Chapter 83

Ethan’s body plummeted to the ground, landing with a soft thunk in the sand. Blood rushed my ears and I let out a scream that ripped through my vocal chords. It hurt - my heart, my stomach, my throat, and my head. My entire body felt as though syrup was running through my veins.

“Ethan!” I screamed and dove for him in the sand. I propped his torso up in my lap, shaking his shoulders, rubbing his face to wake him back up.

When he didn’t respond to anything, my mind started thinking the worst. The blood traveled down his side and coated my dress in the sticky warm liquid.

Tears clouded my eyes as I sobbed over his body. I kept calling his name, begging him to wake up, pleading for his life.

I pressed my hand over the wound, putting as much pressure over the hole as I could. My hand was covered in red in a matter of seconds, but the flow did seem to slow. Hope revived in my chest as I watched his face.

The skin of his cheeks were void of color, but his eyes flickered beneath his eyelids and I finally saw the shallow rise and fall of his chest in time with his breaths.

My body fell forward slightly, relieved to know that he was alive. At least, he was for now. I had to get him to a hospital. I had to take him somewhere safe.

I tore off the bottom hem of my dress skirt and did my best to tie it around his torso like a makeshift bandage. It worked for a little bit, but with a wound like that, it could only work for so long.

I delicately removed Ethan from my lap and stood up. I wrapped a hand under each of his arms and attempted to pull him through the sand. I struggled, grunting and groaning as I dragged him only a few feet away.

The burning in my arms from the spots where I was grabbed roughly before kept me from being able to do more. My hands loosened their grip without me meaning for them too, and I dropped him back in the sand.

I stifled tears as disappointment, frustration, and fear combated within me - each emotion wanted to be at the forefront of my mind and I had to snuff all of them out.

I needed to be cool and level headed for Ethan. I needed to be like him to save him.

There were a thousand ways to help him, a thousand ways things could go wrong. I didn’t trust anyone at that point. I didn’t want to call for help because I wasn’t sure who could help. It was all up to me.

I wasn’t strong, I knew that. I didn’t go to the gym and my adrenaline was wearing me out faster than I could manage. I needed to get Ethan somewhere safe, somewhere with medical care, and fast.

That’s when I got an idea. Now that I had connected with my wolf, I could try transforming into her. My wolf form should be more than strong enough to carry Ethan. I could do that without any struggle - so long as I could actually transform.

Transformations, especially the first time, were much easier during a full moon. Unfortunately, the moon was waning and looked like a toenail. There was not a lot of strength I could pull from the moon, I had to rely on my own connection to the wolf to transform.

Could I do it?

I looked at Ethan’s pale face, his blood soaked shirt, and I knew that I at least had to try.

I meditated by the water, calling to my wolf. I could see the wolf form in my mind’s eye. I could practically reach out and touch her, but she was just out of reach that I couldn’t fully connect. There were steps that people took to transform into their wolf form - I never learned them because I never had a wolf before.

Having the option didn’t make the transformation any easier.

I called to the wolf, but it didn’t listen to me. It wouldn’t listen until I brought up Ethan in my mind. Ethan who believed in me, protected me, provided for me, married me. The wolf perked as I thought about him, and it ran straight at me. I felt it lunge into my mind’s eye and I felt the crushing pain of pressure on my ribs.

The pain was worse than anything I had ever experienced in my life. I felt my bones rearranging themselves and melding together in new ways. My blood reversed its circulation. My heart grew, swollen against my sternum and threatening to burst until my chest adapted to match it.

I screamed - no, howled - in pain until the transformation was complete. I wasted no time in trotting over to Ethan. I shoved my snout under his body, digging through the sand, to gain enough leverage to push his body up onto my back.

He woke for a moment during the transition of him on the ground and him on me. I thought he might’ve realized what was happening, but he grabbed my fur and held onto me tightly as I tested my new form with a light jog.

When I saw that Ethan wasn’t being jostled around on my back, and I started to get used to running with four legs, I picked up my pace.

I pumped my legs as hard as they would go. My paws thrummed against the sand until the earth transformed into rock and road. Pushing myself as hard as I could, I traveled faster than some of the cars on the road beside me.

Tears blurred my vision as I sped through the wilderness on the outskirts of the town, traveling just within the treeline so as not to be seen by onlookers. I let my instincts guide me while I went, not thinking too hard and calming myself internally.

I was calmer as a wolf. In this form, I was at one with nature, but I was still myself. I was still anxious, I was still scared, I was still holding back panic.

The wolf part of me controlled my actions, though. It dulled those human emotions and heightened my primal instincts.

I carried Ethan and I to a very familiar part of town. I recognized the red brick of the children’s home immediately, and burst through the large oak doors in the front. I laid Ethan as gently as I could on the tiled floor of the lobby and transformed back into my human form.

Transforming back was just as uncomfortable. My entire body changed again, breaking bones to heal anew, changing my circulatory system. I cried out as my snout disappeared and returned to the shape of my regular nose.

Heaving and ragged breaths tore from my lungs as I did my best to fill them properly. I needed as much air as I could to scream for Mrs. Hudson.

“Mrs. Hudson!” My voice was hoarse and thick with fear. “Mrs. Hudson help me!”

My cries echoed throughout the lobby.

“Mrs. Hudson, he's dying!”