14 - The Change
The school was quiet. The bell for first period sounded at least ten minutes ago so everyone else was inside. Everyone except Caia. She felt limp, as if she were no longer a part of her body. That night she had ran as hard and as fast as she could from the house, pounding out her anxiety with the dirt beneath her paws until a resolution had fallen upon her. She hadn’t wanted to be alone in whatever was happening to her and, although she loved Jaeden, there really was only one person she had felt safe enough to turn to.
Lucien.
By then she had been away from the party for well over an hour, so she returned as quietly as she could, finding her torn dress, and then scaling the house to enter her bedroom. She had taken pause as she remembered Magnus was supposed to be checking the water pipes in her bathroom. But the room was dark and quiet, and there was no light filtering from under her bathroom. Sighing and aching, she had tried to squelch the butterflies in her stomach enough to focus on what exactly she was going to tell Lucien.
He was going to think she was crazy.
Caia had moaned and fallen back onto her bed. Lucien was so good, so caring and fair. He took time with his people, took their problems upon his shoulders as if they were his own. He would need someone just like him, not some troubled girl who was falling to pieces. And what if what was inside her was bad? He’d only try to help because that was who he was. And what if she hurt him? Hurt any of them?
No. She would just have to deal with this on her own like she had everything else.
Eventually Jaeden had been sent to find her, but Caia hadn’t opened the door to her or anyone, claiming she was tired and just needed to sleep.
She had kept herself shut in her room the next day. Jaeden had called, Ella had hovered, and Lucien had threatened to break down the door. At that, she had whispered through the wood that she was OK, she promised. She was just exhausted, but they shouldn’t worry. But they had. She could feel it radiating throughout the house. She hadn’t known how she could feel their emotions as strongly as she felt her own and her anxiety had only worsened.
Jaeden hadn’t accepted her feeble reassurances. She had dragged Caia over and into her car as soon as she had arrived at school on Monday.
Neither of them had said a word yet.
Jaeden sighed. Caia looked out of the passenger window at a cat that was dashing from belly to belly of the cars parked around them. Its simple happiness made Caia envy it.
“Caia.” Jaeden finally gave in, pulling her around to face her. “You have to tell me what’s wrong.”
She realized her friend wasn’t going to give up, and she wasn’t going to tell her the truth, so she decided to waylay her with the other something that was pressing on her. “Lucien kissed me on Saturday.”
Jaeden’s eyes widened, her jaw dropped, and she let out a startled whoop. “Oh. My. Goddess.”
Caia managed a wan smile. “Yeah.”
Jaeden grabbed her arm, shaking her. “Caia, are you crazy? Aren’t you happy? I thought this is what you wanted?”
“It’s just a crush, Jae.”
Her friend shook her head, refusing to accept that. “You can’t say that.”
“Yes I can, and it is.”
“Cy... a crush is what I have for Ryder. He’s gorgeous, and he has a cool, dangerous job.” she snorted. “But I don’t know him, not the way you know Lucien.”
Caia frowned, her head throbbing. “What are you getting at?”
“Well,” she shrugged, “Have you considered the possibility that what you feel is more than crush? That, you might be falling for him... and he for you?”
Caia twisted her lips in thought and looked down at her hands. They clutched the straps of her backpack so tightly they were white. She liked Lucien. A lot. And she was of course attracted to him. But in love with him? Did she really know him well enough for it to be that? Did she even want it to be that?
“No.”
“No?”
The sound of laughter from inside drifted towards her ears. She could hear a teacher telling a student not to write on the desk; a class giggling at one of the few funny teachers they had in there; a girl stuttering over a class presentation. It was all so normal, so human. But she wasn’t human. She wasn’t even sure she was a normal lykan. The only examples of reality she had in her life were the bonds of friendship she had with ones such as the girl by her side. And goddess forgive her, but, all she wanted right now was for Jaeden to go away. To leave her alone so she could go back to ignoring the fact that something was happening to her - good or bad, she didn’t know. And to top it off, her crush on a lykan she could never have had gone from hot to sizzling in a matter of twenty four hours. She sighed, and glanced back out the window at that cat. If what was inside her was dangerous she would take herself far away from these people she had begun to love. She smiled humorlessly as she thought of the day she had told Sebastian that China was always an option if the worst came to the worst. She had always wanted to see The Great Wall.
“Caia?” Jaeden begged.
She looked back at her friend and placed a reassuring hand over hers. “I’m not meant for him, Jaeden.”
“Maybe that’s not your decision.”
Caia sighed. She really couldn’t take a speech about the gods and fate just now. “I better get going.”
“Caia …”
She shook her head and got out of the car. “We’ll talk later.”
Alexa was smiling like the cat that ate the canary. Caia’s back immediately went up as she slid into her seat beside her in English. She didn’t even want to know what was going on with her.
When fifteen minutes had gone by, and Alexa hadn’t said anything, Caia relaxed minimally, trying to concentrate on the passages the teacher had asked them to read. As per usual the class was rowdy and obnoxious, and the poor teacher was having trouble controlling them.
