Chapter 23: Rain

Once Alfie returned to the cave, I jumped up to give him a tight squeeze. Feeling his body against mine was so satisfying. As I was holding Alfie, I could see Doc standing up to go back out to his spot outside the cave. I could sense that it was going to rain soon, and I was concerned that Doc would get sick outside in the rain. I loosened up my grip on Alfie, I looked around his shoulder to see Doc with his head down, looking at the ground. "Doc, wait." He turned around with a glimmer in his eye. "Why don't you just stay in the safe room until the rain stops. I can sense a storm coming, and I am not going to let you sleep outside in the rain."

Doc glanced at Alfie, and back at me. Alfie turned his head down to look at me as well. I met Alfie's gaze and he thought, 'Alyssa, you know that females shouldn't let a male in their shelter unless she plans on mating with him.'

'Alfie, he will be sleeping all the way in the safe room, it's not like we are sharing a bed.'

'Okay, fine, if that is what you want, then that is what we will do.' His eyebrows curled upwards and his eyes had a look of complete disappointment.

I looked over at Doc once again to fill him in on me and Alfie's silent conversation in our heads. "Doc, you can sleep in the safe room until the storm passes. I won't be able to forgive myself if I let you sleep outside in the rain." Doc's mood instantly raised, and he visibly looked as if he had gotten what he had always wanted.

Doc came over to me and Alfie and said, "Thank you so much for letting me stay with you. One day, I will show you that you made the right choice in allowing me into your lives." and with that, he started walking down the dark hallway towards the safe room.

When Doc is out of our vision, I look back over at Alfie, who is still holding me, and find that he has been staring at me this entire time. "What? Are you mad at me? It's only until the storm passes, then he will be moving back outside or back to his own cave."

"Alyssa, you do realize that this is the spring storm, right? It will last until summer starts in twelve weeks."

"Wait, what? It's going to storm for twelve weeks straight?"

"Yes, you didn't have a spring storm in your world?"

"No… well not really. We had a bunch of rain and other storms in spring, but they didn't last all the way until summer started."

"Well, here we have one long storm. So, Doc is going to be staying with us for a while if you let him here until the storm is over."

"Alfie, you know he won't go back to his cave, and you know he will be sitting outside the cave – in the rain, might I add – the entire time the storm happening. I am not letting him stay outside like a wild animal."

"Then why don't you just get it over with and MATE WITH HIM, ALREADY!" he yelled those last few words, and his voice sent vibrations throughout my body that made me want to curl up into a ball. I couldn't let him have any satisfaction of winning, though so I stood tall and kept a straight face as if he hadn't just broken a piece of my heart off.

"Alfie, you know I won't do that." I said calmly, but with a tinge of hurt laced throughout my words. My heart was telling me that I should, but my mind was telling me I can't. I was having an internal battle that was plunging a disconnect between my heart and feelings, and my mind and reason. "I already told you that I would only mate with you, I won't break my promise to you." The hurt grew in my voice and my heart felt like it wanted to explode out of my chest. I could feel my eyes wanted to swell full of telling tears, but I hold them back as I bit down on my inner cheek, hard. I couldn't let those emotions show through this wall that I was slowly putting up around myself when I was around Alfie. I knew he loved me, and I knew I loved him, but the disconnect I was feeling from him was growing. He had fought to protect me and our family that we were slowly building, but he wasn't there for me through it – Doc was the one that was.

His eyes started to gloss over with understanding and hurt at the same time. He wanted to take back what he had said, but it had already done damage that couldn't be mended easily. He looked as if he was about to say something when Doc came to the edge of the large room in a protective stance. He looked as if he was ready to pounce in his best friend for raising his voice to me. Alfie and I both looked towards Doc in unison, and back at each other. "Alyssa, I didn't mean to raise my voice towards you, I was just…"

"But you did." Doc said coldly as he strutted towards the two of us. Doc's eyes started to slightly glow red dimly as he stared at Alfie with discontentment and possessiveness towards me. It almost seemed as if he didn't care if Alfie was my true mate and intended on punishing him for the way he spoke to me moments before.

"Doc, this doesn't involve you. Leave." When he said 'leave', he had used his alpha tone, which would normally make other true forms buckle into submissiveness and doing exactly what was asked of them, but Doc just stood his ground, unfazed.

"It involves me when you are speaking about me in the tone you are, especially when you're using that tone towards Alyssa." Doc was entirely matter-of-fact about everything when he spoke, and this was no different. He would not give up on trying to seduce me – or more accurately, make me his mate for life. Doc wasn't my true mate, but something about him and the way he looked at me, made me want to have a second mate – him.

"It is none of your business how I speak to MY mate. IF she ever mates with you, THEN it will become your business, but until then, you need to know your place."

"Alfie, stop. Doc is right, the way you spoke to me was not acceptable. And, as long as Doc is part of this pack, it IS his concern how his alpha pair is treating each other." Alfie looked at me with his eyes filled to the brim with hurt and betrayal. The way he looked at me almost made me want to cry along with him, almost.

