BODIE POV

I know what I saw. Wes definitely turned into a gigantic werewolf and I got knocked out. I never told anyone what I saw, that would be a one way ticket to the nearest psych ward. But I was put on medical discharge directly after. Is it possible that they knew?

I have this wolf inside me now and I needed something to be concrete, I needed to be sure that things really were as different as I had felt since that day.

'We should go outside. This room doesn't have enough space for us to shift comfortably.'

I moved to my duffel to get a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. 'We can't shift with those on, we'll just rip them.' I contemplated a moment, but decided to still pull them on. 'I could still be arrested for public indecency.'

'We. I won't let anything happen to you.'

'What happened to your last human.' I remembered him saying something about his last human. Did they go to another human when they died? No, he just said that they were born like this. But the Goddess decided to bless me.

'He used the mate bond to gain more power against other packs.' I walked through the door and made the few steps to the tree line.

'The mate bond? Is that some sort of animal thing?'

'Yes. In a way. The Moon Goddess blesses all her children with a mate. Your other half, someone to share the burden of running or being apart of a pack. She chooses our mates based off a variety of different reasons and things, all of which, we can only speculate about. What we know is that we are supposed to get someone who would love us unconditionally.' I had a feeling he was stretching, I felt his excitement coursing through me, unsure how I'm able to differentiate his feelings from my own. I stopped just inside the tree line.

'So if they were supposed to love each other unconditionally, how did he end up using her?'

'We should go in further, get away from any human eyes that could possibly see us.' When I started walking, he spoke again. 'The mate bond is a bit unexplainable, it pulls the people together and everything becomes entwined. You can feel the emotion of the other, to the point where you can't bear to see them in pain. At least, you shouldn't be able to. Touching someone sexually, other than your mate, burns.' He went quiet for a moment too long. I thought I really had imagined the whole thing and wandered out into the woods on my own.

'She was human. As a rule we don't associate too much with the humans, there's risk of them finding out what we are and then…'

'Labs.' I stated bluntly.

'Exactly. But she was beautiful, kind and she accepted everything with readiness. That made a lot of pack members suspicious that maybe she could have been a hunter sent to us. She wasn't, I knew she wasn't. We had done extensive background checks on her and nothing came of them, but besides that, I knew.'

'Because of the mate bond.'

'Because she wasn't the type to do something like that, she would have never endured what she did for so long if she were.'

'What did he do?' I was getting angry now. I had seen too many horrendous things happen to women in my life that the mere thought of someone mistreating one could send me into a rage.

'She was so in love with him, willing to forgive him anything. He started cheating on her, he thought the mate bond wouldn't effect her because she was human, but she was in pain, and he just ignored it. He ignored her and focused on his own power, hiring rogues to kidnap unmated females from other packs and have them mate his inner circle - '

'Why would he do that?'

'The mate bond also makes a wolf stronger. He wanted his closest men to be as strong as they could so he could take over the surrounding packs.'

'Did that work?' I came to a stop where the trees began to space out a bit more.

'No, it didn't. The moon goddess separated me from him after the war took most of our people and some of theirs. Remove your clothes.' I guess he was done talking about it. But I could understand the situation a lot better now, and only a goddess - or someone who facilitated it - could have made this happen. I had nothing better to do now, so I have lots of time to find out why. I pulled down my shorts just as I started to feel a burning sensation at the base of my spine.

'What's going on?' I kicked my shorts toward the rest of my clothes.

'I'm starting the shift. You'll have to learn everything as we go. Most pups get all the information they need as they're growing up. We're starting in the middle with you.'

I felt my shoulder crack and a wave of heat passed through my body, all of my bones rearranged themselves at once and my breathe kicked out in wheezes as I fell to my hands and knees.

'Don't be afraid, I won't let anything happen to you. Just let to wash over you, it'll be over soon.'

