THIRTY. Shift

POV - Lillia

“What are your plans for today?” Elijah asks after I rinse my bowl and put it and the cups into the dishwasher. I shrug my shoulders.

“I used to go to the library in the mornings and visit Mum in the afternoons, but now….” I sniff, trying hard not to cry. Elijah walks over to me and embraces me, resting his chin on my head. I’m instantly encased in warmth and feel safe.

“I just don’t know what to do anymore,” I sob as I bury my head into his chest.

“It’s not going to be easy,” Elijah says, and I nod into his chest.

“I don’t know what to say….” Elijah begins, “I’m here for you, okay?” Elijah asks, bringing my face up to look at him. Concern flashes in his brown eyes.

“Come with me to work today, okay? You need to get out of the house,” Elijah says.

“Okay,” I reply, not letting go of Elijah. We stand there for a little while before Elijah steps back and interlaces his fingers with mine.

It’s a short walk to the offices, close to the front entrance, and people smile and nod as we walk by. Grandad is already in the office when we walk in, and he gets up from his seat when he sees us.

“Lillia! You're awake!” Grandad greets me, hugging me.

“Did you get breakfast?”

“Yeah, I had some weet-bix,” I reply, finding a seat and sitting down.

“What work would you like me to do?” I ask, looking at the pile of paperwork on the desk.

“You can read through these and tell us what you think,” Grandad says, passing me a manilla folder. I nod and open the folder, beginning to read.

After reading different proposals for a new park to be built on pack lands, my stomach growls loudly after an hour of reading various proposals. Elijah and Grandad stop what they’re doing and look up at me with smiles.

“Hungry?” Elijah asks.

“I guess,” I smile, embarrassed.

“I’ll take her to the dining hall to get something more to eat,” Elijah says. Grandad nods.

“Do that, and have the rest of the afternoon off,” Grandad says, adjusting his glasses on his face.

“Oh, before you go, Lillia, which proposal did you like the best?” Grandad asks.

“Um, the one with the octopus playhouse? I like that the kids can climb inside it,” I say. Grandad nods and takes the file off me.

“Let’s go,” Elijah says, grabbing my hand.

We walk to the dining hall, and I smile at the lady working at the door. She nods respectfully at us and says nothing as we walk through.

“Sit here, and I’ll get you some food,” Elijah tells me, and I smile as I watch him go. I like that he knows what food I want to eat, but he’s never gone to get me my food before. It’s a pleasant feeling.

Elijah returns with a ham, cheese and tomato sandwich, apple and yoghurt for me, and a roast beef meal for himself.

“Thank you,” I reply.

“You want to go somewhere today?” Elijah asks between bites. I shrug my shoulders.

“Beats staying at home,” I reply. I had hoped to isolate myself after I left the hospital, but unfortunately, my doctors wanted me to see a psychiatrist before I was allowed to leave. After talking about my feelings with her, she recommended that I rest before I returned to my regular routine. My routine was going to the library to read and visiting my mum. I can’t do that now, can I?

After Elijah and Grandad took me home, I made them leave, telling them I needed to rest. Instead, I pondered everything that happened to me and everything the psychiatrist, and I discussed. I can’t let myself fall into a hole without hope of getting out. I need to be strong. I need to take a step to help myself. Maybe it’s too soon, but I’m a werewolf, and a fairy, both sides from strong leaders. I can do this.

“So, where are you taking me?” I ask. Elijah just touches his nose and doesn’t say anything.

After we eat, leaving the table cluttered with our dirty dishes (which makes me feel uncomfortable because I have a strong urge to take them back to the kitchens and clean them up), Elijah takes me to the Alpha wing. I give him a quizzical look when he opens the door with a key I didn’t know he had.

“Brent gave me a key. You need to get changed into something more suitable,” Elijah tells me, walking into the large apartment. I look down at myself. I’m wearing big baggy tan cotton pants and a white tank singlet with a high neckline. I’m also wearing the socks the nurse put on my feet from the hospital.

My cheeks go hot with embarrassment.

“What?” Elijah says, a smirk on his face.

“I forgot I walked around the pack in these socks,” I admit.

“Yeah, I was wondering why you weren’t wearing shoes,” Elijah grins.

