"I want you to focus on the awareness inside of yourself. Then, you are going to pick an animal that you can picture fully. One that you know very well. Anything at all. Once you have pictured it, I want you to push your awareness out into every part of your body with that image in mind. See if anything happens." I tell her.She closes her eyes and slowly stills as she focuses. As her face takes on this serene quality I find myself getting up and moving a little farther away. If she can shift and has chosen something larger then I would not want to be sitting too close to her. Slowly, I see movement under her skin. It looks like there are things crawling under her skin as her arms begin to lengthen. Grey fur begins to sprout on all of her exposed skin as I watch. My excitement is growing as I watch her begin to shift into another creature. That excitement is premature as the change stops suddenly and she opens her eyes to meet mine. "Nothing happened. I guess that I cannot do it." S
Now that Fiona has shown that she can shapeshift, I have to come up with a way to help her control her new powers. She has to learn how to transform into something without seeing it right in front of her. It is always going to be more difficult than when studying it at the same time but it is definitely doable. It is a trick that as a witch she should have already been able to master. Witches have such good memories that we can practically see things happening in front of us even if it had been months or even years since it really did. So, theoretically, as long as she has seen an animal in person she should be able to shift into it by focusing on that memory.Since her training has been done a little backwards thanks to her old pack, I am going to recruit Elle to try and help me get her caught up on this skill. She is the one that helped me to learn how to control my shapeshifting. Even if she is unable to shift herself, she does understand the magic behind it and might be able to l
Now that I know that Elle is not at her cottage or with the witches there is only one more place for me to check. She has to be spending more time with Frank's pack if she is not here and her cottage is rigged for intruders. I wonder why she rigged it? Has there been a problem with somebody breaking in? Has she been harrassed in some way that I did not know about? Whatever it is, it is not okay in my pack. On my walk to the other pack, I am pleased to see that some of the childen that are from my father's pack have been spending time with the children from my pack. I find pockets of kids that are outside playing games from both packs. Some are playing hop scotch, others are playing hide and seek. Some teens, I am fairly sure, are defacing property. That is not exactly something that I can condone but considering that as soon as I get close they are all very busy looking at their cell phones and laughing at jokes, I cannot exactly catch them doing anything bad. I am sure that they wil
When I finally find Elle she is exactly where Rand said that she would be. She is with all of the witches from the Blood Coven. They are in the middle of some type of altercation when I make my way toward them. Aurora has her voice raised while talking to Elle. It is just windy enough that I cannot make out her words. Then again, as I reach my awareness out, I find that this wind is not exactly natural. Finally, as I get within a few steps of them, I hear what is being said."You cannot really expect us to just sit aside and allow your Coven to train our younger members. Why would we do something like that!" Aurora practically shouts at Elle."I am not trying to steal your Coven members away. I just think that Simonetta might still have a hold somewhere in your Coven and we should try to get rid of it right away. If they train with us then you know that they are not being influenced by outside forces." Elle says back reasonably.Ah, that is what they are arguing about. Just last week
After leaving Elle, I find myself making my way to the new orphanage. Frank made sure that it was built bigger and better than the previous one when the pack was living underground. Now, instead of one large room for the boys and another large one for the girls, there are enough rooms that the orphans all have their own rooms. Of course, if there is ever an upswing in orphaned children they might have to double up but for now they can all have their own sense of privacy. It is really helping the children to feel as if they are normal kids instead of being branded as orphans by everybody.The orphanage is really quite a grand building. There are over 20 bedrooms total that are all split on separate sides of the house. It is two stories with the bottom story being dedicated to multiple social areas, the kitchen and a very large dining room. The second story is divided in half with half of the rooms on each side so that the boys and girls are still kept separate. In the middle of the ro
As I near the end of my pregnancy and the beginning of the school year for all of the new children that will be joining this year, I find myself excited to see how everything is changing. Elle has managed to help Fiona gain more control over her shapeshifting while Chelsea and Caleb have continued to grow as friends. I swear that Caleb ended up spending almost half of the summer at the pack house with us since they were always together. "Okay, Fiona. Today, I want to see you in the water practicing your different marine animals. I want to see you turn into each one of them in detail before seeing if you are able to combine two forms together. That is something that you have not done yet and it takes a little extra skill. You will have to think of the way certain parts of each fish look and feel before shifting only parts of you into each of those fish. Be careful though because if you get it wrong a piece of you could potentially fall off." I tell her as the three of us gather around
