Choosing Happiness (28 page)

I took several deep breaths as I tried to relax some of the tension in my body, closed my eyes and concentrated on clearing all the outside thoughts from my mind. I pictured my body just as I had seen it this morning in the mirror. I started at the floor and worked my way up. I could see my feet standing on the tan carpet of my bedroom floor, the teal nail polish I had applied to my toe nails earlier in the week. I worked my way up, picturing the round bones on the outsides of my ankles and the muscles in my calves, and there was the small scar just below my left knee from a fall off my bike as a child. I could see my thick, muscular thighs, the rounded shape of my rear sloping up to my smaller, but not quite slender waist, and up farther past the generous curves of my breasts to my face.

I concentrated on my round face, the large green eyes that dominate my face. I pictured in my mind my full lips and auburn hair, curling gently as it had settled around my shoulders while I brushed it out before pulling it up. I thought of how badly I wanted to be back in that body. When the tingling sensation all over my skin started again it surprised me, and I almost lost the mental picture of myself, but I managed to ignore it and I continued to will myself back into my body, to concentrate on how badly I wanted to be me again. The tingling intensified until it was almost stinging, and I felt my muscles begin to stretch and my bones start to shift and grind against each other.

After what seemed to be several minutes the uncomfortable sensations started to fade, they slowed to a stop, no more bones shifting, or muscles popping, even the tingling faded until I felt normal once again.

I opened my eyes and anxiously looked down at myself, half afraid of what I would see. I was sitting naked, but human in the back seat of the car. I scrambled to quickly put on the too large clothes that Brandon had left for me, worn, soft, sweat pants and matching top, but no shoes. If he had any they probably wouldn't have fit anyway. I leaned across the car and knocked on the window to let him know I was decent. He looked relieved when he turned and popped the door.

"Climb up into the front, let me grab something and then we'll talk," He closed the door again before heading for the back of the ar.

As I climbed between the front seats and settled into the passenger’s seat I heard the trunk open and close again before Brandon came back around and got into the driver’s seat beside me. He handed me a couple of protein bars "Eat up."

I looked at the bars he had put into my hands and scrunched up my face in distaste.

“Those things are nasty.”  I said. He didn’t say anything but took one back and opened the packaging, I could suddenly smell the bar inside and I realized I was starving. Before I knew it I had them both gone. When I realized that I had just eaten both bars in under a minute I was embarrassed at having inhaled the food, and with little memory what kind of manners I might have shown in doing so. It must have shown on my face, because Brandon chuckled.

"Don't worry about it, Nick, I know how hungry shifting can make you, especially when you're healing at the same time, that's why I went back and grabbed them. They aren't going to be enough, but they're all I have. They'll take the edge off, and hopefully hold you until we can get you something better to eat."

"So, what's going on? What do you mean you know hungry shifting can make you? I've figured out what you mean by shifting, but how? How is it possible? And how can I be healing so fast? I noticed when I got dressed that wound from the snake bite is healing, it's not possible! Am I hallucinating from the venom?"

"Been saving all your questions up, huh?" He asked me, laughing softly again, his smile showing the deep dimples in his cheeks. "No, you aren't hallucinating. You really did change shapes. The process of shifting most likely pushed the venom from your body and at the same time healed the worst of the damage that it had done."

"You've lost your mind and I'm hallucinating, or better yet, it's all just a nightmare and I'll wake up and it will be Friday morning."

"Do your dreams ever hurt like the snake bite did? Mine don't. You're not hallucinating or having a nightmare, Nickie."

"But it can't be true - I must be going crazy..."

"Nope, not crazy, just Kitsune," He told me, interrupting my ranting.

"Kitsune?" I repeated. I'd never heard the word before.

"Yep, Kitsune, we're a species of shape shifters."

"There's an entire species of people who turn into dogs?"

"Actually, we're not dogs, we're wolves. But that's not exactly what the Kitsune are. There are several different animal forms that different Kitsune can shift into, though, generally it's limited to only one animal form per person. You're a wolf, I'm a wolf, and there's an entire pack of wolves in Gila Valley."

"An entire pack of wolves around here? Now you're the one who's dreaming. I've never seen a real wolf before, at least until I was one, and I’ve lived here all my life."

"Not real wolves, Nickie, Kitsune wolves, there's a difference. Though, you should know, the accepted phrase is natural wolves, not real, because we're just as real as they are."

"Okay, not real wolves,
natural
wolves. How can there be an entire pack in the valley and nobody knows about it?"

"Actually, there are a lot of people who know about it, the pack members, but very, very few outside the pack. Our secret is well kept."

"How did I become...Kitsune? Is that what you call it? I've never been bitten by a wolf, and I'm sure it's not something I would forget."

Brandon rolled his eyes, "There's only one way to be Kitsune, you're born one. Kitsune can only be born, there is no other way to become one of us. The biting thing is pure myth, Hollywood and fantasy novels."

"News flash, Brandon, so are werewolves." I couldn’t help but point out.

"Point." He conceded, "You're going to find that some movies and fantasy novels aren't as make-believe as you thought. I know it's hard to believe but I'm not lying to you. I wouldn't do that to you and you know it." He said calmly, and I shifted in my seat, feeling guilty that I had suspected him of doing just that.

"You're sure? I mean about the whole wolf thing." I asked, looking out the passenger window to avoid looking at him.

"Absolutely certain. Look, do you mind if we head back into town while we talk? While you were shifting back to human I called the Anikitos, our pack leader, and he's expecting us. I'd prefer not to be late and risk angering him."

"Do I have to?" I asked, apprehensive at the thought of meeting the leader of the local wolf pack. I tried to think of everything I had ever read about werewolf packs and their leaders and nothing I was coming up with was reassuring. 

"Don't worry, you'll be fine. Plus he'll have a lot answers for you that I don't. I may have been raised as one of us, but I'm still pretty young, and honestly, not all that high in the pack. There's a lot that I just don't know."

"Okay, but you have to promise not to leave me alone. I don't want you to just drop me off at some stranger’s house and leave me. I'm uncomfortable enough with everything that's happening to me as it is, without being told what to believe by some stranger."

"I'll promise you that I won't leave you alone with the Anikitos unless you want me to, all right? You may decide after meeting him that you don't want me around."

"I can't see why I would do that, but if you say so I'll take your word for it. You've done nothing but help me this afternoon and I thank you for it." I said. Brandon started the car and pulled out on to the highway that headed back toward town.

Born and raised in Arizona, Melissa has spent her entire life living across the southern half of the state. She's found that, along with her husband and three children, she prefers the small towns and rural life to feeling packed into a city. 

She started reading at a very young age, and her love for series started early, as the first real books she remembers reading is the Boxcar Children series by Gertrude Chandler Warner. Through the years she's found that there's little she won't read, and her tastes vary from westerns, to romance, to sci-fi / fantasy and Horror.

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