“They’re comfy and warm!” I smile back. He just chuckles, and I shake my head.

“Okay, so what should I wear, then?” I ask, trying to change the subject.

I leave the pack house in track pants and sneakers and bring a hooded jacket with me as well. Elijah made me also get an empty backpack with us, which he filled with a water bottle and some muesli bars he found in Grandad’s pantry.

“Where are we going?” I ask as Elijah pulls the car he’s driving out of the car park. The pack house is surrounded by buildings and homes and is very built up with few green spaces. There is a park with swings and slides for the children nearby, and it reminds me a lot of living in the city with Urban Wolves, just without the caravan park or the different living situations of the pack members.

“Just enjoy the scenery. The north is pretty,” Elijah says.

“Are you from the north?” I ask. I know that Redwood is not Elijah’s home pack and that he came here to be the next Alpha. I know that he is second born and that he didn’t think he’d ever become an alpha, but I wanted to learn more about him, about his family and pack.

“My pack is called Ginger Foot pack….” Elijah begins.

“Is that because the alpha family is full of gingers?” I tease, referring to Elijah’s dark red hair.

“No! Do you want to hear about my pack or not?” he asks, and I chuckle.

“For your information, I got my hair colour from my grandmother, although her hair was redder….”

“And I thought blondes had more fun,” I say because, come on, in every romance book I read, the main female love interest has red hair. I mean, what about us brown-haired chicks?

“They only have more fun because their hair glows in the dark,” Elijah quips, and I laugh louder.

“My mum is a blonde, by the way,” Elijah says when our laughter dies.

“Real or bottle?” I ask.

“Bottle!” he replies, grinning.

“So, she’s not ditsy then?” I ask.

“No. Mum is a great Luna. She wanted to be a Delta wolf when she met Dad at the winter solstice ball. Mum had my brother Isaac two years later and me two years after that.”

“Do you have any sisters?”

“No. It’s just us two. But Isaac did have red hair when he was younger….” Elijah admits, making me smile.

Elijah turns down a street, stopping in the car park. We had been travelling through the forest for about twenty minutes already, and Elijah was right; the view was pretty. He explained during our drive that if we had driven left at the gate, we would have ended up in Worthington’s township, but right we ended up in the local forest, which was named Redwood Forest.

I get out of the car and immediately put my hooded jacket on. The trees surrounding the carpark cast shadows over the parked cars, and the air was cool.

“This way,” Elijah tells me, reaching for my hand.

“Oh wow,” I breathe as we walk past a signpost. Inside the sign is a map of all the bushwalks starting from the car park, with toilets and cabins marked along the way. But the large warning sign ‘Wolves in these woods' catches my eye the most. 'Stay clear. No hunting.’

“Are there really wolves in these woods?” I ask Elijah.

“Um, I think there are some wild wolves near the mountains, but that sign is up there for us. Lots of humans live in Worthington and go bushwalking,” he explains. I shrug my shoulders. Going for a walk in the woods is a pointless and tedious activity. Look, there’s a tree. And another tree. Some decomposing smelly leaves and animal dung. Yay. But don’t take my word for it, I grew up in the city.

“So we’re going on a bush walk?” I ask as I follow Elijah through the trees.

“No, we’re going for a run,” he says, grinning and turning to me.

“I’m not running in these woods,” I complain.

“In our wolves! I thought you might want to shift and meet your wolf,” Elijah explains. Oh.

“But I’ve never shifted… will it hurt?”

“No,” Elijah tells me at the same time Penny does.

“You shifted already during your coma. You should be fine. Find a tree, strip off all your clothes and put them in your backpack. Then think of your wolf, and you should shift,” Elijah reassures me. I must give him a worrying look because he turns around and touches my arms.

“You’ll be okay, I promise,” he says. I nod numbly, still unsure. Elijah gives me a comforting smile and turns towards the trees on the other side of the forest.

I watch him disappear before I turn and walk in the other direction.

- This feels weird – I link Penny as I walk around the giant redwood trees.

- Not weird, different – she replies. I shrug at that. I never thought I’d be taken to a forest where I would voluntarily take off all my clothes, leaving me naked as the day I was born. But I do just that.

