Ch. 28：A Snow Wolf

“What’s wrong with her?” I opened my eyes slowly to see Killian and an elderly man standing over me.
“I am not quite sure but I have a guess.” An old man clad in cream robes said, adjusting his glasses as he peered down at me. “Ah.” He realized I’d woken up so he stepped back. “You are awake.” Killian looked at my open eyes. I saw a look of relief flash across his face but it may have been my imagination because his expression remained blank and his aura frigid.
With his hands crossed on his chest, he spoke to me in a blank tone. “How are you feeling?” He asked.
“Hot,” I whispered through dry lips and a tight throat.
“You haven’t shifted, have you?” The old man asked, peering closely at me.
My heart lurched in panic and I turned to Killian. So far, no one had picked up on the fact that I hadn’t shifted. I didn’t know if I was allowed to tell this stranger the truth.
“She is yet to shift,” Killian answered on my behalf. “Is that a problem?” He asked without sparing me a glance despite feeling my questioning gaze burning into the side of his face.
“It seems so,” the old man responded with a nod. “These are typical signs of a first shift.”
“R- Really?” My heart leapt as I asked but Killian spoke over me.
“Signs of a first shift?” He muttered, assessing me with a dubious gaze. “I never heard of anyone experiencing anything like that.” Harold chuckled at those words.
“A man who shifted at eleven would not know of such a thing. These symptoms are typical for omegas.”
Although the words excited me, however, the fever inside me and the excruciating pain ripping my insides apart dampened my excitement. My first shift had been delayed for unknown reasons and now that I would be shifting soon, according to the physician, I felt awful.
A fire started deep in my guts and spread to my chest and throat. My body felt run over by a horse but my head felt even worse. My head pounded with my nose feeling like a pile of rocks sitting on my face.
“You are an omega,” Killian said with his eyes on me but I felt the words were just him thinking out loud. Yet, I did not miss the disappointment that pursed his lips.
I knew I was an omega. When at fifteen, I failed to shift, the members of Red Lake bullied me the more. The Luna told me they should never have kept me in the pack after my ‘tramp’ of a mother disappeared.
Did he regret it now? Did Killian regret taking me as his fake mate now that he knew I was an omega? From the minute we entered his room after he kissed me in public and lied I was his mate, I knew he regretted that decision and that the only reason he didn’t throw me out was because he wanted to save his face.
Mary’s words from the other day replayed in my head. He may be keeping his options open by using me and I knew without a doubt that when he found someone else, he would get rid of me. He said he wanted a woman who wouldn’t threaten his absolute power as the Alpha King but now he must regret choosing the most powerless wolf.
“The Luna is not sick. This is a natural occurrence for omegas and in two to three days, she should have shifted.” The man gave me a fatherly smile.
“Thank you, Harold,” Killian mumbled. “ You may leave.”
Harold bowed low, his hunched back hunching more as he greeted the king before leaving the room.
Killian removed his coat as soon as the door closed behind Harold and then he pulled a seat to the head of the bed. His eyes burnt into my face as he took a seat and I turned my head the other way, faking a yawn.
“Are you an omega?” He asked.
Why did he ask such an obvious question?
“Yes,” I answered and at the same time he spoke.
“You do not smell like a wolf.” My eyes snapped to his but I looked away in time.
This was the second time he accused me of not being a wolf. His words had plagued me then but I decided they were spoken out of spite but now – I had not shifted but I was a wolf. I had to be a wolf.
“What do you –“ I stuttered before shaking my heavy head. “What do I smell like, t – then?” I asked.
“I wonder.” He brought his head forward and took a whiff of my neck, making me freeze. “It is there, but very faint,” he mused to himself. “The scent of a wolf shifter,” he added. “Too faint, almost like –“ He trailed off, his mind working.
He wasn’t joking. Lips moving, he muttered something I couldn’t hear under his breath, then his brows creased, and he tilted his head to the side.
“Were your parents wolves?” He asked and I nodded without pause.
We knew little about each other, very little. I had to guard my secrets against this man so I didn’t bother telling him I never met my parents. He didn’t ask about my past and I never volunteered to tell him.
“Yet, you have a weird scent.” Before I could ask him what the weird scent was, he sighed and pushed out of his seat. “I have work to do. I will send someone to stay with you.” He left the room without turning back.
I let out a deep sigh of relief after he left. In Killian’s presence, I always found myself holding my breath. The Alpha King’s power was absolute, such that he could raze a pack to the ground without anyone questioning his reason. The effect of such absolute power was a suffocating aura.
He said he would send someone but he must have forgotten because I was awake for a long time after he left but no one came. With time, my eyes started to close. I fought sleep, terrified of what I would dream of this time but the harder I fought, the faster fatigued subdued me until I fell into a deep sleep.
The sound of a strange voice in my head woke me up.
‘Go to the woods.’ The voice was exactly like my inner voice but different – calmer, more powerful. ‘I want to see the moon. Go to the wood.’ I recognised the voice of my wolf as my heavy body struggled to comply with her request.
As soon as my heavy legs stumbled into the palace’s woods, my legs gave out and the change started from there. Forced to my hands and knees, hair sprouted all over my skin and my bones broke, the sound of them cracking filled my ears.
Heat spread through me faster than I could register, charring my insides. My mouth opened on a scream but an animalistic sound flowed out. I gasped but it sounded like the whimper of a wounded animal.
My eyes rolled back in their sockets and for a minute, darkness swallowed the world around me. I opened my mouth on another gasp but a whine came out. Body trembling all over, the worst of the excruciating pain hit.
My head seemed to split open.
Getting kicked in the head by a horse would be mild compared to what I felt then. My ears felt stretched out and my gums ached. My nose became impossible for my brain to ignore as it stretched. All these happened in a minute but it was the longest minute of my life.
It ended with the same abruptness with which it started.
I took in a deep breath, my nose picking up the tantalizing scent of the earth, my skin soaking up the gleam of the moon and my eye appreciating the clarity of the night around me. My head raised to the moon, I opened my mouth and howled to the goddess.
“A snow wolf,” a nasty voice interrupted my howl. “You continue to surprise me, Carrot.” I turned to see Noah approaching.