My very own wolf family

Chapter 40.

I FELT MY eyelids move. I also felt pretty pissed at the way my meeting with Morgana ended. It should've ended with my fist in her mouth or nose. Preferably both – that's why the typical human is born with two hands, is it not? Fine... wolf-shifter in human form.

It took a few breaths and the wiggling of my toes to gain the confidence to open my eyes. I wondered what would be waiting for me in the 'real plane', as Morgana had so eloquently put it. Thank goodness Riana and I finally escaped from the manifested world of frivolous meadows and doll houses inhabited by weird squirrels.

Don't think I'm going to let you off the hook for keeping me in the dark about Morgana and calling me Kitty Kat.

"Okay, Kitty Kat."

I growled in my head.

Luckily, weirdness in the brain does not equate to weirdness in reality. The scene I opened my eyes to attests to that. Blaze and Liam were attempting various yoga poses in their wolf forms, James was scratching his back on a nearby tree stump, and Jesse was attempting to do a forward roll. I was joking about weird behaviour not translating to reality... it definitely does.

Only Fynn retained enough sensibility to rein in the strange behaviour, though I caught him eying Jesse's gymnastic attempts – he was failing horribly, and I think he might've strained a muscle in his neck. The alpha was positioned at my side, eyebrows scrunched in worry.

"She's awake!"

The call had everyone gathering by my side in milliseconds. Various hands, fingers, and toes poked and prodded me over the next few minutes, almost as uncomfortable as the cold breeze replacing my underwear.

"What happened?" I groaned when they finally allowed me a sliver of personal space. All their eyes were shining with worry, which only served to further grind my nerves to powder by the second. I identified their feelings as concerned for my well-being – heck, even I was troubled about that – but there was something more.

They stilled and stared at one another for a long moment. A seriously long moment. Indefinitely long. Only at the snapping of my fingers did they come back to Earth from their weird cult ritual slash telepathic communication slash group therapy talk-it-out-mentally-but-exclude-Katie session. Instead, the wolf-shifters' eyes crossed to stare at my fingers.

"Her fingers are pretty, but no need to get starry–ahem, cross–eyed," Riana snickered as her sharp claws clutched the fur of her stomach. I felt my stomach get tingly in response – perhaps another feature of our bond was physical empathy.

"You were just out for a long time, is all," Fynn mumbled as his eyes slowly uncrossed and refocused. He flung his head from side to side as if trying to rid of a monkey or strange thought clutching his hair.

"Out? How long?"

"Three hours." James looked meaningfully at me as if to say, 'I feel bad for your neck, it must hurt a lot from lying on a rock, I don't understand why you're still lying on said rock but I suggest you get off that rock and sign up for a week-long spa vacation before your neck cramps permanently. Stat.'

"It felt like minutes to me. Strange considering how boring Morgana was, old prick." I mumbled the last part under my breath, but truthfully, I didn't care if they overheard. Her love for dramatics had not appealed to me in the brief time I'd known her.

"Yes, because god forbid her theatrics to be grander than yours!" Riana guffawed, a trail of saliva hanging between her sharp teeth.

Fynn froze once again at the sound of my voice. Or maybe it was the contents of my voice. "Morgana?"

"Yeah, what about her?" I stared dazedly into the sky. The stars looked particularly bright tonight, as did the top right portion of my vision. It glowed orange.

"Did she sound like the woman who spoke to all wolf-shifters at the start of the Moon Celebration?"

My eyes widened, and that was all the answer he needed.

The others remained silent, processing the information.

"She –" I took a deep breath. Hopefully, some of my wolves' confidence would rub off on me. "She said something about 'making' Riana a long time ago and jokingly regretted making her so strong."

I waited for a response. Nothing

I waited some more. Still, nothing.

The waiting tested my patience to the very extreme.

I stared at the boys' shocked faces, but before I could perform my poor attempt of comforting the group, James' head snapped up.

"Spies" was all we needed to spring onto our feet. Through our mental communication, we decided to not reveal our knowledge of their presence because of the urgent matters at hand. We would continue discussing at the cabin.

The breeze lovingly stroked my hair as we walked back to the cosy village every year's Moon Celebration was hosted in. I decided to remain in my human form out of the goodness of my heart – Riana's gigantic furry butt was no joke. Her farts were said to be even worse, and I had no desire to traumatise anyone tonight. The guys also decided to remain human.

Just as we rounded the corner to the entrance of the village, shouts of terror and surprise wafted from the treetops, just as potent as the smoke and bright orange glow. Fynn and Blaze immediately shifted to wolves and leapt into the uncontrollable chaos. The humour of Blaze's name was not lost on me, but there was no time to stay amused. It was as if we crossed an invisible barrier that confined noise to a singular area and prevent other villages from coming to our rescue.

To verify my hypothesis, I stepped back, drawing curious glances from Jesse and Liam. I was right. I passed a pair of odd, crooked trees that embraced above my head, cutting off the view of the night sky and moonlight, and all the hectic sounds disappeared. Only the happy chirping of crickets remained.

"There's a strong magic stamp around the trees."

Magic stamp?

"Traces of magic left behind when spells are cast. The stamps can never be fully masked, but even partially masking spells is extremely difficult and only possible by a strong magic user. The magic stamp around the trees is strong, but I suspect it's not the full reminisce of noise blocking spell. At least half of the magic has been masked."

Oh shit.

I've had enough weirdness and strangeness to last me a lifetime.

***

A/N:

A couple of weird things have happened to me this week.

For one, I've been nonstop hiccupping for the last 10 minutes. 

Secondly, my desk has only become more and more occupied (which frustrates me to no end), but I've lost all motivation to clean anything up.

Lastly, something I hope will make y'all jump for joy: I've come to the epiphany (wow. I know, right?)that what I'm writing is only the first of (hopefully) many drafts of MVOWF. This means I can explore different plots, characters, scenes, events, climaxes, etc. without fear. I can always just change stuff later.

I don't know why it took me so long to realise everything), but I'm finally here. 

QOTC: what weird things have happened this week?
I think I might've seen an orange bird shaped like a W fly by my window screeching "Post on Wattpad". And the hiccuping fiasco.

Additionally, exams have also shown their sly faces (which I fully intended to punch till their bones crack), so updates won't be every week. Thank you for being so patient with me and our story :)

Please don't send me to a mental facility for trying to punch intangible objects,

-Hilda