Carefully I take off my clothes, pushing my undies into my pants and folding them up as best I can. I do the same to my tank top and hooded jacket, leaving my socks and bra to last. Goosebumps appear on my arms, and I shudder as a cool breeze twirls around the trees. Okay, I can do this. I can do this. I squeeze my eyes closed and think about my wolf. Goddess, I don’t even know what she looks like.

- You’ll see me - Penny grins in my head.

I feel my body shift through the air, folding as my centre of balance moves. I’m not in pain, but it hurts a little as my bones break and extend. There is a second of itching as my fur springs from my hair follicles. And to think I just shaved.

- Open your eyes – Penny laughs in my head, but I don’t want to. I’m still squeezing them shut as I take in the new senses from my paws and nose. Everything smells more robust, and my hands, or paws, touch the ground differently.

- Come on, open your eyes – another voice in my head says, laughing at me. I open them, seeing a large reddish-brown wolf looking back at me. I know the wolf is Elijah, or is it Blaze? The wolf’s eyes are brown, like Elijah’s, so maybe it’s Elijah? It was his voice, anyway.

- Your wolf is beautiful. Come, follow me so you can check out what you look like – Elijah’s voice says in my head. Elijah rubs his muzzle against my face and then turns on his heel and races off, and before I know it, I’m following him.

Elijah runs at a steady pace, not too fast or slow, and I trail him from behind. Penny is smiling, happy in her wolf form, following her mate.

It doesn’t take long when I know where we’re heading. I can smell water; maybe we’re running towards the lake? On the map, it seemed way off, but by my sense of smell, it seemed close. I overtake Elijah, laughing like a goof inside my head as he, in turn, overtakes me. I overtake him again, and we play this game a few times. I don’t notice him stopping when I overtake him once more, only to meet the water.

I splash into the water, enjoying the coolness but in shock at the suddenness of it. Elijah stands on the lake’s edge and laughs through our link, making me chuckle. Slowly I move towards him, making myself look sorry in my attempt to catch him unawares. It works because, at the last moment, I whip my tail through the water, splashing him in the process.

- That does it! - Elijah chuckles in my head. He then pounces on me, making me land on the lake bed, and we roll around, getting both of us wet.

The rest of the afternoon, we lay on the side of the lake, sunning ourselves in our wolf forms.

- We should start getting back – Elijah links me, making me open my eyes. The colours of the sky begin to change as the sun sets. Pink and red hues glow over the trees, sparkling. Reluctantly I get up from the warm bed of dirt I’ve made next to Elijah’s wolf and head back to where I left my backpack. I don’t need to follow Elijah this time; my wolf knows where to go. But it was nice to see Elijah running alongside me.

- How do I shift back? – I ask Penny once I get to my things.

- Just think of your human skin – Penny replies. I nod and begin to think of my human form. Shifting back isn’t as slow as when I shifted into my wolf, but I’m a little disappointed when I see that the big boobs I imagined myself having didn’t appear, leaving me with my average-sized boobs. Sighing, I dress and make my way back to the trail.

“Are you okay?” Elijah asks as I join him.

“Yeah, I just imagined myself with bigger boobs, and it didn’t happen,” I admit. Elijah cracks up laughing at my remark, and I can’t help but smile at him.

“Shut up,” I say, my cheeks heating up.

“Hey,” Elijah says, grabbing my hand and pulling me into his chest. I take a deep breath of his scent, pinecones and lavender ticking my nose. His smell has been more pungent since he shifted, and I like it even more.

“You’re perfect just the way you are,” Elijah says, kissing my head. I look up at him, catching his eyes. I want him to kiss my lips, not my head. My body tingles at that thought, and I bury my face in his chest, embarrassed.

“We should get going,” Elijah finally says. I pout but take a step back. My stomach rumbles at that moment, and I admit to myself we should get going back to have dinner.

“Have the muesli bar in your bag,” Elijah tells me.

“Oh yeah,” I reply, rummaging through my bag for the muesli bar.

“You hungry?” I ask.

“Yeah, but I can wait,” he tells me as he keeps his eyes on the road. I open up the muesli bar and place it before Elijah’s mouth. He takes a bite, and I smile before peeling more of the wrap away and eating the bar myself.

~

Edited with Grammarly