I did what he said and the pain seemed to go on forever. But I have felt pain before, I can endure this for a moment longer. My teeth elongated and the pants started to end in growls. Soon, I was standing on four legs. When I looked up, the tree in the distance looked much closer than it did before. I could see all the weeds surrounding it and the setting sun reflecting off the grass.

I wasn't fully in control though, the wolf took a a few steps forward and started a jog. I felt like I was trapped in his body.

'Do werewolves have names?' He was sniffing the ground around us.

'Caine.'

'Yes?'

'My name is Caine.'

'Do wolves take the names of their humans?'

'My last human was Korbin, I was still named Caine.'

'My name is Caine too. Caine Bodeen. I got Bodie from Special Forces, It stuck.'

'You can be Bodie then, and I can be Caine. Cool coincidence that we are both named Caine though. You wanna run?' He pushed back and I took his place at the forefront. I moved around on my feet, feeling awkward on for legs but powerful. I stood with my chest out like some majestic creature and let the wind caress my fur.

'I really am a fucking werewolf.'

'Ok. Super-Man, let's run.'

'Did you just roll your eyes at me? And how do I know that? It's not like I can see you.'

'Magic?' He shrugged. I took a few tentative steps forward to make sure I wouldn't fall and took off like a shot. I didn't have time to think about anything, I could only react and dodge the trees in front of me. I was still in control of the body though. And it was strong, at least ten times stronger than my own body - and after some heavy meddling from the U.S. army - that was pretty damn strong.

I had no idea how long I had been running for and at full power, I started to lag, but Caine pushed forward again and I was renewed with stamina.

'We are about to come up to the edge of a packs territory. We cannot cross, they would have just cause to kill us.' I stopped suddenly.

'We follow the laws of nature…' I said in awe and let that sink in. I was a part of an animal, he was apart of me. Less than six hours ago, I was concerned about what I would do with my life. This was the last thing I expected, but it was what I was meant for. There had to be a reason why I was chosen for that mission, why I was the last to see Wes alive, and why I was discharged after. I planned to get answers and this pack I was supposed to lead might be inclined to help.

'How long back to the Pack lands?' Caine had been quietly sitting in the back of my mind, waiting for me to make the next move. I started the jog back toward the motel.

'It took me all day to run to you, around forty miles.'

'You ran non stop?'

'I wanted to reach you quickly, I didn't know where you might go or how far away from the pack finding you would take me.'

'So how DID you find me?'

'It was a compulsion, or something. The moon goddess connected us, I needed to complete that connection. It led me to you.'

I made it back to where I had left my clothes and just stood, waiting for instructions on what to do next.

'You just have to imagine yourself as a human. Your body will do the rest.' I did as he said and felt the burn at the base of my spine, my bones rearranged themselves, the pain was still as bad but it didn't last nearly as long.

I was on my hands and knees as I had started and when I stood, I felt the power of Caine rushing through me. A certain restlessness that I had only felt just before going into a precarious situation. There was no fear - odd - since I had no idea what was coming.

After I had gotten my clothes on, I made my way toward the room.

'We should stay here and sleep tonight. You can tell me more about the pack and we'll make our way there in the morning.' I said to him as I walked through the door for the second time today, with renewed energy. Surely, it was the wolf, but he needed to rest. Especially if he was just in a war and ran all day to get to me. Not before he tells me what I might be walking into.

'There's not much left of the pack.' A wave of sadness wash over him for the loss of his pack mates. 'There's 37 pack members left. 17 are children. The rest are dead. Most of the houses are completely ruined. The pack houses fire was still dying when the Moon Goddess told me to run.'

A whimper fell out of my mouth at the thought of so much damage because of the decision of a few people. 'How many pack members were there?'

'Almost three hundred. We weren't the biggest pack, by far, but we were close. Everyone trusted where he would lead. And he ruined that. We're going to need to assign new ranks, rebuild all the houses, find homes for the children…' Caine went completely silent then, shutting me out and drowning in his own sorrow.