My Hockey Alpha novel Chapter 261

Nina

I felt myself begin to shift just as the rogue caught up with me.

The feeling was overwhelming. It felt as though the world was spinning around me, and I was just holding onto the earth for dear life. I dug my fingers down into the frozen soil and groaned as it felt as though my bones were growing and changing inside of me, and felt a bit of vomit bubble up and pour out of my throat and onto the ground.

When I looked up, I saw the rogue leader’s glowing yellow eyes staring at me from the shadows. A large paw stepped out into the moonlight, followed by a body and a snarling, grimacing face.

“Cora, if you’re going to shift, it needs to be right now,” I thought to my wolf, pleading with her to hurry up with the process. Even if I couldn’t fight well yet in my wolf form, I could at least run once it was over. I just hoped that I would be able to outrun the rogue leader.

“I’m trying,” she responded. “But I don’t have that much control over it.”

I groaned again, partially from pain and partially from terror. I tried to push myself up onto my hands and knees, but as I began to crawl away I felt my limbs shaking beneath me. I fell to the ground and began to drag myself into the underbrush on my belly, as though doing so would even help me to stand a chance at getting away from the rogue leader.

Of course, the rogue leader was now stalking closer to me. He was toying with me as if I was his prey. I pictured him behind me grinning widely as he came closer and closer, and at the same time his stinking scent filled my senses and made me gag.

Suddenly, I heard his voice echo in my mind.

“What are you running from, girl?” he asked.

Another groan escaped my lips. His menacing voice was so loud that it made my head throb and my ears ring, but I kept trying to drag myself forward nonetheless in a last ditch attempt to get away.

“You’re not going to get very far.”

“F-Fuck you,” I moaned, gritting my teeth against the pain of my bones and my skull vibrating under my flesh. Every fiber of my body was screaming out at this sudden change in my biology. Was it always this painful? When I had seen Enzo and the others shift before, it seemed so quick and easy. Nothing could have prepared me for this amount of pain; surely it was just like this the first time and it wouldn’t hurt like this afterwards.

The rogue leader came closer. I heard his mocking laughter echo in my skull.

“This is quite the spectacle. And what perfect timing, too. If I didn’t have a mission to complete, I would like to wait to see your pain as you shift for the first time. You know, some don’t even live through the first shifting process. It’s quite taxing on the body.”

“What do you want?” I snarled. “What is the Luna hiring you to do? You were a human once, just like all of the other rogues; why would you fight for someone who would murder your entire family?”

Once again, the rogue leader’s laughter echoed violently in my skull. He came closer. I felt a large, heavy paw press into my back, pinning me to the forest floor. No matter how hard I struggled, it was no use. And no matter how much I begged Cora to shift already and get it over with, there was nothing that she could do. The process had already begun, and there was no stopping it or changing its course.