Fated To The Lycan Brothers
Chapter 88

Suri Nightingale

The pain radiated all over my body and whatever I did, nothing helped. It just kept getting worse and worse, working its way through every inch of my bones, limbs, nerves, everything!

I looked down at my hand that had transformed into something hairier and with claws, and screamed when it didn't stop there. Seconds later, every single bone in my body felt as if it were breaking and rearranging itself, and then it just kept repeating, over and over again, so much so that it felt like it wasn't ever going to end. I could see and feel each one of the joints in my body moving and shifting, like the very structure of my skeleton was being torn down and built back up to something very, very different. I dropped to the ground from the agonizing pain, my body twisting, squirming, and making all sorts of contortions. I couldn't do anything. Try as I might, it was like something else had taken over me and it felt like I was being tortured.

I tried to scream for help, shout for anything, anyone to help me, but each time I did, there was just another sound that came out of me. A sound that reminded me of an animal, of a beast, of the creatures that I heard that night with the brothers. Oh my god... am I turning into one of them?! What exactly is one of them?!

The scream that ripped out of my lungs almost exploded my eardrums, and I hadn't even realized there was somebody else that had appeared next to me until I felt the warmth of their touch.

Immediately, I jolted away, turning my body to face who it was that had suddenly appeared. I was terrified and confused when I saw a man with dark hair and dark eyes. He looked at me with kind and worried eyes, and I realized he couldn't be any much older than I was. He must be in his mid-twenties.

"It's okay," he said softly, but it didn't feel okay. Nothing felt okay.

He passed me a bottle of water and I let my hand out to grab it, but I quickly pulled it away when I saw that my hands had completely changed into something else.

He must have sensed how scared and unsure I was because all of a sudden he just dumped the entire water bottle on me, probably in the hopes of getting me cool to calm me down, but the thing is, it did absolutely nothing.

The second the water had touched my skin, it evaporated the way you put water in a boiling pan. Does that mean I'm as hot as a freaking pan?!

Time seemed to have stopped and all there was was the feeling of excruciating pain and uncertainty that drowned me endlessly. I didn't know what to do, what to think. All I could be was terrified.

After what felt like forever, like it was never going to end, I was panting and panting as I stared down at the ground, the pain had started to subside, and my body was no longer feeling like it was set on fire.

I was relieved, yes, but the uncertainty still lingered in my body and it was very daunting, to say the least.

Eventually, the pain had ceased to exist, but something was still not right. Something was definitely wrong, and it was obvious what it was.

I was no longer myself.

When my eyes shot back open, I looked down and jumped away at what I saw, but no matter how much I kept moving backwards, whatever it was, it just kept following me.

The hairy hands and feet with long and sharp claws... they were mine.

Fuck. What the fuck?!

"You're going to be fine," the voice said again, and I quickly looked back up at him.

He flinched for a second, like he was surprised at my sheer size, because his neck was bent as he looked up at me, and I certainly did feel like I was as big as the trees around us.

"What is happening to me?!" I shouted at him in question, hoping to get some answers, but all that came out of me was the sound of a growl of some sort.

"It's your first time shifting, isn't it?" The man asked and I turned to him, wide-eyed and confused.

Shifting? What the hell does he mean by that? Shifting to what?! From whom?! Oh god, I don't understand! I'm so scared! I- I want to go home! I want the brothers to tell me everything will be okay and I want them to hold me and lull me back to sleep! I want Keith to say that there is nothing to worry about and we can all just go back to normal before this-whatever this is that happened!

The man pulled out his phone from his pocket and I wasn't sure what he was doing until he turned it to face me and I saw that it was the camera screen and...

Oh, god... what the hell is that?!

I shook my head aggressively in disbelief. Unable to figure out who or what the hell was staring back at me.

It was enormous. A creature with fur the color as white as snow and its eyes, two different colors that were... oh my god... exactly the same as mine.

Is that is that supposed to be me?!

I moved away, hitting a loose vine on the ground and almost tumbling to the ground, but my back hit a trunk of a tree and it kept me steady.

I tried to look away from whatever was in front of me, but I noticed th at as frightened as I was, it too looked like it was almost as frightened.

I moved my left hand, it moved its hand too. I shook my head, it shook it too. I raised my leg, and it did so too.

What the fuck is happening?!

This wasn't possible. It just can't be! But... it was right in front of me. There was no denying what I was looking at with my own two eyes as it mirrored my every move. I was an animal, but at the same time, I was still... human. How was it even possible that I turned into an animal in the middle of the night?!