Fiona has been practicing relentlessly to get down her new transformations. She is absolutely determined to be able to transform into more than one animal at the same time. The results have at times been entertaining as we watch some of her ideas go wrong. At one point, she tried to transform into a fish with feathers similar to a penguins but that did not turn out well at all. Instead, she ended up sinking to the bottom of the lake as the water began dragging on her feathers and pulling them down since they were not waterproof like a penguins really are. Maybe it is because she has never transformed into a penguin before. That really does seem to be the deciding factor that is holding her back the most.Elle and I have been speaking of taking her to the zoo at some point for her to familiarize herself with more animals. The only problem with that is that she will be unable to transform into that animal in front of other humans. That leaves two possible options. One, is that we pay a
It takes less than half an hour for Dante to join me in the diner. He seems a little stressed and tired with all of the changes going on. He has been worried about my upcoming labor and all that could possibly go wrong with it. Now that he is also trying to wrangle some teenagers, he has been more stressed than he has been letting on. Most likely so that I do not spend too much time worrying about him. "Are you okay?" I ask as he sits down in the booth across from me. "Why wouldn't I be? All of our hard work is finally paying off." He says with a breathtaking smile. I swear that the closer to the end of the pregnancy I get, the more happy and excited he gets for it. He has spent so much time at the store buying everything that this child could possibly need. More than it could ever need to be exact. He really must have been planning for a child for years because now he has been going above and beyond what I could expect from anybody expecting a baby. "You just seem like you are a
"Wait, you can do that?" Frank asks shocked. "Yes, of course I can. It is not something that I have done often, actually only one other time but it is an option. It is one that terrifies her." I admit. "Who did you do it to before?" Rand asks me. "I did it to Morden. There was no other way to stop her from coming after my pack or my family." I answer simply. "Your grandmother said that Simonetta was behind that the entire time. That only makes it right that she gets the same punishment if not worse than what Morden received." Rand points out. I had not thought of it that way but it is true. Still, we need to have a system set up for something like this. Otherwise, there will always be somebody that takes advantage of the power and that is not something that I can condone. "That is very true. I had not thought of that but this is not a decision to be made lightly. There might be longer reaching consequences that even I am not aware of by using this ability. Still, I see no other o
It did not take long at all for the Hybrid Council to arrive. They all file in looking a little shocked to see Simonetta there, unable to use her magic as she floats slightly in the air. Quickly, they find their seats. Then, both Rand and Frank walk in as well. I had not thought of inviting them but I am glad that Dante did. With how long she terrorized their pack it is only fitting that they are here for this as well.I smile at them all as they whisper among themselves for a few moments. This is a bit of a shock for those that were not here to see Simonetta arrive. For Frank and Rand, they finally see their enemy tied up and floating in the air. They are not aware that I can take away her ability to use magic so this is going to be a shock to them when the meeting starts. "I take it you called us all here for a reason?" Elle says once everyone starts to calm down."Yes, I did. As everybody here knows, Simonetta has caused quite a few problems for us. She has terrorized werewolves,
Simonetta rushes towards me using wind to guide her speed. It is not enough to throw me off guard though and I shove a wall of dirt up in front of me. She almost crashes into it before she is able to skid to a stop at the last second. If she had prepared then she might have been able to use the air that was helping her speed up to me to jump over the wall but instead, she is used to using her other powers for combat and did not make the decision in time.As soon as she begins to stop, I tear down the wall and shift into werewolf form quickly to land on top of her with my teeth to her neck. Out of all of the forms that I could have turned into this was the only one that registered as an option. I would like for her to see the one thing that she thinks is beneath her be the thing that brings her down. For once, she surprises me when she throws me off of her with some air. I quickly flip over and land on my paws. I shift back and face her again. She is breathing hard and I find myself a
