“Don’t you mean my new life?”
“No,” he said. “That’s not what I meant at all.” He forced the chalice into my hand then slowly backed away from me.
The drums played louder as a signal that the time had come. But all of a sudden, I felt very uneasy about this entire ceremony. I couldn’t put what the king had said out of my mind. The kingdom was in danger? What did that even mean, and why did Stefan insist Roman wait to tell me?
I looked around at all the wolves gathered in the commons. They all stared at me, waiting on me. It was time to ascend. As much as I hated it, the danger to our kingdom would have to wait.
I lifted the glass in thanks to the king for his sacred offering. Then I drank it.
It went down as easy as a cup full of blood could, but it wasn’t long before I was on fire.
Roman’s blood burned through my body like acid. It torched my veins and turned every thought in my head to mush. All of my senses were wiped out and I couldn’t see or hear anything. The pain was unlike anything I could have ever imagined. I felt my body hit the ground and if anybody tried to help me, I didn’t know it. It didn’t matter anyway. The metamorphosis had begun and there was no way to stop it. I was going to suffer for days. My body was being torn apart so that it could be rebuilt again. Bones were breaking, muscle was tearing, organs were dissolving and my brain was being reprogrammed to think that it wasn’t as traumatic as my body was telling my brain it was.
My vision returned, blurry but there. I reached out for someone, anyone who could help me find relief. No one came because they couldn’t. The pain of an alpha’s metamorphosis wasn’t meant to be alleviated. Metamorphosis was a test of a wolf’s strength to survive the worst pain they would ever know.
I felt my ribs snap and I bellowed in agony. Claws ripped through the tips of my fingers, sharp as the blades of knives. My fangs shredded my gums as they burst from my mouth. Then all of my teeth started to fall out, one by one. I heard my mother scream and memories of my father flooded my mind.
Dad, I’m going to make you so proud.
That was my last coherent thought. Then everything went black.
Eight days later...
I couldn’t believe I was alive.
For days, I’d suffered pain like nothing else in this world. I was so glad it was over, shocked as hell that I’d survived it.
My eyes burned as they adjusted to the light shining in my window. I could tell it was late afternoon by the position of the sun, but if I hadn’t been near a window, I wouldn’t have known what time it was. I felt like I’d been out of it for months, a year even. My body was that thrown off.
With a wooden arm, I reached up and felt my face. My jaw ached like crazy. I was aware of its new shape–more broad, more pronounced. I reached into my mouth and ran my fingertips over my teeth. Normal wolves only had four fangs. I now had eight. No wonder the fools who challenged alphas rarely survived. Wolves already had crushing bites that injured and maimed. Two more sets of fangs ended lives, no question.
I slowly pushed myself up into a sitting position, swinging my long, stiff legs to the floor. I held my hands up in front of my face and willed my claws to come out.
Damn, I thought. I’d only seen claws like these in movies. They were so sharp, they could slice through flesh and bone like it was nothing. I retracted them, thinking that if I made one wrong move, I would be the one sliced up.
With some effort, I stood up for the first time on my new legs. I could tell I had grown but I couldn’t be sure how much. As I stretched out, I groaned with relief because my body felt like it was tied up in knots. The bones in my shoulders and back ground together as they shifted around. It wasn’t painful but it was a feeling neither me nor my bones was used to.
“Who the hell are you and what have you done with Xavier?” I looked up to see Remy standing in the doorway.
“Hey,” I said. I froze because my voice was deep as hell. It had been kind of deep already, but I’d dropped at least another octave during my metamorphosis. Smiling, I accepted that as a good thing.
“It’s about to be a panty parade around here,” Remy said. “The ladies are gonna be killing themselves to get at you. Please make me your wingman.”
I made a face. “You sound real suspect right now.”
“Man, shut the hell up. You know what I mean.”
I grinned. “I’m just messing with you. I’ve known you swung that way since we were pups.”
“Yo, if you weren’t big as shit right now, I’d rip your spine out your asshole.”
“Point proven,” I laughed. Remy just gave me the finger.
“So I’m thinking I need to talk to the king about loaning me some of his blood,” he said. “Metamorphosis would change my life, boy.”
“Damn, do I really look that different?”
“Hell yeah. I’m actually kind of scared of you now.”
“You should have been scared before, punk.”
“But I wasn’t though.”
I laughed and moved to go stand in front of the mirror. What I saw surprised me. I still felt like me...but I didn’t look like me. At least, not the me I remembered.
I’d been right. I was at least two inches taller than I had been before, putting me at a solid six foot five inches. My skin was darker, at least a couple of shades, but I still wasn’t nearly as dark as Roman.
“Damn, X,” I muttered. I really was big as hell. I wasn’t one of those oversized fools shooting steroids six times a day, but I was packing some serious girth now. And it was all solid muscle.
“You kind of look like Roman,” a voice said from the doorway. It was Darien. He entered the room and stood by Remy.
I couldn’t deny it. I did kind of look like the king. “Hey, D,” I said, turning away from the mirror.
“What up? Welcome back to reality.” He sounded chill, but his expression said he was anything but. My appearance was as shocking to him as it was to Remy.
I turned back to my reflection. I studied it for a moment. “This didn’t happen to Uncle Bart. I saw the pictures of him before his metamorphosis. He changed but he didn’t look like Roman’s father.”
“Diallo blood does different things to different alphas,” Darien said.
“I know, but still.”
“Maybe a Wesley stepped out on their mate somewhere along the way and you’re actually a Diallo,” Remy said. “It’s possible. The Diallos got those good genes. You remember Roman’s sisters? They could make me step out on a lot of things.”
“Shut up, fool,” Darien replied. “Didn’t nobody step out on their mate. Just look at Kane. He can barely get out of bed because he misses Aspen so much, let alone summon the energy to cheat on her. Wolves mate for life.”
“Unless they don’t. I know that’s what we’ve been told, but what if that only applies to non-shifters? What if we, because we are half-human after all, don’t? I’m just saying, nothing is impossible. Look at us. Most humans think we’re impossible.”
The fool had a point, but I wasn’t ready to dig into any of that mess just yet. “My mom here?”
“Yup,” Darien said. “She never left your side the entire time.”
“Until today, she wouldn’t let anyone see you either,” Remy said. “She caught me trying to peek in your window a few days back and I swear, my entire life flashed before my eyes. I don’t think I’ve ever ran from anyone so fast before.”
I laughed. “Yeah, my mama can be scary when she wants to be. But especially when it comes to her pups.”
“I see that.”
“Are you ready to go outside?” Darien asked. “The rest of the pack is dying to see you.”