"You're a werewolf," the man said as he stepped forward, his hands stretched out in a reassuring manner. "No, sorry, you're... a Lycan."

I barely know what a werewolf is, and now he's telling me I'm a Lycan, too?! What are even those things?!

"Don't be afraid. I am a werewolf, and I know how confusing this whole thing is if it's your first time. May I ask, did you not know you were half human?" He looked at me blinking, his eyes not leaving me.

I felt completely self-conscious that someone was looking at me with my clothes all ripped up on the ground, but then when I looked down, it was not like there was anything to cover. I was all... fur.

"What do you mean half human?!" I tried to ask him, but all that was coming out of me were growls that even made me scared of myself.

Fuck, what the hell am I supposed to do? Werewolves? Lycans? None of those are real! They're- they're fiction! Things you replace in movies or books, not in real life!

I told myself those things, but deep down inside, I knew I was just lying to myself.

As terrified as I was, I knew that this... this was my new reality now. Even if I don't understand any of it.

"We need to go. The public might see you and this will cause a ruckus. Nobody can see you like this." The man started to explain, but I still couldn't wrap it around my head.

No. No. No. This is wrong. This is all wrong. This isn't me! I'm human! I'm a full human, not half, or whatever it is!

Concluding that this was all just some weird hallucination in my head from the painkillers and lack of sleep, I turned away from the man, and willed my body to move, to run away from him and back to the people, to the public, not here in the woods. "No, wait! Don't run!" I heard him shout, but I didn't stop.

I had barely gotten out of the woods, maybe ten seconds at best, when the first scream erupted from where the bus had stopped earlier. I turned my head to see what they were all so afraid of, but was faced by people staring at me in horror. What was it?! What were they so scared of?!

"It's a giant and scary polar bear!" One of them screamed.

"No, that's not a bear! It has claws!" Another answered.

When I took a step forward to figure out what they were all so afraid of, all of them quickly shifted, eyes widening in fear, and it didn't take me another second to realize that it wasn't a bear they were afraid of...

It was me.

Shit, shit, shit.

My entire body had become frozen as I stood on the ground still while everyone around the area fled in panic and fear. A second later, I felt strong hands drag me back into the woods and when I turned it was the same man as earlier. "What the hell?! I told you you couldn't be seen!" He hissed at me, but I could sense that he was still worried, too.

"You have to shift back!" He demanded from me as I crouched in fear by a tree.

I don't know what's happening and I feel so tired and so alone. I want to go home. I want to be with Keith and the brothers.

Atlas... Wes... Dev... Please... Please... Take me back home...

I fell down to the ground as I shut my eyes and hugged my hairy body closely. Keeping my legs tucked in my arms and started to feel very hopeless.

If I just count backwards in Spanish, maybe this will all go away. Maybe this is just a very horrible and hyper-realistic dream and I will wake up in a few seconds.

Please wake up, Suri. Please wake up.

I kept chanting to myself as I rocked my body back and forth while the man kept shouting at me to shift back.

"They're going to replace us! Can you not hear the police sirens?!" The man said in panic and I began to cry because I was so scared.

He came up to me and held his hand up in the air. "I don't know if this is going to work, but my mom did this to my brother for him to shift back when he was out of it. I'm sorry, but I need to try and bring you back."

My eyes looked up at him, blinking at the stranger, unsure of what he was going to do to me.

A second later, his hand started to move and I thought Is he going to slap me?!

Just as his hand was barely inches away from my face, when I blinked again, he had disappeared as a low growl sounded off. What? What the hell?!

My head snapped in that direction and I saw the same creature I saw in the video, and it looked just like me... except black. "Suri!"

Hearing my name, I turned to the sound in front, and I was hit by a sensation that traveled all throughout my body.

What is that? What... The... I can't explain it, but I am drawn to it. My entire being is suddenly activated and my sense of smell is filled with the intoxicating smell of different things combined - honey, vanilla, pinecone, citrus... and other things, but my mind can't keep up.

|-

When two figures descended from the shadows, the creature that had jumped the man had also stood up, and all of a sudden, it began to change...

Was this... what shifting was?!

"Suri," two voices said and when I turned back I saw that it was them.

The brothers. Wes and Dev rush to get to me in worry.

Suddenly, warm and strong arms appeared from my side and engulfed me. I knew instantly that it was Atlas.

"It's okay, baby. It's okay. We're here now and we're not going anywhere. You're okay."