As soon as my illsuion drops I see Simonetta's face blanche. Chelsea drops to the ground and has it swallow her up as she falls through it to meet the others. I send her a brief thank you as she helps to keep them all safe from whatever back up plan Simonetta could have.She sends me a sad farewell. Apparently she is worried about whether or not I am going to make it out of this one. I might not have used much magic recently but I guarantee that there is no way I will let her get away with this threat. Today, she is going to go down and she is not going to be a threat to anybody with werewolf blood ever again."Wait, you had the baby? No! You can't have had it already!" She screams in rage."Actually, I can. There was nothing stopping me from having it. There is also nothing in the way of me putting a stop to you and your bullying once and for all" I say. She takes a few steps back as she steels herself for what we bothk now is going to happen next. It is a shame that the rest of the
"Why would she ever want to go with you?" I ask Simonetta in shock."I am sure that she can see the benefits when she realizes that if she doesn't then she will never get to meet the bundle of joy in your stomach. I will personally make sure that you are unable to deliever them. After all, the more powerful the babes the less the mother can use magic so I am sure that you are not able to defend yourself very well." Simonetta says triumphantly.I try my best to look worried. I really do. I find that it is difficult to be worried about her though. She has never really had a lot of sway over me. Even when I first realized how much stronger than her I am I had found it difficult to be scared of her. "You really think that I am afraid of you? Even without being able to use my powers you do not worry me. I have plenty of other witches that are able to come and help me." I say."Not before something bad happens to you. Chelsea, I would hate to see for anything bad to happen to Laina. I just
Each team splits up and gets ready to make their way through the obstacle course. They are all going to have to take turns trying to make it through safely. Each team has a designated amount of time before they get elminated. The one that makes it through the fastest and with the least amount of mistakes, will be the ones to win the competition. The course is very similar to the one that we did with the entire pack when we first started training. The one that really got the women moving faster as they fought to make good time through the course to beat the men. This one is just a little more geared towards children and not fully grown adults.Some of the obstacles are smaller to better accomodate their size, some things are closer together and they have even added some new obstacles that would have been difficult for the adults. There are also some obstacles that are going to require teamwork to make it through. If they do not work together then they have no hope of making it to the
It takes much longer than planned to get the babies ready for travel. I have never packed a diaper bag before but luckily Scarlett shows up to help me get them ready and squeal over the twins for a minute. Or more precisely, several minutes."I can't believe that they are finally here! I swear it felt like your pregnancy was never going to end. Every time that I thought you were going into labor and you never did. Yesterday, I had no idea that you were going into labor. How did you keep that from me?!" She says to me."It was not exactly on purpose. I did not even know that I was in labor until I spoke to Dante and then Elle confirmed it. It was a really odd day. We had a lot that happened that day so I thought that everything I was feeling was just from stress." I admit to her."Ha! For once, I could have answered that if you had just talked to me. Instead, you have me doing made up jobs with you to help me out." She says excitedly.I shake my head as she begins showing me exactly h
The first night with the babies was quite a bit of a learning curve. Whenever we put them in their bassinets they just started to cry nonstop until we picked them up again. It took a couple of hours to find out that if we put them into the same bassinet they were able to sleep peacefully and not wake us up. By the time we managed learning that, I was beyond exhausted and ready to sleep. Thankfully, there was more than enough people in the house to help us out throughout the night.When I wake up I find that Dante is already standing over their bassinet watching them sleep. They have managed a few hours of sleep straight which for me was quite shocking considering that they are newborns. "How are they?" I ask him sleepily.Chelsea decided to sleep on one of the loveseats last night as well. She was just too excited to go to sleep in her bedroom after I had the babies. I do not blame her but as she shifts when I start talking I do realize that that might have been a mistake. She is goi
Chelsea comes running in once the babies start to cry for food. Her face is filled with excitement as she rushes over to me. Even though they are hungry, I allow her to hold and rock Caterine while I first feed Archer. I might get good enough to be able to feed them both at once in the future but for now feeding just one is tricky. I never knew that it could be this hard to feed a baby."Hi Caterine, I am your Aunt Chelsea. We are going to be best friends. You are going to get to go to school with werewolf pups and use magic. It is going to be wonderful. I can't wait to teach you everything that I know." Chelsea coos to the baby making all of us smile.It is a good thing that she already has so much experience being around babies because she does a great job holding Caterine while Archer is feeding. She does sit down though as she looks at her. Even though Caterine was crying just a moment ago from hunger, she is now looking at Chelsea with wide eyes. Werewolf pups have much better ey