Chapter 25: Luna's Choice

Mike restarted compressions after Donna gave her rescue breaths. I was helpless to do anything but pray. And pray, I did. I hadn’t begged Luna like this since Catherine had died.

The door opened to the apartment, and Vicki burst in, crying and yelling for her Mom. I grabbed her and pulled her into my lap, holding her as we both cried. “What are they doing?”

“Trying to save her,” I said. They finished the set of compressions and let the machine analyze her again.

Brent was losing his shit. “NO! I can’t lose her, not now. Luna, I’ll do anything. Take me, take my wolf if you need one, but let my mate live!” He fell to his knees and begged for her life.

“PREPARING TO SHOCK. PRESS FLASHING BUTTON.” Everyone leaned back with their hands up, and Anita pressed the button. Vicki screamed as her mother bounced off the floor. “HEARTBEAT DETECTED. STOP CPR.”

Donna leaned over, checking her carotid artery. “Weak pulse, she’s back,” she said. I watched as her chest started to rise and fall on its own again. “She’s still burning up. Move her back to the tub. I’ll leave the pads in place.” She disconnected the wires from the machine and stepped back to let the men pick her up again. As soon as she was in the tub, Vicki squirmed out of my grasp and went in after her.

“Let her stay,” I told them.

Donna had Vicki sit on the edge of the platform the Jacuzzi was built into, near her head. She could talk to her mother and be out of the way. “One hundred and five,” she said as she used the thermometer on her forehead again. “Keep the ice coming. Men, OUT.” If she regained consciousness, she would be mortified that all these men could see her. That would change with her wolf, as we were comfortable with nudity, but that time was not now.

While they were getting her fever under control, I told the extra men to rearrange the bedroom. Pushing the furniture against the wall and leaning the bed up against it cleared out a carpeted space for her. I had them lay out a blanket on the floor, then put pillows next to any objects she might hit. In the pain of the shift, a person might lash out and hit something.

“How are you doing, Sharkbait,” I asked over the link.

“What happened? Why was everyone so scared?”

“Your mother had a very high fever, and the ice wasn’t helping. Her heart stopped, and they had to use the machine to start it again.”

“She died?”

“The change is dangerous, but we will do everything we can to help her through. You’ll help too, right? You can pray for her and talk to her. Tell her how much you love her.”

“Okay.” She leaned down and started whispering in her ear.

I thanked Luna for her help as a black wolf sat down next to me, his black fur broken only by a few spots of white. I scratched at the ear with the white tip. “Your wolf couldn’t hold back?”

Brent nodded and chuffed. “I would make her nervous if I was in my human form and watching her. She likes me this way, and my wolf won’t settle if she isn’t in sight. I almost lost her before she even knew who I was,” he said.

“Everyone else knows, including Vicki. You wouldn’t have said something about mating and having sex with Liv while Vicki was sleeping, would you?”

“It might have come up talking to others,” he said.

“Little wolves have ears, and they aren’t always as asleep as you think. Links are safer around the young ones.”

“Shit. I’m sorry.”

“You have a long road ahead after Liv makes the change. She didn’t grow up knowing about mates, and she won’t understand or trust what her wolf is telling her. Nothing has changed except the strength of the pull she will feel for you. You are still going to have to get her to fall in love with you, and get Vicki to love you as a father.”

He slid down until he was lying on the floor, his head on his paws in front of him. “Sharkbait is a great kid. I will claim her as my own, and Liv can give us little brothers and sisters when she is ready. I’d die for them.”

“She knows. Liv saw you fight off the wolf attacking her, and Vicki heard what you said about her Mom in there. Time and patience, Brent. Trust me, it’s worth it.”

Liv fought the fevers for two more hours as we watched and prayed. None of the spikes were as high, and her heart didn’t stop again. She woke up when it got below a hundred and three. “Momma,” Vicki said as her eyes fluttered. “Wake up, Mommy!”

“Vicki?” Her voice was weak, but recognizing her daughter was a good sign.

“Mommy is too hot,” she said.

That didn’t last long. With the fever part nearly over, Liv’s temperature returned to normal just as the first bone broke with a loud snap. “OH, FISHSTICKS,” Liv screamed with the pain.

