The Defiant Luna
Chapter 34

Jay-la

Her walk with Austin was more than annoying for her, it was cold out and she didn’t like the trudging through the snow. She answered all his questions and stared his Gamma down on more than one occasion, didn’t like it when he was trying to read her. She liked to keep her feelings to herself.

They got snarled at by Kora on more than one occasion. Every time Austin brought up something that insulted Nathan or Havoc, Kora took offense to it and let him know it. Kora pushed forward on several occasions just to glare at him. Rolled her aura at him more than once.

His head tilt at her but he didn’t seem overly concerned about her wolf’s attitude towards his line of questioning, though he did tell Kora to calm down and let Jay-lay answer questions on her own. He was there to make sure she was happy, not Kora herself. Kora didn’t much like that either, snarled right at him all aggression, letting her displeasure be known, before receding away to prowl around inside Jay-la’s mind.

She just shrugged at him, at her wolf’s response to him, and Alpha Austin had shaken his head. He’d asked her many questions about her previous life in the city, how she’d come to be there, how she felt about now being here inside the pack. If she was afraid to be here, if she wanted to be here. Did she want to go back to the city? With each question his Gamma stared right at her, she wasn’t going to get past him and his stupid sensing of her out.

So, she’d told him the truth of the matter, she hadn’t wanted to come here, hadn’t known Nathan was her mate, did not like being tricked into coming here by Abbey, that she and Abbey were going to have it out when that pup of hers was born, that she also hadn’t been happy with her parents for that matter, in their part of her coming her.

That Kora and Havoc had mated to each other without much thought to how she felt about it. Hadn’t gotten a say in it, and that yes she did have doubts about Nathan and how he felt about her, or if it was just his wolf wanting his Mate. Him just wanting his children and not her.

There was no point in lying to the man, not with his Gamma right there, though that man didn’t say much at all, barely a word. She knew he was all Gamma the whole time.

She also knew that he was not trying to contain her feelings or

“Well, what do you expect, when she has less than a week to adjust?

Not enough time Michael.” She told him and it was the truth, she let herself into the room.

Rae-Rae looked up at her and then just got up and hugged her. “It’s going to hurt so much.” She whispered.

“Yes it is. won’t lie to you. But you’ll get used to it, with time, and then you won’t even really feel it.”

“It looked like it hurt.” Rae-Rae looked up at her.

“The first time will be the hardest, then your body will know what to do.

“You’re going to be there right?”

“Yes, of course I am. I’ll be right next to you.” Jay-la reassured her, got her to sit back down.

“I would like you to answer me something though.

Saw her nod her head. “Okay.”

“Are you scared about the pain or is there something else, scaring you, like say.your mind feels heavy and fuzzy, weird thoughts or perhaps you feel like your talking to yourself.”

“Is that normal?”

“It can be, do you feel like your talking to yourself a lot? Inner dialog, so to speak.”

“Yes.” She half whispered “I think I’m going crazy”

“No you’re not. It is likely your wolf is emerging. She’s probably trying to talk to you.”

“Its not clear all jumbled up inside my mind.”

“Okay, I want you to close your eyes.” Jay-la told her and indicated for Stephen to come over and put his hands on Rae-Rae’s shoulders. “Now just breathe and let yourself relax. Calm yourself down and just breathe for me, nice deep slow breaths.” Waited for her to feel relaxed.

It helped that Stephen was working on her with his Charm. Both his hands on her and his thumbs on her bare skin. Saw him nod to indicate she was relaxed “now I want you to focus on that inner voice, listen to it” gave it a few more minutes “Rae-Rae ask her what her name is?”

There was silence for several minutes and then she watched as Rae-Rae’s eyes snapped open “Pearl, her name is pearl.” She gasped Then watched as her hand reached up and clutched at the single light pink natural 16mm Edison pearl that sat in a rose gold tear drop pendant with a few diamonds around the edges, something that she always wore. Had been a gift to her from Grandpa Hill on her fifth birthday.

It was a Hill family tradition that went back generations, Lauren had one much the same but no longer wore hers all the time, Rae-Rae never took it off.

