I woke up to a feminine voice calling "Lunch is ready." I was on a comfy bed but I had the worst splitting headache I've ever felt. It felt like someone had tried to insert a searing hot knife into my brain and twisted it a couple of times for good measure.
Luckily for me the headache receded a little after a minute or so. So I cracked opened my eyes and looked for the person who quite rudely decided to announce lunch while I was still sleeping.
I was in the room I shared with Grace and there wasn't another soul in sight. "Great, now I'm starting to hear things." I thought to myself as the pain in my head receded enough to allow me to fully open my eyes and stretch out like a cat.
Seriously, stretching like a cat is the best feeling ever and I'm not sure how I'd never heard of it before coming to the Roaring Hills pack.
I just wanted to lie here for a bit and enjoy the softness of the bed. However once again I was interrupted by a young male voice that I could now identify as being in my head. "The pork is awesome, you really have to try it."
"Yup, I'm officially insane." I thought to myself as I panicked a bit. Although I stopped hearing the voices in my head after that. Maybe they were a temporary side effect of waking up?
A few minutes later and the door to my room opened. All I saw was the flash of white hair and I suddenly found myself in the embrace of a sad Grace.
"What's wrong?" I asked Grace when she sat there long enough to lift one hand and start patting me without saying anything.
Grace pulled back and looked at me with her dark blue eyes full of relief as she said. "You've been asleep for two days Eva. Even though Doctor Rory said that you were just exhausted, I was worried."
"I'm alright, I promise." I reassured the Princess in front of me. "Although I did wake up hearing voices that aren't there."
To my surprise, Grace laughed while still not really letting me go. "Do you know what a pack link is Eva?" She asked me.
I nodded my head as I recounted everything I'd learnt on the link since arriving at this pack. "It's an ability where werewolves can speak to each other in their minds. The only way to obtain this ability if you're not a born werewolf is to be marked by your mate."
"That's true." Grace said. "However there is another way to obtain the mind link ability. If a human, or in your case a wolf, manages to obtain the acceptance of the entire werewolf pack as a true pack member then that individual gains permanent membership to the pack as well as the mind link ability."
I didn't say anything as I realised what Grace was actually saying.
"You saved Lydia's life Eva. Because of that everyone in the pack has accepted you as part of it. So please let me be the first to welcome you as a permanent member of the Roaring Hills pack" Grace had a huge grin on her face as she welcomed me. "Also you're not hearing voices. What you're hearing are other werewolves in the mind link. If you like I'll teach you how to control it before we head down.
"Thank you Grace." Was all I could say. I couldn't believe that I had earned myself a place in such an amazing pack to call myself part of forever.
My thoughts were cut short as I suddenly remembered what happened before I passed out a couple of nights ago. "How's Lydia?" I asked Grace with concern lacing my voice.
"Lydia's fine now." Grace assured me. "She shifted back yesterday and found that after her first shift, she can shift completely pain free whenever she wants. It's so unusual to see a new shifter changing forms so freely."
I relaxed my muscles that had gone tight with worry when I remembered the sights of Lydia lying apparently dead on the table.
"Saffron, Eva's awake. Could you please grab both of us some food, then you can come up to see her." Grace's voice sounded out clearly in my head.
I heard Saffron reply in my head, but it was too muddled to be able to make out what she said.
"Did you just mind link Saffron?" I asked Grace as she sat there.
"I sure did." Grace told me. "It's a useful ability isn't it?"
"So first I'm going to teach you how to stop hearing every mind link that isn't directed at you. I want you to imagine that inside your mind is a room with invisible, but soundproof, walls. Now don't make these walls to thick or they'll block out everything. Just try to keep them like a thin plastic membrane that will reflect everything not coming directly for you." Grace instructed me as I tried to build the construct in my mind that she described.
"When you're happy with the room I want you to put yourself inside it Eva." Grace then instructed.
I did as she said and immediately the soft murmuring in the back of my mind that I hadn't noticed faded away. "Nice trick." I told Grace as she smiled.
"It is." Grace agreed with an evil smile. "But now comes the fun part. I'm going to start mind linking you. You're job is to adjust your protective walls so that you can hear when I'm mind linking at you, but you can't hear when I'm not. Are you ready?"
