellaene was unusually quiet. I figured she was still reeling from what happened, I knew I was. This was the first big magical think I witness since Alicena healed me and that was all a bit fuzzy to me. But the memory of Ellaene going from wolf to woman was burned into my brain.

Unable to take the silence, I scooted closer to Ellaene. "Talk to me, okay. What are you thinking?"

"For as long as I can remember I've had dreams where I would become a wolf. They were vivid and at times felt so real that I would swear it had happened. My mom would laugh at me and tell me it was just a dream." She closed her eyes and leaned against me. The weight of her body felt so right that I wrapped my arms around her and held her close. "Normally for witches in Everlee their rite to prove their worth to receive their powers happens in front of coven elders. They create tasks and tests one must endure before the Divine Ones bestow their gifts upon them. Two nights before my rite, the Divine Ones spoke to me in a dream, telling me that I needed to go to Forest Veritas to prove that I was worthy. I left the very morning. I never told my parents where I went." Ellaene shifted so she could look at me. "Edward, I remember every second as a wolf and for the first time I felt right. I have no idea what the means and it scares me."

I pulled her back into my arms. "Whatever it means, we'll face it together." With a surety that I couldn't deny, I tilted her chin and kissed her softly on the lips. When I pulled back, she smiled up at me.

"That felt right, too."

A/N: Well.. how many saw that coming? *giggles* Leave me some love!

WVG