Donna was already draining the tub. “We need to move you into the bedroom for the rest of the fun,” she said. “Can you stand?”

“I’ll try,” Liv said. The girls helped her to her feet and wrapped a towel around her body before she stepped out. Brent got out of the way first, and Anita pushed me away. It took a minute to move her into the center of the blanket and lay her down. Vicki sat next to her, and Brent trotted over to sniff her and lick her neck before returning to the door. She laughed at the feeling of his tongue.

“Liv, this next part isn’t going to be pleasant as your body goes through its first change. We can’t keep you covered as your skin will be very sensitive as the fur pushes through. Do you want Brent and me to leave?”

She shook her head. “I feel safer with you both here,” she said. “My wolf agrees with me.”

“You can hear her?”

“She’s weak, but we are talking. Brent, come over here by me.” His head and tail were high as he came back over and curled himself behind her. Another bone snapped, and she let out a scream. Her hands fisted in his fur until she relaxed. “It doesn’t hurt as much when I’m touching him.”

“Then use him as a pillow,” I said. “I don’t think Liv’s wolf has told her you are mates,” I sent to Brent.

“It doesn’t matter right now. What matters is that her mate can ease her pain and help her relax.” That would be very important over the next few hours.

As the change went on, the breaking bones started coming faster, and the pain became constant. She had to push Brent and Vicki away as her skin became red and sensitive before grey and white fur started to push through. “Her fur is like mine,” Vicki said.

An hour later, an exhausted female werewolf lay sleeping on her side on the blanket with a black wolf curled behind her. She was gorgeous, mostly gray with some white on the bottom and a small white saddle in the middle of her back. Her legs and tail were grey with white socks and tips. Vicki thought she looked like a White-Tipped Reef Shark she’d seen at the aquarium.

I shook my head. “I don’t know; the reef sharks are much smaller than a Great White, and they have black areas on their fins. I think she looks like an Oceanic White-Tip.” I pulled up a picture of the shark on my phone and showed her; the shark had mottled white on the tips of her fins, and at up to thirteen feet long, was much larger than a reef shark. “They don’t have those at SeaLife.”

“Cool,” Vicki said. “Momma a White-Tip.”

Anita came up from downstairs thirty minutes later with a bowl of warmed steak pieces and a bowl of water. She set both down near Liv’s nose, and Vicki laughed as her nose started to twitch as the smell hit her. “Wake up, Liv. You need to eat and drink, the change took a lot out of you.”

Liv’s eyes opened up and she struggled onto her stomach as she looked around. She was a little panicky, and her head was turning as she tried to figure out everything that was assaulting her brain. “Your senses are different now, sharper, and more sensitive. Don’t try and move too much yet. Let your daughter feed you.”

Vicki sat by her head, picking up pieces of steak and feeding it to her Mommy. “You have big white teeth, Momma, like an Oceanic White-Tip,” she said. As Liv ate, I kept explaining what changes she had endured. When she’d finished her food, she struggled to her feet and took her first steps on four paws. She drank a lot of water before we coached her through walking in her fur. Finally, it was time to get up and go outside.

Donna helped her learn to go down the stairs, stopping her a few times from falling the rest of the way. Vicki wanted to run with her, but with her concussion, it wasn’t safe for her to shift yet. I had her climb up in my lap and we watched out the window as she walked out with Brent at her side. With our wolf vision, we could see them clearly in the moonlit winter night. He dropped down his front legs, his tail wagging as he tried to get her to play. She figured it out, and soon the two were chasing each other around the yard and play fighting. “Mommy have sex now?”

“Mommy and Brent need to learn about each other first. When it is the right time, they will bite each other’s necks and become mates. What happens AFTER that is not something little girls need to know about,” I said.

“Awwww, MAN!” She crossed her arms in front of her, just like Liv did when she got mad. It was cute.

“Don’t tell her. Your Mommy needs to fall in love with Brent before it happens. Brent will make her happy, and you three will be together forever.”

“Good.” She had been up all afternoon, and she was exhausted. “I love you, Unky Leo.”

“I love you too, Sharkbait.” She fell asleep on my chest as the two wolves disappeared into the forest together.