Alfie started to get closer to me, and I could feel his alpha energy being released from him. His eyes started to glow as he took his slow, yet demanding steps in my direction. I stepped backwards, away from my true mate, yet he didn't seem like the Alfie I loved at all. He seemed like a wild animal, not a person. He seemed like he would hurt me in this moment with all of the anger seething off of him. He quickly reached his hand out and snatched my forearm, hard. I heard Doc growl as Alfie said, "YOU are MY true mate. I am your alpha. You will NOT back away from me. You will also not talk back to me. I will not tolerate you disrespecting me in front of HIM." He snapped his head to a threatening Doc who is ready to launch at him at any moment.

"Alfie, I will leave you in an instant if you continue to act like this. My children will not be subjected to this behavior from you."

"You really think you will take that little female out of this cave before I slash that kissable little throat of yours?"

His words made my eyes nearly slip out of their sockets and onto the ground. This was not Alfie. His eyes told me that he was serious, and I wasn't about to betray him any longer and risk being killed before figuring out what the fuck happened to him that made him act this way. "Alfie, you know I would never leave YOU." I put emphasis on the 'you' since I knew he was still in there somewhere. I was hoping he would come back out soon so we could figure out what was going on with him.

"Hey, alpha, why don't we all sit down by the fire and talk this out?" Doc said as he held his hand on Alfie's back and closed his eyes. I knew that he was searching for SOMETHING that was wrong with him and making him act like this. It seemed as though he quickly found something that would be causing this behavior and in moments, he opened his eyes again and removed his hand.

"Yes, mate, let's sit by the fire. I wouldn't want you being close to the exit." Alfie said with a threatening smile. He grabbed my arm once again, just as hard, and dragged me towards the fire and down onto the bed roughly. Doc sat on the other side of the fire, but close enough to be able to intervene if he needed to.

After a few moments of silence, Alfie looked at me with forceful eyes and pulled me to lie down on the bed, with my back to his chest – the complete opposite way we normally sleep at night. I could feel him get comfortable to fall asleep, but I was not about to close my eyes around this beast. I kept my eyes fixed on either the fire, or Doc in front of me while laying in silence. I had hoped Doc wouldn't even attempt to sleep either, I did not want to be alone with whatever had taken control of Alfie's body. I flinched when I heard Alfie think, 'Alyssa, don't think or respond. It's the intruder blood inside me from the fight with the alpha. The blood is taking control of my body and I can't get out to stop it. I love you, please don't leave me. Help me. Doc will know what to do. Give him a signal to do it.'

I couldn't even think before I flashed my diamond white glow from my eyes at Doc. He had instantly gotten the hint and went towards the fire. He grabbed a large burning piece of wood bare handed and walked slowly and quietly over towards Alfie. He got behind him after a few moments when I heard a loud plunging noise as Alfie crushed me in his grip. I couldn't break free as Alfie's claws dug deeper into my flesh. I wasn't sure what was happening behind me, but I didn't care as long as Alfie was being helped. His grip started to constrict even more as I could hear my bones crack. I tried shifting into a small animal to slip away from him, but the hold he had on me wasn't allowing me to turn at all. I could feel my eyes start to burn as I tried to scream, but my body was too crushed to even make a noise at all. Another plunging noise came and the grip around me tightened again.

I could feel my entire body give out to these arms around me. My body was about to shut down when the arms finally were ripped from my body. I hunched over and gasped for air before falling flat to the ground. I could smell familiar, yet long forgotten smells around me and I knew that I wasn't in my cave anymore. I tried to open my eyes when I saw freshly cut grass and a tree that I recognized. I could hear my bones crack back into place and reset themselves as I rose from the ground until I was sitting on my left hip with my hands both holding up my weight. I whipped my head behind me and saw a closing hole that indicated that Royce had used his element to help me. I couldn't get up in time to reach the hole as I watched it close in front of me.

Fuck.

I turned back around and saw the house that I was in before I found myself in that crazy world full of shapeshifting beasts. I started to walk towards the deck when I heard a familiar whine and howl. GOBI!

My fur baby Gobi came running towards me as he jumped into my arms, licking, and nipping at my entire face, not missing one spot. This 90-pound brindle mountain cur was attacking me with love as I heard my name be screamed and my mom joined him in attacking me. Tears streamed down both of our faces as the three of us embraced each other. "Mom, I missed you so much." I opened my eyes to see her yellowing skin and sunken in cheeks. I knew she was sick again, most likely from the stress of losing me and Royce. "You're sick?"

She rubbed her eyes as her green pupils were surrounded by redness. "I'm okay now that you are here. Where's Royce? Where have you been? What happened? Are you okay? Where did you get this new tattoo?" She checked my entire body for injuries as I allowed her to do so.

"Mom, it's a long story… is Matty here? I would like to explain it to both of you, so I don't have to repeat myself."

"He's just getting gas for the lawnmower. He should be back at any moment. Is everything okay? What's wrong?"

As if on cue, Matty, my step-dad pulled in and instantly parked his truck as he ran over to me. He pulled me into a hug, which was the first I had ever gotten from him since he didn't show ANY emotions. "We all need to talk, but first, give me a moment to see if I can reach someone." I closed my eyes and focused on Alfie as hard as I could. I thought, 'Alfie, can you hear me?'