"How hard could this be?" I thought to myself as the little voice in my head laughed at me.
"I'm ready." I told Grace.
So Grace started to mind link me random phrases, some aimed at me and some not. Let me just say that it was anything but easy.
After ten minutes I had a sheen of sweat that was making my fur damp, but I think I'd pretty much gotten this ability down pat.
"Not bad." Grace said. "You've nearly got the easy part down."
"What?!" I basically yelled at Grace.
Grace shrugged at my outburst. "Well you've only been dealing with one person Eva. In a pack there are hundreds of werewolves that use the mink link all the time. So you have to learn to separate multiple people at once. Don't worry, we'll get Saffron to stay up here and help us."
I actually shuddered at the thought. Who knew that an ability as useful as mind linking could be so damn hard.
Our conversation was cut off as the door of our room opened again and Saffron appeared holding two plates of steaming food.
She didn't say anything and concentrated on not spilling the heaped plates as she put them down on the table.
Once she was free of the burden she did much the same thing that Grace did and ran to me, embracing me in one fluid motion.
"Welcome back, I was really worried." Saffron said into my fur, not willing to pull her head back so she could speak properly.
"Thanks Saffron." I told the human girl buried in my fur. "You did really well with Zack back there by the way. You're going to make an amazing Luna."
Saffron blushed and tried to bury her face further into my fur to hide it. "Thank you Eva. Although you were pretty amazing yourself."
"Okay Saffron." Grace said as she started to separate us. "Eva hasn't eaten for days and must be starving. Although after we're done with lunch I'd like your help with mind link training for Eva."
"Of course." Saffron said happily as she went and put my plate on the ground so I could attack its contents.
Food never lasted long around werewolves. So despite the heaped plates, lunch was finished in under two minutes.
"I swear I'll never get sick of watching werewolves eat." Saffron commented to herself as Grace chuckled to herself.
After lunch was destroyed the mind linking training began again but with Saffron in the mix this time.
...
Two hours later and I was ready to die. My mind felt exhausted and somehow my body did as well, even though I hadn't moved.
"I think you've mostly got the hang of it." Grace stated from her position next to me.
I could only grunt at her, which made her chuckle. "Don't worry to much Eva. Everyone struggled with it at first."
"Glad I'm not the only one." I linked to Grace and Saffron with a glint in my eye. Although I will admit that it wasn't that hard to link anymore. Unlike the first time I'd tried it two hours ago and the entire pack heard me scream "Pink fairies." into the pack link. How embarrassing.
They both chuckled again before Grace gave instructions. "Rest up for 30 minutes. Alpha Leyton has given instructions to gather everyone present a couple of nights ago so we can all debrief on the events that almost took Lydia from us."
I nodded at Grace as I shut my eyes and let my poor brain rest. I heard the door open and close as Saffron left the room to go and find Derrick. Grace hadn't moved from beside me since I'd first woken up.
Grace started to softly pat me and we stayed like that until she informed me that it was time to head down to Alpha Leyton's study on the second floor. Lets just say that I was not happy to be forced to move from the comfy bed.
"Thank the Moon Goddess for elevators." I thought to myself as we rode the big steel box down to the second floor. Shuddering at the thought of having to walk all those steps everyday as the alternative.
"I completely agree." Grace responded in my mind as I realised that I sent that thought out instead of keeping it in my mind.
"So maybe all that practice really is needed." I admitted quietly to myself as I focused on keeping my thoughts in my head. Grace chuckled at the look of concentration on my face and started to pat me in a deliberate attempt to make me look focus.
When the elevator stopped at the second floor I rushed out in attempt to escape Grace, who had started to tickled me when patting was no longer working and bolted to Alpha Leyton's study. Almost knocking over a couple of pack members in the process.
The door was closed so I raised my paw to bang on the door as best I could a few times. Unfortunately Grace caught up to me with that mischievous look in her eye in the time it took for Alpha Leyton to open his study door.
"Ah Princess Grace and Eva, welcome and please come in." Alpha Leyton said as he opened the door wider to allow both of us passage into his study.
Luna May was sitting in a spare chair behind the desk and next to her husbands chair. Already on the other side of the wide desk was Derrick, Saffron and Doctor Rory.