Jay-la smiled at her. It was fitting that her wolf would be called Pearl.” Talk to her, get to know her, before the moon sets.” Jay-la encouraged her. “T’ll stay with you.” she looked up at Stephen.

He smiled, mind-linked to her ‘She’s happy and excited.’ Jay-la nodded ‘Family connection to pearls, you can probably go, I’ll stay with her.’

‘Alright.’ He let go of Rae-Rae ‘I got a plan Jay-la, to get Nathan out of pack territory. He smiled right at her.

Good, how’s Suzy doing?’

‘Sad but alright, they can’t go back to their house, I’ve put them up in a suite in a local hotel, took some convincing, but I managed to sway her.

Mostly though it was her mother that was against it.’

‘Feicely independent. Jay-la nodded back at him. We’ll talk later

Yes.’

yes.’

She spent the rest of the afternoon with Rae-Rae. The triplets were brought up to her, they were excited to hear Rae-Rae was going to be like them, to get her wolf this very night. It was good to see her excited and not afraid to settle down and watch her actually talk to her wolf at times. Though Rae-Rae said it was difficult to do so, she was not always there.

To be expected until her first shift, the triplets were disappointed that they weren’t going to get to see her shift and meet her wolf pearl. They had asked and both she and Nathan had said “No.” at the exact same time. A first shift from human to wolf could be painful and traumatic to watch. She was not going to let them see that asked her parents to watch them. They were happy to do so.

Her parents lived on the other side of the pack’s town so that triplets would be well away from Rae-Rae and any pain that she might issue out vocally during her shift.

They walked into the woods behind the pack-house and hour before the moon was due to set, there was a clearing a little way away into the woods that the pack used for a wolf’s first shift. Out here were usually those that were due to shift their family’s and the Alpha and Luna.

Tonight there would be just Rae-Rae out here. The other three teens that were due to shift for the first time tonight as well, were with their family’s and Alpha Blaine and Luna Darla, down off by the woods near the training ground. They didn’t want Rae-Rae to be interrupted or upset if her shift took longer than others around her. Which it was likely to be.

Rae-Rae was all rugged up, out here in the woods with snow falling gently and swirling about the area. She was going to have to strip off naked at some point. Not fun for her out here in the freezing cold.

Michael had set up a full privacy screen, and there were several chairs lined up on the far side for everyone there to sit on. To wait it out, no one knew if this was going to be quick or agonisingly slow and very painful.

Only Jay-la and Michael would be with her behind the screen, Nathan, his unit and Alpha Austin would all be sitting around waiting on the outcome. He’d be mind-linked about the other three teens when they shifted. They were all wolves and their first shifts were likely to go as planned without any issues.

Michael had not only put up a privacy screen, he’d cleared the area of most of the snow and laid out a small fur rug on the ground for her to stand on keep her feet off the bare cold ground. There was even a fire burning away in a pit to help keep her warm.

She had to disrobe and Michael pulled a warm blanket around her and stood there holding onto her to help keep her warm while they waited it out. Seems he was going to be a good Mate after all, taking care of his human Mate as best he could out here in the middle of a snowy winter night.

He was talking to her quietly, trying to reassure her that everything was going to be okay. Told her he loved her and that he was never going to leave her, that they were going to be happy, he was going to do everything to make sure she was happy.

Jay-la felt the moon set, as did every other wolf inside the pack, saw Michael look right at her, could actually see fear in him. He’d not likely ever seen this before, neither had she, for that matter. But now that she was the Luna it was likely she would see it more often.

Heard that first c***k of Rae-Rae’s shift and a scream rip out of her as she felt the first of her bones break. Saw her look down at her hand as it began to deform, and then another bone break.

One after the other, a new scream of pain rip from her with every c***k of her bones until she was in so much pain she couldn’t even scream anymore, was just staggering about and falling down and trying to get up, “Try not to fight it, Rae-Rae.” Jay-la told her more than once. When she kept shaking her head, ‘no’.

Even Michael was trying to keep her calm and encourage her to acceptit, not that it seemed to be working at all. It was clear Rae-Rae didn’t want this to happen, was fighting it, which was only making it worse for her and likely her wolf.