“So, you missed all the excitement on Saturday night,” Alexa purred and Caia groaned.
“Really,” she murmured back, uninterested.
“Mm,” Alexa continued smugness in her voice that alerted Caia. Her skin began to prickle unexpectedly, the hair on the nape of her neck standing up. What the Hades? She turned to look at the girl. “Yeah. While you were gone, the gods knows where, I helped Lucien mop up. He was very grateful.” She sighed breathily. “And then we got to talking. Really talking, you know.”
Caia shifted uncomfortably, and her stomach began to roil with anticipation.
Alexa giggled softly and ducked her head closer to Caia’s as if they had been best friends all their lives. Her eyes were sparkling. “And I dunno, maybe we had too much to drink… before I knew it we were in his bedroom.”
It was like someone had literally slapped her across the face. Her eyes narrowed on the girl. Alexa didn’t mean what Caia thought she meant, did she? Lucien wouldn’t kiss one girl, and then...
A white heat prickled across her skin, boiling her blood as it passed inch by inch from her feet up through her legs. It was a familiar heat she had felt only once before.
“And there I am, waking up next to his gorgeous body. I think the pack will be celebrating another mating soon, and when we do,” she smiled and touched her flat belly, “This will be a whole lot rounder.”
At those last words, without warning and with no way to control it even though she knew what would happen, the white heat blasted out from her body like a force and sent a horrified Alexa flying across the other side of the room. The sound of her peers gasping and chairs scraping back was lost on her. She stared at Alexa in horror, her hands trembling, the blood pounding in her ears.
And then the worst happened.
A familiar wincing pain radiated from her left hand. She glanced down and saw her fair pelt pushing through the soft flesh there. She slapped her other hand over it so they couldn’t see. No! Oh goddess. She couldn’t breathe.
“What on earth?” she heard the teacher cry as Alexa stumbled to her feet.
She heard the 'oh my God's' of everyone, even some snickering, but they were all staring at her like she’d gone mad.
“Caia Ribeiro, what has gotten into you?!” The teacher was shrieking.
“I have to go,” she mumbled, ignoring Alexa’s snarl of her name as she fled past her classmates and out of the door. Her eyes never left her hand as more and more of her pelt started pushing through. She swallowed a groan at the feel of her muscles burning, readying themselves for the change.
“Watch yourself, young lady.” She looked up as someone steadied her, and realized that there was a small crowd in the hallway. “The water.” The janitor pointed to the floor a few feet from her. “The pipes in this place have all gone crazy... water getting everywhere...”
Caia didn’t stop to hear him finish. The water was her fault again, but with the change coming fast that was the last thing on her mind. Her pelt was pushing through her legs now, her feet shifting in her shoes. Holy Artemis, she wasn’t going to make it out of here.
“Caia!”
Sebastian? She heard running footsteps and turned to see him running towards her. He stopped and tried to halt her too, locking onto her elbow. “Caia, I need to talk to you about Saturday night.”
“Sebastian,” she growled, her voice changing, too.
His eyes widened, and he gripped her tighter. “Caia?” He looked terrified.
Tears spilled over her lids, rolling hotly down her cheeks as she leaned into him, pleading with her eyes. “I’m changing, Sebastian. I can’t stop it. I didn’t... you have to get me out of here.”
She was never so thankful for his quick thinking. He didn’t say another word, just grabbed her, and started running with her towards the parking lot. She tripped as her left foot completely changed inside her shoe and he swung her up into his arms, running towards his car. She was aware of him almost ripping the car door off, and then he was none too gently throwing her into the backseat. The door shut behind her and she clawed onto the leather seats as her back rippled. She heard Sebastian getting into the front seat, and then a blanket was thrown over her, launching her into darkness as she changed completely, her clothes tearing and ripping painfully. Her heart slowed, somewhat, as she realized they had made it, and she sat panting as the car spun around and sped off at high speed.
“Lucien,” she heard Sebastian say and realized he must be on his cell, “We have a problem. It’s Caia. It’s happening, man. Meet me at your house.”
What is happening? she screamed inwardly, and let out a low growl of anguish. Did they know already?
Daddy, she thought for the first time since she was a little girl and she used to speak to him in her thoughts, Daddy I’m scared. But, unlike when she was little when an imaginary strong voice would always reply, Caia heard nothing… nothing but the steady thud of her heart and the squeal of Sebastian’s tires.
15 - Time
Lucien flew up his driveway, the gravel rioting against his paintwork as he skidded to a stop two seconds behind Sebastian’s car. His heart was hammering in his chest and pounding blood in his ears as he jumped out of his car and strode towards an anxious and flustered-looking Sebastian. He knew it, he cursed inwardly, he had known yesterday something was wrong with her, it was just he had been self-absorbed enough to think it had something to do with the kiss they’d shared. “What’s going on?” he asked in a low anxious voice as he reached the young male, looking beyond him and into his car. He could see a lump under a blanket in the back seat. “What the..?”