"I haven't invited Lydia to this meeting because I don't want to make her relive that night. So seeing as everyone else is here we can begin. The first order of business being, what went wrong Doctor Rory?" Alpha Leyton asked as he took his seat next to his wife.
"After talking to Lydia's parents, I've come to the conclusion that Lydia has a genetic defect that she's carried with her since birth. It's normally a very controllable aliment, but we have to be aware of it or high stress situation could kill the victim. Actually the only reason she's alive right is because of your powerful Alpha command forcing her to breath and whatever Eva did to take away her pain. What was that anyway?" Doctor Rory asked as everyone turned to me.
"It's just something we do to our pups when they're hurt and predators are around." I explained. "In order to not get found and have our pups killed, we would temporarily take away their pain so they could remain quite. It's not overly common for it to be actually used, but any wolf that's been around pups will know of it."
"I think I've heard of that before." Doctor Rory mused as he thought. "It's meant to be psychosomatic and therefore it's just tricking your brain into thinking that there is no pain. I never thought I'd actually get to see it used."
"Even though it can be quite a dangerous ability because whatever is causing the pain is still there. But in this case it helped Save Lydia's life by allowing her body to complete the shift." Doctor Rory concluded.
"What about the command that made Lydia breath again?" Alpha Leyton questioned Rory.
"I know you and I have our different opinions on this Alpha Leyton. But it's simply not possible that Eva was the one who made Lydia breath when her body had shut down. Her brain had half stopped and it was taking a long time for it to process anything, which is why your Alpha command took so long to be executed. It isn't even possible for a Royal command to work that fast on a half dead girl. So unless our Eva is the Mood Goddess in disguise, it wasn't her that made Lydia breath." Doctor Rory stated.
"I know you believe it was Eva in your heart. Please just remember that if Eva hadn't of been there, then Lydia wouldn't have survived long enough to need you to command her to breath." Doctor Rory continued.
Alpha Leyton sighed. "Thank you Doctor Rory. Does anyone have anything else to contribute or have we summed up what happened that night?"
Everyone agreed that we had all the answers we needed so Alpha Leyton turned to me as he spoke through the pack link to the entire pack. "While we're here and discussing the way you helped save Lydia's life Eva. As the Alpha of the Roaring Hills pack, I formally welcome you into our pack ranks as a full pack member. You've definitely earned it."
Alpha Leyton put his hand over his heart in a sign of respect before everyone in the room followed his actions. Even though most of the pack wasn't physically present I felt everyone following suit. It made me glow inside from all the warmth and acceptance I was feeling.
I also responded through the pack link so everyone could hear. "Thank you Alpha Leyton. It is a true honor to be part of this pack and I would gladly lay down my life for it and it's members. Thank you for letting me call everyone here family."
I felt approval from the entire pack filter through to me via the pack link and I'd never felt more at home than I did here. Now all I needed was John to be with me and life would be perfect.
"Now if you will excuse me, we're expecting the Alpha of the Thundering Falls pack who have their territory on the other side of the 100 km of no mans land and his entourage here soon to discuss what we're planning to do about the wild wolves that appear to be trying to claim the territory between us." Alpha Leyton said as he got up, everyone else following suit.
The moment the door to Alpha Leyton's study opened Grace froze up and started to sniff deeply at the air. A massive grin appeared on her face as she suddenly ran for the door and disappeared through it in a flash.
Alpha Leyton chuckled. "What just happened?" I questioned my Alpha.
"Grace's mate Detsy managed to convince the King and Queen to allow her to come here to help set up for the Lunar festival two weeks earlier than originally planned. So of course we kept that a secret from Grace as a surprise and she just realised then when she smelt her mate approach the pack house. She's traveling with the Alpha of the Thundering Falls pack." Alpha Leyton told me.
"You should hurry on down as well Eva. I have a hunch that Grace is going to want to introduce her new friend to her mate and the other way around as well." Alpha Leyton said dismissing me from his study.
I left the study with Derrick and Saffron and went straight toward the elevator. We may have only been one story above ground level but the elevator was already making me lazy.
However before we got to the elevator we three of us almost walked into Kaitlyn who didn't have Cody with her. She looked at me before saying. "Hi Eva, could we please talk?"