Lycan's Prey by Jessica Hall

Chapter 7

What was there to celebrate? My failures, the fact I am pack- less and homeless, that I am raising a baby on my own because the father refused to believe he got with a

seventeen–year–old because he couldn’t recognize me as his

mate.

“Shift! Please, Everly. I can’t watch you suffer in the rain, please,” my mother begs through the window, sucking in a deep breath.

“You can do this, Everly,” I whisper to myself. It isn’t how you imagined shifting, but I need to put my big girl panties on and do what’s required. I tell myself that nobody will be celebrating for you, not anymore, before stripping my saturated shirt off. I hang it over a railing along the far wall before shredding the pajama pants. I look around; it is late at night no one will see me. Even if they did, they wouldn’t pay any attention to the disgraced Alpha’s daughter.

My mother taps on the window, and I look in at my son drinking his bottle in her arms, gazing up at her nice and warm. His eyes get heavier and heavier the longer he feeds on his bottle.

“Thank you,” I whisper to her. She smiles sadly while nodding her head.

“I’m right here. You don’t have to be alone for your first shift,”

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my mother says, and I nod. Usually, when a wolf shifts for the first time, they go running with their family, they have a big celebration. Me, I was shifting to stay warm, funny how things turned out. I was transitioning out of necessity while everyone else shifted for celebration.

I have been able to feel my need to shift for months; however, being pregnant, I couldn’t change without causing harm to my unborn baby, then it did not have anyone to watch him while I did. This was my only chance, yet I dreaded seeing myself in wolf form. Alphas were supposed to be big, but I had been stripped of my title and my pack.

I hadn’t shifted on my eighteenth birthday like I should have, and all these things affected a wolf’s strength. Swallowing, down all emotion, I kneel on the ground, stretch my fingers, and stand on my toes. My neck cracks first, my face twisting and morphing. Everything stretches and moves when I feel the first snap of bone. It is agony, I knew it would hurt, but I never imagined it like this. The first shift always hurts, apparently.

“Don’t think of it, just envision your wolf,” my mother tries coaching through the glass window. It shouldn’t be like this; it wasn’t meant to be like this; Dad always promised mom and he would be there to help me through it. “Deep breath and shove everything behind it, force the shift, don’t wait for it, force it, Everly,” she says.

I suck in a deep breath, trying to envision what I would look like. Would I be a sandy color like my mother or black like my father? A scream tears out of me that immediately morphs

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shift takes over. I

sharp as I run my tongue along them. I look at my paws and my tail, trying

son, one hand covering her mouth in

over and looks out the window, a stormy look on his face; he is disappointed. I am not much bigger than a German Shepherd, which is embarrassingly small. Most rogues would be

This is what’s left of me? My father tugged the curtain closed like he couldn’t look at me any longer like

curtain open a bit before sitting on the couch so I can see my son. I watch him through the glass, wishing more than anything I could

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to get him to sleep and makes him a makeshift bassinet on the couch, and eventually, I fall asleep too. My head rests on the brick ledge under the window. When the sun starts to come up, I quickly shift back, putting on my drenched clothes and carefully ringing them out to try and remove some of the water. I had just pulled the sopping wet clothes on when the front door opens, and my father

I get home, don’t ever come back, Everly,” he says before walking toward his car, not even glancing at me. I reach

–

like garbage hurt; it hurt severely, making me realize I was nothing but garbage to everyone. The door opens, my mother puts her head out

me a towel, and I dry myself off

these,” she says, handing me a pair of her Nike shoes. I slip the socks on before placing

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Chapter 7

him go.

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you,” my mother tells me while my sister hands me a bag.

safe in there,” my sister says, and I swallow. “Ava, I can’t take that,” I tell

might as well. I can’t go to university now anyway. Dad is making me take over the pack next year.”

wanted to go to college and study some science thing when I was still here. She is wicked smart, and I ruined her plans by getting pregnant. Ava didn’t look upset,

too, and the charger I will make sure to recharge it every month for you so I can get ahold of you,” Ava

doesn’t have to know. What he doesn’t know won’t

come to see us, visit us?” I ask her; hopeful. Her face drops.

can’t, but you can send us photos of.

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