20 minutes later, and finally there was a light brown and tan wolf standing before her, it looked up at her. Jay-la knelt down before her and smiled at her gently. “Hi Pearl.” Reached out and touched her face stroked her soft fur. “You did really good, girl.”

Watched as Pearl turned and looked at Michael, she already knew he was her Mate, and would be able to smell him now as a wolf, but it was his Marking of Rae-Rae, that gifted pearl to her human counterpart.

She watched as Michael stripped off and shifted into his wolf Robin, a fair-sized black wolf with a few white markings on his face.

She stepped back to let them get acquainted, smelled each other and touched their heads together, as of yet unable to talk to each other until Rae-Rae Mark him back and connected their beasts properly.

Jay-la watched as Nathan, his unit and Alpha Austin strolled around the privacy screen to look at the new wolf themselves, Pearl looked up at all of them, then bow her head in the direction of her new Alpha, Nathan inclined his head towards her in greeting as well. Jy-la walked over to Nathan and hugged him, mind-linked right to him ‘That was horrible.

She felt both his arms slide around her ‘Not pretty to watch I know.’ Her hugged her into his body Faster than a few I’ve seen before though.’

‘I don’t ever want to see that again.’ She murmured softly, and then looked up at him ‘Suzy?’

‘Iknow,’ he sighed down the mind-link to her ‘It does get easier with each shift. He reassured her four or five in and they won’t even worry about it anymore.”

‘Four or Five?’ she worried.

‘Yes.’ His hand was rubbing the small of her back, trying to comfort her,

“I don’t think Rae-Rae is going to be happy about that.’

‘Unfortunately, it is what it is.’

She did know that, moved her eyes to Stephen and wondered how he was going to handle seeing Suzy go through all of this, wondered if she was going to have to be standing right next to her when it was her turn.

Didn’t know if she really wanted that. It had been horrible watching Rae-Rae’s struggle.

Jay-la turned as she heard him tell both the wolves to go off and run, watched as both wolves moved off away into the woods, trotting off together. Robin was a good deal bigger than Pearl was, they would go off and Mate she imagined, it was “updated by jobnib.com”the full moon and when Rae-Rae was back to her human form she would be able to Mark Michael. If her wolf didn’t do it first, there was always the chance that Pearl would complete the process in wolf form.

Though Jay-la had a feeling that Michael was going to get a beating from Rae-Rae for all that pain she had to go through during this first shift. Had the wolfen strength to do it now as well, likely the man would stand there and take it. After the way, he had screwed up with her. He had better bloody stand there and take it or he would be on the receiving end of her beating him.

“How did the teens go?” she asked him as they walked back to the pack-house.

“Good, no issues. Three new wolves.” He smiled down at her “Two timber wolves and a grey wolf”

“That’s good.” She sighed

“They’re all out running with their family’s right now. As would be expected, they were all excited and jumped all over each other, they were all friends and hang out together at school. A good night for them.

“You might have to deal with humans shifting for the first time, I barely held it together out there.”

“You did fine, the first one to see is the hardest” heard him sigh, “even I wanted to force shift, the first one I saw. It took nearly 40 minutes and that man, he was in agony. Mum and Dad stopped me, told me it’s best to let it happen on its own, even if it takes hours. I didn’t much like it myself.”

“How many have you seen now?”

“About a dozen with human Mates here inside the pack, since I took over. All shifted so far, much better in the warmer months than out here in the freezing cold snow too.”

“I bet, but at least when Rae-Rae comes back she won’t so much feel it anymore.”

“That is true.” He smiled down at her.

“Michel’s punishment for this will be what exactly?”

“I think we should let Rae-Rae, decide on that. She is mated to him now. It will affect her. I think he deserves at least a lashing, but depending on their bond.” heard nim sigh “so partners can feel their Mate’s pain. I’d need to know that first. I wouldn’t want to cause Rae-Rae any more pain than she’s already been through this last week.”

Jay-la sighed “I guess that is fair. You and I can bring it up to her. I probably need to get that rule book out with our pack laws, and acceptable punishments to go along with it. There is one in there for this, right?”

“There is, I believe.” Nathan nodded. “A good idea. We’ll give it to Rae-Rae and see what she thinks is fair. It was her who he rushed and hurt.”