Finding Herself

!!SIX MONTHS LATER!!

Phoenix's POV:

It had been six months since I crawled out of my window.

At first, I just needed to run. I needed to think without feeling bad about Noah or the nonstop desire to fuck this mate of mine whom I knew nothing about.

I drowned Nat out the first day. I was tired of being left out of the loop. She had kept telling me she would explain things to me, and I knew that it likely wasn't her fault. It was one mess after another, but I still felt resentful. 

By day two, I let Nat take over, with my promise of coming back one day; she agreed to use her senses to take me somewhere safe.

Somewhere, I could be without the chaos.

Somewhere, I could try to better understand myself without all the noise and distraction.

By day three, I had decided to withdraw all the money I had left from my bank account, and we headed in the opposite direction.

I'm not sure if it was us running, time jumping, or a mixture of both, but before I knew it, we were colonies away from my home.

I could feel the pain of being so far away from Raph. He was my mate, after all, but I needed to do this. Before all of this, I had no idea there were "packs" full of people, erm, werewolves, just like me.

He would eventually understand, right?

After I read the letter, I couldn't help but wonder if my parents were somewhere out there in a pack of werewolves hiding from my scary existence.

We spent the next six months in the woods with no disturbances. I had spent most of my money on supplies to live on my own, and Nat and I were becoming more in tune with each other.

I had never known how it felt to be completely myself with her. I always had to hide this side of myself in fear of being found out, but not now. 

We ran several times a day. My agility, speed, and precision were at a peak. She taught me to use my senses to their highest ability while moving and navigating at high speeds.

Next, we worked on my time jumping. She explained that I was essentially moving through time. When I can focus on a place I could be, I can move into that potential space in time with the right focus.

My favorite part was learning that I could use all my powers in my human form. It wasn't as easy when Nat wasn't taking over, so that part took a hell of a lot more work.

Apparently, I can jump in time to places that I can't visually see in front of me, but we haven't worked on that yet. 

That weird ass fire thing I did with my hands soon came to fruition as well. She called this gift the internal flame, but I call it a warm bath in the river.

I could feel her eyes roll at that thought, which made me chuckle.

'What?! It was a nice change from the ice-cold river baths we were having!' I said with an internal shrug.

I could now control when it came and went, no longer fueled by rage but by my internal need for warmth at any level. I could start our fire with a flick of my wrist, warm up fractions of the river at my will, and bend and fix metals with my touch.

I must admit, I was starting to accept these gifts and feel more comfortable with myself for the first time.

Nat said my powers were endless, more than she had ever felt with any other soul. I wasn't sure what that meant, but I knew she was truthful when she said she didn't know either. 

Of course, it didn't make sense, but nothing really did in my life anyway. 

I knew we were close to having a full moon because my energy was buzzing and vibrating in my veins. 

I put out the fire at camp and made my way to the river for my nightly bath.

As I stepped out of my camp onto the bank of the river, making my way to a spot where the water pooled perfectly, I felt a sense of unease wash over me.

'Something isn't right,' I whispered to Nat. It didn't really matter since I was speaking to the voice inside my head, but hey, habits are habits!

'It could just be that we are approaching a full moon, Phoe.' Nat's voice rang softly through my mind, but I couldn't get over the uncomfortable feeling I had while walking toward our "bath zone."

In the six months I had spent out here alone, nothing exciting happened until this very night. At the time, I don't think I would have ever considered it exciting, though.