I waited for a response for mere milliseconds before I heard, 'Alyssa! Where are you? What happened? Are you okay?'

'Tell Royce to do that again and jump through it, all of you. You need to meet someone.' Without hesitation I see another black hole form and three bodies pop through, Alfie holding Pauline, Royce, and even Doc. They walked over as my mom and Matty started to back away slowly. "Mom, Matty, it's okay. Trust me, you are going to love this." Both of them visibly calmed as Gobi ran to Royce and tackled the now four-foot, 11-inch boy. He did the same greeting as he did with me, as Alfie and Doc walked over with Pauline. My mom looked curiously at the men, still anxious about their presence. "Mom, meet Alfie, my husband." I put our relationship in layman's terms so she would understand. "And that cute little girl…" who was already walking and saying a few words, "is your granddaughter Pauline Kristie." I had decided that her middle name would be Kristie – my mother's name -- when she was born, but I knew that world didn't have middle names, and wouldn't understand the reason for one.

"My granddaughter?" my mom said with a confused tone, "You have only been gone a few weeks, how do I already have a granddaughter?" she looked skeptical of what I was saying, but she wanted to believe my every word. She had always wanted a granddaughter but was blessed with two grandsons in one year.

"I will explain in the house." I said as I held my hand out for her to grab it. Gobi was finally off of Royce, and was in between the two of us, not letting either of us out of his sight or he might have lost us again.

When we got into the house, Alfie and Doc gasped at the building. The only one's they had seen were the shacks that were at the City of Forms. We all found a seat in the living room as my mom couldn't keep her eyes from staring at the beautiful little girl now pulling at Gobi's docked tail nub as he licked her face. "Is that Royce?" she said as she finally pealed her gaze from Pauline and to Royce, who was sitting next to me.

"Yes, it is. Royce, do you remember Mimi, Papa, and Brother?" Mimi was what we called my mom since she felt as if she was too young to be called 'Grandma' yet in her early forties. Papa was, obviously Matty. Brother was what we called Gobi. I treated Gobi like my own child, and Royce and Gobi were like brothers from the moment Royce was conceived. Gobi knew before I did that I was pregnant, and he wouldn't leave my side until that cute little boy was born. Then, he was glued to Royce's side.

"Of course, Mama." He got up and gave Mimi and Papa a big hug and sat back down next to me.

"So, care to tell me what the fuck is going on here?" I missed that foul mouth she had. I shared the same one, thanks to her, and I wouldn't change it for the world.

"Mom… We're going to show you something, but you cannot freak out. You need to stay calm and have an open mind. You too, Matty. Promise?" I said as I looked in each of their eyes for confirmation. They both nodded in unison and waited to see what the fuck I was going on about. I looked at Royce, Alfie, and Doc and said, "Let's show them." Together, we all stood up and started to take our clothes off. My mom was about to say something as she averted her eyes, as well as Matty did, but I put my hand up and said "Wait, trust me." She nodded her head, still looking at the ground. When we were all naked, I said "You both need to see this. Look up at us." They both looked up, making sure to look me in the eyes and not to let them wander elsewhere or they would be scarred.

With a nod of my head, all four of us transformed into our true forms. My mom and Matty both nearly flew backwards in their chairs in surprise. My mom calmed quickly while staring into my eyes. "Amazing." Is all she managed to squeak out. Gobi was unfazed by our transformations; he may have even liked them better. My mom's eyes glanced over each of our true forms. She studied mine first, then Royce's pure black lion – which was nearly mature and started a faint mane. Next, she went to Alfie's large black wolf. Finally, she set her eyes on Doc's snowy white fox. We were all gigantic in size compared to the normal animals in my home world. Alfie's wolf being the largest at around seven feet tall. Doc's Fox was about six feet tall; my blue phoenix was around four feet tall, but my wingspan was triple that. Royce's lion was just slightly under Doc's fox. I looked at Royce and nodded to him. He knew exactly what I had meant by that nod. Together, we turned into another animal. I turned into a beautiful white tiger, and he, a black bear.

My mom's expression was even more surprised, and even impressed. I turned back to a human, and soon after the others followed suit. We quickly dressed and sat down, waiting for the questions. "So…" was all that left Matty's mouth before he was speechless once again.

"We have what's called a 'true form'. A true form is a form we turn into that suits our personalities, fighting style, strength, and knowledge. Most people from where Alfie and Doc come from are born with one. Royce and I on the other hand, were given one through a bite. We are what's called a 'shifter'. They are extremely rare in their land. A shifter can shift between different animals, where a regular true form only has their one animal form." I described everything that had happened since Royce and I disappeared, from meeting Alfie, to becoming shifters, to the City of Forms, to Doc, Royce, and I's various powers. I didn't leave one detail out. My mom and Matty were sitting there, listening to my every word while sitting on the edge of their seat.

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Once I finally finished my explanation, I said, "Mom, Matty, I want you to come back with us." My mom looked surprised, but I could tell she didn't even need to think about her answer one bit. She had made up her mind.